River Cruise Boat, Singapore River

Electric river cruise boat. Singaporeans call these bum boats. The original bum boats used to come this very section of the river and unload cargo from ships moored out at sea. Not so long ago, up till at least the 1970s. 

Boat Quay (now mainly restaurants in the old riverside shophouses, with the skyscrapers of the financial district in the background) to the front and on the right, new Parliament House on the left. Quite a commonly photographed scene but I think not with a boat so clearly in the foreground.

• Nikon D600, 35mm f1.8
• At 35mm, f2 ISO 3200, 1/30 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto White Balance
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast

This is what you can do with today's equipment. You can take photos in almost darkness (the boat was in deep shadow, is over-exposed in the photo by about 2 stops - 4 times) without blurring out moving objects. Very happy with the 35mm f1.8 on the D600 - light, good low light performance, covers my most widely used angle. Not as useful on the D7000 with the 1.5x focal length crop, making it a 50mm equivalent. 

Mid-Autumn / Mooncake / Lantern Festival, Bukit Panjang

Mid-autumn celebration (known to children as the mooncake or lantern festival) organized by the People's Association, at Bukit Panjang, next to the Pending LRT station. This is right smack in the middle of a government HDB housing estate. 

It's mainly a variety musical show on the stage inside the tent, but there are kids playing with lanterns outside. Most lanterns are now battery-powered for safety, instead of candles.

• Nikon D600, 35mm f1.8
• At 35mm, f2 ISO 1600, 1/30 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto White Balance
• Picasa: Crop, auto contrast, auto color, fill light

I'm now trying out the DX (cropped sensor) 35mm f1.8 lens on my D600 (FX full frame DSLR) as an FX lens. One website tested the 35mm f1.8 DX against the old 35mm f2 AF-D FX lens and found the DX lens sharper even at the corners. Theoretically, the DX lens shouldn't be able to cover the entire FX image sensor area, but it does. Vignetting (dark corners) is minimal, often not noticeably. You can crop out the dark corners with a photo editor and lose less than 5 percent of the photo width. 

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).  

ION Orchard Basement Escalator

This is the escalator leading down to the basement food court of ION Orchard. The bright colors are really something. Simple but effective design - ridged curved ceiling lit by colored lights. 

Wall-sized advertisements are stuck onto the light panels that form the walls (the blue rectangles are video screens, also displaying advertisements). On this day, the walls are displaying a Fancl cosmetics advertisement.

• Nikon V1, 10-30mm f3.5-5.6
• At 10mm, f3.5, ISO 400, 1/60 seconds
• Auto-everything
• Picasa: Straighten, crop, auto contrast, fill light.

Took the photo on my second trip down the escalator. On my first trip, there was someone wearing a red baseball cap in front of me. It was too distracting, changing the focus of the photo. So I went back up and down again.

NUS University Town, Night

Most people take a photo of the Education Resource Centre on the left to represent UTown, so I thought I'd do something different and include the Residence blocks on the right too.

http://utown.nus.edu.sg/

• Nikon D600, 28-300mm f3.5-5.6
• At 28mm, f4, ISO 3200, 1/15 seconds
• Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, auto White Balance
• Picasa: Straighten, crop, auto contrast, glow. 

Time is 7:36pm, rich color in the sky. A few minutes later and the photos I took had a black sky. I was photographing a school debate and finished just at the right time. 

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.

RSS Intrepid, Singapore Navy Frigate

The RSS Intrepid was berthed at VivoCity for three days in March 2013 for a public open house - members of the public could go onboard and tour the ship. It carries a Seahawk (navalized Blackhawk) helicopter in the rear. One of six frigates of the Formidable class, based on the French La Fayette class.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formidable-class_frigate

If you look carefully, you can see two Jedi sparring with light sabres underneath the cannon.

• Nikon V1, 10-30mm f3.5-5.6
• At 30mm, f5.6, ISO 3200, 1/5 seconds
• Auto-everything
• Picasa: Straighten, crop, auto contrast.

With a stabilized lens and zero vibration from the electronic shutter, you can take handheld photos with the V1 at 1/4 seconds.