Underside of Esplanade Bridge

I don't know what caused the streaks on the concrete. Makes it look like natural rock, not industrial concrete. It's not sunlight reflecting off the water, because it doesn't move. 

I was quite pleased with this photo, thinking that most people wouldn't have noticed such a simple but beautiful image. Then I saw a friend who had just started in photography, take the exact same shot.

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 105mm, f11, ISO 400, 1/30 seconds
• Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Straighten, crop, auto contrast

Zoomed all the way in to collapse the pillars together. Set f11 for depth of field.

School Band at One Fullerton

Not sure which school these kids are from. There were maybe five to ten different school bands on this Saturday afternoon. At least two played Smoke on the Water. 

This is only a few meters from the Merlion. Marina Bay Sands is in the background. Most of the bay is blocked by the Singapore River Cruise booth.

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 25mm, f5.6, ISO 400, 1/1500 seconds
• Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Straighten, crop, fill light, auto contrast, color temperature. 

Should have stopped down the aperture a bit for more depth of field, but there's still lots of depth of field at f5.6 at 25mm. Adjusted color temperature to make the yellow sunset (5:45pm) reflecting off the hotel windows, more noticeable.

Articulated Bus

Also called a Bendy or Flex bus, these are high-capacity alternatives to double decker buses. Not as cool, unfortunately.

The advertisement "Majulah! The Singapore Spirit" is the theme for the 2011 National Day Parade, which is held on Singapore's Independence Day on August 9th. "Maju" means progress in Malay. "Majulah" can be loosely translated as "go and progress." Which explains the use of "lah" in Singlish.

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 21mm, f5.6, ISO 400, 1/45 seconds
• Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast

I panned the camera, moving it to the right to follow the movement of the bus. This is why the trees and building in the background are blurred.

CHIJMES External Wall, Night

Outside of the popular CHIJMES (former Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus) nightspot.  

I'm glad that they kept the convent walls, but didn't think that the outside would make an interesting photograph (the inside is much more photogenic, http://sgsnaps.blogspot.com/2011/05/fountain-court-chijmes.html ).

Then I happened to be passing by one day, on my my home via City Hall MRT station, when I noticed that the perspective of the receding walls would make an interesting photo. And then this girl walked by and beautifully balanced out the photo. 

• D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 18mm, f5.6, ISO 3200, 1/180 seconds
• Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast

Could have gone with a loser shutter speed and lower ISO, but I didn't have time to switch (was taking some photos at 105mm earlier, with stopped down aperture for depth of field).

Shaw Tower, Beach Road

Shaw Tower (managed by Shaw Towers Realty, don't know why it's plural, http://www.shawtowers.com/ ) is a shopping mall with an office tower block on top, a common design in 1970s buildings in Singapore. The blue block at the bottom is probably the car park. Not sure what the block above that is, maybe still the car park. The rather small mall is below, out of the photo.

I used to go watch movies there, because the Prince and Jade theatres were less crowded than the theatres in Orchard. (You can almost make out the SB Shaw Brothers logo at the top of the office tower, and at the bottom left, on the yellow block.) Then they started screening Bollywood movies.

The local Qi Ji cafe franchise ( http://www.qiji.com.sg/ ) started here (after starting off as Hock Heng in Funan Centre), first in the foodcourt in the rear of the building (which is now a Chinese Restaurant), then in their own cafe in the front of the building, which is still there. Good Nasi Lemak, but I think they are more proud of their popiah.

• D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 18mm, f8, ISO 100, 1/250 seconds
• Program exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: No editing

A beautiful blue-sky day, with the setting sun (6:20pm) giving a warm glow to the white office block. I see the building quite often, but only felt like taking a photo of it on this day.  

Exposure is easy: even brightness, lots of light. Just set everything to auto.

Malayan Railway Bridge Near Bukit Timah

After the agreement between Singapore and Malaysia to move the Tanjong Pagar train station to Woodlands, and the handing over of the freed-up railway land to Singapore, the tracks were open to the public for two weeks to walk on.

After which the tracks would be off limits, and construction crews would tear up the rail tracks. As you can see, there were lots of people taking a first and last close-up look of the tracks. 

The URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority) plans to keep the rail corridor
( http://www.ura.gov.sg/railcorridor/ ) in a natural state, as a "park connector."

Malayan Railway (KTM, Keretapi Tanah Melayu) operates the railway between Malaysia and Singapore.

• D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 40mm, f27, ISO 400, 1/125 seconds
• Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast

Aperture is too small, accidentally bumped the dial without realizing it. Was aiming for f11.

RSAF, Republic of Singapore Air Force, F16 Shoulder Patch

Photo was taken during the RSAF Open Day at Paya Lebar ("wide swamp" in Malay) air base. I'm guessing that this is an F16 pilot, talking to his friends and family after the air display. Looks like the patch is fixed on using velcro, you can see some velcro peeking out on the bottom right. "Fighting Falcon" is the standard US name for the F16, not the RSAF squadron's name.

"Singapura" (malay for Singapore) is sewn onto the top shoulder. Malay is used for many official military functions, but most Singaporeans don't really understand much. One army guy told me that he gave parade drill instructions in Malay: "Squad, bertelur-telur." Which actually means, Squad go and lay eggs. I'm not making this up.

• Nikon D7000, 70-210mm f4-5.6
• At 210mm, f16, ISO 1600, 1/500 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted meter, auto white balance
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast

High ISO and small aperture are carry-overs from photographing the air show, not optimized for this particular photo. Photo was taken from about 20 feet away, at maximum focal length, to avoid disturbing the guy.

Atrium, Resorts World Sentosa

This atrium is located next to the Festive Hotel. It has a kind of Baroque, European look. Not much of a story here, just a pretty picture. 

• Nikon D80, 12-24mm f4
• At 12mm, f4, ISO 100, 1/350 seconds
• Apeture priority, center-weighted meter, auto white balance
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast

Had to do an exposure-lock on the floor to get the correct exposure. Reflection of the sun on the glass windows outside, caused the camera to under-expose.

Urban Sketchers, Tiong Bahru

Urban Sketchers ( http://www.urbansketchers.org/ ) is an international non-profit organization, "dedicated to raising the artistic, storytelling and educational value of location drawing, promoting its practice and connecting people around the world who draw on location where they live and travel."

There are urban sketchers in London, Barcelona, New York, San Francisco, Lisbon, Singapore and Seoul. This photo is of a free expedition, open to the general public, at Tiong Bahru. It's a back alley, amongst low-rise residences built by the old Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Improvement_Trust ).

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 105mm, f5.6, ISO 100, 1/125 seconds
• Program exposure, center-weighted meter, auto white balance
• Picasa: Straighten, auto contrast

Telephoto perspective was used to compress the spread-out group of people, allowing more people to be captured, without making individuals too small to be interesting. The photo covers about 20 to 30 feet from left to right, you can see the backdoors of 4 residences in the wall. 

Aerial View of Tiong Bahru

Tiong Bahru is a residential estate, considered prime real estate because of its proximity to the city center.

You can see Suntec City in the background on the left (Millenia Tower), Furama Hotel on the right (sloped, dark building), Singapore Flyer Ferris Wheel in the center. Pink, yellow and blue buildings are government HDB apartments.

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 80mm, f8, ISO 100, 1/125 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted meter, auto white balance
• Picasa: Straighten, auto contrast

Auto exposure would have worked but I was already at manual because another scene was backlit by the sky, so I already had the correct exposure dialed in. Stopped down a bit to f8 for depth of field.

New Supreme Court Building

Opposite Funan Mall, along North Bridge Road, the new Supreme Court Building ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_Singapore#Supreme_Court_Building ) came into operation in 2005.

I think of it as the UFO Building, but the saucer is supposed to be a "modern interpretation of the dome." Tall building in the left background is the Swissotel Stamford, which is right on top of City Hall MRT station. 

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8
• At 35mm, f2, ISO 1600, 1/30 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted meter, incandescent white balance
• Picasa: Straighten, crop, auto contrast

Incandescent white balance is suitable for many night scenes, because of the yellow light from street lamps and interior building lights. In this case, it also helps deepen the blue of the evening sky (7:40pm).

It was quite dark at the time, the photo is exposed about 8 to 16 times (3 to 4 stops) brighter than the actual scene. I was just trying my luck, didn't expect the colors to come out so nicely, because it was so dark that I couldn't see the colors.