Singapore has always be on my bucket list since I have been into photography. The country itself is full of modern architecture and clean environment. An amazing playground for a photographer like me!
Because the city is known to be so expensive, and because all I wanted to do was shooting pictures, I took advantage of a national holiday in Thailand to fly by myself to Singapore!
The city is only 2.5hr away from Bangkok by air. On a Friday after work, I hopped on a plane and the next morning I was well rested and ready to go.
This article is going to be quite long, so take the time to appreciate everything and get yourself comfortable 😌
Day one
My first stop was at DUO Tower. This place is a contemporary twin-tower integrated mixed-use development. The project was finished only 2 years ago and happened to be only 5mn away from my hotel.
I then walked to a hotel a few blocks away, Naumi Hotel. Its green facade appeared to be amazing on the others pictures I saw, but I found it to be a bit deceiving in person. I got only one interesting shot:
Next, I took a taxi to the Nanyang Technological University, which was a long 30mn ride away from where I was. I got there in the very beginning of my trip to be sure I won’t be too lazy to go back at another time, it was far away from everything else I wanted to shoot.
The particular building I wanted to shoot is called The Hive
The hive is a learning hub, intended for the students of the university to come and study, relax and work on projects. There are many tables and co working spaces, as well as classrooms and cafes.
The architecture of this building is very unique and it won many awards at its creation. I am pretty sure you can guess from where it got its name from!
I took another taxi ride to a condominium that was on the way back to Outram area, in the centre of Singapore.
This place is basically an apartment building, but its straight lines and blue paint made it famous all over Instagram. You can access it freely with the elevator as long as you keep in mind that there are actually people living there that don’t want to be disturbed by photographers and models…
It was already time for lunch and by chance, a Shake Shack burger restaurant happened to be opening on that very day!
Of course beef is not cheap in southeast Asia, and so is the cost of life in Singapore. You can guess that menu was quite expensive for what it is. But what a feast!
Now back to shooting. I headed to another condo, this one was a bit trickier to find and access but it was worth the hassle.
The condo featured a pool and a court of whatever sport I don’t know about. It does not look like a tennis court for sure. The floor numbers add a cool visual element to this place.
I then went to Marina One Gallery, which is yet another mixed used development. A mix between a gym, offices, a hotel and a big park in the centre. Such a cool and calm place on a Saturday afternoon.
This is definitely a place I could see myself to work at.
Gardens by the bay and Marina Bay Sands is an area of which I could write a whole article about. This is clearly the best part of the city and the place where I saw the most amount of tourists.
The whole area is part of a huge project that was finished in 2005, and that truly transformed Singapore into Asia’s greenest city.
A good excuse to fly my drone above a safe area:
The two glass buildings shown above are Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. Both are amazing air conditioned buildings that are home to flower and plants from all over the planet! A kind of zoo for green lovers.
My favorite of the two sure was Cloud Forest, with its huge indoor waterfall and promenade high above the ground
Another amazing feature of this area is the Supertree Grove and its OCBC skyway promenade.
It’s at dusk that this place really shines, and every night, at 7:45PM, occurs the Garden Rhapsody. This light and sound show is clearly not to be missed.
A good opportunity to make use of the heavy tripod I carried around all day…
I wrapped up the day at The Floating Eggs, an interactive art installation next to where I was. The 334 eggs change of color and some of them produce a sound everytime you touch them. Another cool experience to check out, but I believe the exhibition to be only temporary.
Two metro stops away, and I reached Haji Lane, the neighborhood of my hotel. I had a quick lebanese diner, backed up all my pictures and called it a day at only 9:30 PM.
I did not post all the places I’ve been to that day because some of them did not turn great on camera, or were closed, or I was denied entry. Sometimes photography is a matter of luck! But after a long hot day outside and more than 15 photo locations it was time for me to get some rest.
Day 2
After a good night and a breakfast at the hotel, I was ready to rock day 2. I planned another big day of walking around and shooting.
I started to stroll around Haji Lane, which happens to be the area where my hotel was in.
Haji Lane is the indie area, full of restaurants, boutiques and cafes. It is really calm in the morning and it was to me the most interesting time of the day to shoot it, even though it’s at night that this place really shines out.
One cool landmark to check out there also is the Sultan Mosque, although very beautiful, it felt not very authentic to me.
Then I headed to the area of luxurious hotels to shoot some lobbies. First one being PARKROYAL COLLECTION Marina Bay, previously known as Marina Mandarin. I managed to sneak in quite easily at breakfast time and took some good pictures
The most impressive hotel of that morning clearly was at Pan Pacific. The shot I wanted to get was much more difficult to achieve because you needed a keycard to get to the high stairs, and then take another elevator to get even higher up.
As I was doing my business on the corridors of this hotel, I had to get my camera hanging out in the air, shooting with only one hand while I was trying to be as discreet as possible. The higher floors are for the private suites so I sure didn’t have any good reason to be up there.
I then went to National Gallery Singapore, which is kind of the museum of the history of Singapore. Not really my thing. But as most museums, it provides big clean spaces with always great perspectives and photo opportunities.
Then, I went for a lunch in Funan Mall, which was much cooler than what I expected
The mall has its own climbing wall, and you can ride through it by bike, as it has a bike lane going from one side to the other.
It also features a rooftop garden and an ‘urban farm’ where you can see and touch 50 species of edible plants
I then walked to Old Police Hill Station, which is a political building that has those colourful window curtains. Also very famous and perfect for pictures.
Swipe to browse through these 3 pics:
I then went to another hotel, PARKROYAL Pickering, which I believe to be quite famous around the world due to it’s spectacular lush architecture. To be honest, this hotel itself was one of the reason I wanted to shoot Singapore so bad.
I did not manage to get up to the pool but the view from the street itself is already rewarding! Especially with the drone!
I did quite other few stops that afternoon but I want only want to keep the best of the best for this post. Another cool place I visited was Library@Orchard, which is a library inside a mall that was made famous mostly for its view from the staircase… And I think you will understand why
I then headed back to my hotel to have a little bit of rest, and planned to go out for a sunset shoot.
This was the money shot I prepared ahead of my visit, the Marina Bay Sands hotel hosts a laser show every night at 8pm sharp. I got there early, set up the tripod, shot some different exposures at different times of the sunset only to find out the laser show was cancelled, starting from that particular day, due to Covid 19 mesures…
Day 3
On day 3, I did not plan anything special to do in the city itself, as I had to check out and catch my flight. I drove a bike around the city and the park and took a few shots of the Merlion and the Theatres of the Bay
Then, I headed back to the airport. Changi airport itself is a touristic attraction on its own. The Jewel Changi is the mall next to it, featuring the Rain Vortex, which is nothing less than the tallest indoor waterfall in the world. Absolutely breathtaking!
I spend 2 full hours wandering around the levels of the mall admiring this place!
So that’s a wrap for my photo trip in Singapore, thank you for reading this quite long article, I had so many pictures to show!
I really loved this city and I am hoping to get back there again. It is much different from Bangkok, both have their particularities, but Singapore was at the very top of the cities I wanted to shoot, and I believe 3 day was a good length to see most of it, but it sure was intense.
Adventure Outlook 
very good pictures, kiss from your begian family!
You’re not scare about your drone 🙂
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