NDP 2010 Fireworks as seen from Marina Barrage

Okay… I’ll confess, I’m not the most patriotic person in town. That said, I am a sucker for a good fireworks display, and I thought that Singapore’s 45th Anniversary would warrant some crazy-big light show – the likes of which haven’t been seen  before this end of the causeway.

While that wasn’t too far from the truth… unfortunately, I was – physically at 8.15pm (i.e., when the fireworks started firing). Rewind to the day before, here is the conversation I had with an army buddy of mine:

Noel: Soo what you doing during NDP

Army Buddy of Mine (ABoM): Nothing… why?

Noel: Wanna go take photos of the fireworks?

ABoM: Okay… where?

Noel: Erm… anywhere in the CBD will be mad-busy…

ABoM: Yup.

Noel: How about Marina Barrage? I’ve not been out there and it’s soo far away , most people won’t be traipsing out there.

ABoM: Oh yah, they’ll need a car to get out there too, so I guess there won’t be too many people out there…

Big mistake. How big? About 450,045 people big.

So there I was, surrounded by about 450,045 people (yes I counted each and every one of their little heads), their kids, their dogs and their kites (???), squished along that curvy ramp-roof of Marina Barrage, hoping and praying that the roof wouldn’t cave in under our collective weight, and that the person with the giant Doremon kite (which kept sweeping in front of my camera) would suddenly be yanked into the air and over the edge. The Barrage stayed up, and the Doremon owner stayed on the ground. You win some you lose some.

I have to say that despite my late arrival (7.30pm), I still managed to get a decent vantage point – thanks to a super nice family of Singaporeans allowing me to squeeze in beside them at the railing (giant Manfrotto tripod and all). Unfortunately the other thing that had squeezed in between me and the upcoming fireworks was Marina Bay Sands – the new giiinourmous Casino at the waterfront. So you know what they say… when life puts a Casino between you and the fireworks, make silhouette photos. So that’s what I did.

Here are a few of the highlights.

Yes that is a person lying in the middle of the fountain. I thought it was a case of CSI: Singapore – for just a moment.

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The CBD before the festivities began

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Looks almost like something out of Star Wars – Marina Bay Sands = The Death Star? Some would say that they are similar in more ways than one.

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This is where the smoke started moving in.

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The big finale.

A nation gets older, and Noel gets wiser – about fireworks vantage points at the very least! Looking forward to NYE already!

In Noel’s bag:

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-70mm F/2.8L

Canon RC-1 Wireless Remote Control (that I promptly dropped into the nice family beside me’s rubbish bag)

Manfrotto Tripod and Ball head

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A fellow photographer friend of mine, Jérôme Meyer ( aka thinklad on Flickr) was invited to shoot the wedding of Laurence & Arjen – a beautiful couple who have been in love for about a decade. From the photos you can see that they’re still very much in love.

As it was one of Jérôme’s first official photography gigs – and because I always wanted to shoot with him – I offered to be his backup on the day. I think it worked out really well, the night before we had dinner at Rocks: Urban Grill + Bar and prepped for the full day of photography. Jérôme’s lens of choice is the 50mm F/1.4 (yes he’s a Nikon user but we won’t that against him – joke) so I opted for the divine Canon EF 70-200 F/2.8L IS USM so that I wouldn’t get in his way too much.

note: The EF 70-200 F/2.8L IS USM is fast becoming my most used lens – despite me having dropped it down a flight of jagged, muddy stairs in Cameron Highlands, it still takes extraordinary photos… but back to the couple.

So Laurence & Arjen had just half a day to get their pre-wedding photos, followed immediately by their solemnisation, reception and dinner. So with fingers crossed for good weather, we set off at 10am for the following locations: the Botannical Gardens, Raffles Hotel, the Old Supreme Court, Cavenagh Bridge and The Fullerton Hotel)

Here are the highlights of their pre-wedding photos with a series of Lightroom 2 presets and optimisations.

I have a great deal of respect for Arjen, traipsing around the humid Botannical Gardens at 11am in a 3 piece suit. If I were in his shoes, I don’t think I would be nearly as chirpy.

We then happened to drive past the Raffles Hotel… it was there that Arjen proposed to Laurence, so after some last minute swerves by the maxi-cab driver, we pulled up for an impromptu shoot at where this journey began.

Off to the Old Supreme Court Building…

Then off to the final leg – along the Singapore River, Cavenagh Bridge.

By this point we’d been shooting in the full afternoon sun for about 3 hours and I all four of us were totally wiped out. But a we wrapped up the shoot… Laurence runs into The Fullerton (followed closely by Arjen), down the flight of stairs, up to the Koi pond in the basement, and sticks her fingers into the water. Both of them are in hysterics, giggling like school kids, and that was it – the perfect way to wrap up an exhausting but amazing shoot.

While the couple retreated to their homes to freshen up, I ducked home, emptied my CF cards, got my kit ready for the solemnisation, had a shower, then promptly fell asleep on the couch for a 45min nap (if you do the same don’t forget to set the alarm!)

Next up on byNoelYeo.com, Laurence & Arjen’s solemnisation, reception and dinner.

Noel

In Noel’s bag:

• Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• EF 70-200 F/2.8L IS USM
• EF 24-70 F/2.8L USM
• 4x Water Bottles
• 1x big stack of napkins

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Last weekend a mate of mine (Ethan) wanted to learn more about DSLR photography, so I borrowed a colleague’s EOS 500D (thanks Glenn!) picked up two tripods and headed out to the Esplenade to capture the changing face of Singapore’s Skyline.

After a quick dinner at Ichiban Boshi (one of my favourite places for affordable Japanese), we set up along the waterfront as close to that giant flotilla they use for National Day.

A quick 15minute tutorial on DSLR technology, ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed later, and we were shooting away.

Here are two of his best shots – for someone who’s never used anything other than a compact point & shoot, I’d say he’s done pretty darned good.

Key takeaways from the shoot:

• It only takes about 15mins to learn the basics of a DSLR
• The best time for sunset shots of Singapore’s Skyline is about 7.15pm-7.45pm
• The freebie tripods that are given away with DSLRs in general are crap-o-la – unfortunately quite a few of Ethan’s shots were slightly blurry around the edges because the tripod was just so rickety. When I swapped my Manfrotto with him, his results were brilliant.

Here are some of my favourite shots from the day:

The Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort is literally flying up – the amount of construction there is mind-boggling. Currently it resembles a giant battleship at a massive shipyard.

Shot at: 7.33pm                                        Shot at: 7.42pm (what a difference 9mins makes)

shooting info: 30.0sec, f/22, ISO 200, 24mm

So we wrapped up the shoot at 8.21pm and wandered over to Max Brenner for much-deserved some desert.

The following kit was used to create these photos:

• Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• EF 24-70 F/2.8L USM
• Manfrotto 055PROB Tripod and 488RC4 Ballhead
• CAnon RC-1 Wireless Remote Control

All my shots were captured using a wireless remote trigger (Canon RC-1) and a long exposure of 30sec, f/22. Have included the exact shooting info for my favourite image (see above).

Thanks for the company on the shoot Ethan. Looking forward to the next one!

p.s., The lovely response that I’ve received to this set of images has prompted me to create a new section on byNoelYeo.com titled ‘Free WOM (Wallpaper of the Month)’.

This is a section in which I will put up one wallpaper a month that readers can download and use free of charge.

These are images that have either received the most positive feedback from readers of byNoelYeo.com or that have graced my own desktop at some point or other.

While I have a line-up of images in mind for February and March, I am totally open to suggestions (these can be subjects, themes, people, events, etc).

If your ideas are interesting enough, I might just conduct a shoot to create the shots – crediting you as the mastermind behind the concept – so write in with your requests!

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