Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Long overdue photos from a month old ride...

Lucky day that the Singapore Flyer was lit for maintainence so I took the opportunity to take a few pictures. These are HDR (High Dynamic Range) images where I combined 5 identical shot but with different exposures at 1 stop intervals. This produced the following effects after the tonal and colour mapping which is a very tedious process. For more info, Cambridge has a very informative site that even teaches you how to do it in photoshop!

Basically, what HDR does is that it allows you to create pictures with the full colour resolutions that normal 8 bit(jpeg) cameras image formats cannot capture within a single shot. Raw(48bit) formats are better able to do the job of capturing more colour and exposure information but that also means that you will have huge storage and slow writing times during photo taking. The HDR process allows you to map colours and tones so that you are able to brighten under-exposed areas and under-expose over-exposed areas of a picture.

Back to the ride, I started at 1am and headed out towards BT when I see a flashing light approaching me at the junction in front of the BT fire station. Half-drunk and tired Ben just came back from a drinking session with the gang. We chatted for a while and he told me that the Singapore Flyer was lighted up and was worth a shot. And a good thing too. I was actually headed to the East Coast Park connector to take that picture that I wanted to take for so long so I had all my camera equipment with me. So I took the usual route but instead of turning left at Nicoll Highway, I made a right to the Esplanade Bridge where I started to take pictures.



Marina IR in the making

Ben, forget the 29er. Check out this baby's hubs and wheel diameter; 150m!!!


At the SG Flyer's location, I took some upward shots from the sidewalk. I was practically lying on the ground and using a super-wide angled lens for these 2 shots.

Reaching the canal between the East Coast Park Connector, I finally reached my photo site at 5am. It was cold cold cold.... The winds were blowing non-stop and the tide was high. I was forced to wear my jacket which I was thankful I brought along. So I unpacked and started what I set out to do.


That streak is the flying in of a plane for landing at Changi Airport. This picture was taken at 5.30am in the morning and it was actually pitch black at the site. However, using a tripod and setting the camera to manual with a 60sec exposure, I managed to capture this shot of the plane flying in from the horizon.
A moment in time

Tranquil morning


The rest of the pictures below are regular pictures.




Lalang

Fishermen in the morning

Trail of gas and pollution as each metal bird descents.

Sky high

2 modes of transport

Riding back, I passed the Castle Beach near the East Coast Food Centre and there was a sand castle exhibit so I took some pictures before heading back home.









kiss me baby



Overall, the ride was a good one with a very chilly morning and great things to see, all within one ride.