Instant Photography: Suntec City & Tanjong Pagar

Hey everyone!

This week we are sharing a light-hearted entry on Sandra’s favourite medium: instant film! Again, we used the Fujifilm’s instax mini 90 NEO CLASSIC and Lomography’s kickstarter project: the Lomo’Instant Camera. We took the opportunity to shoot instant films around Singapore’s Central Business District (CBD), specifically at Suntec City and Tanjong Pagar. As always, we experimented with the multiple exposure function, and we’re here to share our creations!

Suntec City

Suntec City was designed with the emphasis on Chinese feng shui. Imagine five buildings and a huge convention centre, arranged to look like a left hand when viewed aerially.

Image (3) (2) — Multiple Exposure: Here we have the exterior office building, with an overlay of green foliage! It looks like there is plants growing (or printed) on the building!

The famous Fountain of Wealth, a symbol for wealth and life, is located in between 5 tall buildings. It appears like a golden ring in the palm of the hand. As the fountain is made of bronze, it is believed that the balance of metal and water paves the way for success. Interestingly, the Fountain of Wealth is recognised in 1998 by the Guinness Book Of World Records as the World’s Largest Fountain!

Image (13) (2) — Multiple Exposure: Maroon Ring (of the Fountain of Wealth) with overlaying tall buildings at the back!

Image (4) (2) — Multiple Exposure: Another angle of the maroon ring and the overlaying tall buildings at the back! As the ring is circle, each shot each look has a different angle!

Image (9) (2) — Multiple Exposure: Another shot of the maroon ring and tall buildings! This time, we focus more on the ‘purple lights’, indicating the eateries that surrounds the Fountain of Wealth!

We love the deep blue effect these instant films produced! It gives out a futuristic effect! These photos were taken around 6pm/7pm… So it is evident that the sun was setting.

We had to rely on a ‘bulb mode’ setting (with extended shutter) to get hold of these colours. Using the flash function would result in the outer areas of the instant films becoming dark.

Tanjong Pagar

Yet another CBD area in Singapore! 🙂

A historical fact: the name Tanjong Pagar (in Malay “cape of stakes”) reflects its origins as a fishing village! One of the characteristics of the modernisation of Singapore is evident by the numerous shophouses, and of course, not forgetting the high rise office towers that surround them.

We love playing with shadows and the ability of the shadows in capturing the overlay of the second exposure! For the instant films below, we relied on unique black wall paintings as our ‘shadows’.

Image (19) (2) — Multiple Exposure: Black wall painting of a girl with the image of the hotel (in the second exposure)! This looks like the girl is wearing a red dress!

Image (5) (2) — Multiple Exposure: Another set of black wall painting of people walking their dogs with the second image of grass.

Image (2) (2) — Multiple Exposure: Wonder how it is like to wear a dress printed with the facade of a classic shophouse!

Image (24) — Multiple Exposure: Same painting on the wall, but this time we have a window in the second exposure.

All in all, we feel very inspired whenever we use instant cameras. They provide us an outlet for creativity which digital cameras may not provide. We were often discouraged by images that were over- or under-exposed; sometimes the photo developed into something that we did not have in mind. We also noticed the two different instant cameras we currently own do not function the same way or produce the same results in like circumstances (Fujifilm’s instax mini 90 NEO CLASSIC and Lomography’s kickstarter project: the Lomo’Instant Camera); however, we managed to tweak with the settings and adjust our exposures accordingly.

Let us know if you like to know more about the instant cameras that we use! We would love to give our food-for-thought about the cameras and their differences. We are not professional photographers- just amateurs who really enjoy the craft. But we would love to share our tips and tricks and hopefully, learn more about taking creative and fun instant films!

Till next time,

Damianwithsandra