Super wide panorama of the Singapore skyline from the Marina Barrage

Continuation of the Marina Barrage series...

This is the final post on the panoramas from the Marina Barrage. Click on the photograph to get a larger 1920 pixel wide wallpaper.

Scenes from the Barrage: The Singapore Flyer

Following the series of photographs from the Barrage...this one at dusk, of the Singapore Flyer.

The Flyer, photographed from the Gardens by the Bay, just at sunset

Click on the photograph to get a larger 1920 pixel wide wallpaper.

The Flyer, photographed from within the waters of the Barrage, just at sunset

Views from the Marina Barrage: The MBS at sunset

I went to look for some interesting sunset photographs of the Singapore skyline...the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel and the bay area.

This series of photographs, more later as I will show one each week, will feature some of the photographs I took, culminating in a very wide panorama of the entire CBD. Click on the photograph to get a larger 1920 pixel wide wallpaper.

A walk in the park...

A walk in the park...a photography teaching session for my buddy...yielded some of these photographs.

She shot some 100 photographs, I took a total of 11 frames

A leaf with incredible detailed textures on the surface.

A flower

Another flower

yet another flower

Bamboo

Scenes along the Singapore river

Today's feature is Clarke Quay along the Singpore River. One of the more iconic places for night life, it caresses the Singapore River as it negotiates a turn around the Quay.

The brightly painted entertainment outlets, formerly warehouses, complete the picture.

Click on image for a larger image. And click here for a giant (1080 high image). Available as a large panoramic print. Please contact me for details.

Paris Exposition: Some icons

Ah Paris...City of Lights...Most romantic and perhaps beautiful of the world's capital. I begin a series to explore the standards of the Parisian life, as well as a few surprises. This post will start with 3 of the icons.

The most iconic...the Eiffel Tower.

And then the Louvre, a panorama. Click on the image for a 1920 pixel wide image. An even larger one measuring 4228 pixels wide is available on request. Please email. And as usual, full sized prints are available as well. Please enquire by email. The panoramic image below will print to approx 3.5m wide in full resolution.

And perhaps a bit unusual...though easy access through the rooftop of the famous Gallerie Lafayette.

More on this series over the coming weeks.

Premises of A. Lange & Sohne in Glashutte, and a Dresden Neustadt panorama

Not a true photography post today...but some assorted photographs on the A. Lange & Sohne premises in Glashutte, and an unusual panorama of Dresden.

I have been welcomed at the Lange premises many, many times over the last 16 or so years. This place is more or less a second home...here are some snapshots one rather chilly December morning

The Lange 2 building, which houses the main reception, and showroom

View of the side of the building...when I first started coming to Glashutte, this was one of the main factory buildings...the original Lange 1 building is just across the courtyard and still houses the manufacturing facilities.

Inside the reception area, a short walk up the stairs to the showroom

That's the lovely Kirsten Meusinger from the PR department, standing over the portrait of F.A. Lange made up of thousands of little photographs of events over the years...I am in a few of them too...

And the main showroom...with silhouttes of some colleagues

And a view of Dresden, some 30km away...the nearest major city...a view of the Neustadt. The Dresden skyline is made famous by Canaletto. But this is the view of the new city...actually not so new...it was roughly 1732 when it was founded...

Singapore CBD walkabout in the hot sun

A walkabout the Singapore CBD...hot afternoon weather, harsh lighting.

Huge panorama of the entire CBD...the final size was 12800 pixels across...which when printed at 300 dpi without upsizing, will yield a print 30 inches across. Click on the pic for a larger photo...1080 pixels tall. Scroll to see details.

The former OUB Building, now acquired by UOB, so building is now called 1 Raffles Place.

And Caltex House, just across the park

Some sculptures of boys enjoying a dip in the river for relief from the hot sun

And everywhere, photographers abound...pointing their lenses in each and every direction

Experiments with film

My Hasselblad H3D-39 digital camera comes with a 120/220 rollfilm capable back. But I have never shot one single shot with the film back since acquiring the camera. At the persuasion of my buddy AL who is a Leica film enthusiast, I went for a walkabout with film...an experiment of sorts.

Off we went on foot...first I learnt how to load the film. I had shot film in my early years...with my first camera...a Canon EOS630, and later a short fling with the magnificent Mamiya 7II. I had thought to bring a wide angle, and took the HCD4/28...but immediately discovered that the lens, being a digital lens, is only usable with the digital back...the body would not allow the shutter to fire...luckily, I had brought along the small and light HC2.8/80, so it is with this one single, normal lens I used that afternoon.

The light was not the most flattering...cloudy, overcast skies. But we made the best of it. This was from the first roll...only a partial roll...scanned by AL for me, processed commercially at Peninsula Plaza. A second roll of bw was exposed, but AL would process the film himself, and send me the scans later.

We tried people watching...but it is rather not the easiest to do street photography, when your camera is a huge medium format beast. I think AL managed better with his Leica...afterall, he is more experienced in street and the art of disappearing. I caught this interesing Thai group doing poses, and AL himself as he walked by nonchalantly.

The exposure lattitude of film is somewhat less than what I am used to with the very good Hasselblad H3D-39 back. The digital back, processed correctly with Phocus has an amazing exposure lattitude and dynamic range. But film was a bit more...shall I say the obvious...analog in feel and mood.

Click on Esplanade image for 1920 wide image.

The scan was in tiff, 16 bit, at 2491x1831 pixels...approx 4.5Mpixels...but the details were not lacking, as can be seen in the Esplanade shot above. I guess, scanning at say 7600 pixels on the wide side will yield images which will hold up to prints with almost unlimited size...at least A0 without much manipulation at 300dpi.

I found film interesting...the film back is somewhat lighter than the digital back...and the battery in the camera, which would shoot perhaps 200 frames in digital, would go on for a long time...2 rolls of 16 exposures hardly moved the battery level.

I am looking forward to the hand developed bw to be done up, and will share my thoughts on those when they come back from AL.

With many thanks to AL for sharing his love for film.

Port of Penang in Prai

The container ports at Penang has been steadily growing...I recently made a trip to the island, and was able to capture this from our service apartment in 1 Pesiaran Gurney.

Photograph is digitally stitched from 5 frames, giving a sweeping panorama. Final image, printed at 300dpi, full resolution, without upresolution will measure some 3m across. Shot handheld.

Panoramas of the Singapore port

The Singapore port is one of the busiest in the world...here are two panoramas I took recently on a recce for a commission project for a Swiss company.

And one from a very high vantage point

As usual, panoramas are too small to be displayed on a regular computer screen. Click on the images for one wider....1920 pixels wide, which allow a glimpse into the effect produced by stitching multiple frames together to form the panorama. But best results are when printed large - for the second panorama, probably about 3m across.

A little Italian town by the shores of Lake Como

Hotel and interiors in Bellagio, Italy

I am travelling on assignment to visit the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este...a major vintage car show in Cernobbio by Lake Como in Italy, on invitation by one of the sponsors: A. Lange & Sohne.

I arrived one day earlier, to visit the lake region, and am staying at the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio, a small town amongst many which dot the shores of the beautiful lake.

This a grand old hotel...quite beautiful, classical architecture

The hotel is right by the lake

The interiors are particularly beautiful...the bar

And the grand sitting room (click for a 1920 wide pano)

A customary wrist shot of the Datograph enjoying the weather...21C and sunny. Magnificent.

I caught a cyclist...amongst many who ride the hills of this rugged countryside...this one on a Van Nicholas titanium frame bike...stopping to take a photograph of the scenery.

On the drive to Bellagio, we passed many great steep slopes and an an equal number of wonderful downslopes...I am a bit fearful of riding the mountains...perhaps another time...perhaps...

Fleurier: panorama

Fleurier is a town in Val de Traverse area in the Canton of Neuchatel in Switzerland. But from this tiny village...more or less, population of 3500 has produced no less than 2 Nobel Laurettes: Charles Guillaume and Daniel Bovet. And boasts of three interesting watch manufactures: Parmigiani Fleurier, Chopard and the independent Kari Voutilainen.

Cold, harsh winters are the norm here, and when I visited in late November 2011, it was not yet winter, but the weather was already quite cold on some days. Though, I managed to find some sunlight to make this pre-dusk panorama of the entire Fleurier.

And from the vantage point of Chapeau de Napolean...Napolean's cap(200m above Fleurier)...captured just after dusk.

Exploring textures

Texture in nature is sometimes...often times complex and amazingly beautiful. In today's post, I briefly explore the texture on some folliage...a moss covered tree bark amongst the fall colours of shrubbery in Nikko Japan. I used focus stacking with Helicon Focus to achieve the almost unlimited depth of field.

With a tool like the Hasselblad H3D...its perfect to show the textures...in high resolution.The soft, autumn afternoon light is beautiful. Makes a great semi-abstract large print.

Singapore CBD Ultra wide panorama

Not long after I wrote about the dilemma of what to do with very wide panoramas, I received a commission to do one!

The commission was not a result of the blog post on the dilemma which is found here, but based on a photograph I took when I was in Hamburg harbour in 2010. Interesting, how things turn out.

I will not show the commissioned photographs, but I did take this set after I finished with work, which I find quite appealing. This is the view of the entire Singapore Central Business District, about 8pm from the 50th floor of a residential building.

Click on the image for a 1920 wide image.

This is a 10 panel vertical stitch, using the HC55-110 at 110mm. Stitching done on Photoshop CS4.

Ultra wide panos...a dilemma

Making wide panoramas can be fun...but once we finish the photograph, and stitched it up to be an ultra wide...what do we do with them? Display on the internet boders on being rediculous, as you get a sliver of the picture at say 1024 pixels wide. Printing of course the best way to display them.

Take this image below...a 9 panel stitch of the Marina Bay area, taken from the roof of the Esplanade.

Click on the image for a 1920 wide image...even at that size, too large for typical web pages, the height of the image is a miniscule 260 pixels high.

Printed out so that the height is 610mm would yield a print which is 4.5m long...quite large, for most homes or offices.

What do you do with your ultra wide panoramas?

Store Visit: Malmaison by The Hour Glass

The Malmaison by The Hour Glass is not quite new...in fact, it opened its doors just after SIH 2011...almost a year ago. But the store continues to amaze me. This is a veritable temple of luxury, conceived and created by Hour Glass's intrepid Executive Director Michael Tay.

It holds many treasures...many many treasures. From wrist watches, where the company cut its proverbial teeth...here is the inner sanctum, where the high end brands reside...

To the incredibly interesting men's store within the store:

Carrying a wide selection of high end men's apparels...shoes from Pierre Corthay

Shirts and ties from Charvet and suits from Rubinacci:

And books...

Observe the copy of Modernist Cuisine, by the erstwhile Nathan Myhrvold and team...a superb testament to the taste and quality offered in this store. Ties by Charvet, and socks by Corthay also adorn the table.

And the leadin to the men's store, stands guard an enormous Griffin:

To its right, the Rolex boutique, and to its left, the Patek Philippe mini-store.

Upstairs, bespoke perfume and artistic jewellery is offered:

And a small book corner, offering the best of art books

I spy a copy of my own book on the top left of the photograph. Indeed this is the only retail outlet for my book in the world.

Beautiful, magnificent store. Conceptually brilliant, and probably the first in the world to offer such refined works of artisans in one roof.

Photonote: This series of photographs is shot with my GH-2 while on-site to do a more elaborate photoshoot with the Leica S2. The Leica photographs will be released later as part of the Leica S2 Review...to be done in collaboration with ace photographer Christopher Lee...seen here peeking out from one corner behind the S2.