The streets were quite dark during the procession of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival, last night. Only lights were from vehicle headlights and orangey sodium street-lights. Fret not, for it is a good time to experiment. Create dreamy motion blur by using a very slow shutter speed, hand-held. Like the dragon, twirl your wrists in a circular movement as you fire the shutter.
Whisper after me: “I See Dead People (buying DVDs)”. Some superstitious Chinese do not go out tonight because they consider it risky. After one month of non-stop partying, the hungry ghosts are on their way back. According to Chinese beliefs, the gates of hell are opened for the last time tonight. Last call.
The month-long Hungry Ghost Festival saw many Chinese burning paper replicas of worldly possessions for their dead relatives or ancestors. These include gadgets such as smart phones, tablets and DVD players. Blu-ray is not as popular yet in the netherworld, it seems.
By attaching several ND (Neutral Density) filters to the lens, I was able to reduce the intensity of daylight drastically. This allowed me to use a very slow exposure to capture this seldom seen side of Chinatown. The camera’s slow shutter speed resulted in moving cars and people streaking into ghostly figures.
Whisper after me: “I see dead people”. Chinatown as seen from this spirited junction.
Olympus OM-D EM-5, ISO 200, f 4, 4 sec
A speeding LRT train becomes peanut butter jelly in a slow six-second exposure.
Olympus OM-D EM-5, ISO 200, f 10, 6 sec
Since I have a stack of ND (Neutral Density) filters left over from the Transit of Venus, I thought I might as well put it to good use. After all, the next occurrence is in 105 years.
So interestingly, 4 pieces of ND8 (3 stops x 4 = 12 stops in light reduction) created some strange and bizarre images in bright sunlight. Because the exposures took as long as 3 or 4 seconds, a tripod was necessary. The Cokin filters also introduced a severe colour shift when stacked together.
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