South Beach Lifestyle Quarter - Aerial View

South Beach Lifestyle Quarter North Tower on the left, South Tower on the right.

Lots of things in the background. From left to right - Centennial Tower, Millenia Tower, North Tower, Suntec Convetion and Exhibition Centre (white sail roof), South Tower, Marina Bay Sands (near the sea), Marina Bay Financial Centre (blue skyscrapers, far right). There's also the Esplanade Theatres and the white column of the World War II Memorial on the right, and part of Raffles Hotel at the bottom right.

View from The Pod at National Library. I was photographing an event there and had plenty of down time.
http://www.nlb.gov.sg/exhibitions/bookstobytes/zone4/thepod.html

Technical information:

• Nikon D600, 28-300mm f3.5-5.6
• At 28mm, f8.0, ISO 100, 1/180 seconds
• Aperture-priority, automatic ISO, center-weighted metering, automatic white balance
• Picasa: Straighten, crop, auto contrast, fill light, highlights, increased color saturation

Had to shoot through the thick glass windows from about a meter because they curve out and there's a guard rail preventing you from getting too close. So I couldn't press the lens up against the window and reduce the effect of the glass. Luckily there were no reflections. Picasa's auto contrast cleared up the image a lot (glass will make the image have a milky film even when there are no obvious reflections). I then had to boost the fill light and highlights to bring out detail in the buildings.

With landscape photos like this, you can usually boost the color saturation to make the colors more intense. It's harder to do when there are people in the photo because then their skin tone will look artificial.  

Stewords Riverboat, Marina South Pier, Night

Replica of a Mark Twain-style Mississippi riverboat, permanently berthed at Marina South Pier. There's a restaurant, a cafe, and a multi-purpose hall.

http://www.riverboat.com.sg/

I took this photo on the way back from a boat trip to Kusu island. I hung back behind the rest of the passengers, to take the photo and ended up being the last one through the customs checkpoint.

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8
• At 38mm, f2, ISO 1600, 1/15 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Crop, glow

The reflections off the water are an important part of the composition. I had to consciously aim the camera downwards to capture them in the frame.

I carried two zoom lenses on this trip, together with the 35mm f1.8 prime. I switched to the prime when it got dark, not just because it was the brightest lens but also because I was stumbling around in the dark and didn't want a big lens hanging off my camera.

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

Pasir Panjang Container Port Terminal

The port is run by PSA (Port of Singapore Authority). The port is huge, stretching for a lot further than what you can see here. It is near Sentosa and Vivocity. This view is from Haw Par Villa.

Photos of scenery are usually not technically demanding. You have time to take the shot and there are no fast-moving objects or fleeting expressions to capture. Though sometimes you have problems with high contrast. 

Getting good scenery photos is mainly being in the right place, and being able to recognize a good shot when you see one, even if it is just a small spot in the distance. This is why a telephoto lens is, surprisingly, useful for landscape photography. You can zoom in to interesting scenes in the distance. 

• Nikon D7000, 55-300mm f4.5-5.6 
• At 240mm, f8.6, ISO 800, 1/4000 seconds
• Program exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Auto contrast.

Shutter speed is too high. I was chatting with a friend at the time, wasn't paying attention to the settings. Should have used lower ISO and stepped down the aperture a bit. Photo turned out okay anyway.

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.

Fishermen at Changi Point

These boats are delivering fish and crabs to the waiting pickup trucks at the top of the wall. A rope is used to haul a net basket up the wall. I'm guessing that these are delivery boats, not used to do the actual fishing. Note that all the boats have a license plate.

This is right next to the Changi Point Ferry Terminal (many people still use the old name: Changi Jetty). 

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 62mm, f5.6, ISO 100, 1/500 seconds
• Program exposure, center-weighted meter, auto white balance
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast

Exposure is easy. Lots of light, even brightness across the scene. Set everything to auto.