Old Shophouses, Erskine Road, Chinatown

There are a significant number of old two-storey British colonial shophouses in Singapore, but few have the uniform color of this row along Erskine Road. This is opposite the Buddha tooth relic temple in Chinatown. 

The shophouses make an interesting pattern but are too plain to stand on their own. I was waiting for a brightly-colored car to pass by, had to settle for these pedestrians. I had an appointment nearby and was out of time. Felt a bit strange, standing so long by the side of the road with my camera. Luckily this is a tourist area.

• Nikon D7000, 55-300mm f4.5-5.6
• At 122mm, f11, ISO 100, 1/180 seconds
• Aperture priority with -1.5 compensation, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast, fill light

Stand back and zoom in for the telephoto perspective to compress the shophouses together. Set f11 for depth of field, -1.5 exposure compensation because of the black background.

Food Alley at Smith Street, Chinatown

Smith Street is closed to vehicles in the evening. Chairs and tables are brought out to seat the customers of the food stalls (on the right). There are regular restaurants in the shophouses on the left. You can see the Shenton Way skyscrapers in the background. 

It's not crowded now (7pm) but the tables fill up fast after 7:30pm. Not just with tourists, lots of locals eat here. The street is about double the length shown here, the photo was taken about half-way down the street.

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 45mm, f8, ISO 400, 1/15 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast

Stopped down the aperture to get enough depth of field for this perspective shot. Timing is critical, not just to get the right light, but also the right crowd configuration. I bought a cup of coffee and took a seat at a table, snapping a photo every few minutes. 

Chinatown Mid-autumn Festival Lantern Light-up

Lantern wall at Pagoda Street entrance to Chinatown MRT train station.

I spent the evening, walking around Chinatown, taking photos of the lanterns strung across the roads. My favorite photo turned out to be this one, taken as I was going home. 

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 18mm, f5.6, ISO 6400, 1/350 seconds
• Program mode, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Straighten, crop, auto contrast

ISO 6400 wasn't necessary, could have done fine with ISO 1600. I was using ISO 6400 to test how it looked. Have been using ISO 1600 for a while, am confident that the image quality is good enough. Now trying to build up some experience with ISO 6400 under different situations.

I was on manual exposure most of the time but I switched to auto because

• These lanterns were brighter than the rest of the area.
• With so many lanterns, exposure was even across the scene.
• People were walking to the escalator and I didn't want to stop and block them.

Chinatown Chinese New Year Light-up (Year of the Dragon)

The Chinese New Year light-up is from Chinatown Point (yellow building in the center, now under renovation) to Pagoda street. It's the year of the dragon, the red arches are a dragon (the head is on the left, hidden by the banner across the road).

For a photo like this, you want to cram in as many lights as possible. Which is why I went up to the pedestrian bridge to get both the dragon and the neon lights across the road, into the photo. Well okay, truth is that I just walked around and tried different angles. You can't always plan the best shot, you need to explore.

• Nikon D7000, Sigma 20mm f1.8
• At 20mm, f2, ISO 200, 1/30 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, incandescent white balance
• Picasa: Auto contrast, fill light

I was testing out the Sigma 20mm f1.8. If not for the large f2 aperture, I'd have to go to ISO 800.

Found out that I wasn't getting clear photos from it because it has a focus offset problem. By setting -4 focus offset in the D7000, the lens is much more usable and I'll be using it more often in the future.

With a wide angle lens, you've got quite a large depth of field, even at f2. For most scenery, you don't have to worry about the depth of field. But for this photo, the neon lights at the bottom of the bottom of the photo are too close and are out of focus. Luckily, that's not very noticeable. 

Old Shophouses Along Pagoda Street, Chinatown

•  Nikon D80, Sigma 20mm f1.8.
• At 20mm, f8, 1/30 seconds, ISO 100.
• Aperture priority, center weighted metering, auto white balance.
• Picasa: Auto contrast, fill light, warmify, graduated tint fake purple sky

This part of Chinatown is quite touristy and heavily renovated, but just walk down a bit and you can find some authentically run-down shops that cater to locals. The buildings that are not painted in bright colors, are the real thing. 

Escalator in the middle leads down to Chinatown MRT Station. Pagoda Street branches off from Eu Tong Sen Street, which is just behind the camera.

Tried a few different angles from left to right but the simple centered perspective here looks the best.

Singapore Film Society Screening, China Square Central

• Nikon D80, Sigma 20mm f1.8.
• At 20mm, f2, 1/15 seconds, ISO 1600. 
• Manual exposure, center weighted metering.
• Picasa: Increased fill light one stop.

This is from 2010. The Singapore Film Society used to screen outdoor movies every month, free. This year, they've moved indoors, to the Library at Esplanade. They screen local Singaporean and Asian movies, and often have the director or actors for a Q&A after the movie. 

Movie hasn't started yet, in case you're wondering why the screen is blank. Movie is Muallaf (The Convert), directed by the late Yasmin Ahmad. Lead actress Sharifah Amani came from Malaysia, for the Q&A. Thoughtful, atmospheric movie, lots of dialog (a bit like Before Sunrise in that way, though it's a different kind of movie), not preachy (a lot of local movies are). Definitely a cut above the average.

It's 7:35 pm, bright enough for some color in the sky. Blue ring in the middle is a fountain, I think. China Square Central is a group of retail buildings in the middle of Chinatown, built around the open space that you see in the photo. Lots of restaurants. Building immediately behind is South Bridge Court. Buildings behind that are HDB public housing, yes they're everywhere.

People's Park Complex, Singapore

• Nikon D80, Sigma 20mm f1.8
• At f5.6, 1/350 seconds, ISO 100
• Center weighted metering, aperture priority
• Increased fill light using Picasa

This is along Eu Tong Sen street, Chinatown.

Photo shows the top part of the People's Park Complex, the apartment blocks. The building looks cooler this way, without the shopping center below. Actually looks more like Hong Kong than Singapore: I'm thinking of the music video sequence in the Ghost in the Shell anime.

Walked down the street, taking photos every 10 meters or so, to get the best angle. About 6pm. Lots of light, so I set ISO 100 and f5.6 aperture priority and let the camera set the shutter speed on center-weighted metering.

Turned out a bit under-exposed because is sort of back-lit by the sky. Had to adjust a bit in Picasa.

The three-part composition theory holds (you need at least three main items of interest in a photo). The building makes up two parts: the green staircases are one part, and the yellow walls are the other. The sky is colorful enough to be the third. Now imagine if the whole building was painted yellow. Not as striking, right?

The hyacinthus blog has more information on the building.