NTUC Income Kite Festival

I don't know why NTUC Income, an insurance company, organizes a kite festival; but I couldn't resist the chance of taking photos of colorful kites in front of the iconic Marina Bay Sands.

The festival itself is on the Marina Promenade, which is across the bay, a few hundred meters from the Marina Bay Sands. The main area shown here is for the general public. Another area is for invited, professional, kite flyers. 

I was interviewed by a local journalist, who was going around asking people why they were there. I told her that I just came to take photos. 

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f4-5.6 
• At 30mm, f16, ISO 400, 1/250 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: No editing 

Manual exposure because the sky was back-lit by the sky, f16 for depth of field, ISO 400 to allow f16 and is pretty much my default ISO for outdoor daylight.

It's difficult to get a nice mass of kites in a photo. They just have to fly up a bit and they are too small to be interesting. You also can't get too many kites in one place because the lines will get tangled up.

Night Festival

Organized by the National Museum with some involvement from SMU (Singapore Management University) and SOTA (School of the Arts). This is the crowd watching the live concert on the SMU campus. Green pattern on the floor is from a projector. 

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f4-5.6 
• At 18mm, f3.5, ISO 6400, 1/45 seconds
• Program exposure, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: No editing 

Could have gone down to ISO 1600 or 3200 but I wanted to test the ISO 6400. I usually use manual exposure for night shots due to the uneven lighting, but this scene was relatively evenly lit and I was confident that auto would work.

Istana Grounds

The Istana ("palace" in Malay) is the official residence of the President of Singapore. It is located at the end of Orchard Road, near Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. The grounds and part of the main building are open to the public on most public holidays. 

This is the view looking back towards the main gate, and Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. Plaza Singapura is out of sight, hidden behind the trees on the left. The grounds are huge, this is less than half of it. Note the blue shade at the bottom left. That's for the policeman standing guard.

Photo was taken during the recent Hari Raya public holiday.  This is at about 10am. There were a lot more people later.

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 105mm, f5.6, ISO 100, 1/350 seconds
• Program exposure, center-weighted metering, -1 exposure compensation, auto white balance
• Picasa: Auto contrast

I don't usually use exposure compensation, but the camera consistently over-exposes when metering grass or trees. 

The couple on the right is important for adding balance and interest to the photo. The rest of the people are too small to be interesting.

Concert at Fort Canning Green

Government-sponsored rock concert, Orange Ribbon Campaign (for racial harmony), featuring various local acts.

It's the colored tents at the back that make the photo work. The tents were snack food stalls. I was only there for a few minutes. The lady was singing a slow version of Billy Jean. You can just make her out on the stage with her guitar.   

Fort Canning Green is right behind the National Museum. It is administered by National Parks ( http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/index.php?option=com_visitorsguide&task=parks&id=16&Itemid=73 ).

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 18mm, f3.5, ISO 3200, 1/15 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, incandescent white balance
• Picasa: Crop

For dark scenes like this, set to wide-angle to reduce apparent camera-shake and to get maximum aperture from the lens. Shutter speed was set to 1/15 seconds as this is about slowest I can hand-hold safely (1/8 seconds sometimes works but less reliably). Increased ISO until exposure was correct, checking against the playback on the LCD screen.  

Underside of Esplanade Bridge

I don't know what caused the streaks on the concrete. Makes it look like natural rock, not industrial concrete. It's not sunlight reflecting off the water, because it doesn't move. 

I was quite pleased with this photo, thinking that most people wouldn't have noticed such a simple but beautiful image. Then I saw a friend who had just started in photography, take the exact same shot.

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 105mm, f11, ISO 400, 1/30 seconds
• Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Straighten, crop, auto contrast

Zoomed all the way in to collapse the pillars together. Set f11 for depth of field.

School Band at One Fullerton

Not sure which school these kids are from. There were maybe five to ten different school bands on this Saturday afternoon. At least two played Smoke on the Water. 

This is only a few meters from the Merlion. Marina Bay Sands is in the background. Most of the bay is blocked by the Singapore River Cruise booth.

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 25mm, f5.6, ISO 400, 1/1500 seconds
• Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Straighten, crop, fill light, auto contrast, color temperature. 

Should have stopped down the aperture a bit for more depth of field, but there's still lots of depth of field at f5.6 at 25mm. Adjusted color temperature to make the yellow sunset (5:45pm) reflecting off the hotel windows, more noticeable.

Articulated Bus

Also called a Bendy or Flex bus, these are high-capacity alternatives to double decker buses. Not as cool, unfortunately.

The advertisement "Majulah! The Singapore Spirit" is the theme for the 2011 National Day Parade, which is held on Singapore's Independence Day on August 9th. "Maju" means progress in Malay. "Majulah" can be loosely translated as "go and progress." Which explains the use of "lah" in Singlish.

• Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
• At 21mm, f5.6, ISO 400, 1/45 seconds
• Aperture priority, center-weighted metering, auto white balance
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast

I panned the camera, moving it to the right to follow the movement of the bus. This is why the trees and building in the background are blurred.