Taken a few years back when I was based in Singapore, this was an evening shot from the Marina Bay Sands area, looking over the CBD (Central Business District).
Singapore
Shot for the Day (05 May 2017)
Taken a short while after sunset, during the blue hour (as opposed to the golden hour of sunset), this is a view of Singapore. The tall buildings are part of the CBD (Central Business District), where I used to work. In the foreground, the illuminated white is the ArtScience Museum.
My lasting memory of taking this image is that I recall it being an especially warm evening, even for Singapore.
Shot for the Day (11 January 2016)
This weekend, I was in Sentosa, an island just to the south of Singapore. It is a local favourite and the closest proximation to the white sandy beaches of Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia that Singapore has to offer.
Whilst relaxing in the sunshine, this beast settled in front of me. He seemed utterly unperturbed about our proximities and basked in the heat of the afternoon alongside me. With only my Nokia 1020 to hand, I was still able to grab this shot.
As they say, the best camera you have is the one with you.
Shot for the Day (02 January 2016)
Yesterday, we took a family outing to an island off the north eastern coast of Singapore called Pilau Ubin. It feels more akin to neighbouring Malaysia than the ultra-modern Singapore and as such, has a certain charm that is lost in this country’s modernity.
Unfortunately for us, being in the midst of the rainy season, the heavens opened as we were en route to the island from Changi. The shot above was from the pier we were deposited on at Pilau Ubin. Our boat was reversing out into the emerald green bay as the rain lashed the landscape.
After a very wet cycle ride around the island, we caught a boat back to the mainland in the early evening The rain had finally stopped and we were afforded a dramatic view of Pilau Ubin to the north, as the heavy rain clouds circled the seascape, in preparation for another storm.
All shots were taken on my Nokia 1020, which did a pretty decent job. However, I will definitely return on a less inclement day and take my camera kit as the views on the island are very contrasting to mainland Singapore.
Shot for the Day (15 August 2015)
This afternoon, I went for a walk on the wilder side of Singapore. In the centre of the island, there is a slither of nature called MacRitchie Reservoir Park. Just south of Upper Pierce Reservoir, there is a tree top walk, which in effect is a narrow suspension bridge, just wide enough for someone to traverse across the rooftop of the jungle below.
Lining the side of the bridge were many monkeys. They were generally quite skittish but the character in the image above was more than a little bold. I had a wide angle lens on my camera, meaning he was sat within an arm’s length from me when I took this shot.
Shot for the Day (9 July 2015)
Out walking around downtown Singapore a week ago and grabbed a shot of the cityscape just after the sun had dropped below the horizon. Still over thirty degrees even past 8pm but that’s life one degree from the equator.
Shot for the Day (25 June 2015)
This weekend, I went for a walk with my family in a place called Bukit Brown Cemetery. It is a secluded, overgrown graveyard in Singapore. It is unique in that you are in the middle of a metropolis that is Singapore but be standing in the solitude of a rainforest.
Bukit Brown Cemetery is also known to the local community as Kopi Sua or Coffee Hill. It is a Chinese cemetery, established in the early 20th Century and was the biggest Chinese graveyard outside China. The cemetery was named after its first owner, George Henry Brown, who was a ship owner and arrived in Singapore from Calcutta in the 1840s. He bought the area and named it Mount Pleasant.
As I wondered around this oasis of nature and calmness, it was very distressing to see all the construction work underway, something very common in Singapore. The issue here is that Bukit Brown Cemetery is slowly but sure being sacrificed to the god of progress. Large swathes of land have already been dug up and this beautify setting will soon be replaced by suburbia, concrete and glass.
In a place like Singapore, where such places are rare and revered, it is a shame that such a tranquil and spiritual place is being ruined to make way for apartments and the MRT (underground system).
If you are keen to see this wonderful place before it disappears forever, you can find it located between Lornie Road and Mount Pleasant Road, off Sime Road and Kheam Hock Road.
For further information about Bukit Brown Cemetery, here are some links, including a site to help save it from extinction:
1) Information about the cemetery: http://bukitbrown.com/main/
2) Save the cemetery site: https://sosbukitbrown.wordpress.com/
3) Preserving the history of Bukit Brown: http://www.bukitbrown.info/
Shot for the Day (14 September 2014)
Today’s shot is from Gardens in the Bay in Singapore. It is unlike my usual images for two reasons. Firstly, I took it on an iPhone instead of one of my high end cameras. The best camera is the camera you have with you as they say. The other reason is that instead of my usual landscape imagery, this actually incorporates people in the shot.
Normal service will resume shortly.
Shot for the Day (6 September 2014)
Singapore is a city of man made monuments. Even though nature abounds with equatorial greenery and trees, there are precious few open vistas and very limited natural scenery for a landscape photographer like me to be satisfied. So, instead, here is a homage to nature I took at the beginning of the year, at Gardens in the Bay.
All Terrain Photography 