Photography Fun at Little India and Merlion Park with the New Nikon 1 J1

Last Wednesday (4 Jan), the folks from Nikon invited me to try out their new Nikon 1 J1 camera at an interesting photography event. [NOTE: All images in this blog post are powered by the Nikon 1 J1]

Me with the Nikon 1 J1
Briefing at Nikon School

Together with seven other Singapore bloggers (Melissa, Adrian, Clara, Holly, Sabrina, Celeste and Peggy), we met with three bubbly Taiwanese photographer/ bloggers, Jenny, Karren and Xiao Bao who flew in specially from Taiwan.

Here are the links to Karren’s portfolio:

Blog: http://karren309.pixnet.net/blog
Photography Portfolio: http://www.wretch.cc/blog/s101050
Flickr Album: http://flickr.com/santa019
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/KarrenKao

The three of them are planking enthusiasts as well as avid photographers and models for strange, but fun poses. They were on a mission to plank at selected iconic locations in Singapore and we went with them to Little India and the Merlion Park to join in the fun.

First stop, Little India
Residence of Tan Teng Niah
Brightly coloured windows
Indian dude hiding from the fiery sun between the shades of some potted plants
Me with Holly and Clara at Little India

The first stop at Little India was at a quaint little colourful Chinese house – Residence of Tan Teng Niah. Jenny and Karren changed into brightly coloured Indian saris while Xiao Bao taught us how we can make use of the fast auto focus and the continuous shutter of the Nikon 1 J1 to take amazing motion shots like these:

The Nikon 1 J1 offers two of world’s best features for capturing all the perfect moments in life. The camera is equipped with the world’s fastest autofocus and the most focus points in the world.

The phase-detection AF embedded in the newly developed sensor will track and capture fast-moving subjects in sharp, crystal-clear focus while the focal plane phase-detection AF with the world’s widest area coverage of 73 points recognises the moving subject as a plane to ensure that images are captured accurately.

With these two features, I was able to create some really cool animated GIFs like these:

Holly Jean jumping over Karren and Jenny
Xiao Bao jumping over Karren and Jenny
Double jump shot with high-five

Impressive isn’t it?

The world’s fastest autofocus delivers the world’s fastest continuous shooting. The camera can continuously capture images at approximately 10 frames-per-second while the AF constantly tracks the subject and keeps every element in razor-sharp focus.

Motion photography has never been so easy!

Best of all, the Nikon 1 J1 is simple and intuitive to use, balancing the portability of a compact camera with the high image of a DSLR.

Next, we were taught how to make use of the 2.5 times slow-motion video function to record sleek videos like these:

Stylo-milo slow walk effect

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Slowly turning and face the camera

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Matrix-style prata tossing

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Prata switching

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Simple, fuss free, no editing needed. Again, impressive! There are even default music tracks that can be recorded together with the HD video.

Playing with roti prata up next
Karren and Jenny playing with roti prata

From the Peranakan house, the two Taiwanese ladies moved on to playing with roti pratas at an open field beside a coffeeshop – with Karren tossing a prata towards Jenny who will dodge, Matrix-style.

I was able to capture many priceless photos of the prata landing smacked on Jenny’s face and other Matrix-like kungfu shots. With the Nikon 1 J1’s SMART PHOTO SELECTOR mode, it would be next to impossible to miss any photographic moment.

When shooting fast-moving subjects, it is difficult to keep them within the frame or you may miss a fantastic photo opportunity due to the subject’s unpredictable movements. With Nikon’s SMART PHOTO SELECTOR, all you have to do is push once on the shutter-release button and it will automatically take 20 shots at a high speed of 30 frames-per-second. What’s more, it will automatically select the most spectacular shot from the series of shots taken!

Two-person musical chair game
Fastest butt wins!
Karren is the winner! Jenny will have to do the prata dodging stunt for losing
Check out the prata suspended in mid-air
Prata dodging – Matrix-style
Jenny is super flexible!
Perfectly executed and captured prata doging shot with the Nikon 1 J1 super fast auto focus and continuous shoot
Prata dodging fail
Smack right into the face
Going through all the Little India photos before heading to Merlion Park

Moving on from Little India, we headed to the Merlion Park where we can get a clear view of the Marina Bay cityscape alongside the puking Merlion. Once there, the Taiwanese trio surprised us with a whole arsenal of bubble making tools.

Merlion Park

Our mission there was to play with bubbles and take some cutesy shots in the process.

By now, I was really wowed over by the Nikon 1 J1. Check out these beautiful bubble shots:

Clara blowing bubbles
Small bubbles, frozen in motion
Melissa making bubbles for Karren and Jenny to pose with
Fun with large bubbles
Karren behind a giant bubble
Even the little kid is intrigued
Creating long bubbles
Another long bubble
Jenny, Clara, Karren and Holly playing with large bubbles
Love this shot – the bubble burst at the back, but is still intact in front!
Another similar bubble burst shot
This bubble burst in the middle

To round up an eventful day of photo shoots, Jenny and Karren changed into a Jack Sparrow and a princess costume respectively. With their costumes, the pair enacted a wedding proposal with the Merlion in the backdrop as a photo opportunity for us.

Proposing in front of the Merlion
Accepting the proposal
And they broke into a dance
Round and round
Hopping and skipping

Thereafter, they did their signature planking, right beside the Merlion:

Hopping down the steps, hand-in-hand
Planking by the Merlion
Close-up on the planking duo
Side-by-side planking
Parting shot with Jenny and Karren

The Taiwanese trio is really sporting aren’t they?

I admire their high energy level throughout, in spite of the hot weather and all the “hardships” they have to endure to create the perfect photo opportunities for us. From lying on the heated and dirty concrete floor and getting smacked in the face by an oily roti prata in Little India to getting drenched by the puking Merlion at the Merlion Park; the trio were always gamed.

In case you think they are just regular nut jobs with nothing better to do, Jenny is a medical doctoral researcher while Karren is a qualified doctor who gave up her job in medicine to practice photography. Don’t play play.

The day ended with some light snacks at a Vanilla café. There was a lucky draw to win a brand new Nikon 1 J1. I usually suck at lucky draws, but for some reason, it was my lucky day. I walked away with a spanking new Nikon 1 J1! What a great start to 2012!

The Nikon 1 J1 is available in five colours and there’s a whole range of Nikon accessories to add-on, ranging from body cases to telephoto zoom lens. I will be checking out and buying some of these soon.

My most sincere thanks to Nikon for organising such this event and the friendship made with Jenny, Karren and Xiao Bao, as well as the other Singaporean bloggers, most of whom I already knew.

Look forward to more amazing photos on this blog, powered by the new Nikon 1 J1 from now on. ☺

alvinology

Alvin is a marketer by day and blogger by night. He is a 100% geek who spends too much time surfing the web.

View Comments

  • I'm sniffing around for a mirror-less camera too.

    Cannot decide between the Nikon V1, Sony Nex C3 or the Olympus EP-3.

  • bythewei: Get the Nikon 1 V1 lah! I love my new Nikon 1 J1. So much so I retired my Panasonic Lumix LX3 and gave it to my dad.

  • Kelvin Ang: Thank you! :) I been lucky with cameras. Won another Casio camera last week. Gave it to my father-in-law. Now both dads are happy with new cameras.

  • Hello very cool website!! Man .. Beautiful .. Superb .. I'll bookmark your blog and take the feeds additionally?I am happy to seek out numerous helpful information right here within the publish, we want work out extra strategies on this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .

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