Captioned “sacred” because I submitted for that theme for August Break 2013 on Instagram.
Phoneography Monday Challenge: Challenger’s Choice (Night-time street photography) – hosted by Lens and Pens by Sally, Gracie Nobiya, details here.
Apps used: Camera+, Snapseed, Whitagram, Moldive (text), Instagram (amaro filter)
Only one shot this week, taken while walking the dog at 10.40pm in the night. Go, me!
Nestled amongst the urban landscape of quiet flats in the night is this Chinese temple, all aglow and very noisy. We are still in the 7th month of the Chinese lunar calendar over here, also known as the month where the gates of Chinese hell open and hungry ghosts flood the streets. :D Sounds fun?
It was very noisy because an open-air Chinese-opera show was being staged in the temple grounds with the aim of entertaining a ghostly audience. For these shows, the seats are typically left empty for these dearly departed. Human spectators stand and watch from the back. There aren’t many anyway, Chinese opera in this country is largely a lost art that at least I find difficult to appreciate since I don’t even understand what they are singing :P
Outside the temple, the few people standing there are burning offerings, presumably enjoying one another’s company. Cultural events are about being sociable after all, isn’t it? This picture is also interesting for me because the backdrop that is the heritage-style architecture with its religious connotations is wrapped so glaringly in nationalistic emblems -the merlion’s head and the our national flower, a particular type of orchid.
Dogwalking during this month can be pretty challenging, especially if one’s dog wasn’t train to heel. The roadsides would be lined with the ashes of burnt paper offerings, rows of joss sticks stuck to the ground and sometimes plates of fruit and food offerings. (Imagine what a feast that would be for Ruby the Black Labrador! :P) The good thing is Donna heels very well when I want her to.
Kikopup has a great video on Leash Walking tips that is a great resource if you would like to teach your dog to stop pulling – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueE1S1k74Ao
There’s a short documentary on Vimeo if you would like to know more about this festival and how it has perhaps shaped the perceptions of people who have grown up with it. – https://vimeo.com/25900102 (Note, it may be a little spooky to some people perhaps.)
lensandpensbysally
Nice capture with lively colors against the night. Happy Phoneography Monday.
sustainabilitea
My thoughts, too. Nice contrast.
janet
weliveinaflat
Thanks Janet :)
weliveinaflat
Hope you are having a great day too, Sally!
weggieboy
That was an interesting video on the month of the hungry ghosts. I’d never heard about that before.
weliveinaflat
Think it’s more common in my part of the world ;) Glad you found the video interesting. Have a good day!
Linda Arthur Tejera
I hope you don’t mind my asking. I notice that you often use the Camera360 app. I was just using it on a photo and now I can’t figure out how to save it anywhere other than on Camera360, their “cloud”, or email it to myself. In other words, I don’t know how to get to it! Sad, I know. I’m just not real proficient with a lot of the techie stuff. I have an iPhone and an iPad. I don’t know if you can help me or not because I’m not sure whether you use android or ios. Thanks for any help you might be able to offer!
weliveinaflat
I don’t mind at all. The user interface for Camera360 can be misleading, I think it took me some time to figure it out as well. After you have clicked “save”, the “effect” button moves to the left and you should see the “send” buttin. Click that and you should find “Export to camera roll” as the fourth option. :)
And no worries, it’s not you not being proficient… but more a case of not so intuitive design… really. :P Think I’ll go give them some feedback.
weliveinaflat
I forget to add that, when you “export to camera roll” you should choose either the high or the low definition option. Choosing “original” will save the original image that has not been edited.
Sunshine
beautiful night shot. looks like the life of the party just getting started. :)
rubytheblacklabrador
nice shot but you both should have been in bed!
2browndawgs
Cool picture. Thanks for explaining what is going on. :)