Jurong East - MRT Station, Bus Interchange, JEM, Big Box

Jurong East - MRT Station, Bus Interchange, JEM, Big Box

A lot happening in this photo. MRT station in the center (with a train pulling in). Bus interchange at the bottom. JEM (Jurong East Mall) at the top left. Big Box "Warehouse Retail Scheme" (light green) at the top right. 

Photo taken from JCube, another mall. Jurong East is crowded with malls (Westgate is out of the frame, to the left of JEM). Which is good because it means that the malls are less crowded. 

Was at JCube to watch a movie. Light was good so I decided to take this photo. It's about 5pm. The Nikon V1 is now my EDC (Every Day Carry) camera because of its light weight and good image quality. Carrying a DSLR every day is too much of a pain.

• Nikon V1, 18.5mm f1.8
• At 18mm, f2.5, ISO 200, 1/400 seconds
• Program exposure, matrix metering, auto White Balance
• Picasa: Straighten, auto contrast

Bus Stop, Bras Basah Road, Night

The new bus stops have a simple design that blends in well with the urban environment. Older bus stops had a curved corrugated steel roof with yellow and orange stripes, which didn't look as good.

The bus stops are at least partially supported by advertising. You can see a red lighted poster on the right. There's also one on the left but it is over-exposed so there's only some red visible at the top. The two square panels at the center of the bus stop are bus service and schedule information (always up to date). The green and red LEDs at center-right are estimated bus arrival times, updated in real time, part of Iris (Intelligent Route Information System - http://www.sbstransit.com.sg/iris/overview.aspx)

Building in the background is the Rendezvous Hotel. I took the photo because they recently started lighting up the exterior of the building, which transformed the scene. School of the Arts is on the left, Manulife Building is on the Right, Singapore Management University is behind the camera.

• Nikon V1, 10-30mm f3.5-5.6
• At 10mm, f3.5, ISO 1400, 1/30 seconds
• Auto-everything
• Picasa: Straighten, crop

Using the Nikon V1 again. Handled this tricky scene on full auto, no problem. Didn't need any exposure tweaking in Picasa. Pleased with the high dynamic range of the photo - you can see details in both the dim areas in the bus stop, and the lighted signs and windows.

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.

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.

SingTel Crab on SBS Bus

Another SingTel crab. This one is of a different species from the one at the bus stop ( http://sgsnaps.blogspot.com/2011/05/singtel-crab-advertisment.html ). It's a green crab. Poor thing is now red, which means that it's already cooked. It was spotted along Selegie Road.

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8
• At 35mm, f4, ISO 100, 1/60 seconds
• Program exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Auto contrast, crop

JobsDB Advertisement on Double Decker SBS Bus

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8
• At 35mm, f5.6, 1/125 seconds, ISO 100.
• Program exposure, center weighted metering, auto white balance.
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast.

Advertisements on the double decker buses can be pretty spectacular. Large, bright and colorful. If it looks like this in a photo, imagine seeing a full-sized one in real life. 

The advertisers get exposure, the bus company gets revenue, and people like me are entertained. Everyone wins. Isn't capitalism wonderful?

The parts of the advertisement that cover the windows, don't block the view entirely, and actually provide shade from the sun. There are a matrix of holes punched through them, so you can still see out.

Bukit Panjang Bus Interchange, Singapore

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8
• At f9.5, 1/250 seconds, ISO 400. Should have gone for ISO 100.
• Center weighted metering, Program exposure. I've learned my lesson now, no more aperture priority in bright daylight. Leave it on Program mode, not aperture priority. 

Next to the Bukit Panjang LRT station, opposite Bukit Panjang Plaza, but is otherwise smack in the middle of a residential area. High rise buildings in the background are apartments. 

Buses are run by the SMRT (the train operators), not SBS Transit (the bus company). Many of the bus license plates are TIB, which probably means they are from the old TIBS (Trans Island Bus Service). Corporate musical chairs.

Does that matter? The Transitlink smartcard works on both bus services, so you don't need to know who operates the bus when boarding. But the SBS website doesn't carry information on the SMRT bus services, and vice versa.

For photos like this, you need to force yourself to tilt the camera up. Normal tendency is to place the buses in the center, but then you get a lot of empty road at the bottom of the photo, which doesn't look good.

Three part theory: the three parts of the photo are the buses, the trees, and the buildings. Sky is washed out, doesn't count. Imagine the photo without the trees: bland.

SBS Bus and Bus Stop, Singapore

Singapore has double-decker buses. Pretty cool. I remember seeing a tourist family board one, many years ago. The son, about ten years old, was really excited about going to the top level, but the father didn't allow him to. The son got pretty upset. 

There are bus stops about every 300 meters, almost anywhere in Singapore. The bus service is well run. There were a few separate bus companies, but were consolidated into the Singapore Bus Service (SBS). It's now called SBS Transit, because they run some light rail (LRT) systems too. Probably dropped the whole "bus" thing from their name so the full name is just SBS Transit, for all I know.

Until a few years ago, when the SMRT that runs the trains, got into the bus business too. I guess the government thought that competition would be good, after all. 

The signs on the metal post on the right, shows the service number of the buses stopping there. Underneath the bus stop, there are detailed route tables for all the services. All this information is kept up to date. I remember seeing a change in bus service at one bus stop. The new information was updated on the same day the service was changed.

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8
• At f2 (I hate fractional f-stops), 1/2000 seconds, ISO 100
• Auto white balance, center weighted metering, aperture-priority, auto ISO (didn't get a chance to trigger because this is in bright afternoon sunlight)

Driver's face is blocked by reflection on the windscreen. Ah well, you can't have everything. Huge advertisement plastered on the side, but you can't see what it is from this angle. What does work, is the two guys walking to the bus stop. Adds balance to the photo.

Duck and Hippo Sightseeing Bus, Singapore

This is one of the Duck and Hippo buses. Their website is http://www.ducktours.com.sg/

Took this photo on the way home after buying the D7000 from Funan IT Mall, so I was in "test camera" mode, taking photos of everything. This is somewhere near City Hall MRT, but I'm not sure where.

I set ISO to 1600 to test out the high ISO performance. Surprisingly, the high ISO was needed: shutter speed is only 1/125 seconds. It was a cloudy day, 5:30pm in the evening.

• Nikon D7000, 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 
• At 26mm, f5.6, 1/125 seconds, ISO 1600
• Auto white balance, center-weighted metering, Program mode