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.

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.

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.

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).

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.