I travelled to Singapore recently, and snapped several photographs of (cultivated) flora and (captive) fauna while there. First are some pictures from Gardens by the Bay, inside a large, climate-controlled dome that was significantly cooler than the tropical environment outside.
The interior of the Cloud Forest dome is dominated by a large waterfall that cascades down a few storeys of various displays, housed in the building behind the waterfall.
There were some carved wooden statues inside, and I don’t know if they are authentic or not. There were many other such pieces adorning the gardens, and most of them were clearly modern artworks.
The aptly named Flower Dome is the second dome at Gardens by the Bay, and it houses a magnificent variety of flowering plants from across the world.
The bokeh (visual quality of out-of-focus areas) in the picture above isn’t too bad, considering that I was shooting with a consumer-grade zoom lens, but there is a touch of ‘nervousness’ in some parts of the background above. Look at the topmost leaves of the pale blue-grey plant in the background, if you’re not sure what I’m referring to. You’ll see that the edges are not smoothly blurred; compare that to the leaves of the dark green plant on the left edge of the frame, just above the pale blue-grey plant, and you should be able to see the difference.
Reproducing red objects is a challenge for most digital cameras, I’ve heard. They tend to ‘blow out’ (oversaturate, in a sense) vibrant red objects, and the countering technique is to lower exposure until the red areas no longer blow out. The picture above probably isn’t too bad in that regard, but I could have underexposed a bit more to preserve more detail in the red petals.
There are a few artificlal ‘trees’ outside the main structures, and I believe they serve to capture sunlight (for power) and perhaps also water as well.
A trip to Singapore Zoo was next, including a short boat cruise nearby.
I managed to get quite close to this young alligator, and also to get a good angle at which the intervening safety glass didn’t reflect too badly into the lens.
The tree pictured above stood out from its neighbours due to the number of birds gathered in its branches.
The merlion is a well-known emblem of Singapore, so while it isn’t a real animal, this is perhaps a fitting way to close out this selection of photographs.