Capturing the Beauty of Rise and Set of the Sun and Moon Over Kuala Lumpur Famous Landmarks – An Introductory Artwork Showcase.
Photography has always been my passion, but it wasn’t until I started combining the celestial beauty of the sun and moon with the grandeur of our city’s most recognizable landmarks that I truly felt a sense of purpose behind the lens. Each click of the shutter represents not just a frozen moment in time but a testament to the profound connection between our urban landscape and the ever-changing canvas painted by the heavens.
Feel free to tag along…
In this blog post, I invite you to join me on this visual odyssey. I’ll share my favorite captures, insights into my photography style, the challenges I’ve faced, and the stories behind these images. These pictures are more than pixels on a screen. They are love letters to my city, a homage to the inexhaustible beauty of our natural world, and an invitation for you to see the world through my lens.
So, buckle up as we journey through the dawn, dusk, and moonlit nights of Kuala Lumpur, where the skies and cityscape united to create moments of pure magic.
Early Stage
The early stage of my journey, when gears and methods were not mastered. Image was blurry but the relative size and darkened full moon really gives room for imaginations.
After shooting more of this kind, I improved my skills and I start getting better quality images!
Getting better
As more shootings are done, it slowly becomes part of my life. It’s very rewarding and satisfying when I get a good shot.
Throughout the years, I visit certain shooting spots repeatedly. It is interesting to see the differences when shooting at same location.
Playing around with techniques
Sometimes I do high dynamic range (HDR) processing when shooting sun and moon. I’ll take some shots with the building suitably exposed when the sun and moon is out of my composition. I then HDR merge it with sun/ moon shots. By doing so, I can reveal more details from all subjects. Now both the sky, the building and the moon are properly exposed and make a dramatically sublime picture!
I also do multiple exposure as this technique can make interesting picture. I stacked a few shots here. I’m able to show the sun path is not a vertical line as many people have thought.
The image below is one of my favorite. I also made it with HDR. On day of shooting the crane structure on the tower was at the side of the moon. It seems extruded into the moon at time of shot. It created a connection for both subjects. You can imagine people in the tower can walk to the moon via that “bridge”!
Problems with it
However, I don’t always get a nice shooting spot. It’s not easy to find a place where the sun or moon can be perfectly aligned with the buildings. If so the case, I’ll grab what I have and make the most out of it.
Same thing happened for my most recent shot. The shooting spot was good but it was so crowded. I ended up stranded in a position that I can’t freely shift my camera to suit the moon position. Again grab what you have and make the most out of it.
And there’s not rare cases that you have to crawl into bushes or squeeze yourself in tight space to get a window…
There’s another thing about shooting celestial bodies: you don’t always get it. The biggest problem in shooting rises and sets of sun and moon around Kuala Lumpur is that there’s always a layer of clouds at the horizon, always. Only matter is how thick it is. Frequently happens, that you see the beautiful sun or moon setting down at low orbit, but when they are near to the landmarks, they start to set into clouds. Or you can’t see them when it has passed the time they suppose to rise, until they are already high in the sky, being to far above the landmarks. Else, they are just blur bright spot behind the clouds all the way…
Special occasions
Once a while there is special occasion that make shooting this much more exciting! This is a partial sun eclipse on KL Tower. I wanted to make them nearer but the shooting spot was limited.
I took the picture below on the morning of the first day of the first Malaysia Movement Control Order (MCO) back in 2020, make this a special one and worth mentioning.
Well, even though there are times (in fact, most of the time) we don’t get what we want, there can be other good things awaiting us. After a sunset that was fully covered by clouds, the sky compensated me with this fascinating face!
And the journey continues…
In coming posts on this topic, I will share more details like the planning, methods, gears and equipment, post processing, etc. so stay tuned!