Singapore

Last one week was Golden Week holidays in Japan and I spent it in sunny Singapore. It was an eventful week for me.Singapore is busy and pleasant for a visitor as usual, and I even went to the touristic Merlion site to take some evening pics.

As I had not brought a tripod along, I was fortunate to have the trusty Olympus E-3 with built in image stabiliser. I shot all these evening scenery shots handheld ! The Olympus is famous for its blue hues from its old Zuiko days, and the digital range SLRs have maintained this tradition. Coupled with the Leica, the colours are rich and saturated.

The above shot was taken with the 50-200mm SWD lens. The image quality is very good for a compact zoom that is very portable at only just below 1kg.

The above was shot with Leica's 14-50mm at a very slow shutter speed, impossible without the Image Stabilizer in the E-3 body. The colour is again rich and saturated. I shot it next to a Canon user who was using a tripod and a prime lens without image stabilizer. He must have been laughing at me quietly.

On this trip, I also met up with old friends from Raffles Hall for a birding outing. It started with heavy rain in the morning but fortunately the birding in the "wild" had plenty of man made shelter from the wilderness. The wild was of course, as wild as manicured Singapore, the Mandai Orchid Gardens.

These two buddies above, both of whom are accomplished lawyers, have a knack for photography. BL, (right) shoots mainly birds (the feathered kind), and on the left, Roger, shoots anything that captures his eyes. The third guy, Ruey, being the most serious photographer amongst us, was obviously not in the pic as he was busy taking pictures whilst we were having intellectual "discourse" on lenses and cameras.

These buddies were helping me decide on a telephoto lense, and had brought along their precious lenses and cameras for me to try. Roger even rented a Nikon 200mm F2. I am grateful to have such an opportunity, and friends like them who would share they knowledge and experience with me.

This Stork-Billed Kingfisher shot was taken with BL's E-3 with the 300mm F2.8 lens. An expensive lense but you can see why from the photo. Image is sharp and colours are saturated and rich. This kingfisher is the largest found in Singapore. They are rarely found in urban areas and hunt crabs, insects, frog, mice, lizards, birds and bird eggs. They are territorial and will chase away other larger birds like eagles and storks.

This is a Sunbird shot with the same 300mm lens. The lens is super sharp. The Sunbird belongs to the nectariniidae family, or nectar feeding birds. Although they are not related to hummingbirds, theya re similar in theor iridescent colours and feeding habits. They are found throughout Asia and make great photo subjects. Being small in size (9-22cm), long telephoto lenses are essential.

No outing is complete in Singapore without some snacks, so we had cream puffs, pizzas, drinks...The shot below was taken with BL's Leica 25mm F1.4, really wonderful colours and contrast. All in all, a wonderful and memorable experience birding with friends. Arigatou gozaimashita !