If you have an Instagram account, chances are you’d come across photos of your friends in a room full of colorful polka-dots. You might be wondering where you can get a piece of the action. Perhaps you have some ideas and concepts in mind about what kind of photos you wanna take, or maybe you just want to breathe in and admire the art that is Yayoi Kusama.
Enter “Life is in the heart of a rainbow”. Yayoi Kusama’s collection of her artistic work, it boasts exhibits such as the “infinity mirror room” and intricate dots, phallic and pumpkin motifs.
Be sure to head down to Singapore’s National Gallery from 9 Jun – 3 Sept 17 to catch her work. For those who want to snap some pictures over there, here are some tips from me.
- Go on a weekday, in the morning to avoid large crowds.
- If you have a DSLR or an interchangeable lens camera, be sure to get a prime, telephoto and a wide angle lens. The wide angle lens is especially crucial when it comes to taking photos in a corner.
- Play around with perspective, there are many ways you can creatively take photos over there. Do not limit yourself to taking against a wall. Move around with your subject to get creative angles. Make use of high, low angles and bokeh. Bokeh does a very good job in singling out your subject amidst the endless polka-dots.
- Bring spare batteries. My first battery died out quickly. There were so many opportunities to take photos there. But i chose the best when it comes to post-processing.
- The lighting conditions there is not that great or friendly to your camera. After all, it is an indoor exhibit. I bumped up the ISO but not too much. I opened my len’s aperture as wide as it can go and played around with shutter speed to get enough light in. By doing so, i had to ask my wife to stand still while i clicked the shutter to avoid any blurry motion.
- Lastly, go get the tickets online. You can avoid long queues if you do this. You can book it here. https://www.nationalgallery.sg/visit/admissions
Here are the some of the shots taken at the exhibit. My wife is the subject/model for the shoot.
anuartahir - a visual entropy 