1 Year Later

This is my 53rd blog post and 1st post of year 2. Can't believe its been a year already. I am planning on looking back at all of my posts and checking to see if I have everything of Singapore I would want to see years down the road. Did I get photos of the wet markets, neighbourhoods, shop houses, temples, food and hawkers, sports and landscapes? Anything that makes Singapore unique like the interesting architecture and festivals and people. I have some places that I think I've covered and some places that I am really looking forward to. Until then I thought it would be fun to post some photos I took last week at a Catholic church service for Good Friday and also Tulipmania has returned so I have a few tulip shots. Enjoy!

We arrived late for our shoot, the service was half way through. The church has a special service every year that usually starts after sunset, this year just before. The entire congregation walks around the church with candles behind a casket (casket for Jesus) and sings hymns. 

The church was so crowded people were standing in the streets and across the streets at the restaurants holding candles and singing the hymns.

We were on the 4th floor of a building that had an open car park so we could get some good overhead shots.

Then we moved into the crowd to get better shots of the congregation with candle light.

I loved this shot of the church. 

Love how the candle light glows on their faces.

Cute kids.

His family was watching to make sure he was ok. 

And now for Tulipmania! Walked to the gardens and took this shot of the Marina Bay Sands and the Super Trees. Looks nice with the greens and sky blues.

Over view of the inside of the flower dome.

Love :)

The dome has retractable roof shades so there was an issue with shadows since only some of them were closed.

Love these colors! The yellow and red striped wide open tulips with the small blue flowers in the background.

Love this one too. I'm a sucker for flowers.

Happy Friday!!!

Jurong Bird Park

Planned on spending the day at Jurong Bird Park but 15 minutes after I got there it started raining, hard! My photography tour of the park was cancelled and I went home after waiting a few hours for the rain to pass. I have a few shots to share and I promise to go back another day and get many more.

Pink Flamingos right at the entrance. 

Spreading out his wings, thank you for the nice shot!

Personally not a fan of Parrots but these guys seem calm enough. They are not in an enclosure, just hanging out. 

Ostrich that was very happy to have his picture taken. If I walked away or tried to photograph another Ostrich he would walk in front of me and pose. Very handsome dude. He had an enclosure that was open, just had a 4 foot tall fence around it. Can't believe how open this bird park is. You'd think they would all take off. I guess they are happy?

More flamingos. Not as pink as the others.

Good looking duck.

I don't know what this bird is. Sort of cute.

This guy was hanging out by the Ostriches. I don't know what he is but he is quite a looker!

Happy Friday!!!

Pink Kites and Night Lights

It wasn't a beautiful sunset like I hoped. It rained all morning and afternoon and the clouds stayed into the evening after the rain had stopped so the sunset was pretty boring. However, the city lights at night did not let me down. Here are some shots taken at the Marina Barrage. Enjoy!

This is Marina Barrage. You can walk up to the roof top, there is a nice lawn, have a picnic and fly a kite. Many families come here on the weekend to fly kites.

This is the view standing in front of the Barrage, looking back at the city. They must have sailing lessons here.

Pink kite, lots of families enjoying the evening.

Quite a large space on the roof top lawn.

Spider man kite!

City view, a little hazy but not bad. The fountains at the barrage are off to conserve water. It rained all day but we really needed it. The last few months Singapore has been experiencing an unusual dry spell. 

Hello kitty kite on the lawn of the Marina Barrage.

Boring sunset...wish it was more dramatic.

Night lights :) Love the reflections too! This was taken from the bridge at the Marina Barrage.

I love love love this soft focus. Very dreamy like.

Happy Friday!!!

Telok Ayer Street Photography

Saturday morning I met with my photo explorer group at Telok Ayer and we planned on walking around for about three hours and shooting whatever came our way. It was a small group of five photographers plus one organizer/photographer. We started at the Thian Hock Keng Temple, one of the oldest and most important Hokkien temples in Singapore. Photography is allowed in most areas of the temple and it is often frequented by tourists with large groups arriving daily.

Inside the temple courtyard looking at the back roof.

Inside looking at the open doors. There is a high door frame you need to step over to enter. This is there to make sure you are looking down (bowing your head) as you enter the temple.

A closer look at the doors. There are a few sets of doors painted like this.

Close up of one of the dragons on an incense urn. 

Here is the incense urn from the above photo.

Every inch is very detailed. Even the ceiling is beautiful. 

The temple started to get crowded with tourists and a few worshipers so we went for a walk around the area. Here are some of my photos. This neighborhood is very close to home for me, I walk around here all the time. 

This photo was pointed out by our organizer. The new high rise buildings and the old refurbished building with the street lamps gives a nice old and new contrast. This is why I like the group photo outings. I am here all the time but I don't always see the same things the other photographers see. 

Alley barber shop. I liked the reflection of the first customer in the mirror. He is waiting for the barber to finish setting up. The barber was excited to see us there and liked that we were taking his photo. According to the Singaporeans in the group, alley barber shops are hard to find these days. 

I took a photo of my group hard at work. They are trying for a reflection shot in the window of a business that is closed for the day.

I preferred the reflection in the car hood.

Another temple just down the street. This one does not allow photographers to shoot inside. The large metal furnace in front is for burning offerings.

I like all of the street lamps in this shot.

Happy Friday!!!