World Orchid Exhibition at Marina Bay Sands
Written at 3:22 PM on Thursday, November 17, 2011
Back to blog about my trip to Marina Bay Sands (MBS) on Tuesday to see the World Orchid Exhibition. Yeah, I'm "too free" to look at flowers (inside joke). Well, I wasn't there to just look at the orchids. I was there to take photos of them and to practice my photography skills with my new Lumix GF2 micro four thirds camera.
The idea of taking macro flower shots came about one day when I was thinking of subjects to take as practice shots on the new camera. I thought of taking pictures of flowers by the roadside but then it would be embarrassing when people walk pass. So, as I was reading the papers last weekend, I chanced upon an advertisement on the World Orchid Exhibition. The rest as they say is history.
I went down to MBS after my classes on Tuesday (which ended early at 1pm) to meet my mum there. Overall, it was an amazing trip. Although the orchid display wasn't impressive enough (in my opinion), the stalls at the exhibition were very interesting. From gold plated orchids to miniature orchid gardens, there were many stalls that displayed their orchid-related goods. Of course, almost half the stalls there were selling orchids that were ready to be planted. Looking at the flowers at the exhibition, one will feel more relaxed. Hopefully, the pictures below give you the same sense of relaxation. (Note: Click to enlarge pictures.)
I'll start with one of my favorite shots. It's a beautiful white orchid indeed.
All the purple orchid flowers unite!
This reminds me of a lady's finger.
Another good shot. Pink orchid flowers instead. I wished I photographed the name on the flower.
Potted Orchids. I realized that the yellow one in the background won several awards.
Making use of white space to let the orchid stand out.
I named this image as A Forest of Orchids.
Now, below are the shots which were taken at the stalls beside the exhibition.
At the back of my mind: "This pot of orchids won't be cheap..."
One of my super close up shots of the purple orchid. The lighting here is amazing and way better the exhibition lights, which were directional lights. (On this note, I can't believe they actually used such poor lighting for a world orchid exhibit.)
This is one of my favorite shots too. Also, I made a black and white version of it.
Want to have your own orchid garden? Buy one!
After spending one and a half hours in the exhibition hall, we decided to venture into the The Shoppes at MBS. It's basically the huge shopping section the MBS resort. Towards the north end of the MBS shopping section, there was a huge outdoor wooden porch that overlooked Singapore's Central Business District skyline. And this is my shot of the skyline.
This one is called "Heart of the City".
After enjoying some fresh air outside, we went back in (to shop of course). I wanted to visit Sephora so I went in with my mum to get some products (Picture of the products we got are at the end of the post.) Walked around the shopping section afterwards and I found it a pleasurable experience walking around the place. This is because in most shopping malls in Singapore, I always have to find myself trying to not knock over people. In MBS The Shoppes, you see alot of empty space, which doesn't make one feel stressed.
At around 5.30pm, we decided to walk over to the Gardens by the Bay at Marina Bay through the connecting bridge. The connecting bridge passes through the Marina Bay Sands hotel section. This is yet another picture I took of the unique architecture of the hotel building.
After passing the hotel building, we continued walking along the bridge and it also passes over the PIE (or the Marina Flyover). An awesome view from the skypark bridge.
Unfortunately, me and my mum felt that the Gardens by the Bay wasn't nice to look at and we started to hear lighting from a distance. Night was already falling and we headed back.
Night time view of the Singapore Flyer and PIE. Alot of professional photographers were taking shots in the dark. This was the best I could do without a tripod.
The trip back home took 1 hour and 20 minutes and we were exhausted. However, I thought that it was indeed worth the trip. The view was (almost) breathtaking and honestly, there isn't much good photography locations to take a good skyline shot. MBS, being one of the places which is open to the public, is a great location to take photos, especially when there's an event like this going on.
Before I forget, the stuff that we bought at Sephora. From left to right: Urban Decay Naked Palette, Fresh Soy Face cleanser, Urban Decay eyeliners. The eyeliners were a steal at $45.
That's it, folks. Alot of photographs this time to make up for the lack of photos in my blog. Hopefully, you've enjoyed the pictures.
The idea of taking macro flower shots came about one day when I was thinking of subjects to take as practice shots on the new camera. I thought of taking pictures of flowers by the roadside but then it would be embarrassing when people walk pass. So, as I was reading the papers last weekend, I chanced upon an advertisement on the World Orchid Exhibition. The rest as they say is history.
I went down to MBS after my classes on Tuesday (which ended early at 1pm) to meet my mum there. Overall, it was an amazing trip. Although the orchid display wasn't impressive enough (in my opinion), the stalls at the exhibition were very interesting. From gold plated orchids to miniature orchid gardens, there were many stalls that displayed their orchid-related goods. Of course, almost half the stalls there were selling orchids that were ready to be planted. Looking at the flowers at the exhibition, one will feel more relaxed. Hopefully, the pictures below give you the same sense of relaxation. (Note: Click to enlarge pictures.)
I'll start with one of my favorite shots. It's a beautiful white orchid indeed.
All the purple orchid flowers unite!
This reminds me of a lady's finger.
Another good shot. Pink orchid flowers instead. I wished I photographed the name on the flower.
Potted Orchids. I realized that the yellow one in the background won several awards.
Making use of white space to let the orchid stand out.
I named this image as A Forest of Orchids.
Now, below are the shots which were taken at the stalls beside the exhibition.
At the back of my mind: "This pot of orchids won't be cheap..."
One of my super close up shots of the purple orchid. The lighting here is amazing and way better the exhibition lights, which were directional lights. (On this note, I can't believe they actually used such poor lighting for a world orchid exhibit.)
This is one of my favorite shots too. Also, I made a black and white version of it.
Want to have your own orchid garden? Buy one!
After spending one and a half hours in the exhibition hall, we decided to venture into the The Shoppes at MBS. It's basically the huge shopping section the MBS resort. Towards the north end of the MBS shopping section, there was a huge outdoor wooden porch that overlooked Singapore's Central Business District skyline. And this is my shot of the skyline.
This one is called "Heart of the City".
After enjoying some fresh air outside, we went back in (to shop of course). I wanted to visit Sephora so I went in with my mum to get some products (Picture of the products we got are at the end of the post.) Walked around the shopping section afterwards and I found it a pleasurable experience walking around the place. This is because in most shopping malls in Singapore, I always have to find myself trying to not knock over people. In MBS The Shoppes, you see alot of empty space, which doesn't make one feel stressed.
At around 5.30pm, we decided to walk over to the Gardens by the Bay at Marina Bay through the connecting bridge. The connecting bridge passes through the Marina Bay Sands hotel section. This is yet another picture I took of the unique architecture of the hotel building.
After passing the hotel building, we continued walking along the bridge and it also passes over the PIE (or the Marina Flyover). An awesome view from the skypark bridge.
Unfortunately, me and my mum felt that the Gardens by the Bay wasn't nice to look at and we started to hear lighting from a distance. Night was already falling and we headed back.
Night time view of the Singapore Flyer and PIE. Alot of professional photographers were taking shots in the dark. This was the best I could do without a tripod.
The trip back home took 1 hour and 20 minutes and we were exhausted. However, I thought that it was indeed worth the trip. The view was (almost) breathtaking and honestly, there isn't much good photography locations to take a good skyline shot. MBS, being one of the places which is open to the public, is a great location to take photos, especially when there's an event like this going on.
That's it, folks. Alot of photographs this time to make up for the lack of photos in my blog. Hopefully, you've enjoyed the pictures.
Labels: photography, Photoshop, shopping