I know, I know. Photography in Singapore is not new to readers of my blog. I have been at it since many aeons ago with my old Canon A70. This new batch of photos is a cumulative work of all my past experiences combined together. I especially like HDR, therefore you will see a lot of HDR pictures in this round.

Compare these pictures taken almost 2 years apart of the St Andrew’s Cathederal.

Photo taken in May 2007

Same image, taken this year

I also went with my Singapore friend, Peng Siong who is an active photographer himself, on one of his many photography adventures. Turns out that he teaches photography during his part time. I was invited to one of his lessons in Marina Bay, and I had the chance to drool over his high-tech gadget, the incredible Nikon D3 full frame camera! He even lets me play with his toy, and here are some of the pictures that I got out of it.

I tested how it shoots exposure bracketing for HDR, in 7 frames, no less!

Incredible 7 frames in a burst!

And this is the resultant HDR image that I got with it:

HDR on Nikon D3

Then Peng Siong put on his Sigma 10-20 lens, and I was totally blown away at its fullest, absolute widest focal length!

Sweet wide angle!

The durians

The moon was almost directly overhead!

By that time, I was already drooling!

Anyway to show you the setup of the camera, here it is:

Peng Siong rested his camera on the ledge like this!

Nikon D3 lying almost on the ground. You can see how close the camera is to the durian

Closer look at the D3

Another cool feature this camera has is the virtual horizon thingy. It looks like you’re playing a flight simulator on a computer game. It is very practical when you are having a hard time determining the real horizon.

Cool graphics!

I also took a picture of the Marina while I was on top looking down like this:

Marine, 2009

Compare that to the picture that I took back in 2003 with my Powershot A70:

Marina, 2003

My technique improved (more HDR I notice), my equipment improved, but I still see the scene in more or less the same way. At least that’s what I think I think like.

Compare the scene again with and without HDR. This time with my own camera:

No HDR

With HDR. Notice there are more details in the clouds, they seem to be drifting because the shutter was quite long

On my way exploring the Marina, I also encountered this lovely lady singing a beautiful song. Too bad I only had on my 17-55, not enough reach to capture her lovely face:

Lovely singer, love her expression. *Sigh* where is my 70-200 lens?

Because I couldn’t get too close to her, I had to be contended with a far shot of the environment instead:

The open arena. Notice the words "Chinese Festivals of Arts" on the top dome

More pictures can be found at my gallery.

It’s Thursday, 5th February, and tomorrow I am scheduled to fly back to KL! YAY! I hope they don’t change their minds last minute. I am already missing my 3 girls back home.

Yesterday I went to have dinner with Kanes. She just started work yesterday since coming back from her home on Monday. We went to Serangoon, a good half-an-hour away from Orchard. It was great meeting an old friend again.

Today there is supposed to be a CNY lunch organized by the hotel for us all. Here are some photos taken during the lunch:

Low Yee Sang

Hall

For a full list of all pictures taken in Singapore during this trip, browse on to my gallery.

So far so good. We all stayed in Holiday Inn Park View, just next to Starhub. We now do not have any reasons to arrive late to the office. Even the Singapore users stay there! I saw Siew Heng and Khjyue Kiew checking in.

The room is incredible! 37 inch plasma TV, beautifully renovated, new set of furniture, very contemporary looking.

Nice LCD TV!

Beds are comfy

Too bad I can’t stay for long in the room. Yesterday I worked from 6 am till 1 am the next day. Today I woke up at 9 and had a full breakfast before going to work.

So far I have spent quite a lot on food, top-up cards and miscellanous. Let’s hope that I can survive another 7 days here.

Today is the third day of CNY. Early this morning, I had to wake my ass up at 6:40 am to prepare myself. For the pass 2 days, I had this terrible diahorrea. This means that I had it since the first day of CNY! Bummer!

The taxi uncle came to pick me up at 7:45 am. He picked up another 3 more passengers in Tangkak before finally going to KLIA. Along the way, I chatted with the auntie beside me. She told me my destiny, among other things, and she has quite a bit of a life experience to share. I reached KLIA at exactly 10 am!

KLIA interior

I am writing this from the KLIA bench. I was thinking of whether or not to go to the office first since the conversion has completed their portion early and we might have to start early. Ivan has already left for Singapore this morning. He was initially scheduled to fly with the rest of us (2:30 pm flight) but he had to leave early. Poor thing, he was supposed to fetch his wife to go see doctor this morning!

Now I am contemplating of whether or not to go back to the office…… hmmm…..

Waiting for the flight

Moments at the Gate

Update: The flight is delayed till 3:30 pm! And the laptop battery is dying soon!

I’ve been busy. There’s just too many photos to process, and too little time. I have had a few family trips, company trips, and two wedding jobs, all of which involves huge efforts in processing them photos.

As I process them, I will show the pictures to you. So excuse me for being so quiet these few weeks. As an appetizer, here are some previously unpublished pictures from my previous trip to Singapore:

Clarke Quay, the river front

Head on to my photo album to view more.

I was stationed in Singapore again these pass few days. The difference this time is that I brought my camera along, in anticipation of the longer period I am here, and the fact that I will spend one weekend here.

Which means that I have a lot of photos to share with you! I stayed in Somerset Liang Court, in Clarke Quay, one of the most happening places around. On the second night was in Singapore, our boss Sally came over from Malaysia to belanja us dinner. We went to Hooters, the first Hooters in Asia. Contrary to what you think, the Hooter girls were not as well-endowed as you and I like them to be.

Wipe that grin off your face, ya' pervert!

You’ve got to check this place out. Clarke Quay is brimming with night life. There is this famous place called M.O.S. (not the japanese rice burger, mind you) Stands for Ministry of Sound. I’ve never been there, but currently it is THE place to be on Saturday nights.

There’s this queer pub called The Clinic. The theme of the place is, yes, you’ve guessed it, a clinic. All the props (if you could call them that) are modeled after a clinic, complete with the surgeon’s table and lights. The seats where the patrons sit on are wheelchairs and sickbeds. Partitions are also what you would normally see in a doctor’s room. The best part is, get this, they drink from an IV tube!

We asked him to pose for us, and he acted like a sick man. Notice the "operating theatre" behind him?

Too bad that the waitress and waiters do not wear like nurses and doctors. Afraid that the “patients” might get carried away?

One of my magical moment was Magic Babe Ning. She’s one gorgeous babe indeed!

In the morning, Clarke Quay is a very different place indeed. The pre-war structures is a stark contrast to the bustling activities just the night before.

Clarke Quay in the quiet morning

One fine Sunday we went to Ang Mo Kio, Jane Chong, Swee Shin, Lai Fong, Lai See and I. Michelle Soong joined us too. Lai Fong wanted to survey handphones in Toa Payoh, but we went to AMK for the other stuffs. Shampoos, body wash, lotions, basically girly girly stuffs. They all shop like crazy, they had no intention to lunch, even when it was almost 3 pm already!

Jane, Michelle, Lai See and Swee Shin standing pretty in a row. Notice the bags and bags of goodies they have bought!

We had decent life in Singapore really. We have free wireless internet connection. Some were legal, some were not. The illegal ones we get by “stealing” other people’s connection from block 18-08 and 20-08. I stay in 18-02, directly on the opposite direction. So I have to resort to using McDonald’s legal wireless with Wireless@SG.

McDonald's for food and internet! They don't have Mega Mac though.

The service apartment is really well-maintained and very clean. Huge different from the apartments / condos we know in Malaysia. The security is top notched. Every morning we are provided with breakfast, even on Saturdays and Sundays. There was once a blackout, and the apartment was affected. The management sent us a basket of fruits for the inconveniences caused. But then hor, we were in the office and we stayed until late when it happened, so really, it did not affect us at all. Still the thought was very much appreciated. Errmmm ….. that basket of fruits inspired this post too.

They not only send baskets of fruits for blackouts, they also send ice-creams FOR NOTHING! Check out the Movenpick!

This Movenpick ice-cream is very good!

There is also the standard gym, swimming pool, sauna and jacuzzi to pamper the weary expatriates.

Gym

Checking out the sauna, which unfortunately was broken

Jacuzzi!! The cold one is on the left, the warm one is on the right.

More pictures here.

During one of my trips to Singapore, I brought my camera there. I stayed in Clarke Quay, one of the most happening places in Singapore currently. One fine Saturday I bumped into this daredevil show in the middle of busy Clarke Quay, The Impalement Cage!

The Impalement Cage

The star of the night is Magic Babe Ning. Who? That was also my initial reaction when I heard the name. I later found out that Magic Babe Ning appears in one of the hottest men magazines around, FHM in Singapore. Dubbed as the sexiest woman magician in Asia, she performed one of her famous escape act. Harriette Houdini anyone? This time, the magic is done differently; out in the open, with no covers, no shadowy silhoutte, with live crowd in all 360 degrees! Interesting?

She called up this joker from the crowd to “check out” he props, to make sure that they are good. For all I know, this joker is one of the crews.

Joker on stage

Then it was Magic Babe’s turn to perform. As soon as she took off her black leather jacket, wolf howls were heard across the floor. Can’t really blame them, she is hot!

Sexy baby!

Locked and hooded

She was given 60 seconds to try and dislodge herself before the spikes come down on her. Yeah, you know, the itty gritty stuffs. Well, to cut to the boring stuff, yeah, she freed herself alright. And quite professionally too. At the very last moments, she even managed to grab her hair pin and let her hair flow down! Check this out!

3 seconds!!

2 seconds!! Notice that her hair is still properly pinned

1 second! Quick!! Grab that hair pin!

Time's up! Incoming spikes!!

Great job Magic Babe! You have magically released your hair pin!

All of a sudden she became a sensation. A lot of people became an overnight fan, wanting to take pictures with her, etc. Sheesh…..

Have a look at more pictures here.

Unless you have been living in a remote jungle forest of Borneo without any internet connection or TV whatsoever, you would have known by now how much petrol price has risen overnight. I quickly went to refuel both my cars. I consider myself lucky. I got refueled in less than an hour for each cars. Some are not so lucky. The Jalan Putra Permai which has 4 petrol stations were choked full of cars queuing up all along the road. My colleague got stuck in LDP for 2 hours last night, and she was not even refueling!

I have never queued up to fill up petrol before in my entire life during a fuel price increase, even when the price increased by 20 cents or 30 cents before. But this time, it’s bloody 78 cents! That’s an increase of 40%! My Wira will be affected the most. It’s the car with the highest fuel consumption rate. At 40 litres, it can go roughly 437 km. That’s assuming the previous price of petrol at RM1.88 per litre (I’m a cheapskate, I use RON 92 fuel!). Now with the increased price structure, I will have to pump in an extra RM30 every time I refuel. Supposing that I refuel 3 times in a month (this is already a very conservative assumption), I will require an extra RM1080 per year! The bloody RM625 I get from the road tax rebate is barely enough to cover my extra expenses! Fuck you Pak Lah!

We are talking about a Proton Wira 1.5 automatic, one of the most commonly used cars driven by common Malaysians. If it affects my car, chances are, it will your car too. When Pak Lah drew this structure, he must have the Kancil 660 in mind. Even my Toyota Altis 1.8 consumes less fuel than the Wira. Does it mean that all the rakyat should dump their Protons and buy Kancil’s, Kelisa’s, Vios or City?

I can almost immediately see a domino effect. Everything will cost more. EVERY DAMN THING! Remember, the RM625 is only applicable for private cars with less than 2000cc. Lorries and trucks will most definitely not benefit from this. Neither do airplanes, trains and boats, things used to ferry our daily necessities to our Tesco’s, Carrefour and pasar pagi. I cannot imagine another rice price hike again. (hey, that rhymes! Ahem …) Soon electricity tariff is going to increase, mee goreng, underwear, medicines. And these are just the important stuffs. Don’t get me talking about the camera lens that I planned to buy! Say bye bye to my two daughter’s insurance plan!  *sigh…*

On a different note, I’m glad for this structure too. This way, we can still stop Singaporean registered cars from enjoying the subsidized fuel. This mean to say that if you Malaysian who defected down south to become Singaporean PR will not enjoy this benefit for their Singapore-registered cars. They still enjoy some advantage, RM2.70 is still some form of subsidized fuel, albeit in a smaller amount. Unsubsidized fuel still cost RM3.00. Even then, it’s cheaper than their Singapore fuel.

My Wira’s road tax will expire in July. Let’s just see if they will honour their pledge of RM625 for us….

The recent announcement of the new fuel subsidy structure is really taking everybody by storm. The most noticeable move is by prohibiting all vehicles from Thailand from fueling here. That took effect yesterday. The Singaporeans are still refueling here pending further announcement. The issue now here is: should Malaysians with Singaporean registered cars be allowed to refuel in Malaysia?

If you ask me, I’d say, HELL NO!! What are you fuckers doing back in Malaysia anyway? You are the ones who have decided to leave Malaysia for greener pastures in the first place, and now you are whining that the greener pasture cost more? Fuck you lar.

Think of it this way. You earn in Singaporean Dollar. You should spend in Singaporean Dollar. If you can afford staying in Singapore, you should be prepared to pay the price. That includes the heftier price of petrol. Plain and simple. You chose your destiny, so live with it pal, and quit your whining, you cry babies!

The fuel subsidy is meant to help Malaysians: read, people who stay in Malaysia, work in Malaysia, and earn meagre Malaysian Ringgit. I think that’s a fair deal. Malaysian with Singaporeans PR do not qualify, even if they hold the MyKad. Even the 50 km radius is not enough, in my opinion. It should have blanket  covered the entire Malaysia! I have seen a lot of these Singaporean registered vehicles driving vehemently with their headlights shining from behind in the highways. These arrogant fools think they own the bloody highway, speeding along at illicit pace! Ban these mutterfakker from our roads!

I hope the Malaysian Authority are not too lenient when passing the fuel subsidy structure tomorrow. All Singapore registered vehicles should not be fueling in Malaysia, end of story. Not even with a Malaysian driving them.

On a side note, they took away Pulau Batu Puteh from us remember? Chinese people say, they do 1st of the month, we do 15th of the month lar!