I'm a Singapore event photographer; specializing in corporate events, weddings and birthday parties.

2012-12-07

Plaza Singapura Christmas Tree 2012


This is the first Christmas since the major renovation that was completed this year. You can see the new facade of Plaza Singapura in the background. Their Christmas tree is usually placed further to the right, but there is now a plastic pop art sculpture in that location. 
  • Nikon D600, 28-300mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 52mm, f4.5, ISO 1600, 1/15 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: No editing
It's good to get a sign or something showing the name of the place, into the photo. It's not just for informational purposes. The sign often adds an interesting visual element to the photo.

Take a few minutes and walk around a bit, look at the Christmas tree (or fountain or statue or whatever) from a few different angles and distances. You get better photos, enjoy your photography more, and train your observational skills.  

2012-12-06

Orchard Road Christmas Light Up 2012


The traditional Christmas decorations along Orchard Road. This year's lights are red, last year's were blue. Maybe next year's will be green.

I don't know what the bird is. Maybe a partridge (in a pear tree), turtle dove or French hen.

Photo of the 2011 Light up is at
http://sgsnaps.blogspot.sg/2011/11/orchard-road-christmas-light-up.html

  • Nikon D600, 28-300mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 300mm, f5.6, ISO 3200, 1/60 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Straighten

Aside from the exposure (use manual exposure, check the LCD) and focal length (zoom in to collapse the lights together), the thing to watch out for is the cars on the road. Chances are that if you take one photo at random, the cars will look messy and will be distracting to the viewer. Take a few photos until you get one where the cars are neatly lined up and don't draw attention to themselves.

2012-12-05

Backpackers' Inn Chinatown


I've come across small backpacker hotels before, but none as colorful as this one. Nicely integrates simple and effective advertising with a striking design.

It's in a row of old two-storey shophouses, located opposite Chinatown Point, in the heart of Chinatown.

Note the old-style electric fan at the top left, and the classic red letter box on the right.

http://www.backpackersinn.com.sg

  • Nikon D600, 28-300mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 28mm, f5.6, ISO 1600, 1/180 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Straighten, crop
Main difficulty with this photo was cropping out distracting details at the edges. I wanted to crop out the table and ashtray at the bottom but that would have cut off too much of the sign on the door. But I did manage to get rid of a lot of junk at the sides.

Back in the film days, you had to crop in-camera because cropping during printing wasn't practical unless you had your own darkroom. With digital photos and PC editing, it's better to zoom out a bit and give yourself some margin to crop later at your leisure.

Cropping is the number one way to improve your photos. Most of the photos that I see on Facebook would be improved with some simple cropping. Remove distracting details. It's simple.

2012-11-28

One Raffles Quay


New high rise office building in the middle of the financial district. There are two towers (North and South), connected by a plaza. The towers are placed at an angle to each other, which makes for an interesting photo. The north tower on the left, is 50 storeys high. The south tower on the right is 29 storeys high.  

This was at 8pm on a weekday night. Looks like people here work too hard. Orange spot at the bottom right is an out-of-focus raindrop on the lens, catching light from a streetlamp. 

http://www.orq.com.sg/

  • Nikon D600, 28-300mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 28mm, f4, ISO 1600, 1/15 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Fill light
Manual exposure for easy control, set maximum aperture and slowest safe shutter speed, then increase ISO until the exposure is correct (check on the LCD playback). This way you get highest image quality by using the lowest possible ISO. Use Picasa's fill light feature to brighten up the dark walls a bit.

2012-11-25

Stairs to Imbiah Point, Sentosa


Located next to the Beach monorail station, these beautifully lit stairs go up to a garden (with crazy ceramic mini waterfalls) that leads to Imbiah Point. I thought it was an old fort or a restaurant, but no, they're just stairs (actually a ramp). The small domes at the top are part of the garden.  

The "Sky Loft" sign is for a rooftop bar and restaurant at the top of the iFly indoor skydiving (vertical wind tunnel) building on the left (beyond the edge of the photo).

  • Nikon D600, 24mm f1.4
  • At 24mm, f5.6, ISO 1600, 1/30 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Auto contrast, straighten
The extreme bright and dark areas means that it is easier to use manual exposure (moving the camera a bit, would change the automatic exposure by a lot).

The lights are LEDs that change color, so I waited and took photos every few seconds to get the different colors. Decided later that the yellow lights looked the best. 

2012-11-21

Reflections at Keppel Bay


New condominium near Vivocity. Elegant curvy design, one of the most beautiful condos I've seen. I was lucky to get the sun in this position, where it reflected off the glass and brought out their texture. Half an hour later the reflections were gone.

Sentosa cable cars are in front of the building. I waited a few minutes to get an interesting pattern of cars. The red and yellow cars are Angry Bird cars.

http://reflectionsatkeppel.com/
  • Nikon D7000, 55-300mm f4.5-5.6
  • At 165mm, f11, ISO 100, 1/500 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Crop, auto contrast, fill light
Picasa's auto contrast helped a lot in incresing the "punch" of the light. The long distance and water vapour from the sea, created a gray veil over the photo.

2012-11-20

Aerial View of Redhill


This is the view looking east, towards the city center. You can actually see part of the Marina Bay Sands hotel, about 1/4 of the way from the right of the photo (behind the vertical red and white construction crane), and two Shenton Way skyscrapers peeping out at the top right hand corner.

The trees at the bottom nicely balances out the photo. Canal at the bottom is the Alexandra Canal.

There are beautiful views all over Singapore. You just need to look for them. Better than photographing the same old famous landmarks that everyone else has photographed.
  • Nikon D600, 28-300mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 180mm, f8, ISO 100, 1/750 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Auto contrast, straighten
Set ISO 100 because of the bright daylight, stop the lens down a bit to f8 for depth of field, use auto exposure because the scene is quite evenly lit. Exposure is easy when you have lots of light to play with.

Color of the sky isn't the best but I didn't have time to hang around and wait for sunset. You take what you can get.

2012-11-17

Old Shophouses, Erskine Road, Chinatown


There are a significant number of old two-storey British colonial shophouses in Singapore, but few have the uniform color of this row along Erskine Road. This is opposite the Buddha tooth relic temple in Chinatown. 

The shophouses make an interesting pattern but are too plain to stand on their own. I was waiting for a brightly-colored car to pass by, had to settle for these pedestrians. I had an appointment nearby and was out of time. Felt a bit strange, standing so long by the side of the road with my camera. Luckily this is a tourist area.

  • Nikon D7000, 55-300mm f4.5-5.6
  • At 122mm, f11, ISO 100, 1/180 seconds
  • Aperture priority with -1.5 compensation, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Crop, auto contrast, fill light
Stand back and zoom in for the telephoto perspective to compress the shophouses together. Set f11 for depth of field, -1.5 exposure compensation because of the black background.

2012-11-15

Marina Bay MRT Station


This is Exit A of the MRT station. Exit B is on the other side of the East Coast Parkway expressway, closer to the skyscrapers of the Marina Bay Financial Centre in the background. 

The underground MRT is actually a good way to cross the expressway on foot. Unfortunately you need to pay because the only way through is via the ticket gate. 

I seem to remember this station being called Marina South, not Marina Bay. But I could be wrong. Marina South is now a new station on the Thomson line.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Bay_MRT_Station

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_South_MRT_Station

  • Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8
  • At 35mm, f2.8, ISO 1600, 1/30 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Crop, auto contrast, fill light
Simple night shot: the difficulty is in finding the location. Set maximum ISO that you can tolerate, safe shutter speed to avoid camera-shake, then only stop down the aperture (for depth of field) if there is any spare exposure margin. Fine-tune the exposure later on the PC.

2012-11-13

Tua Pek Kong (Da Bogong) Temple, Kusu Island


You need to get on a boat to visit Kusu island. There isn't much on the small island. People go there mainly to visit the temple.

The temple is built half over water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kusu_Island

  • Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8
  • At 35mm, f2, ISO 1600, 1/15 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Straighten, crop, auto contrast, fill light, glow
Standard night shot. Aperture wide open, maximum ISO that you can tolerate. Unless you want to use a tripod. Manual exposure and adjust exposure based on the LCD playback.

2012-11-12

Deepavali Light Up, Serangoon Road, Little India


Photo was taken on the night before Deepavali. Note the huge crowd crossing the road.  

A lot of people are now calling the celebration Diwali instead of Deepavali. I don't know why.

  • Nikon D600, 28-300mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 135mm, f11, ISO 6400, 1/30 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Crop, straighten

For a shot like this, you want to zoom in so that the lights are compressed together due to telephoto perspective. The problem with that is that you get shallow depth of field at the telephoto end, so you need to stop down the aperture. The problem with that is that it is night, so you don't have much light.

Luckily, today's high-ISO DSLRs come to the rescue! Push to ISO 6400. No problem. Either that or use a tripod.

For uneven lighting like this, manual exposure is best. Check the exposure by playing back the image on the camera's LCD screen.

2012-11-11

Singapore Cricket Club, International Rugby 7s


You don't see much rugby in Singapore, which is a pity. It certainly has more action than soccer. It's like a combination of soccer and wrestling.

The event was held at the historic Padang ("field") in the center of town.
 
  • Nikon D7000, 55-300mm f4.5-5.6
  • At 280mm, f5.6, ISO 220, 1/1000 seconds
  • Manual exposure with auto ISO, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Crop
This is one of the few times when I used auto ISO. Most of the time I'm shooting indoors or outdoors at night, where it's more convenient to go to full manual (including manual ISO) because of the tricky lighting.

I set the exposure to manual because I knew what shutter speed and aperture I wanted (1/1000 seconds to freeze the action - you rarely need a higher speed, f5.6 as a good compromise aperture for getting enough in focus while still blurring out the background - which is why I left the heavy 70-200mm f2.8 at home) and let the camera adjust the ISO automatically.

This way, you get to use low ISO when the sun is out (for less electronic noise in the image), higher ISO only when the clouds come out (and they did). 


2012-11-10

Sasanaramsi Burmese Buddhist Temple


This is the rear of the temple. The front view is blocked by a gate, and isn't as shiny. In the background are a private condominium on the left, and a HDB flat on the right. 

For a non-rectangular building like this, it's important to get the background right because it will show through more than with a rectangular building. You want a background that isn't too messy or distracting.

The temple's website is:
http://www.bbt.org.sg/
  • Nikon D600, 28-300mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 135mm, f8, ISO 1600, 1/750 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Crop, straighten, auto contrast, glow

Technically simple shot. ISO is unecessarily high but ISO 1600 looks so good on the D600 (looks like ISO 400 on the D7000) that I didn't bother to change since I was shooting indoors and had popped out for a few minutes.

 Some editing in Picasa to brighten up the image and make it glow a little.


2012-11-09

Singapore Wedding Photography Guide

Simple photography advice that could make a big difference on your wedding day. Includes specific tips for Chinese, Malay and Indian weddings.

Basics

Some basics for all types of weddings:
  • Don't worry, be happy. You want photos of yourself smiling, so remember to relax. If you're tense and worried, there isn't much the photographer can do. Don't worry about the small stuff. It's your wedding day. Enjoy it.
  • Get out and greet guests. Photos of the bride and groom greeting their guests, make some of the best photos. Ask for introductions to guests that you don't know. Don't hide in a room somewhere and only come out for the ceremonial entrance. 
  • Don't over-schedule. It's going to be a long day. While it might be tempting to schedule a photo shoot in a park or garden somewhere, that will only add to the exhaustion. If you do want formal photos, have them somewhere nearby. 
  • Prepare for your spouse to tear-up. Grooms especially, sometimes don't know what to do and stand awkwardly when their bride cries. Give her a hug.

Boardwalk Restaurant, The Star Vista


The Star Vista has a boardwalk around the edge of this upper level, similar to Vivocity's design. This means that you can walk around the outside of the shops and restaurants, and look in from the outside.

The boardwark is stylishly lit with spotlights, like an art gallery, which adds to the atmosphere of the scene above. 
  • Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 18mm, f4, ISO 1600, 1/90 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Straighten
The dark scene on the left balances out the bright lights on the right, so the camera's auto exposure managed to work.

2012-11-05

Cargo Ship Xin Xiang Hai


Chinese cargo ship Xin Xiang Hai, anchored off the southern coast of Singapore. Cargo ships aren't particularly photogenic. It's the small boat moving at high speed, that makes the photo work.

Despite Singapore being an island, it's easy to go for months without seeing the sea or a ship. I was on my way to Kusu Island on a small ferry boat, taking photos through the boat's glass window. 

With today's technology, you can track a ship's daily position:
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shipdetails.aspx?mmsi=413347000
  • Nikon D7000, 55-300mm f4.5-5.6
  • At 300mm, f5.6, ISO 400, 1/180 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Straighten, crop, auto contrast
Picasa's auto contrast function works well and I use it on most of my photos. It is especially effective for photos like this, where the sea air reduces contrast and makes everything grayed out.

2012-11-01

Pasar Malam


Pasar malams ("night markets") open for a few days to a week, along the side of the road. The seem to roam all over Singapore, coming back to the same place every few months. This one is over 100 meters long.

Note the HDB apartment block just behind the stalls. This is one appeal of the pasar malam - it's right at your doorstep. You'll find snack food, bags, clothing, kitchen utensils, DVDs and other items for sale.
  • Nikon D7000, 40mm f2.8
  • At 40mm, f4, ISO 1600, 1/60 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Straighten, fill light
Picasa's fill light function is useful for boosting the brightness of dark areas, without affecting bright areas much. In that sense it gives you a mini HDR (high dynamic range) effect. When taking a photo you expose for the bright areas. Later, use Picasa's fill light to make the dark areas more noticeable.

In this photo, fill light was used to bring out the balcony walls of the HDB building. 

2012-10-29

Singapore Karting Championships 2012


Photo was taken during the afternoon practice session. The actual race is at night. It's held at the Formula One pit-stop building next to the Singapore Flyer, but the track is a lot smaller than the F1 street track. 

http://www.skc.sg/

  • Nikon D7000, 55-300mm f4.5-5.6
  • At 300mm, f11, ISO 800, 1/2000 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Crop, straighten, auto contrast
There's a lot of distracting clutter on the race track. You want to isolate the drivers by zooming in and cutting out the background. It's a bonus if you can add some interesting geometric patterns as well.

Stopped down lens aperture to get more depth of field, a common problem when using telephoto lenses. Telephoto perspective compressed the apparent distance so it looks like he his tightly squeezed in between the plastic barriers. 

With the 1.5x crop of the D7000, effective focal length of the 300mm lens is 450mm. And that still wasn't enough for me to "zoom in" as much as I wanted. Cropping the photo on the PC, pushes the effective focal length to about 1000mm, leaving only a quarter of the megapixels in the image. It's times like this that you really make use of the megapixels in today's cameras. 

2012-10-28

First Red Bull Flugtag 2012 Singapore


This is the first Red Bull Flugtag ("flying day") in Singapore. Participants make crazy contraptions and attempt to glide them off a ramp into the sea.

This entry is from Singapore Polytechnic. Wings look weak to me. If you've seen video footage of the flights, you'll notice that most of the time the wings break off in flight. 

The glider is being pushed up the ramp to the launch point. Somehow, the scene reminds me of the Pacific Island Cargo Cults after World War II. 

This is right at the end of Siloso Beach, near the Rasa Sentosa hotel.
  • Nikon D7000, 55-300mm f4.5-5.6
  • At 116mm, f11, ISO 100, 1/1000 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Crop, auto contrast, fill light
With a telephoto lens, default aperture is f8 or f11 for usable depth of field. Which means that you don't need a big, heavy and expensive f2.8 telephoto lens for outdoor use (that's an indoor lens). Today's "consumer" lenses are excellent performers, giving you quality optics at a low price. Don't you just love capitalism?

Telephoto applications is one area where the cropped sensor DSLRs have an advantage. On the D7000, a 300mm lens is equivalent to 450mm on a full frame camera.
 
Access is everything in photography. Without an access pass, I wandered around outside the barricaded security area and managed to find this unblocked view of the ramp. Couldn't get a good view of the launch point to photograph the actual flight. Much of the crowd was watching on large video screens instead. 

2012-10-26

Old Chang Kee, Sentosa


Aside from its food, Old Chang Kee ( http://www.oldchangkee.com/ ) is known for being one of the early Singaporean companies that expanded regionally. It's famous for its curry puff but I prefer the chicken-mushroom puff. It also sells various deep-fried snacks on-a-stick.

This particular franchise is in Sentosa, near the Beachfront LRT and bus stations. It's a standalone shop, making me think of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.  

The pink floral basket on the left is from a well-wisher as this franchise had just opened. 
  • Nikon D7000, 40mm f2.8
  • At 40mm, f4, ISO 400, 1/60 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Crop, auto contrast, auto color, straighten, fill light
With the glowing signboards, this scene is trouble. Best to go to manual exposure immediately. Judge the exposure from the LCD playback and adjust accordingly. 

I don't use the 40mm f2.8 much. It's a macro lens and I bought it to take close-up photos of wedding rings. I was on my way back from a Registry of Marriage ceremony, which is why I used the lens to take this photo.

2012-10-18

Sentosa Beach Tram


I'll photograph anything that has bright colors.

Free bus service along the beach road. The bus travels slowly, so the open sides are not a problem. All bus services on Sentosa are free, since you pay an entrance fee to get on to the island ( http://www.sentosa.com.sg/en/getting-to-around-sentosa/getting-around-sentosa/ ).

Traditional-looking buildings on the right (with fake atap roof) are actually part of a hotel.
  • Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 66mm, f5.3, ISO 6400, 1/90 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Crop, auto contrast, fill light. 
It was 7pm, already getting quite dark. Difficult to tell from the photo because the camera will expose the photo until it looks like daylight (there was still some light from the cloudy sky to evenly light up the scene, unlike a real night scene).

One indication that it is evening, is that you can see that the passengers in the front are being illuminated by the interior lights (compare with the passengers in the rear), which is why they are slightly yellow and not in shadow. In full daylight, the interior lights would be overpowered by the sunlight and would not be noticeable.

I was testing out ISO 6400 on the D7000. Turned out better than I had expected, but I later bought the full frame D600 anyway for even better high ISO performance. I'm keepng the D7000 as a travel and backup camera.

2012-10-08

River Cruise Boats Under Ord Bridge


Ord Bridge is at one end of Clarke Quay. It's an old bridge, built in 1886. Solid industrial design.

This was near noon on a Saturday afternoon. Peak river cruise time is in the evening, so these boats were taking a break. It looks like a lot of boats, but if you count them, there are only four. They do make a pretty pattern. 
  • Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 105mm, f11, ISO 100, 1/180 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Straighten, crop, auto contrast, fill light
Set f11 to get sufficient depth of field to get all the boats in focus. Lots of light. Not often that I get to use ISO 100.

2012-10-06

Segways at Pahlawan Beach, Sentosa


Segway rentals from Gogreen ( http://www.segway-sentosa.com/ ) at Pahlawan ("warrior") beach on Sentosa Island.

I thought that the riders made an interesting pattern. 
  • Nikon D600, 28-300mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 190mm, f5.6, ISO 6400, 1/1000 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance, -0.5 exposure compensation
  • Picasa: Crop, auto contrast

Got my new D600 this week. Testing out the ISO 6400 performance. Quite happy so far. The 23-300mm is remarkably sharp considering its high zoom ratio. Sharper than the equivalent (but older) 18-200mm DX lens.

With the high ISO performance of the D600, together with the zoom range of the 28-300mm, you can set the D600 at IS0 6400 and cover almost any indoor or night situation, and still get high quality images. 

I'm experimenting with setting a permanent -0.5 exposure compensation. I'm not sure that the D600 over-exposure problem is as bad as the D7000's, but setting some negative exposure compensation seems like the safe thing to do, no matter what. It's easier to correct under exposure later on the PC, than over exposure.

2012-10-01

Food Alley at Smith Street, Chinatown


Smith Street is closed to vehicles in the evening. Chairs and tables are brought out to seat the customers of the food stalls (on the right). There are regular restaurants in the shophouses on the left. You can see the Shenton Way skyscrapers in the background. 

It's not crowded now (7pm) but the tables fill up fast after 7:30pm. Not just with tourists, lots of locals eat here. The street is about double the length shown here, the photo was taken about half-way down the street.
  • Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 45mm, f8, ISO 400, 1/15 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Crop, auto contrast
Stopped down the aperture to get enough depth of field for this perspective shot. Timing is critical, not just to get the right light, but also the right crowd configuration. I bought a cup of coffee and took a seat at a table, snapping a photo every few minutes. 

2012-09-29

Orchard Central Shopping Centre


Orchard Central is located opposite Centrepoint. It's built over the old Specialists' Shopping Centre ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specialists%27_Shopping_Centre ).

Saw the bright colorful lights and just had to take a photo. Main difficulty is getting a good angle and avoiding streetlights. 
  • Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 18mm, f5.6, ISO 6400, 1/30 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Crop, auto contrast
Automatic exposure would probably have worked but it's easier to make exposure adjustments with manual exposure. Could have used ISO 1600 with f4 and 1/15 seconds but I was testing out ISO 6400 to see the noise performance. 

2012-09-27

Chinatown Mid-autumn Festival Lantern Light-up


Lantern wall at Pagoda Street entrance to Chinatown MRT train station.

I spent the evening, walking around Chinatown, taking photos of the lanterns strung across the roads. My favorite photo turned out to be this one, taken as I was going home. 
  • Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 18mm, f5.6, ISO 6400, 1/350 seconds
  • Program mode, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Straighten, crop, auto contrast
ISO 6400 wasn't necessary, could have done fine with ISO 1600. I was using ISO 6400 to test how it looked. Have been using ISO 1600 for a while, am confident that the image quality is good enough. Now trying to build up some experience with ISO 6400 under different situations.

I was on manual exposure most of the time but I switched to auto because
  • These lanterns were brighter than the rest of the area.
  • With so many lanterns, exposure was even across the scene.
  • People were walking to the escalator and I didn't want to stop and block them.


2012-09-21

Mid-autumn Festival, Lantern Light-up, Clarke Quay, Singapore River


Celebrating the mid-autumn festival. When we were kids, we called it the mooncake festival or the lantern festival.
 
This is one of twelve 2-meter high electric lanterns, depicting the twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac. Looks like a horse. The fabric-over-wire construction is similar to the construction used in toy lanterns carried by kids during the festival. 

Outside the Central, Clarke Quay. Didn't know the light-up was so elaborate. Was there for something else, brought the lightweight 35mm f1.8 just in case I saw anything. Wasn't expecting this or I would have brought another lens.

Vacation photo trick - adjust your position so that the sign showing the name of the place, is in the background.
  • Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8
  • At 35mm, f2.8, ISO 800, 1/250 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Straighten, crop
Exposure was surprisingly simple. As long as you fill half or more of the viewfinder with the lights, the automatic exposure should be accurate. Should work with phone cameras too. Lots of light, so the shutter speed will be high and you won't get blurred photos. Lots of light means easy work for the autofocus too.

2012-09-18

Cathay Cineleisure Orchard


Famous cinema multiplex off Orchard road. Mandarin Orchard hotel is in the background on the right.

I have some hazy memories of the old Cathay cinema that was torn down years ago, to make way for this modern cineplex. I'm a bit of a movie buff, so I hang out at theaters a lot.

The bright colors makes it easy to create an interesting photograph. The challenge lies in cropping out distracting details from the edge of the frame, to create a neat composition. I zoomed out a bit to give me some margin to play with, and edited the exact crop later on the PC. 
  • Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 52mm, f8, ISO 100, 1/250 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Auto contrast, crop, shadows
The D7000 has an unfortunate tendency to over-expose in bright sunlight. This has been pointed out in a number of online reviews. I had to use Picasa's shadow function to reduce exposure one stop.

2012-09-10

Two Boats Under Clemenceau Bridge


I've seen these boats running in the evening, with one or two passengers. Simple, cool, slightly retro look. I'm guessing that these are private charter boats, from a hotel or something.

It's the double image of the twin boats that make this photo work. A single boat would be less interesting. Nice earth tones, with the orange floats adding just the right dash of color.  

Clemenceau Bridge is between Clarke Quay and Robertson Quay.

  • Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 30mm, f8, ISO 400, 1/60 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Auto contrast

Technically, this is a simple shot. Relatively even lighting, so the camera's auto exposure works well. Set f8 to get enough depth of field so that all of the boats are in focus.  

2012-07-22

Racing Boat Crew, Singapore River


Looks like a training session for the oarsmen. Under Elgin Bridge, next to the New Parliament House. Happened to be in the area, was lucky to get this shot.

It's the glow of the setting sun that makes the photo work. The photo was taken at 6:15pm. A few minutes later the sun was blocked by the surrounding buildings and subsequent photos were bland.

  • Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 105mm, f8, ISO 400, 1/180 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Crop, auto contrast, fill light.

2012-06-30

Singapore Navy, Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats RHIB


These two boats were seen at Marina Bay during a National Day Parade (NDP) practice. They are fast (over 30 knots) boats, used for base defense and boarding ships. Looks like a fifty calibre machine gun in the front, but not a Browning M2HB. The blue box next to the gun is the ammunition box filled with blanks. The cylinder at the top is probably radar.    

http://www.mindef.gov.sg/imindef/publications/cyberpioneer/news/2011/nov/02nov11_news2/02nov11_fs2.html

  • Nikon D7000, Samyang 800mm f8 (mirror lens)
  • At 800mm, f8, ISO 800, 1/500 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Crop, auto contrast, fill light.
Trying out the Samyang 800mm for the first time. Crazy lens. On the D7000 it is equivalent to 1200mm on a full frame camera. Manual focus, and even at f8 the depth of field is shallow because of the long focal length. Would have liked to stop down to f11 or f16 but it's a mirror lens, so the aperture is fixed.

2012-06-15

Marche Restaurant, VivoCity


Taken from the open roof of VivoCity. The curved glass walls form an interesting shape, which works well with the yellow indoor light and the blue evening sky.

Building in the background is the Harbourfront Centre.
  • Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 18mm, f4.8, ISO 1600, 1/8 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Crop
The sky evens out the exposure and allows the camera meter to work correctly. If the sky was black the camera would have over-exposed and I would have had to switch to manual exposure to compensate.

2012-06-13

Conrad Centennial Hotel


There are so many hotels in the Singapore city center that it's hard to keep track of them all. The Conrad Centennial hotel is next to Suntec City. Most people seem to call it The Conrad.
 
http://conradhotels3.hilton.com/en/hotels/singapore/conrad-centennial-singapore-SINCICI/index.html

  • Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6 
  • At 24mm, f8, ISO 100, 1/1000 seconds 
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance 
  • Picasa: Auto contrast, crop 
I usually try to add something in the foreground when photographing a building, otherwise the photo looks plain. But this hotel was interesting enough, asymmetrical enough, to carry the photo on its own.

2012-06-11

Pan Pacific Hotel


One of the more well-known hotels in Singapore, near Suntec City. The vertical grooves on the side of the building are tracks for the external glass lifts (elevators). I was wondering why I didn't see any lifts move, and then I found out that the hotel was under renovation: 

http://transformation.panpacific.com/
  • Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 18mm, f8, ISO 100, 1/750 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Auto contrast
To make a photo of a building more interesting, try to include something in the foreground. The spiral on the left is about 20 to 30 feet tall, a sculpture in the middle of a small traffic roundabout, quite far from the hotel.

It's okay to photograph buildings in bright sunlight, as long as the sun is behind you. This photo was taken at 12:30pm. The blue sky won't fool the camera's light meter and cause over-exposure as long as there aren't too many clouds, so you can use auto-exposure without any worries.

Aperture priority because with so much light, the shutter speed won't have much effect on the photo (speed will be high, no matter what). Set lowest ISO (100) for highest image quality, then intermediate aperture (f8) for maximum optical quality (too big and you get optical aberrations, too small and you get diffraction).

2012-06-04

Ang Mo Kio Town Garden East, Night


This park/garden is next to the Ang Mo Kio MRT station (the station is out of the frame, on the left). Lots of steps to the top, which is why I've only been there a few times. 

The steps at the bottom make an interesting pattern, as do the apartment blocks at the top.

Managed by the National Parks Board.
http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/index.php?option=com_visitorsguide&task=parks&id=4&Itemid=73

  • Nikon D7000, 24mm f1.4
  • At 24mm, f2, ISO 1600, 1/15 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, 2500K white balance
  • Picasa: Crop, auto contrast

Pretty standard, straightforward, night scene. Trick is finding the location to take the photo, which will remain my secret (grin). There is beauty all around, you only need to look. No point photographing the same well-known landmarks that everybody is photographing. 

You get decent depth of field at f2 with the 24mm lens, much more than with a 50mm lens, so you don't have to be afraid of using it. This is close to the limit of hand-holding for the camera and lens - ISO 1600, 1/15 seconds and f2.

2012-05-15

Wah Sua Keng and Chu Siang Tong Temples


There are two temples located in the same place. The Chu Siang Tong temple is the one with the blue roof, closer to the camera. The Wah Sua Keng temple consists of the two brown-roofed buildings.

Note the two MRT trains at the bottom of the photo. Yishun MRT station is only a few hundred meters to the left.
  • Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8
  • At 35mm, f2, ISO 1600, 1/15 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, incandescent white balance
  • Picasa: Crop, auto contrast, fill light
Night photography is easier than most people might think and the results are usually pretty.

Just use manual exposure and adjust exposure by looking at the LCD playback. (Auto exposure usually under-exposes night scenes.) Set ISO 1600, maximum aperture and adjust the shutter speed.  

2012-05-13

Haji Lane Shopfront


Classy asymmetrical design. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of the shop.

This was at 9am on a Saturday morning so most of the shops were still closed. The "Alcohol free zone" poster is a reaction to the bars and cafes that have opened up in the traditionally Malay/Muslim area. I don't think the posters have much effect even though more than one shop displays them.  
  • Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8
  • At 35mm, f5.6, ISO 100, 1/60 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Auto contrast, straighten
I don't use the 35mm f1.8 much. Neither here nor there - not wide enough and not tele enough. But it is my lightest lens and my bag was already too heavy that day. Worked out well, was wide enough most of the time.

2012-05-07

DBS Marina Regatta


This dragon boat race was held at Marina Bay. DBS is a Singapore bank.

It looks like a traffic jam but it's due to the telephoto lens perspective compression. There's actually a lot of space between the boats.
  • Nikon D7000, 55-300mm f4.5-5.6 
  • At 300mm, f5.6, ISO 400, 1/180 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Auto contrast, fill light
The 55-300mm is a relatively cheap consumer lens, but I think the image quality is fine. Much better than carrying around a heavy 70-200mm f2.8. Save that for indoors.

2012-05-05

Mural, Kampong Glam


Mural along an alley in Kampong Glam (near Sultan Mosque, Haji Lane, Bali Lane, Beach Road, etc). Lots of murals (or "official graffiti") in this area. I've passed by this mural many times, but couldn't get a good photo of it. On this day, someone happened to leave a yellow mop bucket in front of it, and that made all the difference.
  • Nikon D7000, 12-24mm f4
  • At 12mm, f4, ISO 100, 1/250 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Auto contrast, straighten, fill light
I don't use wide angle lenses much, too much distortion in the corners for photographing people, is fine for buildings and scenery. The alley was quite narrow, so the wide angle did come in handy.

2012-04-29

Hajjah Fatimah Mosque, Beach Road


This mosque (masjid) is over 150 years old. It's near the Golden Mile Complex and is set back from Beach Road with a garden in front. 

The notice at the side of the entrance says, "No entry to any visitor in shorts, low neck, bare-back or other revealing clothes."

http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_259_2005-01-06.html

"Hajjah Fatimah Mosque is located at 4001 Beach Road, in the historic Kampong Glam area. Built between 1845 and 1846, the mosque was named after Hajjah Fatimah, a wealthy businesswoman. It is the only mosque in Singapore named after a woman. Combining Eastern and Western design, the mosque is known for its unique minaret, which resembles a church spire, as well as for the noticeable tilt of the minaret that has earned it the nickname “the leaning tower of Singapore”. The mosque was gazetted as a national monument in 1973."
  • Nikon D7000, 12-24mm f4
  • At 12mm, f4.8, ISO 400, 1/1500 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Auto contrast, straighten, fill light
For most photos, you want to minimize clutter. I had to crop quite tightly to cut out distracting details at the edges. This simple technique will make a big difference to your photos.

Pointed the camera down at the ground and did an exposure lock, because of the backlighting by the sky.

2012-04-15

Brani Container Terminal, Pulau Brani


Pulau Brani ("Brave Island" in Malay) sits between the mainland and Sentosa island. The lighted road at the bottom of the photo is the causeway that connects the mainland to Sentosa. 

  • Nikon D7000, 70-200mm f2.8
  • At 70mm, f2, ISO 1600, 1/30 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, sunlight white balance
  • Picasa: Auto contrast, straighten, fill light
Technically simple shot, nothing much to say. The main challenge in photography isn't the technical aspect, it is finding interesting subjects to photograph. 

2012-04-14

Tiger Sky Tower, Sentosa


Tourist observation tower, 110 meters tall (131 meters above sea level). You ride up in a doughnut (not shown in the photo) that slowly cranks up the tower. It's called "Tiger" because it is sponsored by Tiger Beer. 

By the time I reached the tower, it was already past it's operating hours. The doughnut was resting for the night at ground level.

http://www.skytower.com.sg/
  • Nikon D7000, 24mm f1.4
  • At 24mm, f2, ISO 1600, 1/15 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Auto contrast

All that black sky will throw off the light meter. Either spot meter on the tower, or use manual exposure and go by the playback on the LCD screen.

With today's DSLRs, you can do a lot of night photography without having to use a tripod. However, you need to experiment and know yourself and your equipment: what's the highest ISO you can tolerate, lowest shutter speed you can safely handhold for a particular lens and zoom setting, maximum aperture to use to get good enough depth of field at different distances.

2012-04-01

Marina Bay Sands, Side View, Night


For a widely photographed icon like this, you want to try and get an unusual angle so that the photo doesn't look like a thousand other photos out there on the Internet. It just takes some time and some legwork. I hope I succeeded.

The trees at the bottom give an indication of how tall the hotel is. Singapore Flyer ferris wheel is at the bottom left. 
  • Nikon D7000, 24mm f1.4
  • At 24mm, f2, ISO 100, 1/20 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Straighten, auto contrast

Thought I was at 1/30 seconds. Must have accidentally bumped the dial.

2012-03-07

Art Deco Building, Loke Yew Street


Named after a businessman and philanthropist ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loke_Yew ) Loke Yew Street is a small street near the center of town.  

This is an old 4-storey Art Deco building ( http://www.ura.gov.sg/conservation/lokeyew.htm ). Only the top three stories are shown because the ground floor was a bit plain. The spotlights help a lot in making the building look good.  
  • Nikon D7000, 24mm f1.4
  • At 24mm, f1.4, ISO 100, 1/30 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Crop.
It's a bit of a formula, but I like it: photograph the building at an angle and try and fit in a nearby tree.

2012-03-06

The Substation


The Substation is the 3-storey building on the left. It used to be an electrical substation. It is now an arts centre. It is located on Armenian Street, next to Singapore Management University. I think the black fabric exterior is temporary, an installation art display.

http://www.substation.org/

"Founded in 1990 by the late Kuo Pao Kun, The Substation is Singapore’s first independent contemporary arts centre. We are centrally located in the city’s civic district. Our venues include a black box theatre, a gallery, a dance studio,Random Room and two multi-function classrooms. We present and co-present a wide range of artists and programmes, from traditionally trained dancers to local rock bands; established visual artists to young poets; publications to international short film festivals; experimental theatre to seminal conferences on Singapore arts and culture."
  • Nikon D7000, 24mm f1.4
  • At 24mm, f1.4, ISO 100, 1/30 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
  • Picasa: Auto contrast, straighten, crop.
I tried a few different angles: left, right, straight-on. This view from the left seemed to work the best. The windows at the side of the building make the photo more interesting.

I cropped the photo to leave out some clutter at both sides of the buildings. I believe that cropping is the best way to improve most photos.  

2012-02-28

Singapore Botanic Gardens, Tanglin Gate


There are quite a few entrances to the Singapore Botanic Gardens. The Tanglin Gate is at the south-east corner, the opposite end from the Botanic Gardens MRT station. The two side gates are for pedestrians, and are open until midnight.

There's an inscription on the gate that reads, "Connecting Plants & People since 1859."
  • Nikon D7000, 24mm f1.4
  • At 24mm, f2, ISO 1600, 1/15 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, incandescent white balance
  • Picasa: Auto contrast, straighten.

This was taken at 8pm, so there's still a bit of blue in the sky (helped by setting incandescent white balance on the camera). The puffy white clouds are a happy accident.

The trees have different colors because those on the sides are lit by sodium-vapor streetlights, while the large tree in the middle is lit by spotlights inside the Botanic Gardens (I'm guessing quartz halogen). Together with the white gate, blue sky and white clouds, it all adds up to a pleasant mix of colors.

2012-02-27

Water Taxis Docking at Marina Bay


Financial district skyscrapers are in the background, Marina Bay Sands is behind the camera. This was on a Saturday night, so photographers were out in force. You can see two at the bottom left of the photo. 

In real life, the actual scene looks about 4x or 8x darker. That's one of the attractions of night photography: you get to make the scene look better than real life. 
  • Nikon D7000, 24mm f1.4
  • At 24mm, f1.4, ISO 800, 1/30 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, incandescent white balance
  • Picasa: Auto contrast, fill light.

Photo was taken handheld. With an f1.4 lens and today's high ISO DSLRs, you don't need a tripod. 

2012-02-24

Lion Dance


Sar Kong Mun San Fook Tuck Chee lion dance troupe.
http://www.sarkong.org/

Lots of lion dance troupes in Singapore. You see them performing at shops and riding around in trucks with colorful banners, especially during Chinese New Year. Head towards the sound of drums, that's the best way to find them.
  • Nikon D7000, 85mm f1.4
  • At 85mm, f1.4, ISO 100, 1/1000 seconds
  • Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, sunlight white balance
  • Picasa: Auto contrast, fill light.
Set maximum aperture to blur out the spectators in the background.

The orange uniforms are fluorescent in real life. Couldn't capture that properly with the digital camera.

2012-02-17

SuperStar Virgo Cruise Liner, at Harbourfront Cruise Centre


This ship is huge, bigger than most hotels and shopping malls. I couldn't believe how big it looked in real life. I'm sure that it's way bigger than any Singapore navy ship. 

Dark blob on the left is Sentosa island.

http://www.starcruises.com/newweb/our_fleets/cruise_ssv.aspx

  • Nikon D7000, 70-200mm f2.8
  • At 70mm, f2.8, ISO 1600, 1/30 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, sunlight white balance
  • Picasa: Auto contrast, fill light.

2012-02-15

Resorts World Sentosa, Night View from the Sea




View of the famous Resorts World Sentosa complex of buildings.

The long building in the front is the Maritime Xperiential Museum. It looks like a private museum, owned by RWS, not the government. In the background from left to right are hotels: The Michael, Crockford's Tower, Festive Hotel. Universal Studios is to the left, outside the frame.

  • Nikon D7000, 70-200mm f2.8
  • At 105mm, f2.8, ISO 1600, 1/30 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, sunlight white balance
  • Picasa: Auto contrast, fill light.
For uneven lighting like this, it's usually best to switch to manual exposure and check the exposure from the LCD playback. I see many night photos that are too dark, the light meter thrown off by the bright lights. You want to get sufficient exposure for the walls of the buildings, which means over-exposing the lights.  

I normally set auto or incandescent white balance, but in this instance the auto white balance over-corrected with too much blue so I forced it to sunlight white balance.