Eid Mubarak @ Geylang Serai!

Hey everyone!

This week, we visited a popular hotspot for our Muslim friends in Singapore, where the festivity carries on into the late hours of the night: the Geylang Serai Hari Raya Bazaar!

The Geylang Serai Hari Raya Bazaar is opened for the whole period of Ramadan (26th May to 24th June this year); it comes alive especially at night, when the Muslims break fast and have their iftar (evening meal). The pasar malam (meaning night market) is packed to the brim with food and drink stalls and other shops selling Hari Raya- related items (over a thousand stalls!), and this gave us a chance to immerse in this festive celebration. Around the pasar malam, there were beautiful light decorations and banners, and so this gave us the chance to revisit our light photography skills and explore Geylang Serai! To this end, we brought along the SLR 680SE and the Petzval Lens to use with our Fujifilm XT-10!

DSCF6005 — Salam Aidifitri, meaning “Celebration Day”.

DSCF6006 — Stalls that sell handmade mats, tapestry and embroidery!

DSCF6011 — Venturing into the food section: this was clearly where the crowd was!

DSCF6012 — Intriguing milo cubes, which we had never seen before…

DSCF6014 — Rainbow Bagels; just one of the many exotic-looking food on sale @ Geylang Serai Bazaar!

DSCF6017 — View of the night’s hustle and bustle!

DSCF6024 — A barista making delicious *teh tarik*, which means “pulled tea”.

DSCF6031 — A refreshing drink, which we received on the house!

DSCF6033 — Did we mention how crowded Geylang Serai was?

DSCF6042 — One of the reasons why we went to the *pasar malam* – Raclette Cheese over sausages and potatoes! Yet another novel dish which made us *really* full.

DSCF6053 — A colourful blend of tea with honey, creating a triple-layer thirst-quenching drink!

Having had our fill of food and drink, we used our Petzval Lens to great effect:

DSCF6071 — The next few shots display the effect of the Petzval Lens from *focused* to *unfocused*; the swirl of the special aperture blade should be pretty obvious…

DSCF6072 — … Tadah! Butterflies appearing everywhere!

DSCF6079 — The large diamond-shaped lights are modelled after the *Ketupat,* which is a Malay rice cake.

Here are the some of the scanned photos we have taken with the Polaroid SLR 680SE, which you can check out right below:

Image (41)a — We tried to capture Damian with the background lighting, but the flash came on

Image (42)a — Surprised that our SLR 680SE could capture butterflies? Actually all we did was to place the Petzval Lens aperture blade over the lens of the SLR 680SE, and it worked!

Image (41)c — The butterflies appear complete in the middle, but loses their shape on the outer edges of the Polaroid.

As with any event, we love to capture the happenings and activities that is going on. While it was (unsurprisingly) warm for a night in Singapore, the food and beverages available will be sure to keep visitors well-fed and satisfied. Let us know how you commemorated Ramadan!

Till next time,

Damianwithsandra