This is a shot of the neighbourhood childrens’ playground that I took last week. On any other day, the picture will be clear and sharp, the buildings in the background would not look as faded simply because we are generally a hot, sunny island with very clear visibility. And yes, there might be a child or two about the slide, ladder or climbing wall.
We have been beset by smoke haze from hot spot fires in Sumatra, Indonesia from last week and the PSI index reached as high as 401 (air quality is described as hazardous when it climbs above 300). Over the weekend, things seemed to have improved, and air quality seemed to have stayed more or less moderate so that’s good.
On another day, I noticed the sun reflecting off the windows of a building.
I turned around searching for the sun and there it was.
I was telling Mr P how without the haze shrouding the sun, the picture above would have been impossible for me to shoot. And then he shared with me his own photo that he took coming back from work at 3a.m. The picture was shot from the carpark downstairs.
Mr P doesn’t take pictures very often, but the moon, red from the haze is something neither of us has seen before.
While I may whine and gripe about the haze like everyone else, I also have to concur with Wiley who was wise to say,
Not sure how to pay it forward in this case :P Mostly, we are just thankful Donna and I have the option to hole up in our tiny air-conditioned study when necessary. Although I expect the electricity bills will climb.
Dogs lick themselves when they are relaxing, bored or stressed it seems.
Note:
Haze is a yearly occurrence in Singapore normally in the months August-September. We’ve been lucky to escape the worse of it in the last few years and one barely notices it if one is stuck at work in the office all day. This year’s haze is so unexpected and it’s not until I experienced how severe it can be in our own backyard so to speak that one starts to empathise with those who have to live with it daily.
Haze health tips for pet owners, read this previous post.
This post is a companion post to Weekly Phoneography: Population, in capturing our already very urbanised neighbourhood at a point where:
- we have started to see physical changes in the landscape, growth of buildings around 3 times the height of existing flats
- the interplay of the elements of nature in an urbanised environment – air, trees, sun, moon
Sonel
Lovely shots Mrs. P. Looks like my neighbourhood..quiet and peaceful. I think some of the folks here lives in a “haze” sometimes and they don’t realise how blessed and lucky they are to have so much clean air and trees around them. I am glad you and Donna are still doing fine and thanks for taking part in the challenge. *big hugs* to you and Donna. xxx
weliveinaflat
Thank you :) I’m quite done with the haze and hope it would stop giving me opportunities to blog about it! Stay healthy and happy. Hugs to you and Simba too! :)
Sonel
Same to you and Donna hon. Thanks! :D *big hugs*
Linda Arthur Tejera
This is a great post. Your photos are wonderful. The haze is not. It’s good you’re staying in and protecting your lungs. I’ve been meaning to tell you how much I adore your background photo of Donna standing there with her little tongue out. That is the cutest picture ever!! :)
weliveinaflat
Thank you, I have not thought much about my lungs before. But a friend was recently diagnosed with lung cancer, and well it sets one thinking about health and one’s mortality quite a bit. So everyone reading this, stay up to date with your health checks and appreciate what you have now!
The background picture – it was the first picture I took that Donna was looking straight at the camera. I was so excited I changed to a theme that displays a background picture overnight! Since than I have had greater luck (not skill) getting her to look at the phone. Perhaps she was also getting more used to crazy human always holding up a phone in front of her :P I’m glad you like that picture of her :D
restlessjo
The playground shot is wonderfully atmospheric. No let up with the haze in sight, I gather.
weliveinaflat
Thank you, I’ve actually never taken pictures like this before so I was happy with how it turned out :P (simple minds stay happy wahahahaha)… The haze is still there although is has been at safer levels than “hazardous” in the last week. Interestingly, there was a huge storm in the west yesterday, along with hailstones (highly rare for us, we are in the hot, humid tropics!) and perhaps that helped wash some of the dust out of the air.
Thanks for your kind concern and have a great day :)
thaygoulart
Amazing pictures. I am a big cat fan, despite people hating it everywhere I go, I also have a special place for dogs in my heart.
If you don’t mind me asking, could you go visit my blog and read something I posted in English? I started it a few days ago and I could use a few helpful hints.
Thank you so much!
weliveinaflat
Thank you for your kind words and for taking the time to drop a line here :) I have visited and good luck achieving what you want with your blog.
Our blog is new, just slightly more than 3 months, but we have changed so much along the way. It was never intended to be a smartphone photo blog but look where we are now! It’s all thanks to the the encouraging photo-enthusiastic community I found here on WordPress, in particular the weekly photo challenges and also the smartphone photo challenge held by Sally. So have fun exploring what works best for you and I’m sure it will work out fine ;)
Wiley Schmidt
You paid it forward beautifully friend. Well done, and thank you so much for citing my thoughts. Shine on!
weliveinaflat
Thank you for thinking so :)
Wiley Schmidt
;)
rubytheblacklabrador
Looks very ethereal, esp in B+W. Love the moon shot, you should encourage Mr P more (shouldn’t you??)
weliveinaflat
Alas Mr P is more disposed to staring at the game screen on his phone :P I shall let him know you love his photo and maybe that will encourage him :P
Shakti Ghosal
Great pictures. As you take these shots, what aspects do you keep in mind?
Shakti
weliveinaflat
Thank you, in general I just try to frame it so that extraneous details are kept out of the frame. The photo need not be entirely symmetrical but I do like it to be balanced. Shoot in large format so that even if the shot is not entirely satisfactory I will have the option to crop it to get a better picture. I also always check to make sure my main subject is focused, and also to meddle with the exposure (whatever leverage the smartphone app I am using has to enable me to do that, if at all) so that the light on the subject, foreground and back is as close to what I want as possible.
That said, it just so happens I was lucky to be there at a time where the haze and the position of the sun allowed me to take such photos. It was totally unplanned so I can hardly take the credit for that. :P
Rob
Love your photos. Red moon? That is different. I think by favorite shots are the sun shine reflecting off of the window, and the sun just above the playground.
When I used to live in San Diego, we had morning haze that would burn off by noon. It wasn’t caused by fire; but a lot of the time, it was caused by smog.
weliveinaflat
Yup, whoever thought the moon really can turn red! I like those shots too because of how unexpected they are, a happy coincidence. Smog can be worse than haze perhaps. I remember travelling in Vietnam a long time ago, the smog was so bad the whole group of us fell sick. I walked around all day with rolls of toilet paper hanging off my bag so I can reach them conveniently. And I did gross things like sticking a wade of toilet paper into my nose and pulling it out again to see all the black gunk stuck to it. It was that bad the smog there. So hope you are living in a great place right now ;) have a good week! Thanks for the comment :)