A visit to the Istana

I have been living in Singapore all my life and have visited most of the attractions around Singapore but there is one place on Orchard Road that I wished to visit but never find the time to do so.

Last Friday was Labour Day and I decided that I will pay a visit to the Istana. I reached the Istana gate around 3pm and there was a huge crowd queuing in front of the gate. The sun was shining brightly and it was a very hot day. All visitors were to have their temperature taken before admission. I was afraid that the heat might cause my temperature to rise but thankfully I'm ok and was given the green light to proceed.

Once entered the gate, there were trees on both sides of the main road leading shortly to a wide open field. It looks like a big golf course with two man-made ponds to my left. To the right are big trees probably to block off the view from the Singapore Plaza shopping centre next door.

Further in, stood a beautiful colonial building on my right and there is a big bungalow to the left a distance away, on a small hill top after a big field. Assumingly, that would be the President residential area because there was police man standing guard along the road leading to the bungalow and it is out of bound for open-house visitors.

Finally, after some distances, I came upon a big canon and the terrace steps of the State building. The terrace is wide and long and there's a fountain in the middle of the terrace. The main building is huge and it is surrounded by lush greenery. There is a $2 dollar entrance fee to the building but it is very worthwhile. Inside, visitors get to see the state dinning room, the conference room and a room full of gifts from countries all over the hall. There were also many paintings hanging on the wall along the hall way. It is really an eyes opening experience for a first time visitor like me!

Besides, enjoying myself at the Istana, I did not forget to do my bit of charity too. I bought an Istana pin from the gifts counter and the money will be donated to the Singapore Community Chest to help the poor.

The Moon, the Red-Ring and the Clouds

One morning, I was looking out of the window and I noticed the moon was still shining brightly in the sky. There were some clouds and a red-ring circling the moon. I wanted to photograph the phenomenon so I quickly went back into my room to grab my Canon 40D and the 100-400 zoom.

I took a few shots but was rather disappointed with the results! No matter how much I compensate, I just couldn’t get a proper exposure of all the three elements. I would either get a properly exposed moon without the red-ring and the clouds, or I get an over-exposed moon with the red-ring and the clouds.

Finally I decide to capture a properly exposed moon and a properly exposed red-ring and clouds picture then merge the two using Photoshop. Here’s the photo after PS.


Moment later, when the sun rises higher in the sky, the moon disappeared but the clouds formation became very interesting. The clouds were very thick and white and the sky is very blue. It is very interesting to see how the sky changes within a short period of time!

Insect Macro Photography

Recently I got interested in macro-photography after reading some interesting articles on the Internet about the insects’ world. It seems that we could remove the entire animal from a jungle and there will be no harm to the jungle but if we were to remove all the insects from the same jungle, the whole ecology will collapse! This goes to show how important insects are to our jungle. There are million species of insects in our world and many have yet to be identified.

The Lower Pierce Reserviour is again a favorite haunt for me to photograph little insects as it is just walking distance from my house. Last Friday I went and took my first series of insect pictures but due to my laziness for not bringing my tripod and proper strobes, most of my pictures turned out to be disastrous! I have learnt my lesson and will be better equipped on my next trip.

Here are some "so so" photos to share. Hopefully with my new macro-setup I could take some better pictures on my future trips.