Street Panorama – Ubin Artist At Work

Ubin Artist, Terence Si Peng Tan
© 2018 Martin Liew Photography

It's been almost 4 months since my last street photograph posted here. So many things had happened during this time especially the outbreak of Coronavirus in January 2020. Currently it's a lockdown situation in Singapore with heavy restrictions to stay at home and to wear face mask whenever heading out to buy daily essentials. Social distancing is closely observed and supervised by the Government assigned ambassadors and the Singapore Police Force.

While staying safe at home, I took time looking through my photo archives and found that I have some night and street photographs which I've never shown before on my blogs. I could have probably missed out or forgotten. Anyway here's one of them. A portrait photograph I made back in June 2018, with a HORIZON PERFEKT swing lens panorama camera on Kodak Portra 800.

Here's how I came by to make this photograph. One weekend, my friend and I went to Pulau Ubin for some event which I could not remember what it was. After alighting at the island pier, we walked towards the main village Wayang Stage area. We noticed this bespectacled man with a thick black beard was painting a portrait of an old man. I lifted my panorama camera and took a frame before he turned around and smiled at me. He took notice on my "weird" camera and a light conversation started. I asked about the old man in his painting and he told us the old man was the previous village chief, the late Mr Lim Chye Joo.

The black bearded painter is Terence Tan, the Ubin Artist. I asked for his kind permission to make another picture of him at work, and he gladly approved. So that was how this photograph came about.

We continued our conversation about his work and life living on the small island before his friend came along to greet him. Without further ado, I made my departure. If you're interested in Terence's painting work, click here to his Facebook page.

Photo Info:
HORIZON PERFEKT | 28mm | settings not recorded | Kodak Portra 800, rated at 500 | Developed and scanned at Triple-D Mini Lab | Further post-processed in Photoshop

Street Photo – On Reading

Street Photo – Daddy's Girl

Street Photo – Untitled

Street Photography Photowalk by SSPC

I can't remember when was the last time I joined a photography outing/photowalk. I have been doing photography all alone by myself, for way too long period of time. Personally I enjoy it very very much, spending time for myself and for my photography project. Well, from time to time, a couple of friends would join me for night photography. Otherwise it’s just me, myself and I. Moreover, doing photography alone, requires good discipline and persistence, which in turn makes you more focused on what you love doing. Well, at least for me, and this is the way I do photography. At the end of the day, all you gained is a great sense of accomplishment, achievement and satisfaction.

So for the first time since my last outing, I joined a photowalk organized by a local group, namely Singapura Street Photographer Community. Their initial goal is to gather many street photographers with different unique shooting style, and working their way to get their work showcase globally, I suppose. 

For this 2-3 hours photowalk, I took my Seagull 205RF out as there is still a roll of CineStill film inside since December 2018, and I wanted to complete it. Of course, I took along my favorite RICOH GR2 with me. However, I made a couple of exposures on film but none on GR2. My iPhone 6 Plus was in use too, just for panorama shots which are shown below.

Let me share with you about this place. Thian Hock Keng (天福宫, ‘Palace of Heavenly Happiness’) is one of Singapore’s oldest Hokkien temples. It is located near Al-Abrar Mosque, Former Nagore Dargah, and Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church, standing on what used to be the shoreline of Telok Ayer Basin. In addition to its religious function, Thian Hock Keng is also a standing monument to the community spirit of Chinese pioneers in Singapore. For more history of this old temple, click here.

This huge wall mural was drawn right on the back outer wall of the temple, along Amoy Street. Many people especially tourists, would stop by for photo-taking. It was a hot afternoon at around 3 o'clock and the lighting was good. Without hesitation, I took out my iPhone 6+ and started panning from left to right. Later on, I post-processed the image in Snapseed app and converted it to black and white. I like the monochrome effect as it makes this image timeless.

Next, I walked to Chinatown along Smith Street and saw this colorful row of kiosk stalls with its huge signage that says REDIFFUSION.

Rediffusion was Singapore's first cable-transmitted, commercial radio station. It started broadcasting in Singapore in 1949. In the 1960s and ’70s, the station's Chinese dialect programmes enjoyed a strong following, and many coffee shops and households were fitted with Rediffusion sets.

However, due to declining popularity in this 21st century, the company ceased operation at the end of April 2012. Two months later, it was bought by a former Rediffusion DJ, Eva Chang Mei Hsiang, with plans to revive the station. For more details on Rediffusion, click here.

My guess on this row of kiosk stalls is that it serves as Rediffusion's outdoor radio station, where they are promoting their radio programmes as well as to create awareness of their comeback. Hopefully they are able to get their popularity back, especially with the old folks, and even better with younger listeners.

So that's it! I didn't make many street photos, not as many as the other photowalk participants. Guess as a film shooter, I've always observe and keep a constant look out for interesting unique characters, people with funny if not, interesting gestures, etc etc, before I would lift up my camera to snap. It's a film photography habit where I see, observe, think, observe and think again, then camera up, compose and snap. I'm trying to stay away from mediocre and meaningless shots. I want my street photos to tell its own story to viewers.

Street Photo - 4.5m And Above

Street Photo – White Vespa

Street Photo – Untitled

Street Photo – One-eyed Jack

Street Photo – READ

Street Photo – On Reading...

Travel Photo – Hong Kong Street 20 - Pikachu Truck

RICOH GR2 – f/5.6 1/160 sec. ISO1600
DNG post-processed in Camera RAW and converted to
monochrome in Photoshop