Singapore Cricket Club, International Rugby 7s

You don't see much rugby in Singapore, which is a pity. It certainly has more action than soccer. It's like a combination of soccer and wrestling.

The event was held at the historic Padang ("field") in the center of town.
 

• Nikon D7000, 55-300mm f4.5-5.6
• At 280mm, f5.6, ISO 220, 1/1000 seconds
• Manual exposure with auto ISO, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Crop

This is one of the few times when I used auto ISO. Most of the time I'm shooting indoors or outdoors at night, where it's more convenient to go to full manual (including manual ISO) because of the tricky lighting.

I set the exposure to manual because I knew what shutter speed and aperture I wanted (1/1000 seconds to freeze the action - you rarely need a higher speed, f5.6 as a good compromise aperture for getting enough in focus while still blurring out the background - which is why I left the heavy 70-200mm f2.8 at home) and let the camera adjust the ISO automatically.

This way, you get to use low ISO when the sun is out (for less electronic noise in the image), higher ISO only when the clouds come out (and they did). 

Sasanaramsi Burmese Buddhist Temple

This is the rear of the temple. The front view is blocked by a gate, and isn't as shiny. In the background are a private condominium on the left, and a HDB flat on the right. 

For a non-rectangular building like this, it's important to get the background right because it will show through more than with a rectangular building. You want a background that isn't too messy or distracting.

The temple's website is:
http://www.bbt.org.sg/

• Nikon D600, 28-300mm f3.5-5.6
• At 135mm, f8, ISO 1600, 1/750 seconds
• Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Crop, straighten, auto contrast, glow

Technically simple shot. ISO is unecessarily high but ISO 1600 looks so good on the D600 (looks like ISO 400 on the D7000) that I didn't bother to change since I was shooting indoors and had popped out for a few minutes.

 Some editing in Picasa to brighten up the image and make it glow a little.

Singapore Wedding Photography Guide

Simple photography advice that could make a big difference on your wedding day. Includes specific tips for Chinese, Malay and Indian weddings.

Basics

Some basics for all types of weddings:

• Don't worry, be happy. You want photos of yourself smiling, so remember to relax. If you're tense and worried, there isn't much the photographer can do. Don't worry about the small stuff. It's your wedding day. Enjoy it.
• Get out and greet guests. Photos of the bride and groom greeting their guests, make some of the best photos. Ask for introductions to guests that you don't know. Don't hide in a room somewhere and only come out for the ceremonial entrance. 
• Don't over-schedule. It's going to be a long day. While it might be tempting to schedule a photo shoot in a park or garden somewhere, that will only add to the exhaustion. If you do want formal photos, have them somewhere nearby. 
• Prepare for your spouse to tear-up. Grooms especially, sometimes don't know what to do and stand awkwardly when their bride cries. Give her a hug.

Boardwalk Restaurant, The Star Vista

The Star Vista has a boardwalk around the edge of this upper level, similar to Vivocity's design. This means that you can walk around the outside of the shops and restaurants, and look in from the outside.

The boardwark is stylishly lit with spotlights, like an art gallery, which adds to the atmosphere of the scene above. 

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 18mm, f4, ISO 1600, 1/90 seconds
• Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Straighten

The dark scene on the left balances out the bright lights on the right, so the camera's auto exposure managed to work.

Cargo Ship Xin Xiang Hai

Chinese cargo ship Xin Xiang Hai, anchored off the southern coast of Singapore. Cargo ships aren't particularly photogenic. It's the small boat moving at high speed, that makes the photo work.

Despite Singapore being an island, it's easy to go for months without seeing the sea or a ship. I was on my way to Kusu Island on a small ferry boat, taking photos through the boat's glass window. 

With today's technology, you can track a ship's daily position:
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shipdetails.aspx?mmsi=413347000

• Nikon D7000, 55-300mm f4.5-5.6
• At 300mm, f5.6, ISO 400, 1/180 seconds
• Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Straighten, crop, auto contrast

Picasa's auto contrast function works well and I use it on most of my photos. It is especially effective for photos like this, where the sea air reduces contrast and makes everything grayed out.

Pasar Malam

Pasar malams ("night markets") open for a few days to a week, along the side of the road. The seem to roam all over Singapore, coming back to the same place every few months. This one is over 100 meters long.

Note the HDB apartment block just behind the stalls. This is one appeal of the pasar malam - it's right at your doorstep. You'll find snack food, bags, clothing, kitchen utensils, DVDs and other items for sale.

• Nikon D7000, 40mm f2.8
• At 40mm, f4, ISO 1600, 1/60 seconds
• Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Straighten, fill light

Picasa's fill light function is useful for boosting the brightness of dark areas, without affecting bright areas much. In that sense it gives you a mini HDR (high dynamic range) effect. When taking a photo you expose for the bright areas. Later, use Picasa's fill light to make the dark areas more noticeable.

In this photo, fill light was used to bring out the balcony walls of the HDB building. 

Singapore Karting Championships 2012

Photo was taken during the afternoon practice session. The actual race is at night. It's held at the Formula One pit-stop building next to the Singapore Flyer, but the track is a lot smaller than the F1 street track. 

http://www.skc.sg/

• Nikon D7000, 55-300mm f4.5-5.6
• At 300mm, f11, ISO 800, 1/2000 seconds
• Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Crop, straighten, auto contrast

There's a lot of distracting clutter on the race track. You want to isolate the drivers by zooming in and cutting out the background. It's a bonus if you can add some interesting geometric patterns as well.

Stopped down lens aperture to get more depth of field, a common problem when using telephoto lenses. Telephoto perspective compressed the apparent distance so it looks like he his tightly squeezed in between the plastic barriers. 

With the 1.5x crop of the D7000, effective focal length of the 300mm lens is 450mm. And that still wasn't enough for me to "zoom in" as much as I wanted. Cropping the photo on the PC, pushes the effective focal length to about 1000mm, leaving only a quarter of the megapixels in the image. It's times like this that you really make use of the megapixels in today's cameras.