Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Christmas snuck up on me this year. Maybe its living in the tropics with high heat and humidity everyday but it just doesn't seem like Christmas time at all. The signs are there, beautiful decorations all over the city, stores with plenty of gift ideas, grocery stores with so many extra yummy treats! Somehow with everything it still doesn't feel like Christmas. Here are some trees that are close to home. I see them everyday when I am out and about walking around town. I guess I should have posted this last week, maybe I would have found the spirit of the holidays a little sooner!

 This is my favorite tree at Asia Square (right behind our condo). It is a giant tree, must be 3 stories high.

A close up of the Asia Square tree decorations. That star is as big as my head!

I liked this angle of the tree.

This is my favorite photo in this post. I love the "out of focus" shot. I spend so much time trying to get a perfect photo, its funny how the out of focus perspective is popular with photographers. Hope to try this more often in the future.

Nutcracker tree at the I12Katong mall. 

One Shenton tree in the lobby on the 1st floor. This is the tree at our condo, beautiful!

This is the closest thing we will have to a Rockefeller Center tree this year. It is giant, packed with lights and gorgeous! I saw them putting the tree up a few weeks ago. There was a hole in the back of the tree so I peaked in and a man was in there and he scared me so bad!!! I jumped and screamed, thank goodness it was a weekend and the building was pretty much empty! I'll never do that again!

Pretty little tree at the Marina Bay Link Mall. I love this mall and now that the Downtown Line is open I am able to get there quickly. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy Friday!!!

Joo Chiat Neighborhood Walk

This week some of the members of the Singapore International Ladies Group went for a walk through the Joo Chiat neighborhood. I signed up to go along and brought my camera with me, just in case. This is a residential conservation area and some of the buildings are just beautiful. We met at the Paya Lebar MRT station and walked for a bit then stopped for lunch. There were 14 of us walking that day, we must have been a sight to see ourselves. 14 super sweaty expat ladies walking through a local neighborhood taking photos of just about everything, lol! We had a good time and after the holidays we will be going to another neighborhood for another walk around. Here are my photos from Joo Chiat, enjoy!

This building is from 1928, beautifully restored.

These are homes that are in the process of being restored. They are even more beautiful in person.

So colorful and cheerful.

An up close shot of the detail around the window. 

Another window, just beautiful. Makes me want to put on a flowery dress and sip iced tea and eat tiny cakes while fanning myself.

Detail of one of the tiles.

Gorgeous!

Off street parking is nice, however, I have heard from other ladies that many of these homes do not have air con. Some have open air kitchens. Beautiful to look at but I will stay in my condo for now.

Neighborhood junk shop.

I like to think the Loving Hut is the name of a restaurant or coffee shop or pet adoption center...sure looks like a bunch of tiny rooms.

Hardware store. I love these little local shops. They are crammed full of stuff and when I go I always ask the person for whatever it is I need and they always know exactly where to find it. 

Looks like a nice restaurant. Pretty red building.

This building was so bright and good looking. Next door to a temple, not sure if it is a private residence or part of the temple.

Reflection of the temple across the street in the hood of a car.

Kuain Im Tng Temple

From the web:

The first thing that strikes you upon entering the temple is the statue of the Goddess of Mercy, the statue provides the main centre of “attraction”, drawing masses of worshippers to the temple. Although Goddess of Mercy is generally associated with Buddhism, it doesn’t mean that Kuan Im Tng Temple (Joo Chiat) is a place of traditional Buddhist worship. Instead, it upholds a unique three in one combination consisting of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, capturing and consolidating the essence of these three religions into “Xian Tian Sect.” What then are the exact elements preached in this fusion of religious beliefs?

They are: -
• To cultivate the mind and body through Taoist philosophies;
• To accumulate merits and good karma through recitations of Buddhist mantras; and
• To apply Confucian etiquette in everyday lives.

Super cool!

This is the lion that is in front of the temple. I loved his eyes

Restaurant to hang out at all day with your neighbors. Overall a very nice area of Singapore. I loved our walk. 

Reflections

There are a few ways to photograph reflections, some easier than others. You can find reflections in water, mirrors and shiny objects like glass or metal. There is another contest and guess what...the subject is reflections. For me contests are a good way to keep shooting, keep learning, try new things and get some feedback on my shots. I still feel like a beginner with a thousand questions.

This is the reflection in a hood of a shiny black car in Chinatown during the Mid Autumn Festival. You can tell its a car by looking at the top right corner of the photo I left a bit of the street in the shot. 

This is at the Botanic Gardens in Copenhagen. Not a perfect water reflection but close.

Gardens by the Bay Singapore during the Mid Autumn Festival. There were dozens of photographers lined up next to me to take this shot. In the photo are the super trees that now have more plants growing up the trunks. I think they want them to have full coverage of plants. The flower dome and cloud forest dome is also in the background.

I loved this building with a cool reflection in NYC.

Lau Pa Sat (orange tiled roof with a small white clock tower) reflection in the Asia Square building. LPS is a hawker center across from our condo in Singapore. I was on the 8th floor (pool level) walking around looking for good reflections since we are right in downtown, found this one. 

Watering the lawn at One Shenton. Hard to believe they need to water it since it rains so frequently.

Cruise ship in the Asia Square building. Nice blue sky.

These stools made a good reflection on a polished tile floor.

Flower in a mirror.

Art Science Museum at Marina Bay Sands has a nice lotus pond in front. There are always people sitting there enjoying the day. The reflection is of the museum itself that is shaped like a lotus flower. I was just there last week to see the Karl Lagerfeld Little Black Jacket photography exhibit, it was great!

Same lotus pond.

City skyline in the Marina Bay Financial building. 

Another skyline in one of the financial buildings. I am surprised they didn't call security on me as I was so close to the glass taking photos. Glad they didn't!

Apple in spoon. I wanted to use a spoon for reflections, however, this is harder than it looks. You have to get the angle just right, lighting just right, background, polish the spoon, no flash, etc. But I am happy with how it turned out. Bonus - got to include this bowl I just bought, I love it!

This is my favorite! Spoon on a newspaper. This was also not exactly easy. I think I spent an hour shooting spoons, trying different angles, different backgrounds and reflections AND I thought it was fun. I guess I must be transforming into a photographer or something. ;)

Happy Friday!!!

Bookworm

I love to read books! Since we moved to Singapore one of my new favorite genres is historic fiction based in Singapore or anywhere in Asia. This way I can learn a bit about the history of the area and the people. There are plenty of fancy bookstores in town and there are giant libraries but what I really like to do is visit one of the many used bookstores in town. There is something about second hand books that take on a life of their own. Who read them first, was it a favorite, why are they back in the bookstore, maybe no more room in their former homes? Sad little orphaned books...I could spend hours shopping for books to bring home. Here are a few shots, I hope you enjoy them.

Still trying to get through Cutting for Stone. It is really good, I have just been super busy lately.

This is a page from a book titled, "The Purple Line". Bought this book at an airport in Bangalore, India. Excellent book, not too big, very interesting and a quick read. I will always shop for books in airports while in other countries. It is fun to read books by authors local to the area we are visiting.

Now this is a window seat! 35 stories up, great view of downtown Singapore. I spend a lot of time in this room but I actually don't sit in the window that much. The couch is fine for me. 

And here is the couch....

I hope everyone has something great to read this weekend. 

Happy Friday!!!

A Glimpse of Me...

I am not the most creative person and I do not always have great ideas of what to post on my blog. I want to continue learning photography so I have to keep shooting. Lately it seems like I have no idea what to shoot. I can't keep walking around town, fingers crossed, hoping to get a few good shots of anything. I am a planner. I plan my meals for the week and write out grocery lists. I schedule days to work out, etc. So having nothing to post until Thursday has been giving me some anxiety! Super happy I found a great photography focused bookshop and bought a great book with 44 different exercises. Lets hope this allows me to feel a bit more organized. The first exercise is titled, "Glimpses of You". Oh boy, off to a bad start. I hate having my picture taken that is why I am behind the camera! After I read through the exercise plan I realized its only a glimpse and not a full self portrait. I think I can handle this...

Reading a book outside by the pool on one of the super comfy loungers. I didn't like this photo so I have it on its side to try to make it more interesting. Makes me look slimmer, too! I think the worst part of this is that I have to use my tripod and set the timer on my camera then run into place. Its super hot outside and I had to do this about a dozen times to get it right so I was sweating by the time I had it. 

The only good shot of me at the pool :) Immediately cooled down again after running around for the previous photo. A remote control is on my "to buy" list so I don't have to set the timer and run into place. Instead with a remote I can shoot whenever I am ready. 

My reflection in the windows on our balcony. Took longer than I thought to get this to turn out. Had to switch to manual mode focus because the camera wants everything but my reflection to be in focus. I have had the same issue with water reflections and manual mode focus is so far the only way I can get what I want out of the shot.

Lounging, yet again, on the couch waiting for Geoff to come home. I really don't sit around this much I swear!

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I don't like to go out to eat everyday so I do most of the cooking at home. Unfortunately in Singapore most kitchens do not come with dishwashers. When we first moved here and were looking for our condo we were told most dishwashers in Singapore have two arms and two legs. Ugh. But it is worth it to eat super healthy meals at home. There is nothing flattering about standing at the sink washing dishes and the exercise guidelines are to photograph part of the daily routine to show who I am. Out of focus is my way of being creative and giving the photo some interest. 

I am holding a small mirror and shooting into the mirror while facing a framed piece of art that I love and you can see my reflection in that as well. Sort of cool. 

I do love flowers. I had some printed on a sort of foam board and I put them up on the wall in the guest room. Love it, need to print a few dozen more to cover the wall. I tried to use the fresh flower to take a photo of me holding the flower up to cover part of my face but it didn't work. I tried about 50 different shots, different angles, different backgrounds, it just didn't work for me. This came out nice and it is a glimpse!

I have a Butterball turkey breast in the oven and when Geoff gets home from work we will have a nice Thanksgiving dinner, just the two of us. No shopping for Black Friday this year instead we are signing up for another half marathon in May 2014. Normally we don't sign up so early but they are giving out free singlets for early bird registration. WOOT WOOT!

Happy Friday!!!