Ord Bridge and River Cruise Boat, Night

This is between Clarke Quay and Boat Quay. You can see the pink roofs of Clarke Quay in the background.

A bridge alone doesn't look all that interesting. Luckily there are lots of cruise boats on the river at night. Just wait for one to turn up.

• Nikon V1, 18.5mm f1.8
• At 18.5mm, f1.8, ISO 800, 1/20 seconds
• Program exposure, automatic ISO maximum 800, matrix metering, automatic white balance
• Picasa: Straighten, crop, auto contrast, fill light

This is amazing low light performance from the little V1 camera. The 18.5mm f1.8 lens really makes it sing. Considering its small size and high performance, I would not hesitate to use it as my vacation camera. If only I had time to take a vacation.

Increasing fill light (mid tones) using Picasa, brightens up the green side of the boat, makes it pop. This is true for many night shots - boost the mid tones. It gives you a pseudo-HDR effect, without the trouble of HDR.

River Cruise Boat, Singapore River

Electric river cruise boat. Singaporeans call these bum boats. The original bum boats used to come this very section of the river and unload cargo from ships moored out at sea. Not so long ago, up till at least the 1970s. 

Boat Quay (now mainly restaurants in the old riverside shophouses, with the skyscrapers of the financial district in the background) to the front and on the right, new Parliament House on the left. Quite a commonly photographed scene but I think not with a boat so clearly in the foreground.

• Nikon D600, 35mm f1.8
• At 35mm, f2 ISO 3200, 1/30 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto White Balance
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast

This is what you can do with today's equipment. You can take photos in almost darkness (the boat was in deep shadow, is over-exposed in the photo by about 2 stops - 4 times) without blurring out moving objects. Very happy with the 35mm f1.8 on the D600 - light, good low light performance, covers my most widely used angle. Not as useful on the D7000 with the 1.5x focal length crop, making it a 50mm equivalent. 

Kallang Aerial View

Aerial view of Kallang, looking south-west. Kallang MRT station in the center (you can see a train entereing the station from the lower left), Kallang river at the center top, Suntec City and financial district skyscrapers on the horizon.  

You can just make out the Marina Bay Sands and Singapore Flyer ferris wheel at the top left. Gardens by the Bay at top far left. Yellow rectangle at the center top is the Golden Mile Tower. Not many yellow buildings in Singapore. 

I was in an apartment, photographing my friend's wedding. 

• Nikon D7000, 18-105 f3.5-5.6
• At 24mm, f8, ISO 100, 1/250 seconds
• Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast, straighten

Lots of light, so set ISO 100 for low noise, f8 for good lens sharpness and depth of field, use aperture priority and let the camera take care of shutter speed. 

Natural reaction when photographing scenery, is to place the horizon in the middle of the photo. You need to stop and think about how you really want to frame the photo. I got lucky with this location. Problem with many scenery shots is that there is nothing interesting in the foreground. The LRT station makes this photo work.

Throw in some margin around the edges to be safe, you can decide the final crop later on your PC. I ended up throwing away 20% of the left and bottom of the photo.  

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.

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.

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.

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.  

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.

Bumble Bee Water Taxi

Spotted near Clarke Quay. Operated by Duck & Hippo ( http://www.ducktours.com.sg/ ). This isn't a cruise or sightseeing tour boat. It's designed for daily commuting ( http://imcms2.mediacorp.sg/CMSFileserver/documents/006/PDF/20100416/1604HNP012.pdf ). This means higher speed, and no tour guide. It has a fixed route, so it's more a bus than a taxi.

Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6

• At 66mm, f5.3, ISO 1600, 1/15 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted meter, auto white balance
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast, fill light.

1/15 seconds is risky for a moving object like this. I was taking photos of scenery along the river, wasn't planning on photographing any boats, when this sleekly irresistible, brightly colored thing came along. Didn't have time to change the shutter speed. Panned the camera to reduce motion blur (you can see that the wall in the background is blurred out because of this). The len's VR image stabilization really works.

Crawford Street Bridge Over Rochor River

Can't find the name of this bridge. It's unusually wide, so wide that park benches have been built on it. Aside from that, it's quite a standard design, similar to a few other bridges in Singapore.

Buildings in the background are the Citylights condominium. Small patch of red at the bottom center is an SBS public bus. 

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

Customs House, Marina Bay

The Customs House is the 3-storey white building with the lookout tower. Used to be a real customs (tax) house when this area was an active pier with boats. This is now prime real estate, next to Shenton Way and across the bay from Marina Bay Sands.

They've kept the original structure and renovated it to house upscale restaurants. You can just make out the alfresco dining at the top and by the water. Web page is http://thefullertonheritage.com/?page_id=80

Fullerton Bay Hotel is on the right (http://sgsnaps.blogspot.com/2011/03/fullerton-bay-hotel.html).

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

Esplanade Theatres, Esplanade Bridge and Singapore Flyer, Night

You can see both domes of the Esplanade Theatres on the left, with the Pan Pacific Hotel and Millenia Tower in the background. Large Ferris Wheel on the right is the Singapore Flyer. Not sure what the building in the center background is, maybe the Mandarin Oriental or Ritz-Carlton Millenia. 

Bridge is the Esplanade Bridge, over which runs Esplanade Drive. It's part of the Formula 1 race Circuit. They didn't use to have colored lights under the bridge, which look pretty cool. The bridge is the reason why the Merlion was uprooted and moved to a spot about 100 meters away, next to One Fullerton (http://sgsnaps.blogspot.com/2011/04/one-fullerton-night.html). The bridge blocked the Merlion at its original location next to the Waterboat House.

Photo was taken from Esplanade Park. If you look closely, you can see a guy and a girl sitting on the wall on the bank of the river, on the left.Yes, the whole river has been concreted up.

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8.
• At 35mm, f3.3, 1/15 seconds, ISO 1600.
• Shutter priority, center weighted metering, incandescent white balance.
• Picasa: Auto contrast.

Singapore River, Electric Cruise Boat

Night, 9:30pm, next to the Singapore Parliament House. Lights on the left are reflections from the financial district skyscrapers, colored lights on the right are from restaurants along Boat Quay. You can see the driver (pilot? captain?) in a white shirt, on the right hand side of the photo (left of the boat). 

Boat is electric, but modeled after the traditional wooden "bumboat" diesel boats that have been used here for decades. The Marina Barrage (http://www.pub.gov.sg/Marina/Pages/default.aspx) was built a few years ago at the mouth of the river to turn the Singapore River into a reservoir for Singapore's domestic water supply. It stops sea water from flowing upriver during high tide. Diesel boats were considered too dirty for a reservoir, so all the boats are now electric. 

I think there's more than one river cruise service. This boat looks like it belongs to Singapore River Cruises and Leisure, http://www.rivercruise.com.sg/

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8.
• At 35mm, f2, 1/30 seconds, ISO 1600. Set maximum aperture, increase ISO until you get a reasonable shutter speed. 
• Program exposure, center weighted metering, incandescent white balance.
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast.

Bars Along Boat Quay, Singapore River

This is near the Raffles Place MRT end. Further down are restaurants, mainly seafood.

It's still crowded, 9:30 pm on a weekday night.

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8.
• At 35mm, f2, 1/30 seconds, ISO 400.
• Manual exposure, center weighted metering, incandescent white balance.
• Picasa: Crop.

Singapore Parliament House

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8
• At 35mm, f2, 1/30 seconds, ISO 800. 
• Manual exposure, center weighted metering, incandescent white balance.
• Picasa: Straighten.

The Parliament House is the short building behind the palm trees, with the illuminated brown roof. Pretty small by international standards, and not particularly imposing. Could pass off as a museum, embassy or government ministry.

When Parliament is in session, you can see policemen patrolling along the outside of the building. Highlights of the proceedings are broadcast over Mediacorp Channel 5, after the 9:30pm news. I sometimes catch bits of it when I switch on the TV for the 10pm movie.

Skyscrapers behind are on Boat Quay and Shenton Way, the financial district. The Singapore River is between the Parliament and skyscrapers. The skyscraper on the right is UOB Plaza One (United Overseas Bank), which together with the OUB Centre (Overseas Union Bank, now merged with UOB) and Republic Plaza, are the tallest buildings in Singapore.

Canal Near Kranji, Singapore

• Nikon D7000, 18-200mm f3.5-5.6
• At 18mm, f4.8, 1/1000 seconds, ISO 100. 
• Aperture priority, center weighted metering, auto white balance.
• Picasa: Auto contrast.

This is about as good as it gets in Singapore. I prefer it to the Singapore River, less built-up, trees on the side. I thought it was a river, but the map says it's an unnamed canal. 

Buildings on the left are light industrial.

Taken from an MRT train. Color is real, nothing added with a photo editor. Just to be clear: most of Singapore doesn't look like this. 

Singapore Canal, Night

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8
• At f2, 1/4 seconds, ISO 800. Managed to rest the camera on a railing, so I could go down to 1/4 seconds and not have to boost the ISO too much.
• Manual exposure (because of uneven lighting), auto white balance, center weighted metering (but exposure was based mainly on feedback from the LCD).
• Picasa: Cropped.

Canals are normally this dry. They are mainly to handle runoff from rain. They are basically large drains. No boats on them.

This is about 9pm at night. You can see two ladies walking along the canal, at the bottom left. Singapore is quite safe, even at night. 

The trees make a big difference. Newer areas with shorter trees, don't look as good. Buildings are all HDB public housing. Actual scene is 4 to 8 times darker than what the photo shows.

Singapore Canal

• Nikon D7000, 18-200mm f3.5-5.6
• At f4.8, 1/2000 seconds, ISO 1600. ISO is too high for day use, but I was testing the D7000's high ISO noise. 
• Aperture priority, auto white balance, center weighted metering.
• Picasa: straighten, boosted fill light one stop, graduated tint for fake blue sky.

Doesn't look like Singapore, but it is. The walls of the canal are grimy by Singapore standards, which is why I thought it would make an interesting photo, especially when balanced by the lush green grass on the right. Took the photo from a bridge on a reasonably major road. Didn't have to sneak around some back alley to find this. 

The whole scene reminds me of a shot from the movie Entrapment (Sean Connery, Catherine Zeta-Jones), where they used special effects to combine a shot of the Malacca river or something, with the Petronas twin towers skyscrapers in the background, making it look like squalor existed side by side with modernity in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysians were quite upset with that. 

Water level is way down. It can go up a few feet after a few hours of heavy rain. You can see the small channel that runs down the center of the canal, that handles low flow days like this, at the bottom left of the photo. Occasionally, you get newspaper reports of kids trying to swim in the canal after the rain, then getting swept away and drowning.

Most of the rivers in Singapore are now concrete canals like this. If you follow the Singapore river up to its source, you eventually hit a canal like this. But then even the mouth of the river is now all concrete anyway.

Clarke Quay, Singapore

• Nikon D7000, 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 
• At f4, 18mm, 1/60 seconds, ISO 720.
• Center-weighted metering, aperture priority, auto ISO.

Okay it's touristy, but I was there and the light was good. About 7pm, so the buildings are lit up but the sky is still bright.

I like this shot because of the view of the diners at the bottom left. You only get this view within a small area on the bridge. A few meters left or right and you don't see it. I think most people who walk around the area won't notice this photo-taking spot.

Compositionally, there are three elements that make the photo work: row of buildings on top, diners at the bottom left, boats at the bottom right. Oh yeah, the sky too.

I set aperture priority f4 instead of f3.5 because I find the fractional f stop annoying. Shutter speed was controlled via minimum shutter speed setting on the auto ISO, which is why you get a weird fractional ISO of 720. So basically this is aperture and shutter priority with the exposure controlled by ISO.

Center-weighted works because the scene is still quite evenly lit by daylight. Later in the evening, I switched to manual exposure and adjusted off the LCD playback.