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.

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.

Concert at Fort Canning Green

Government-sponsored rock concert, Orange Ribbon Campaign (for racial harmony), featuring various local acts.

It's the colored tents at the back that make the photo work. The tents were snack food stalls. I was only there for a few minutes. The lady was singing a slow version of Billy Jean. You can just make her out on the stage with her guitar.   

Fort Canning Green is right behind the National Museum. It is administered by National Parks ( http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/index.php?option=com_visitorsguide&task=parks&id=16&Itemid=73 ).

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 18mm, f3.5, ISO 3200, 1/15 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, incandescent white balance
• Picasa: Crop

For dark scenes like this, set to wide-angle to reduce apparent camera-shake and to get maximum aperture from the lens. Shutter speed was set to 1/15 seconds as this is about slowest I can hand-hold safely (1/8 seconds sometimes works but less reliably). Increased ISO until exposure was correct, checking against the playback on the LCD screen.  

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.

Sea Wall, East Coast Park

I don't know when these sea walls were built, hadn't noticed them before, could be years ago. (That's one of the benefits of taking photographs. It makes you more aware of your surroundings.) You see sea walls like this every few hundred meters. I'm guessing that they are there to stop the beach from being eroded by sea waves. You don't need to wall up the whole beach. A few spots here and there is effective.
 
The yellow "3" painted on the wall is of course, an official marking, not graffiti (this is Singapore). I'm guessing it's to help identify the wall, for maintenance workers to get their bearings.

There are lots of ships along the whole coast, every day, day and night, 365 x 24 x 7. Makes for a dramatic backdrop. The two boats nearer the beach, look like passenger ferries.

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 105mm, f16, ISO 100, 1/250 seconds
• Program exposure, center-weighted meter, auto white balance
• Picasa: Straighten

As in many other photos, having someone in the photo has a big impact on the viewer. Not posed, happened to see the girl sitting there as I was walking past, and grabbed the opportunity. 

Chose a long focal length, not only to zoom into the girl, but also to collapse the perspective and make the ships appear closer, relative to the girl. Yes, the camera does lie. Because of the long focal length, had to set a small aperture to get the ships and the wall in focus. 

One of the few situations where Picasa's auto contrast doesn't work well. Increases the contrast too much.

Youth Park, *Scape

The Youth Park is part of the irritatingly-named *Scape ( http://www.scape.com.sg/venue_os.asp ) area near Orchard Road, set aside for youth facilities and activities. Note that the website domain name is scape.com, because you can't put a "*" in a domain name. Nice going guys, good job confusing people. 

The bus is a real derelict, as far as I can tell. I remember a cafe being inside, but that doesn't seem to have worked out. "Graffiti" on the benches are commissioned and officially sanctioned. I mean, this is Singapore. Before you start romanticizing about real graffiti, read Heather Mac Donald's article, Radical Graffiti Chic ( http://city-journal.org/2011/21_2_vandalism.html ).

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8
• At 35mm, f4, ISO 1600, 1/60 seconds
• Program exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Auto contrast, crop, straighten

I increased ISO until the Program mode set aperture to f4. Wanted at least f4 to get both the bus and the benches in focus. The benches are important to add interest to the photo. If it's just the bus, the photo wouldn't be as interesting. I didn't think of using the benches at first. It's only after walking 360 degrees around the bus that I saw that the benches would work.

East Coast Park, Aerial View

This is a long but thin (a few hundred meters) stretch of park and beach, stretching a few kilometers along the southeast shore. There are walking and cycling tracks along the whole length. It's always crowded on weekends. 

The ships are everywhere, nothing special about this stretch of coast. Lots of shipping goes through Singapore.

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8.
• At 35mm, f8, 1/250 seconds, ISO 100.
• Program exposure, center weighted metering, auto white balance.
• Picasa: Straighten, crop, auto contrast.

Henderson Waves Bridge, Night

This is a large pedestrian bridge that connects Telok Blangah Hill Park and Mount Faber. It's the curved structure on the right that gives the bridge its distinctive look, and name. It's a shade for the seats built into the side of the bridge. You can see the road below, through the gaps between the wooden planks, so don't look down if you're afraid of heights. This is the tallest pedestrian bridge in Singapore, 36 meters (over 100 feet).

The photo was taken near the Telok Blangah Hill Park end. The bridge is quite long and most of it is behind the camera.

The National Parks website has more information at
http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/popup/hendersons.html

• Nikon D80, 18-200mm f3.5-5.6.
• At 18mm, f3.5, 1/4 seconds, ISO 800.
• Manual exposure, center weighted metering, automatic white balance.
• Picasa: No editing.