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.  

Orchid Hotel, Tanjong Pagar

Aerial view of Orchid Hotel (centre) with a HDB apartment block on the left and Capital Tower on the right. There's a huge Singapore flag at the top of the HDB block because it's a few days before National Day.

I keep on saying this because it's true - the technical side of photography is easy. The difference lies in finding unique angles to take photos from. This means exploring, lots of leg work.

• Nikon D600, 24mm f1.4
• At 24mm, f2 ISO 1600, 1/30 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto White Balance
• Picasa: Straighten, auto contrast, highlights

Handheld to avoid lugging a tripod around. Set f2 to get maximum light with decent depth of field (I'm not confident with f1.4), 1/30 seconds to reduce camera shake (standard formula for minimum shutter speed is 1/focal length), adjust ISO accordingly (check exposure on LCD).  

Yishun Aerial View, Night

View from a HDB flat (common corridor) a few hundred meters north of Yishun MRT station. You can see an MRT train at the bottom left. Photo is exposed about two stops brighter (4x) than what you would see with your eyes, which is why night photos look prettier than real life. 

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

Incandescent white balance to correct for the sodium vapor street lamps. 

You can get a surprisingly wide depth of field at f2 with the 35mm lens, so don't be afraid to use it at f2 for landscape photos. I don't use the 35mm much. I carry the 35mm as a backup lens in case the zoom breaks. It's good to use it once in a while so I don't forget how it handles.  

I wouldn't dare use the 35mm handheld at less than 1/30 seconds (the lens has no image stabilization) but I was supporting my hands on the balcony, so 1/8 seconds worked out okay.

Holland Village, Aerial View, Night

This is the famous Holland Village shopping and restaurant/bar area, a sort of mini Orchard Road. The large curved building is the Holland Road Shopping Centre. Most of the night action takes place behind it, along Lorong Liput and Lorong Mambong (lorong means "lane" in Malay). Main road on the right is Holland Avenue. It forks at the top right and the right fork becomes Holland Road.

Holland Village MRT station (Circle Line) is underneath there somewhere, completely underground. The surrounding area is mainly residential - a mix of HDB public housing, private condominiums and terrace houses ("landed property").

Not surprisingly, Holland vilalge has its own website: http://www.holland-village-singapore.com/
 

• Nikon V1, 10-30mm f3.5-5.6
• At 10mm, f3.5, ISO 3200, 1/30 seconds
• Auto-everything
• Picasa: Auto contrast, glow

Cloudy and rainy evening. You can see the clouds blurring out the horizon. It's 7pm, so there's still some light in the sky.

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.

Wah Sua Keng and Chu Siang Tong Temples

There are two temples located in the same place. The Chu Siang Tong temple is the one with the blue roof, closer to the camera. The Wah Sua Keng temple consists of the two brown-roofed buildings.

Note the two MRT trains at the bottom of the photo. Yishun MRT station is only a few hundred meters to the left.

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

Night photography is easier than most people might think and the results are usually pretty.

Just use manual exposure and adjust exposure by looking at the LCD playback. (Auto exposure usually under-exposes night scenes.) Set ISO 1600, maximum aperture and adjust the shutter speed.  

Toa Payoh Aerial View, Night

View from one of the new 40-storey HDB apartment blocks.

The tall building on the left looks like a private apartment block (the white rectangular strip near the bottom is a swimming pool). The rest of the buildings are mainly HDB government housing. 

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6 
• At 18mm, f5.6, ISO 100, 8 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, incandescent white balance
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast.

Photo taken with a tripod.

I was with a few other photographers and one of them saw my photo on the camera's LCD display. He was surprised because it looked like HDR (high dynamic range - combining a few photos, taken at different exposures, together on the PC to get a wider exposure range). It's due to Nikon's Active D Lighting setting. I set it on High all the time. Makes a big difference for photos like this. Without it, the walls of most of the buildings would be almost black, the sky too.  

Aerial View of Tiong Bahru

Tiong Bahru is a residential estate, considered prime real estate because of its proximity to the city center.

You can see Suntec City in the background on the left (Millenia Tower), Furama Hotel on the right (sloped, dark building), Singapore Flyer Ferris Wheel in the center. Pink, yellow and blue buildings are government HDB apartments.

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 80mm, f8, ISO 100, 1/125 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted meter, auto white balance
• Picasa: Straighten, auto contrast

Auto exposure would have worked but I was already at manual because another scene was backlit by the sky, so I already had the correct exposure dialed in. Stopped down a bit to f8 for depth of field.

Bukit Panjang, Aerial View

Oval building on the left is part of the Senja-Cashew Community Centre, also called Community Club ( http://www.pa.gov.sg/locate-our-centres/details/senja-cashew-community-centre-18.html ). It stretches all the way to the right. The bright white over-exposed patch on the right is its public swimming pool. 

The pond in front doesn't seem to have a name. The drains and canals in the area, feed into it. It's used by the PUB as a source of tap water. The high-rise buildings in the background are all HDB public housing. You can just make out the LRT train track on the left.

Road on the left is the Bukit Panjang Ring Road. Including it in the photo helps to balance out the photo, which would look more plain without it.

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

Jelapang Road Sunset, Aerial View

Nothing much to say. A lot of photography is being at the right place at the right time.

It's 7:15pm. Long, low building in the center is a car park. The buildings are HDB public housing. Track is for the LRT, station is Jelapang. 

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8
• At f2.0, ISO 400, 1/30 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Auto contrast

Aerial View of Marine Parade and Telok Kurau

Aerial view of Marine Parade (closer to the camera) and Telok Kurau (further away), looking north.

The complex of red-roofed buildings at the bottom left is Saint Patrick's School. The three tall buildings at the center are the Ocean Park condominium. Low-rise buildings in the middle are mainly private housing. Nearest MRT station is Kembangan, a few kilometers north.  

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8.
• At 35mm, f9.5, 1/350 seconds, ISO 100.
• Program exposure, center weighted metering, auto white balance.
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast, graduated tint fake purple sky.

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.

Aerial View, Petir Road

A normal road, in a normal housing estate. All the buildings that you see here are HDB public housing. There's a lot of variation in design, but the old ones all have the same dreary look that is easy to spot.

Private condominiums look a lot better from the outside, but they can be much smaller indoors. A lot of the condos that I've visited have been like that, so don't be fooled by appearances. 

Road looks impressive from this high up, from a HDB flat. But down there the tree-lined boulevard looks pretty normal, at least to me. I once asked a visiting Japanese lady, about her impression of Singapore. She said that she was surprised to see so much greenery, trees everywhere. And she wasn't standing at the top of a HDB flat.

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8.
• At 35mm, f4, 1/180 seconds, ISO 100. 
• Aperture priority, center weighted metering, auto white balance.
• Picasa: Auto contrast, graduated tint fake purple sky. Trust me, you don't want to see it with the original gray sky.