F2F in Singapore

Aris, Daisy and I scheduled an F2F, but due to the haze engulfing the city, we decided to reschedule and  wait until the air starts to clear up. We've been monitoring the pollution level, since this will be the deciding factor for our F2F. Good thing, the smokey haze subsided a bit so we were able to meet up last June 22.

This is gonna be my first time to meet them, which made me excited. Finally, I get to meet some of my classmates, and we're going to shoot around Sentosa. We decided to meet at the ticket concourse area of the Harbour Front MRT station, since this is the easiest place to meet up. Since my only way to contact them is through Facebook chat, I arrived early at the designated meeting place. 

I was starting to get worried since I wasn't able to see them around. Good thing they arrived a few minutes later; I was just thinking if I'm at the right MRT station. Daisy and Aris each brought their own tripods, while tripod-less me brought a borrowed 50mm prime. This is great, we can practice several techniques we've learned in class.

Daisy treated us to a snack and we started to plan our photowalk journey while we're eating. We would be walking around the area and look for some waterfalls for the silky water technique, and proceed to the beach in the late afternoon to capture the sunset, and in the evening, we will go to an overpass and experiment with light streaks. In-between, we will also be shooting anything that we find interesting.

Daisy and Aris

The photowalk also became some sort of a "group study". We we're sharing techniques as we go along , asking each other questions and finding answers together. Collaborative learning is always a good thing. I noticed Aris kept a zip-lock bag for his camera, which is a nice insurance in case it rains. Good thing it didn't that day.

Aris here is waiting for the fish to smile

We tried doing the silky water technique earlier, but the sun is shining too brightly that it wasn't possible. Wow, so that's one use of neutral density filters. Later that day, we found another area for this. While they were busy capturing their silky water, I took this photo of a water(less) feature. The absence of flowing water showed what's beneath it.

The Rustic Wall

The blue sky made a nice background for this merlion shot.

Merlion, as seen from below

I also took several sample shots for future post-processing use, such as this.

Orange-colored flower

We were able to arrive at the beach just in time for the sunset, but the view of the horizon is obscured by a line of trees.

Sunset

It's getting dark, so we then started to go to back to the highway and find the overpass for that light streaks shot. While we're on the way to the train, I stopped to take a photo of this woman in purple.

Waiting for the B

Arriving at the overpass, they quickly assembled their tripod setup. The overpass wasn't that wide, but high enough to provide a nice view of the highway. Good enough for capturing light streaks. While they were busy with that, I looked around for something else.

Man selling tissues

I checked how they were doing with their shots. I tried this shot for some bokeh effect but the camera screen of Aris looked  too bright.

I should learn how to meter properly

We also experimented with panning shots, using moving cars as subject, and the first rule of shooting cars at night is "don't use flash". Out of a dozen tries, only this one came out without much blurring. 

Zooming cars are hard to capture

It was a nice photowalk. Even though we we're mostly experimenting with shooting techniques, learning together made the whole experience worthwhile. Here are some of the things I learned:

Be wary of the lighting and shadows,
Zip-lock bags are handy protection for rain, get one big enough for the camera,
Nikon lens and Canon lens rotate on different directions,
Don't use flash when taking pictures of cars, it will disturb the driver,
Have a copy of the camera manual in your smartphone,
Lean how to properly meter and be familiar with the different metering modes.