3D Post No. 31 - Concept Apartment WIP

..added a few details today.

3D Post No. 30 - Concept Apartment

I haven't totally abandoned my day job: (still a work in progress though) :) Stay tuned for the flyby :D

Chinatown - Part 2

Photo Blog - Chinatown

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Excerpts from Wikipedia and Wikitravel:

"Singapore's Chinatown is the traditional Chinese quarters of town, and while the entire city is largely Chinese these days the area does retain some of its own charm. The area is also known as Niu Che Shui (牛车水) in Chinese and Kreta Ayer in Malay, both names meaning "bullock cart water", a reference to the carts that used to haul in drinking water."

"The area between Pagoda Street and Smith Street has been tarted up considerably for tourists, but workaday Chinatown continues south and east, merging seamlessly into the Central Business District."

"The street architecture of Chinatown's buildings, the shophouses especially, combine different elements of baroque architecture and Victorian architecture and do not have a single classification. Many of them were built in the style of painted ladies, and have been restored in that fashion. These styles result in a variety of different colours of which pastel is most dominant. Trengganu Street, Pagoda Street and Temple Street are such examples of this architecture, as well as development in Upper Cross Street and the houses in Club Street. Boat Quay was once a slave market along the Singapore River, Boat Quay has the most mixed-style shophouses on the island."

"The architectural character of many of the terraces in Chinatown is much more Italianate in style than those of, for instance Emerald Hill or Petain Road. Windows often appear as mere slitstimber jalousies (often with adjustable slats). Fanlights over the windows are usually quite decorative and the pilasters and balconies and even the plasterwork and colours seem to be Mediterranean in flavour. The style was probably introduced by those early Chinese immigrants (both China-born and Straits-born) who had knowledge of the PortugueseMacao, Malacca and Goa. The Chettiars and Tamils from Southern India would also have been familiar with the European architecture there, although it is difficult to imagine how these people would have had a particularly strong influence on building in Chinatown."

The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in South Bridge Road is the newest landmark in the area.

Photo Blog - Singapore Nightscape Part 2

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Took these using a tripod - and using 3 diff white balances - sunlight, cloudy and auto. Still shaky though - now I am pondering on getting either a remote or a better tripod.. waaaa.. I'm hopeless..

I need a rehab from this photography thing..

The SB-400

D50 owner Jerwin introduced me to this accessory for the D40. Read about it here. So I indulged myself with it - I got mine from John 3:16 photo supplies in Funan. Got it fr this dude:

I suppose their shop's name suggests they are a Christian business... Besides they keep on calling each other "sisters" and "brothers"...

Ok.. tests.. I took the above picture using the "auto-no flash" setting in the camera dial, with white balance set to automatic. The noise is very obvious here since it was taken in dim situations and the iso was set to 1600. The higher the iso, the noisier it gets. To eliminate noise, that's where my SB-400 will come in handy.

So I tested it if it really is worth the S$210 I paid for - Can you tell which one below is a result of the built-in flash or the SB-400?

Very slight difference for close objects I think.. these are the images you get on a normal flash pointing directly at the subjects. Quite dull in most situations.

The real reason why I got this external flash is because of bounce lighting.

And it didn't disappoint - tilted the flash 90 degrees upwards, here's what I got:

Shadows and highlights are more natural in this photo. :) Cool!


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and on one corner - I noticed the envy of the other gadgets with the attention my D40 gets -

Hehehe.

Heroes

..with Butters / Professor Chaos at the helm

Photo Blog - Night Shots

Photo Blog - Singapore Impressions - City at Night

..'been strolling through the City Hall MRT area one evening and decided to walk my way towards wherever I can get a cab. D40 in hand, I shot a few photos:

Funan Digital Mall - where IT geeks buy their stuff

St. Andrew's Cathedral - always mistaken for a Catholic church



The old Central Fire Station and adjacent pedestrian overpass



Bridge to Chinatown - with some Vesak festival decorations



..more street decorations



Chinatown


..almost entered the colorful night market in Chinatown when a cab pulled over. Time for me to call it a night..

Photo Blog - Singapore Impressions - My Neighborhood

Lor Sarhad mosque

Newly built (and recently sold out) apartment

The community cat