MacRitchie Reservoir: battling the mozzies, trekking through the forest, and watching the sunset by the water

Hey guys!

I shall start off this post with a gif. Because I'm addicted to making gifs now haha.
(Photos below are all taken with a Canon 650D, unless otherwise stated. :)

I've always wanted to go to MacRitchie Reservoir, because I have seen so many pretty photos of the sunset there. And finally! I decided to have a mini adventure/photo outing/exploring yesterday. :D

My friends aka photo buddies and I initially planned to walk the Treetop Walk. Unfortunately, it closes at 5pm and we reached the reservoir at 4.56pm. So yeah, next time perhaps? Since we still had around 2 hours till sunset, we decided to venture into the forest-y path and just walk around a bit. Let me tell ya, wearing shorts while going into the forest is the WORST CHOICE EVER. I got feasted on by the mozzies, and I had around 8 huge mosquito bites that swelled to the size of my thumb. -.- And I forgot to bring any insect repellent...I found a patch of blood on my thigh and I was like :O it turned out that while scratching myself, I crushed a mosquito as well...After a while, we decided to walk around the reservoir instead.

iPhone 5 + VSCO Cam =  Never disappoints. (Well, provided that the light is good.)

There's a wooden path on the perimeter of the reservoir. It was quite a scenic path, other than the fact that I was constantly worried that my friends and I might dropped into the reservoir. There were many people kayaking in the reservoir, which reminded me of my kayaking expedition around Pulau Ubin last year hehe. 6 hours in the sea! Anyway. There were even tortoises in the reservoir! And many aquatic creatures. Juliana had her telephoto zoom on and she was happily snapping away. #iwantatelezoomtoo #mybirthdaypresentmaybe. Our Principal of the School of Photography was sitting on the bench placed beside the reservoir, deep in thought. Probably composing a landscape shot or writing a poem inside his head.

We continued walking, and came across this narrow strip of the reservoir. And it was so pretty! The water was in a shade of teal, with many tree trunks and green mosses (?) in it. The place reminded me so much of Jiu Zhai Gou in China which I visited back in 2008. (On a side note, I really wish to go back to the place again, with better photography skills and better equipment.) And of course we shutterbugs stayed there for a while, taking tons of photos.

iPhone 5, VSCO Cam.

iPhone 5, VSCO Cam.

Where's Wally?: the MacRitchie edition. Just joking hahaha. Here's our Principal taking some landscape photos.

iPhone 5, VSCO Cam.

We decided to turn back and head back to the wooden platform to catch the sunset, as we realise that it's almost impossible to walk around the whole reservoir. This place is huge! While walking back, it was the golden hour and although the sun wasn't very nice yesterday, there was still some golden-ness to it.

See the golden bokeh in the water! I attempted taking jumpshots of Juliana here but they failed...and I shall not post the photos here HAHAHA. But the photos were pretty epic.

My attempt at landscape photography. How did I fare??? :D

We then went to the wooden platform which the kayakers used to dock. We sat there and watch the sun went down. It felt like summer, as how storybooks described them. (though the sunny island experiences summer all year round) I had the urge to just take off my shoes and put my feet into the water. Maybe I should, the next time I go there! It would be so perfect to just read a book while sitting there, and soaking my feet in the water.

Juliana and her Sentimental Tortoise (the tiny thing on her right!)

Breathing in the nature? I took another shot of her, in which she turned around and realised I was taking photos of her lol. She looked quite scary oops.

In love with the water at sunset.

Cliche shots are the best.

The sunset was quite pretty yesterday, though not the prettiest I've seen. It's always like that: when I go out, hoping to take photos of the sunset, the sunset would just be a rather normal one. However, when I'm at home, the sunset will be a really stunning one...nevertheless, sitting on the wooden platform, enjoying the evening breeze (probably land breeze from the water), watching the sunset and being around nature and its tranquillity just makes up for the hot, sweaty, tiring and mozzie-filled afternoon.

Probably gonna try to do some HDR. It's something I've picked up yesterday hohoho. You learn something new every day.

And that's all for this post. I'm really envious of the people living near the reservoir. They get such pretty views every day! And hopefully in the near future, I can go back to shoot some portraits at MacRitchie Reservoir!

See you guys soon,

Elsa

DIY Terrarium!

Hey everyone! (I don't remember whether I start my posts with a greeting...oh well I shall, from now on. :)

I've always wanted a terrarium, but the ones I find at shops are so expensive. I once came across one that costs around $40??? Which is so ridiculously priced. So yesterday, while walking around aimlessly around in shopping malls, I had a sudden burst of inspiration and decided to make my own terrarium! My first thought was...IKEA! And coincidentally, my family decided to make a trip there today to pick up some new furniture. So today, I made my very first terrarium. :) (I made one back in Year 2, but it wasn't really an ideal one...all I had was a plant, some soil, inside a plastic container.)

Here are the materials I used for my terrarium:

• 1 Glass container ($1.80, purchased from IKEA.) I got it from the Cooking section but hey it would suffice too. :D
• Pebbles. You can purchase them at any plant nursery, or simply pick them up from the seaside #andtakeastrollthere #andtakesomephotos
• Charcoal. Again, you can pick them up at any plant nursery.
• Soil.
• Decorative rocks. You can buy them from IKEA at $3.90 per bottle.

Last but not least and the most important ones...

The plants!

I decided to plant these 2 in my terrarium. It was a tough choice picking out only 2; the plants at IKEA are all so pretty!! They're reasonably priced at $2.90 per pot.

Here's how I made my own DIY terrarium.

1. Place the pebbles at the bottom. They serve as drainage purpose so the excess water in the soil will not stay there and ruin the roots of the plants. :)
2. Place the charcoal on top of the layer of pebbles. This will keep the soil layer fresh.
3. Fill the container with soil. Depending on the type of plants you have in your terrarium, you should get different type of soil. :) Remember to dig some holes for your plants!
4. Place the plants into the soil. Even out the surface of the soil for a cleaner finish.
5. Decorate your terrarium! Place the colourful rocks on the top surface. Feel free to add any figurine or anything. :D

And voilà! You have your very own terrarium! It's personalised and very economical!

I think the 2 tortoises are adorable, and hence I added them in my terrarium. :)

I hope this post will inspire you to make your own terrarium too, or to simply DIY anything!

Until the next time,

Elsa

Running in the lalang field.

Hello everyone!

It has been 1 week since the start of this timely yet short semester break. Or June holidays, whichever you prefer. I guess the highlight of my first week of holidays was the "mini class photo walk" at Punggol. I had been looking forward to this since mid-May, as I know many of my friends in my class are interested in photography / photo junkies / camera junkies / Instagram junkies too. :D We decided to go to the famous lalang field located in Punggol, as I thought it would be a nice place for portraits and hopefully we would be able to catch the golden hour, the sunset and the blue hour.

Unfortunately, the field wasn't as nice as we thought it would be. (Did we go to the wrong field? Or are the lalangs just "not in season"? Either way, I am determined to go back to the Punggol area to hunt for the lalang field once again. #neversaynever #Ijustsaidittwice) And neither did we catch the golden hour that day. :( Needless to say, we didn't have a gorgeous sunset as well. Nevertheless, it was a fun afternoon, snapping away with my awesome friends, eating chips in the lalang field and just sitting down at the field and enjoying the evening breeze.

I even found some wild daisies! Which is extremely rare in the highly concreted Singapore. We also found a millipede (ew). We spent around 5 minutes taking photos of it. I attempted taking one but I felt too disgusted by it and deleted the photos. Sorry to all the nature/insect lovers out there. Juliana has some good shots of it though. Maybe she'll post them on her blog hehehe. In the end, Rachel kicked the millipede down...because she was fed up with us obsessing over the millipede HAHA. Poor millipede! Though it curled up into a ball and survived the fall. Once again, apologies to the insect lovers out there who are reading this. :P

I've put together a short behind the scenes video, which also features my previous photo shoot as I didn't take enough footage of my recent adventure. :)

And here are some behind-the-scenes photos yay! All these are unedited. :)

Nan Fang in the lalang field!

Juliana: the Nat Geo Photographer? Or the zoo keeper HAHAHA.

Happy Rachel :)

Nan Fang looking professional!

My full time model and disciple Juliana! You can find the expanded version of this photo on my Flickr. :)

Melvin! Advertising for the brand of his bag...?

Artsy photos in the making!

Nan Fang and Rachel.

Rachel modelling!

Cool-ish poses on the bridge hehehe.

And I made a gif! I think this is my favourite gif, as of now. (But this is actually only the second one I've made so...)

You can check out the shots I took that day on my Flickr. :)

So that's it for this post! I realise my posts just get shorter and shorter oops. :P

Happy Friday,
Elsa

French Faire: Floral Display at Flower Dome, Gardens by the Bay.

A few weeks ago, I volunteered at a session at Gardens by the Bay with my friends again. And of course, volunteering wouldn't be complete without a trip to the glass conservatories!

French Faire is a French-themed floral display, featuring a 6m tall replica of the Eiffel Tower as the centrepiece. The flowers on displayed are lavenders (eeeek my favourite! Visiting the lavender fields in Provence is top on my bucket list hehehe), lilac, jasmine, gardenia, marigold, sunflowers (and I learnt that they're called tournesol in French!) and lilies (which were, unfortunately, not blooming at the time of my visit.)

Volunteering was fun as well, although it was hot and tiring. This weather seriously is getting too hot for me to handle! 

So here are the photos! They're all unedited because nature is beautiful without any modification. :) Nah, it's just an excuse for my laziness. :P
(P.S. The white balance for the photos are a bit off...note to self: don't always shoot with auto-white balance. :O)

Bell flowers :)

All the lavenders ahhh.

Sunflower! That hasn't bloomed fully ._.

Marigold.

Jasmine!

Lilies that were yet to bloom. :(

More marigolds. :)

Lavenders!

Together with my friends, we visited the Cloud Forest. :)

All the water droplets from the waterfall inside Cloud Forest!

Paparazzi Rabito Zhang.

Qi Zong: The Tourist in the Lost World.

These miniature displays are so cute hehehe.

Took a photo of a random stranger's hair.

I made this photo into a gif! My first gif ever!! And a rather failed one.

Selfie? Featuring distorted faces HAHA.

Pitcher plant!

So yeah that's it for this post. :) I will be updating this blog more frequently, since the holidays are here! And I have so many photo adventures coming up hehehe.

Here's to a fruitful and enjoyable holidays!

Happy Holidays,

Elsa :)