At about 2:30 am just now, the chariot makes it way through the city. Accompanied by thousands of devotees on foot, the procession is heading towards Batu Caves for the annual Hindu festival of Thaipusam.
Olympus OM-D, ISO 1600, f5.1, 1/100 sec.
Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f22, 10.56 sec (for pic above).
Fireworks Photography Tip 1: Juxtapose the fireworks against a landmark or skyline. A shot of fireworks alone in the sky, however nice, doesn’t say much. It could have been photographed in any city.
Fireworks Photography Tip 2: Use a speed slower than 2 seconds to maximise the flowing effect of the burst and to better capture the sparkle. It means you will need a tripod.
For users of recent Olympus cameras, just set it to Live Time in Bulb mode and watch the exposure develop on the LCD screen. Stop when you feel it is nice enough. This takes the guesswork out of shooting blind in B manual mode.
Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f22, 6.46 sec (for pic below).
Fireworks Photography Tip 3: Get your act together as fast as possible. The view gets progressively smoky after the first or second minute. After that, lingering smoke usually gets too heavy and may obscure the landmark or the fireworks itself. The smoke will also create a colour cast.
And one most important tip: Once you get your settings correct, just fire away but alternately look at the sky. Take in the beauty with your naked eyes directly, not by viewing through a viewfinder or LCD throughout. In this case, I had no choice but to look up. I was so near the epicentre that chunks of burning sulphur and hot ash were landing few inches away.
Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f16, 3.58 sec (for pic below).
I am now the owner of a Hello Kitty handbag. Do you think I can also use it as an innocent-looking camera bag? Mooncake packaging keeps getting fancier each year. As a gift, the mooncakes from Good Chen are quite unique as they come in/with a cute handbag. The cakes are also embossed with the cartoon character, including those of Spongebob and Doraemon.
I bought two flavours from their Hello Kitty range to try. As photographed here; the Ultimate Brown Mix which is Hazelnut Coffee. At right, the Coco Diva is lotus paste with macadamia nuts and choc-oreo biscuits coated together with Belgian dark chocolates. Yumz!
The annual Mooncake Festival is also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival or Lantern Festival in Malaysia and Singapore. It falls on September 19th this year.
Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f4.5, 1/50 sec.
