Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone! Otherwise known as Moon Festival, Mooncake Festival, Lantern Festival or 中秋节 (pinyin: zhōngqiÅ«jié), Chinese family members and friends will traditionally gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomeloes together. Children join in the festivities by carrying brightly-lit lanterns — I remember the traditional candle-lit ones that Grandma used to buy us, which in my opinion, was much more fun to play with (especially if they caught fire! :P) compared to the battery-lit ones of today. As part of the celebrations, the Chinese Gardens in Singapore has put up impressive display of large lanterns to lure in the crowd. I was there over the weekend with Mum and CY to soak in the festivities (as well as to take some pictures).

Having A Yummy Time

Having A Yummy Time
This was taken in Osaka’s Universal Studios right before I took this other shot. Sometimes, pictures of parade spectators can be as interesting (if not more) as those of the participants. Selective background desaturation done here to bring out the main subjects of the shot.

Update – CY has suggested that this shot be called “Freeze” instead — because the action has been frozen, as well as the fact that ice-cream is being enjoyed. What do you think of this alternate title?

Monochromatic Begonias

Monochromatic Begonias
After holding out for Capture One 4.0 for much of 2007 and trying out the beta that has at long last been finally released, I wonder whether if I should have made the jump to Adobe Lightroom earlier. Although my first test of beta 4 (for Lightroom) didn’t turn out too well, Lightroom 1.1 is currently luring me during my 30-day evaluation of the program. One thing I like is the ease which I can convert RAW to monochrome. The above is one of the Lightroom conversions I tried on a shot I took at the Botanical Gardens in Glasgow.