Last year, our very first entry on Damianwithsandra was documenting a trip down to Chinatown (with our friend Sarah) to take some photos of the lighting structures put up during the Mid-Autumn Festival (also known as the Mooncake Festival). This year, we decided to share a little bit more on what we do during this festive season!
Here’s Damian looking excited as we start of our journey! [Taken with Polaroid Spectra ImagePro]Sandra looking happy and chirpy as usual! [Taken with Polaroid Spectra ImagePro]
First Stop: Chinatown!
Chinatown is the usual spot to find the Mid-Autumn festivities in full swing; shops line up with traditional mooncakes and home-made lanterns for sale. The boisterous atmosphere (which also occurs during Chinese New Year) is supplanted by lanterns, strung along the streets. We share some of our favourite snaps below!
Long exposure of buses and cars moving along the street; it was a crowded road!Bokeh effect with our music note filter on our Pentax tele lens! If you would like to find out how this is achieved, leave a comment below!
Spotted some hand-made lanterns! [Taken with Mint InstantFlex TL70]Multiple Exposure: Lantern-decorating competition & the crowded streets of Chinatown! [Taken with Mint InstantFlex TL70]Multiple Exposure: Street lights hung above the roadside, with Sandra among the heart bokeh! [Taken with Mint InstantFlex TL70]Heart-bokeh along the streets! [Taken with Mint InstantFlex TL70]
Second Stop: Gardens by the Bay!
At Gardens by the Bay, the sprawling Gardens is occupied with festive structures and lights, giving us another opportunity to use our cameras! Here, the Gardens had put up some amazingly intricate lighted structures, to tell the tales of myths and legends associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival. This time, we used our Lomo’Instant Wide; check them out below!
Beautiful spotted lights of the SuperTree Grove at Gardens By the Bay during the scheduled evening light show!
Here, we were greeted with light figurines telling the myths and legends behind the Mid-Autumn celebration!
Hello Chang Er! One of the popular stories of the Mid-Autumn Festival is the legend of Chang Er. Known for her great beauty, she is said to have been immortal, together with her husband, the expert archer, Hou Yi.The ten suns caused the Earth to scorch under the blazing heat. Hou Yi, an expert archer, shot down every sun, till there was just one, to give Earth its light and warmth.Hou Yi went on a dangerous journey to look for the Pill of Immortality so that together with Chang Er, they could become immortal again. After a long and arduous search, he returned home to Chang Er with the pill, which she consumed completely.Chang Er, after swallowing the Pill of Immortality, floated to the moon. There, she found a magnificent palace which she resided in, and became known as the Moon Goddess.In the grand palace on the moon, Chang Er had the companionship of the Jade Rabbit. The latter is said to be the creature whose image we sometimes see on the night of a full moon, pounding the elixir of immortality in a mortar.Another Chinese folklore that revolves around the moon is that of Yue Lao, the Matchmaker, or otherwise known as Yue Xia Lao Ren (Old Man under the Moon). He is the God of Marriage and Love and legend has it that he causes a man and a woman to fall in love, as fate would have it.There is one tale that originated from Korea, that also makes reference to the moon. This is the story of a brother and sister who escaped a tiger’s attack by grabbing on to a rope that descended from Heaven. They then rose above the clouds, where the sister transformed into the sun, and the brother, the moon.We spotted some flowers along the trail; perfect opportunity to practice our zone focusing skills with the Lomo’Instant Wide!
We noticed that due to the low lighting in the night, one would certainly need to have steady hands (or invest on less cumbersome tripod) to ensure that the picture is not blurred. Evidently, some of our shots turned out blurry. Nevertheless, everything was shot in “Auto Exposure” setting. Still very impressive considering that we could capture some detail of the lighted figurines!
Third & Final Stop: Sparklers!
Traditionally, kids would carry lanterns and walk around the park; instead, we decided to be creative and played with sparklers instead! We caution anyone who uses sparklers generally, but they can be fun tools to create beautiful light photography with! This time, we had the help of our trusty Polaroid Sonar OneStep SX-70, utilising the brand new Gen 3.0 Sx-70 Colour film! The film develops in 15-20 minutes, and is much improved in terms of film development and colour!
It only takes a spark… to get the fire going!Damian creating random shapes!Can you guess what we were trying to write?Think this one is pretty obvious…!Made full use of our SX-70 self-timer to shoot this! 🙂
We had quite an adventurous time scouting locations and exploring different techniques of different cameras! It was heartening to see virtually the whole of Singapore basking in the Mid-Autumn festivities, and certainly we enjoyed ourselves very much. Let us how you celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival!
5 thoughts on “Celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival in Singpore!”
It has been insightful, journeying with your blogs and seeing things from different perspectives – .from both the commentary and the splendid photographs . Thank you!
Damian with Sandra 
It has been insightful, journeying with your blogs and seeing things from different perspectives – .from both the commentary and the splendid photographs . Thank you!
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Thanks!! 😀
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