Vivi's Bridge Camera Challenge: Night Photography

Have you experienced difficulty in taking night pictures?  I know everyone has, night pictures are most of the time... blurred!  This is because Photography is all about light. Simply put, it is creating a picture with a proper balance of light.  Whenever you take photos the first thing you have to check is lighting, it could be from the moon, city lights, or from vehicles, candles , your camera flash or  from whatever source. 

Night photography is the art of making the most out of these available lights to create a tangible image that is artistic and pleasing to the eye.  Photographers most of the time uses a long exposure, in layman's term, you are exposing the scene longer for seconds, minutes or even hours so more lights will be captured by your camera lens to come up with a good picture.

Night Photography is one thing that I enjoy the most, it is that moment when you shut everything around you and and all there is, is the darkness...  your camera... and your subject...   it's a great escape.. priceless!

Let me share some of my shots from my travels:

Sunway Lagoon Resort &  Spa, Bandar Sunway, Malaysia

Venice at night,  Italy

The Colosseum, Rome, Italy

Ulu-Ulu Village, Night Safari, Singapore

Fountain at Vatican City, Vatican

Vatican City, Vatican

Florence at night, Italy

St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican

Fountain at Rome, Italy

I-city Shah Alam, Malaysia

City Hall, Saigon

Petronas Tower, KLCC, Malaysia

Singapore at night

Venice, Italy

Camera used: Lumix FZ35 and my regular Olmypus Point and Shoot for Petronas Tower  

I hope that you enjoyed the pictures! Till next photo challenge!  

Check also my other photography challenges!
-Photography: A Self Expression
-Love Through my Lens
-Pet Photography
-Portraits
-Landscape Photography

- Macro Photography 

-black and white photography

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A Trip down Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Mekong River is a major trading route linking China,  Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.  It is the 7th longest river in Asia, and 10th longest river in the world. 

Mekong Delta is 59 miles from Saigon, we took a private tour and according to our itinerary the trip to the Mekong Delta should take at least 2 1/2 hours, but due to road repairs and Saigon's infamous traffic it took us almost 4 hours! wow!  We left Saigon so early to catch the Floating Market but when we arrived there the sun was already up.. like 10am!! And to our dismay, not much vendors were left in the Floating Market! 

Well, check some photos I have taken from our river cruise:

Local vendors from the Floating Market  unloading their unsold goods..

Our boat for the day..

These boats are use as "floating stores" early morning and "home" to some locals during the day

houses along the river

Cruising this river made me think of the Philippines, I've stayed so long in Pangasinan and Bataan, and the scenery specially the houses along the river are almost the same as ours,   it feels like home..

you can see here so many ladies driving the bancas, actually i saw more lady banca drivers than guys!

Cruise along their lake, unfortunately again... this time we had low tide!

Most of the villager's livelihood is something out of ... longan, they make candies and other pastries out of it.

If you want an extraordinary travel experience, I won't recommend this leg of the trip simply because the place will remind you so much of our provinces in the Philippines. But if you are up to explore Vietnamese culture you won't be disappointed!

Map Source: http://chinaview.wordpress.com/2007/01/21/china-secret-deal-of-shipping-oil-up-the-mekong-river-raising-concerns/

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Vivi's Bridge Camera Challenge: Water Drop

It may look easy but actually it's not! The usual tutorial like the picture below will ask you to setup your studio, to use a dropper, something to hold the dropper,  any liquid, colored ink or paper, etc. etc.. etc: 

Photo from:  http://www.digital-photography-school.com/water-drops-behind-the-shot  

Wow it looks so complicated!!     What I did?? well I am lazy and stubborn  so:

1) I searched for  the room in our condo with the best lighting and realized that it's the bathroom in my room so location.. check!

2)  dropper?? nah.. i used my faucet so liquid dropper check! 

3)  anything to   hold the water.. I'm already in the bathroom so I used my scoop and my pail,  so check!

4) colored paper or ink to make the liquid pleasing to the eye when photographed.. mine? my scoop is green and my pail is blue.. so color.. check! 

5) photographer's bestfriend for this challenge...tripod!! check! 

6) wiper... yeah you need this very badly the water will get in your lens! 

Well that's all, check some of my work... they may not be the best I know that, but I am proud of  the result!

Best to describe this challenge??  back breaking and fun!!   Try it!!

Thanks for viewing!! Till next challenge!! 

Check also my other photography challenges!

-Photography: A Self Expression
-Macro Photography
-Love Through my Lens
-Pet Photography
-Portraits

-Landscape Photography

-black and white photography

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Lock your love with...Padlocks!

It's Valentine's day in a few days and I was thinking what to blog about after my Camera Challenge on Capturing  Love through my lens. Then I remember coming across some Love Padlocks during my travel to Italy. On our trip to Florence we saw a lot of clustered padlocks on some chains, fence or railings and got curious so we asked our travel guide and she explained that those colorful Love Padlocks we can see  everywhere in Italy are affixed by lovers to  symbolize their undying love and affection... wow a tribute to eternal love! It is similar to Pinoy's engraving our names....to trees!! 

Actually this Love Padlock thing has its history and it is not only from Italy, it is worldwide! Check this out from wikipedia:

"In Europe, love padlocks started appearing in the early 2000s. The reasons love padlocks started to appear vary between locations, and in many instances are unsourced. However, in Rome, the ritual of affixing love padlocks to the bridge Ponte Milvio can be attributed to the book I Want You by Italian author Federico Moccia, who later made it into the film-adaptation Ho voglia di te.

Similarly, an attribution for the bridge Most Ljubavi (lit. the Bridge of Love—now named after the love padlocks) in Serbia exists, where they can be traced to even before World War II. A local schoolmistress named Nada, who was from Vrnjačka Banja, fell in love with a Serbian officer named Relja. After they committed to each other Relja went to war in Greece where he fell in love with a local woman from Corfu. As a consequence, Relja and Nada broke up their engagement. Nada never recovered from that devastating blow, and after some time she died as a result of her unfortunate love. As young girls from Vrnjačka Banja wanted to protect their own loves, they started writing down their names, together with the names of their loved ones, on padlocks and affixing them to the railings of the bridge where Nada and Relja used to meet." 

Here are some shots I have taken from Florence:

Whether we believe this or not is up to us, there are things that are a bit corny yes but we are always corny when we are in love!  

photo taken from: http://weburbanist.com/2011/01/12/locks-of-love-urban-padlock

How about you, what is the corniest thing you did for love?

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