Gardens By The Bay, Singapore

My previous blog was a collection of images from Singapore and, to be perfectly honest, it was a blog I was never comfortable with. I struggled with the writing, I struggled with the image selection and, to me, the whole thing ended up an incohesive mess. It just didn’t flow for me at all - I think the images individually were fine, but the finished blog as a whole - meh.

Unlike my Rwanda Blog, there was no real story to follow, no real focus. I rushed through it and have considered deleting it, but in the end decided to leave it up and learn a lesson from my mistakes.

So, this blog is more focused - my photos are organised and chosen to provide some sort of flow. So, hopefully this one will be better!

I shall concentrate on Gardens By The Bay for this blog - it’s a wonderful location for photography and for just walking around and exploring. Garden walks, parks, lakes, huge flower domes and a decent choice of eating locations. I shall, sadly, throw in the caveat around the current lockdown situation - the virus has curtailed normal activities at the Gardens. However, at some point, they will reopen, life will settle into a new normality and hopefully my writings and snaps will spark some interest in visiting the Gardens when that once again becomes possible.

Another part of my thought process that I’ll throw out there revolves around how I choose my images. Obviously I want to show the best images I’ve got - I consider myself to be an undiscovered photographic genius who will one day earn recognition, fortune and great fame and this blog marks the first small steps towards that goal.

However, this blog isn’t a photo competition, the images really are just to help tell a story and spark some interest in anyone who ever has a look at these pages.

My mother always told me, between backhanders, “yer guid for nuthin, ye’ll come tae nuthin” - then she’d give my brother what I had assumed was my helping of jam roly poly and custard, wallop me again and send me off to the shed for the night. Well, this blog surely proves her wrong and, to be brutally honest her custard was rubbish anyway.

Sorry, I went off at a tangent there, lost my place. Oh yes - not a photo competition. All I want or need the images to do is portray a sense of the location and fit in with the narrative. Or I make the narrative fit with the images. Either works, and it’s just about getting a blended, smooth result (unlike my mother’s custard) that keeps people interested.

I need to stop rambling like that, I just had to remind myself of the blog topic. Ridiculous. OK, Gardens By The Bay(GBTB - not typing all that out again) spans 101 hectares near the Marina Bay area of Singapore and in 2018 had over 50 million visitors. The gardens themselves are free to stroll around, but attractions such as the domes and the Skywalk incur a fee. The largest of the two domes is the biggest greenhouse in the world and the gardens were opened officially back in 2012.

OK, let’s get to the images and related commentary - and I’ll open with a bang…

POW! Weren’t expecting that, were you? OK, here’s the bang I’m opening with. It’s clearly a metaphorical bang and I’ve no wish to upset any meteorologists or weather girls who may be reading. I’m aware it’s not lightning itself that makes the bang, no need to write in angry emails of complaint. So - what are we looking at here? Well, aside from the lightning, we are looking at the central Supertrees and the raised Skywalk at the centre of GBTB.

From a photographic standpoint, I’m pretty pleased with this - it was the first time I’d ever managed to catch some decent lightning shots - I’ve a series from this particular shoot. There was a fair bit of preparation - watching the weather, working out where I wanted to be, all that kinda thing. Singapore was going through a stormy period(literally, not metaphorically) and for a few weeks I’d been setting early alarms on weekends, checking weather apps and preparing to go to “my spot” if a lightning storm happened to be in the right place. Eventually I got lucky and I raced down to GBTB, got to where I wanted to be and prepped my gear.

For this, the camera was on a tripod and I had a cable release. You’re not going to get lucky and “time” a lightning shot so you aim for a long exposure and hope that the lightning strikes when the shutter is open. Then you end up with something like this. For those interested, the camera settings were f11, ISO 200, 10 second exposure - and this was shot at 6.30 in the morning (I’d been there since about 5.30am, watching the storm roll towards me.

Incidentally, by the time the storm got to this prime position, there were another dozen photographers here. As an aside, this image was featured in the main local paper, the Straits Times. Was kinda pleased about that.

OK, let’s stick with the early morning shots - here we are by “Dragonfly Lake” looking towards one of the domes, with three more Supertrees in the picture.

Same lake with the same three Supertrees - different morning snd a different angle. I little bit later in the morning, the sun is starting to rise. The lights on the trees change colour, that’s not me using any photoshop wizardry. Wouldn’t know how.

I can, however, remove small objects from images, quite pleased I managed to work that one out! And it happens to be easy - if any of you have Photoshop and want to see how simple “object removal” can be done in less than a minute, please have a look at this blog for step by step instructions, or this video for a quick tutorial.

OK, let’s move to a more sensible time of day. Not sure what time of day, exactly, but the sun was up, the sky was blue and Dear Prudence was being asked out to play. She’d have needed suncream and a sensible hat, though - get hot in these parts. Here we have the central Supertrees(same ones from the lightning shot) and the Skywalk, with the MBS hotel off to the right.

Here’s a view from on the Skywalk itself. Now, from a pure photographic perspective, I’m not happy with this - but it fits in with the story and gives an idea of what the Skywalk is like, so that’s fine.

Here’s a view from the other side of the Skywalk - happier all round with this shot.

So let’s have a little look inside the domes themselves. For me, from a photographic perspective, I was more interested in the lines and shapes from the architecture than in the flowers and fauna. Sorry about that. The best way to do this is get a lift to the top of the structure then walk down, as you see here. There is a massive indoor waterfall on the other side of this structure, but I can’t find the photos of it. Sigh, I feel like I’ve let you down - but, at the same time, it’s nice to leave a little bit of mystery. So let’s just say that was my intention and move on to the next image.

This view of the interior gives an idea of scale and the different levels as you walk back down from the top of the central structure. Maybe not for those of us who have extreme fears of heights. Oh, some fauna in this pick - yay me!

Another shot I’m not photographically happy with, but I think it serves a purpose here as a final interior shot. Again, giving an idea of scale plus showing some of the garden expanse outside the dome, this view looking away from the city and out to the sea. In front of us somewhere lies Satay by the Bay, an outdoor hawker centre. Apologies, no photos of that to share. Once this virus thing is over, I’ll go back and fill in some blanks.

Oh ok, i’ll admit it - I did take some flower snaps. Don’t ask me to name them though, no idea.

Another flower, again, no idea. IF you do know, I’d be happy to hear!

One last interior shot, I’m happier with this one - the exposure, the composition, both better. Again, you can see different levels and get an idea of the scale. I love the lines here as well as the trees in the background. Not perfect, but a better shot. OK, times getting on - we’ve had pre-sunrise, sunrise, daytime - let’s look at a night shot to wrap up the day. And the blog.

So here we go - the central trees and the skywalk, with the hotel in the background. All in, it’s been a perfect day, I’m glad I spent it with you.

So there we are then, Gardens by the Bay. Yes, there are parts of the park I missed out - some of the grassland/park areas, the exterior of the domes, Satay by The Bay and some other spot. But keep your audience wanting more! And, hopefully, at a date in the not too distant future, I can provide that “more” by going back and taking images with this blog in mind.

So, I hope this was of some interest, apologies of not.

Incidentally, I do have a short - and cheap - ebook for sale. Please feel free to have a browse, just a collection of images - you can see it here —> Portraits of Singapore

OK, that’s me done for now. So, as always, stay strong, stay safe - and be kind!

Fatman xxx