f/1.8

Have you seen Singapore at night? It’s a picture waiting to be taken with its amazing skyline and well-lighted buildings!

I’ve tried shooting a couple of times (hand-held and with a tripod) but the photos always end up not to my liking. I’ve wondered if it was because I don’t know the settings to be used or if my gear wasn’t suited to this kind of thing. Disheartened, I’ve stopped bringing my camera along during our night forays.

Until I got the 50mm f/1.8D.

Yesterday, I managed to convince the husband to walk along the Singapore River from Funan so I can test the new baby outside. It feels a bit strange that I have to move around to adjust my composition. And I don’t know where to put my left hand when shooting! The normal place where I put my hand gets in the way when the lens focuses.

My favorite shots from yesterday:

Bus stop at the MICA Building. I love that I was able to capture the woman walking towards the stop. I had to shoot fast while there are no vehicles to block my view.

Who doesn't love a good bokeh picture?

Picture of a bridge taken using manual focus <3

Anyway, I am very happy with our new acquisition. I may need to re-evaluate my initial thought that Singapore at night is wasted on me.

The Day Before The Day Before Christmas

While most people are busy doing some last-minute shopping for gifts, me and my husband were busy looking for Christmas decors! Our visit to Ikea last night proved to be a failure since there weren’t a lot of the Christmas stuff left. We thought of getting a small, albeit real tree but I decided not to go through with it. We didn’t see anything we liked at the Raffles City Mall so we went to Marina Square, where we got a nice 3 feet tree and some trimmings to go with it. We haven’t put it up yet though…

…Because I’m too busy tinkering with my brand spankin’ new Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens! Can you say, impulse? The husband offered to buy it for me when we dropped by Cathay Photo. I hesitated for about a minute before saying yes. Heh. The husband wanted better pictures of his baby (aka Cody, the Very Expensive PC) so I recommended that we buy this prime. So yeah, test shots:

Today I learned how to attach and detach a lens! Yay me! I panicked a bit when trying out the lens earlier since the auto focus did not work. Turns out that the lens wasn’t “clicked in place” yet. Doh.

My impressions: the depth of field is amazing, as expected but the sound when the auto-focus is activated is quite disconcerting.

Planning to bring this tomorrow to see if my night shots improve. Hrhrhr. And just maybe this is what I need to jump start my recent lack of interest in bringing my camera outside.