After a long period of not travelling with work, I’ve had two trips almost back to back with four days in Singapore last week. It’s a place that I’ve travelled to before [at least half a dozen times, possibly more, all on the company] and I love it. I was offered a job there unexpectedly about 7 years ago and knocked it back: I’d not long been back from a year in New York, where things hadn’t really worked out [work-wise; socially it was fantastic], and I decided to err on the side of caution. It was probably the right move for me, but one of those decisions that comes back to haunt you. Anyway, every time I’m there I always enjoy it.

I asked a work colleague for a couple of recommendations for photographic opportunities. Although I’d been to the island before I’d never ventured outside of the CBD [apart from the bus to KL once, but that’s another story]. She made a couple of recommendations, which I squeezed into one free evening, and the following afternoon. On my first night there, I went down to the Esplanade, which is a fantastic building whose structure is designed to reflect the appearance of a durian. I forgot to take my remote trigger on this evening, so this was the longest exposure I went for [30 seconds, ISO 100, f/14, 16mm]:

There were lots of photographers out and about with serious amounts of equipment; hardly surprising given the location. The ferris wheel in the background is bigger than the London Eye apparently. This is a much shorter exposure: 6 seconds, F4.5, ISO 100 at 50mm:

I tried a couple of longer exposures stopped down, but the colour contrast was too high and the brighter colours to the left corner were blowing out.

Next afternoon I had what is probably best described as a yomp around some wetlands called Sungei Buloh in the northwest of the island. I was really suffering with jetlag, and didn’t have the energy to give it the attention that it deserved. Getting there was a minor adventure, as I’d not experimented with the tube before. I knew that I needed to get to Kranji, but wasn’t sure what happened afterwards as the link on the website about the bus was broken. If you ever go to the wetlands, you’re looking for the 925, and don’t forget your mosquito repellent – I did 🙂 .

I didn’t have great success: I’ve never tried shooting wild animals before, and even though the wetlands are packed with wildlife, you would need to be prepared to dedicate your day to making a single shot. You’ll probably find that you are at the limit of your equipment as well. Once again, there were people there with serious pro kit: 600 and 800mm lenses.

Of the animals that were in range of the long end of my 100-400 [which excluded all of the birds by default], this was probably the best shot that I took:

which was at 1/50 second, f/5.6, ISO 400 and 400mm. Cute lizard, and not bad composure out of the box, though there is some dead space at the top left that if it wasn’t late now I’d crop. However, the depth of field is way too short, by virtue of the long lens focussing close up: only the head is in focus. It’s also on the limit of what I’d suggest is the 400d’s capability for ISO speed.

I did have one moment which was quite amusing, with the benefit of hindsight. There was a storm towards the end of the 5km tour that I took around the park and the combination of circumstances – heat, humidity, jetlag, physical tiredness – was starting to bring me to the end of my patience. Anyway, the rainstorm passed quickly, but I hadn’t unstowed my camera when I walked passed a local variant of a squirrel which stopped half way up a diagonal palm leaf at about chest height. The steady cloud cover of the day broke briefly and dappled sunlight was falling on the scene as the squirrel starting munching on some sort of nut or fruit. I actually said out loud to the squirrel, ‘hold on’, while I started to unpack my camera. Unfortunately s/he didn’t quite appreciate the photo op and disappeared off into the undergrowth at ramming speed, no doubt rattled at the noise of the various zips and Velcro being undone. At least there was no-one around to observe the vignette.

So, a little frustrated, I decided that it might be a good opportunity to buy a new camera. The logic seemed less… pragmatic at the time. I’ll maybe get round to that part of the trip tomorrow…