F15 Taking Off, RSAF Open Day, Paya Lebar Airbase

RSAF (Republic of Singapore Air Force) F15 taking off for the flight display. It looks fuzzy because of heat shimmer from another jet that just passed in front of it and is now out of the photo.

I stood back from the crowd, maybe 20, 50 meters, because I hate crowds. I thought heck, you want to see the planes in the sky anyway, so no point squeezing to see them on the runway. Luckily stumbled onto this shot because of that.

If you take a photo of the airplanes alone, it's pretty boring. You need to add people to make it come alive. If I were close to the crowd, I wouldn't be able to get the jet looking this large plus so many people in the crowd, into the same photo, because the perspective would be different.

The open day is an annual event. Anyone can go. You don't need to show any identification, but all your stuff goes through an x-ray machine, like in an airport. Cameras are allowed, but lenses are limited to 500mm. The open day is popular and is crowded. 

The RSAF has official photos on Flickr ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyberpioneer/tags/rsafopenhouse2011/show/ ).

• Nikon D7000, 70-210mm f4-5.6
• At 135mm, f16, ISO 1600, 1/1000 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast

Stopped down quite severely to get decent depth of field because DOF is really shallow at telephoto focal lengths. Lots of light outdoors plus the D7000 at ISO 1600 still looks good. Could have sacrificed some shutter speed and stopped down even more.

Old Terrace Houses, Emerald Hill Road

Quite a few pre-WWII shophouses in Singapore, but old residences are harder to find. These are in Emerald Hill, famous Peranakan (Straits Chinese) area, off Orchard Road. Had to crop off the bottom of the photo. Large green trash cans in front of each house. Totally spoils the picture.  

• Nikon D80, 12-24mm f4
• At 24mm, f8, ISO 100, 1/125 seconds
• Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Auto contrast, crop, graduated tint fake blue sky

Went to manual exposure because a lot of the photos I took along the road were backlit by the sky. Didn't want to bother with exposure lock. Not so much sky in this photo, but no point changing exposure mode once you've got manual exposure nicely dialed in.

Don't need f8 for this photo, but then don't need high shutter speeds either, and I'm still at ISO 100. For outdoor daylight photos, exposure is easy. You've got light to burn. It's the indoor shots that are a pain, and where you really need a DSLR. You could get a high quality image of the above scene with a compact camera. 

Official Graffiti, Post-Museum Cafe

Outside wall of the Post-Museum Cafe ( http://www.post-museum.org/ ), Rowell Road (off Jalan Besar). Looks like another official, commissioned graffiti. Unfortunately the wall isn't in good condition and some of the paint is peeling. 

Post-museum says that they won't be renewing their lease, are looking for another location. Not sure what will happen to the graffiti. 

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8
• At 35mm, f4, ISO 1600, 1/30 seconds
• Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Auto contrast, crop

Had to shoot at an angle, to squeeze more of the graffiti in. 35mm isn't wide enough and I was already backed up against a wall. One advantage of shooting at an angle is that you do compress the image horizontally, so you get more of the photo filled up, instead of a lot of black space at the top and the bottom.

Stopped down to f4 to get enough depth of field for the angle.

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.

Buzz Pod Convenience Store, Clementi Bus Interchange

The name on them is Buzz, but their website ( http://www.buzzpod.com.sg/ ) calls them Buzz Pods. This is a franchise business, surprisingly, run by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), the Straits Times guys. They probably see it as a way to sell their publications, though the pods also sell snacks and drinks. 

A lot of the bus interchanges have one. The black strip with the red Chinese characters is a scrolling LED display, with news headlines. Some pods display Chinese headlines, others display English. 

• Nikon D7000, 18-200mm f3.5-5.6
• At 18mm, f4.8, ISO 400, 1/180 seconds
• Aperture priority exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Auto contrast, crop, straighten

At 18mm and with a stabilized lens, I could have gone to ISO 100 and 1/45 seconds, but I was in a hurry and didn't have time to optimize.

SingTel Public Phone Booths

You don't see many public phones (http://info.singtel.com/personal/communication/payphone-cards) nowadays. Everyone has a cellphone. These are outside one of the Somerset MRT station exits, along Exeter Road. 

They have been a lot of different designs over the years. Common features are: no door, horizontal bar for sitting. Simple, low-maintenance. This one has advertisements on the outside, but they are SingTel's own ads. 

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8
• At 35mm, f3.3, ISO 100, 1/60 seconds
• Program exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Auto contrast, crop.

Merdandy Bar and Cafe, Haji Lane

The Merdandy ( http://www.merdandy.com.sg/ ) is one of many cafes along Haji Lane. Their menu is a mix of local, Italian and Arabic food.  

This is the rear entrance, which is more interesting than the front, but they don't seem to want to advertise the rear on their website. Waste of beautiful artwork. Some kind of graffiti-style cyber/science fiction and Aztec or Egyptian feel (lady looks like Nefertiti).

• Nikon D7000, 35mm f1.8
• At 35mm, f4.8, ISO 100, 1/180 seconds
• Program exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Auto contrast, crop.

For a slanted object like this, you need some depth of field. A kit zoom lens starts at f3.5, so you don't normally have to worry about depth of field. With a large aperture prime, you need to set to at least the kit lens aperture to be safe. Day was bright enough for Program mode to set f4.8. If aperture wasn't small enough, I'd simply boost the ISO until it was. You can take short cuts like that if you've got enough light, no need to go to aperture priority mode.