The Curious Blog, Page 4

Single Shot #18

The Volkswagen is a symbol of the hippie era of the 60’s and 70’s. Groups of hippies often travelled in a Volkswagen mini bus and the beetle. These cars were painted in vivid colours with motifs of flowers and peace.

The image below is a photo of a crystal Volkswagen beetle. The colour patterns were created by lighting the model car with 2 off-camera mounted flash with gel colour filters.It is pretty simple and this was an experimental shot to test the gel and remote flash  triggers.

Photo Technical Data:

Canon 6D, EF 100 mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec @ f/10 ISO 100
Lit by 2 off-camera gel filtered flashes.

Single Shot #17

This little Sunbird chick was venturing out of its nest for the first time. In a few hours, it will fly off to start a new life. Shooting birds requires lots of patience as they are shy and will fly away at the slightest movement. One way is to establish a schedule to be at the same spot regularly, moving closer to a better vantage point slowly. This way the bird will become familiar with the photographer’s presence and feel that less threatened.

Shooting this chick took a few days. The previous days, the chick was ensconced in the nest with only the beak showing. On the day this photo was taken, the chick was ready to take flight and to explore the wider world.  Wishing the chick a bon voyage and good luck.  See you soon.

Photo Technical Data:

Canon 6D, EF 70 – 300 mm /f4-5.6, 1/100 sec @ f/5.6 ISO 400

Single Shot #16

What is it in sunrise that fascinates people? Definitely not the regularity as the sun rises everyday, and sets too. It’s the slowly revealing of the details with the dawning light and the anticipation of a new day. It is the transforming of the darkness and greyness to colour. It is also the dramatic lighting of the clouds from the low-angled light of the sun. That and more.

The sunrise at Angkor Wat attract thousands of photographers every morning. You can say that the photographers are, themselves, part of the landscape. The image below is one of the many that I shot at Angkor Wat and Siem Reap.

Photo Technical Data:

Canon 6D, EF 24 – 105 mm /f4, 1/400 sec @ f/6.3 ISO 200

Single Shot #15

Some photos communicates the mood better when processed in black and white. I took this image in my walk about on a hot afternoon in a crowded market. crowds were milling around, visiting and shopping and that was why this image seem especially poignant as the man seems to be lost in thoughts amongst the crowd.

Photo Technical Data:

Canon 6D, EF 70 – 300 mm /5.6, 1/200 sec @ f/5.6 ISO 640
Post processing using Silver Efex Pro.

Single Shot #14

The Hong Kong International Commerce Centre (ICC) is a 490m skyscraper is located on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. The 108 storey building is the tallest in Hong Kong (2016). Because floors ending the number ‘4’ were omitted, the building is marketed as a 118-storey building. It houses banks, retails outlets, restaurants and two hotels.  There is an observation deck aptly names Sky100 on the 100th floor. The Ritz Carlton Hotel occupies floor 102 to 118.  The swimming pool at the 118th floor is the highest in the world.

ICC was developed by Sun Hung Kai Properties and was completed in phases between 2007 and 2010. The tower was officially opened in 2011. The design architects was Kohn Pederson Fox Associates in association with Wong & Ouyang (HK) Ltd.

The photo was taken in November 2010 catching the reflection of a late morning sun on the top façade of the tower. The flare is real. Post processing was done to simulate the feel of film.

Photo Technical Data:

Canon 7D, EFS 17 – 55 mm /f4 at 17 mm. 1/800 sec @ f/9  ISO 200 (cropped)

Single Shot #13

An elephant statue was given to Singapore to commemorate the visit of Chulalongkorn’s in March 1871. The bronze statue was originally installed in front of Victoria Memorial Hall. It was moved to it’s current location which once was the Court House, then the Assembly house and currently the Old Parliament House or the Arts House in 1919.

King Chulalongkorn was also known as King Rama V. His visit was the first time a Thai Monarch visited a foreign country.

The plaque inscription reads:

His Majesty Somdetch Paramindr Maha Chulalongkorn, the Supreme King of Siam, landed at Singapore, the first foreign land visited by a Siamese Monarch, on the 16th March, 1871

Photo Technical Data:

Canon 7D, EFS 17 – 55 mm /f4 at 28 mm. 1/125 sec @ f/7.1 ISO 100

Single Shot #12

Most airports are identified by their control tower and Changi Airport’s is no different.  The tower is 80m tall and provides aerodrome control service to the airport as well as aircraft manoeuvring within the airport perimeter.  Approach, Departure and Area air traffic control services is performed in another building outside the Changi Airport complex.

The dome at the top houses the ground radar which provides an additional aid to the controller to show planes and vehicles on the ground. It comes in useful during period of poor visibility.

The tower handles more than 700 aeroplanes daily. The control tower is a 16 sided panoramic windows which allows the controller full view of the entire airport.

Photo Technical Data:

Canon 6D, EF 24 – 105 mm /f4 at 88 mm. 1/200 sec @ f/5.6 ISO 640

Single Shot #11

We witness a partial solar eclipse on 9 March 2016, something that’s pretty rare in this area. The maximum obscuration of 87% occurred at 8:23 am. The photo below was taken at 7: 40 am. I was able to capture the horizon line as the sun was just rising above it to provide a silhouette of trees on a nearby hill.

The next solar eclipse that will occur here will be on 26 Dec 2019 with an annular eclipse which the next best thing to a full eclipse. Looking forward to this event.

This photo was taken through a ND3 filter which reduced the exposure by 3 stop. A higher ND filter would have been preferable.

Photo Technical Data:

Canon 6D, EF 70 – 300 mm at 100 mm. 1/1000 sec @ f/8.0 ISO 100 (with ND3 filter)