Ah, again another late update. I reached home on Friday morning after a night bus from Singapore, and I must say that the feeling of sleeping on your own comfy bed is the best thing ever. Nothing beats the comfort of your own home. Because of that, I’ve been quite lazy for the past few days, lying on my bed reading monthy issues of Reader’s Digest that I’ve missed when I was away (I’ll blog about what I’ve read, promise!).
A few days before I returned home, I embarked on a night trip down to the bustling Orchard Road, located in the Central Business District area. Every year, Christmas decorations and extravagant lighting displays will be put up to celebrate Christmas and to make sure that toursits spend as much time (and money, cha-ching!) over there. Orchard Road was under a major facelift in these few years and tourists have been complaining about dust, traffic and the patched appearance of the place. Now the Christmas decor is to make people feel that Orchard Road is indeed a touristy place and not some random construction site ;)
The crossroads outside Orchard station is where the Christmas arch is located. I tried to get a good shot of it from the sidewalk but there were too many other eager photographers trying to get the same view. I took a few and gave up. I wanted something special. I spotted a temporary traffic island set up in the middle of the road an hour or so later, to facilitate repair works on the Christmas arch. That’s a Godsend chance! Pure gold! When the pedestrian signal turned green, I grabbed my tripod, hurried to the island and station myself there.
Whoops! It seems that my laptop LCD display is not calibrated to the normal standards of other computer displays, so the darker parts of the photos look a little too dark on your screen (and the contrast will look horrible). I’ll note that down and make sure that I don’t fumble in that sense next time :P
Here’s a look of the arch from the temporary traffic island. Without the traffic island, I wouldn’t have gotten the second photo because that’ll mean that I’ll be run over by a car when the light turns green :razz: hah!
The Christmas Arch - Green Light
The Christmas Arch - Red Light
There are still a handful of photos, and I’ve tucked them under the read more tag. More photos after the jump!
This is the not so nice photo of the Christmas Arch I’ve mentioned previously. I bet everyone with cameras (handphone or not) that passed by that junction would have this scene. Mine is just a little fancier with a little shutter speed trick:
CK Tang and the Christmas Arch
After snapping photos of the Christmas arch, I turned my camera 180 degrees around. So now we’re facing the traffic that was initially behind me. See the traffic island? :) the photo below is a collage of three photos taken a few seconds apart – the first one was when the lights were still red, with a shutter speed of 1/3 of a second. The second one was when the lights turned green, with a shutter speed of 2 seconds. The final one was when the lights were still green, with a shutter speed of 5 seconds. I wanted to take more than that but I didn’t have a ND filter with me, meaning that long shutter speeds will overexpose my photos.
The original photos were a lot larger but I’ve cropped it to something like a widescreen mode (with a 9:4 ratio) to remove some distractions and to achieve the dramatic effect of the light trails.
As traffic flowed around me
I moved on to another junction outside Ngee Ann City. There wasn’t any traffic island around so I could only snap photos when the lights were red. I did drew a few stares now and then as I stood in the middle of the halted traffic with a tripod and a camera. Deep inside I give thanks to the orderliness of the nation where there is a low tendency for drivers to run red lights :) or I’ll be a piece of dead meat by now.
I observed the traffic light patterns before gathering enough courage to head to the center of the road. I kept checking the pedestrian lights as well as the countdown timer, just in case. I was a nervous wreck on my first attempt – the photo below was the result of a second attempt.
At the red light.
I moved on to photographing the sidewalks. The photos aren’t really up to my expectations but I like it that the slow shutter speed had blurred the pedestrians.
Pedestrian crossing.
Christmas lights and shoppers.
I guess that’s all for this post ;) I hope you’re doing well with your Christmas shopping. Good luck!
great photos, especially the one “at the red light” where you are facing the cars at the intersection. Really cool :)
Check out letti’s latest blog post » T’is the Season for..
nice shot for the photo entitled “at the red light”
Check out WanCing’s latest blog post » Last month of 2008
I love the shot titled “At the Red Light”. The color contrast between the lights and the darkness is striking and very attractive.
I have just got back from a few days stay in a chalet so I know what you mean about home sweet home. Only when I reached home I could fully relax…haven’t been sleeping well for the past few days in the chalet :| But it was fun nevertheless
Check out Wendy’s latest blog post » My Saturday in Singapore
@Wendy: Oh, I’ve checked the photo in other monitors and realised that mine is calibrated differently – which explains the high contrast and the very dark background. It looks different on my screen though, and I was worried that people will dislike the high contrast. I’m glad that you find it to your liking :razz:
When I went for my class chalet, I miss my hostel haha! We didn’t have enough food so we had to starve during dinner (we had barbeque that night) and there wasn’t enough beds for everyone so I had to sleep on the sofa. Haha! Pretty bad but it was fun to hang out with your friends ;)
I wonder what’ll happen if you stood “at the red light” for another 5 minutes. :P
I’m hearing Christmas Carols everywhere I go. It’s also a sign,”We’re ON SALES!”
Check out NoktahHitam’s latest blog post » Bad Habits, If Not Resisted
@NoktahHitam: You’re indeed very sadistic NH :D lol! All you have in mind while reading this post is seeing poor teddy being run over by a car, ROFL!
Speaking of Christmas Carols, my Philippine friends started hearing them in shopping mall since mid OCTOBER. I was like WOAH! That’s early! I don’t do Christmas shopping, so the carols only serve as background music for me :)
I definitely enjoy the shot at the red light. The cars seem to align so perfectly, and not a single cross-walker in sight.
You can also see the reflection of the headlights on the pavement which is so cool I think ^_^
I also enjoy the last one with the Christmas lights and shoppers. It reminded me of how my downtown looks like. It was very beautiful this year and my first time seeing those kinds of lights. Next time when I hit downtown, I’ll try and get a shot of it.
It also is very weird to me to see a “Merry Christmas” sign with no snow… I hope to hit Christmas lights this year, and will do some posts with some snow ^-^ Do you ever plan to visit Canada?
Check out Destiny’s latest blog post » When the Girls Come Out
@Destiny: Thank you ;) The photo was taken with just 7 seconds left on the countdown timer for the red light for pedestrian crossing, so I was literally freaking out because I wanted to get one more shot before I move on to other parts of the town. It’s interesting that there are reflections off the road because as far as I could remember, the road was dry. I guess it’s the slow shutter speed that gave us the reflective effect.
It is indeed a little weird to see that there’s no snow! That’s exactly what my UK friend told me the other day when I sent her some photos. She said that it doesn’t feel right to have Christmas decorations without snow… and I told her that Australians have to put up with that every year, haha!
I have always wanted to visit Canada! Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg… they’re all my dream cities!
hey nice..thanks for sharing
i always wonder about the deco at orchard road since it is quite ‘famous’ ;)
Aye! Seems like the Christmas hype looked nicer in the photos you took! When I walking along the streets, certainly it just looked like mere strips of light bulbs hanging. Good job on your skills! Teehee! Reached Genting yet? :D
Check out Mingyun’s latest blog post » Changes
@Mingyun: Oh that’s because of the shutter speed! When photos are shot using slow shutter speeds everything looks beautiful out of a sudden, haha! Orchard Road is undergoing a huge makeover over these few years and I hope they can be done soon to restore Orchard Road to it’s full glory! Even tourists are complaining that Orchard Road feels more like a construction site than a shopping destination. Jeez.
I’ll be leaving for Genting later in the morning and I hope that I can be there before noon. So I can find a comfy seat at Coffee Bean or Starbucks and use their Wifi :) heh!
hey nice photos! oh man this new theme is SWEET :D
Check out lix’s latest blog post » a mind full of questions
Oh!! So beautiful the photos!!
“Deep inside I give thanks to the orderliness of the nation where there is a low tendency for drivers to run red lights”
Haha! I doubt you will try doing the same in ehem.. across the causeway.
@bongkersz: Thank you for your compliments! That was a line to poke fun at many Malaysian drivers who are rude and etc. I do have a probational driving license but I rarely drive in KL since it is scary that drivers have the tendency to not give way to amateur drivers like me in downtown. Aieeee!
Given that, I wouldn’t have the balls to stand in the middle of the road, even when the lights are red :D
@letti: Thank you! The photo seems to be the favourite of my commentators… including you, heheh!
@WanCing: Thanks ;) sorry that I’m a little busy lately to drop by at your blog, but I’ll be there after I get my things done. Hang in there!
@med: You’re welcome! The Christmas decoration at Orchard Road always never fail to impress me, but given the current economic outlook I think the coming year’s one will not be as spectacular as what we are seeing now :(
@lix: Thanks :D Yea it’s so sweet that it’ll give you diabetes – better watch out for your diet! Anyway, I’ll be a little busy lately, so do give me some time before I can drop by your blog. Sorry to let you wait!
wow! how the heck did you manage to get into the construction site! haha.. nice set of photos!
Check out pat’s latest blog post » Screwed
@pat: It’s actually just a temporary traffic island set up in the middle of Orchard Road – it was right beside the pedestrian crossing so I just plopped myself there. I wouldn’t even dare to venture into a construction site – the thought of someone accidentally spilling mud on
memy camera is just too horrifying :POH MY GOSH!! i love love lvoe the 5second exposure shot. and the red light one where all the cars were stopped. i dont think ill ever do that, scaredy cat me. btw did u use a star filter?? =D looked like you did.
but for the 3rd pic u shud have taken with RAW mode and hdr it. your merry christmas light thing is overexposed. x.x
*have u seen my new layout??* aint as awesome as yours tho
Check out sue’s latest blog post » 19th November, Project Rock Climb
@sue: Oh I stood in the traffic island and Singaporean drivers abide by the law so there’s little chance that anyone will crash into me :D teehee! But I wouldn’t do that in Malaysia! I didn’t use a star-filter – the starry effects caught me by surprise because it never expected the flares to turn out like that.
The third picture is actually a combination of two photos. I’ve metered the first photo to the CK Tang tower and the other at the Christmas arch, but the second one was still overexposed. I overlaid the two photos and masked out parts that I do not want ;)
Yea, I wish I shot it in RAW! Then I can make a pseudo-HDR heh.
p/s: I just returned from vacation so I haven’t seen your new design, but I took a peek just now and it looks awesome! Will be commenting in a moment. Hang in there!
[...] the rest of the week I cooped in my room playing Spore, and before I left for home in Malaysia, I made a trip to downtown Orchard to capture the glamour the beauty of the famous annual Christmas decoration. I rarely travel to [...]