Singapore

Day 1
Arrived in the middle of the night. Decided to stay overnight at Crown Plaza in Chang i airport

 I love congee breakfast.

Afterwards we explored Chang i airport. I waited until noon to ride the world's longest slide in the airport!

Then we checked in Marina Bay Sands for 1 day.
This is our view.

The room

                                Then we went to Clarke Quay to the camera rental store

Kind of quiet during the day.

Afterwards, we walked to Merlion, boy was it hot and humid here!

The we walked back to Marina Bay Sands.

Time for Infinity Pool!

Love this view from above.

For dinner, we decided to take MRT to Chinatown.

Day 2
The standard topi team breakfast at Food court

 Then we decided to use infinity pool again.

Then we check out of Marina Bay Sands and go explore Garden by the Bay.

Cloud Forest

Flower dome

Cherry Blossom

Then we had lunch at food court- Nasi Lemak

Then we checked in to Swissotel. We got a view that face Marina Bay Sands.

For this night, we decided to explore Little India. We took MRT at City Hall station.

Sri Veeramman temple

You need to take shoes off before enter.

Afterwards we had Naan and tandoori chicken 

Our hotel view at night.

 Day 3
This day was very unexpected.
We didn't expect to walk in to a Good Friday Service at Chapel

 We didn't expect to walk in Facebook Singapore and see no one there working- Good Friday is a national holiday for them. We had the place to ourselves!

We had lunch with 4th Aunt and her family.

We didn't expect to go to Sentosa! and to go to the beach that leads to the southernmost point of continental asia!

The bridge that leads there

The beach

See the Merlion in Sentosa.

 Then we went back to hotel and rest. Twilight view.

The I saw the laser show at Marina Bay Sands.

This night, we had dinner at hotel and I went shopping while Paul went to Chinatown again.

 Day 4
Swim in the morning.

Had hotel breakfast.

Trishaw :)

Then we walked toward Clarke Quay to return the camera

Saw the building that looks like St. Paul

Mr. Raffles

Along the way we took a picture with a snake!

Had Bak kut teh

Then we went on a tour to Raffles Hotel and had afternoon tea in Tiffin Room.

Afterwards we went on Singapore River Cruise

In an iconic bumboats which used to ferry cargo at Singapore's trading port.

Cruise down to Marina Bay, Boat Quay, and back to Clarke Quay.

Passed by the oldest bridge in Singapore

Marina Bay Sands.

Then we end to tour.

After the tour, we went back to Raffles since our hotel is right next door. This time is the Long Bar.

and we had Singapore Sling.

The last meal in Singapore was Chili Crab at Jumbo. It's a little pricy but definitely lived up to it's name. The sauce is delicious! That concludes our short stay here.

The flight back we explored the Changi airport some more. It's got a butterfly garden, movie theatre and many more.

Here is a photo of sunset in the sky to end our wonderful trip!

Hong Kong

Day 1
We arrive late, check in at The Langham Hong Kong

It has nice rooms!

Then we venture out to eat Din Tai Fung. They are 5 of these restaurants in Hong Kong.

Day 2

We took a 1/2 day Hong Kong Tour which included Sampan ride in historic fishing village Aberdeen.

Stanley Bay

Boathouse

Stanley Market

Victoria Peak- due to the fog, we couldn't see the view.

Afterwards, we took MRT to Shanghai Street

That night, we meet up with Peggy and Eric at Aqua and saw the laser show

Day 3- We took a day trip which included Lantau island and giant Buddha

First we stopped by Tai O Village. Due to the rain, we couldn't see much.

Then we went up to see Big Buddha, miraculously the sun came out briefly to allow us to see Buddha

Then we took Ngong Ping 360 back to Hong Kong island.

Day 4

Our last day, we decided to explore Kowloon area by having breakfast at Charlie Brown.

Then we took Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island

We wanted to see the world's longest covered mid level escalator

It took awhile to get to the top.  There are cool neighborhood in between.

Then we went to visit Facebook Hong Kong.

Our last meal in Hong Kong- dim sum!

How to take better pictures

1. Use your camera- I mostly use my iPhone6 to take photos, however, If I happened to take an amazing photo on my DSLR, I email to myself and download to my phone and post on FB or Instagram.

2. Get up early or stay up late.
When I was in Taiwan, I stayed in an airbnb next to rice field. The beauty of sunrise constantly amazes me.

Then there was the time we stayed until sunset in Kaohsiung harbor. Dusk is a magical time to capture photographs. The colorful sky will form a backdrop to your photo and create a different mood than what you would achieve in bright sunlight.

3. Focus-
Play around with focus and feature the subject. The spider in the middle of this park really stands out.

4. Texture
There was a student in my final portfolio class that focuses on wall textures. When they were enlarged, it looked like a painting.

5. Framing-
Using something fun or interesting to frame your image is a great way to see your subject in a new light. In this case, it's the sunmoon observatory building that frames the boy.

6. Negative space-

Relating to the space around your subject, it's a key element or artistic composition. Having my feet minimal surrounded by fishes ensures more attention to the water.

7. Perspective

Telling your viewers where to look is a clever way to draw them into your photograph. Using yellow color to make the cabs stand out is a fun way of expressing this point.

8. Sense of Place

Look around to see what can be incorporated alongside your subject to help tell the story of the destination.

9. Use editing apps

Changing a photograph to B/W or using different filters gives a different mood all together.

10. Always ask- don't be afraid to ask people if you can take photo of them

11. Composition- Depending on the photo, use the rule of third can be helpful but not always.

12. Shoot straight- don't worry, you can correct it later, especially the horizons.

13. Get into nature and choose your background wisely- One of my passion nowadays is travel, it doesn't even need to be too far from where you live, taking a photo with the environment around you can tell a story.

14. Get higher or lower- My mother told me in this recent trip to LA that I'm like a little kid again running all over the place.

15. Lighting is the key- I always shoot natural light and avoid using flash, you can always brighten it later.

16. Practice, practice, practice- When I first took photography class, one of the requirement is to enter a contest. So I entered Filoli call to artist contest. That year, I didn't got juried in, but the person who is incharge of the event told me never give up and keep learning. Last year, I tried again and got juried in the show!

17. Challenging yourself to a project (i.e. 365 day project.)

The Last Bookstore

Going to LA to see my parents is a vacation for me as well as for them. Since they usually don't drive outside of their comfort zone. I researched ahead and knew that I wanted to visit The Last Bookstore during this trip, we arrived there around 10:30am. Find a valet parking lot underneath a hotel for $6.
Here is what it looks like from outside.

We immediately liked the architecture of the building. I later find out that this place used to be a bank.
Here is inside the vault.

There are two floors to the Last Bookstore. Here is a photo of downstairs from above.

The flying books upstairs is really cool!

There were art galleries upstairs, here is my parents posing :)

 Christmas garlands made out of medicine bottles!

 Pennies on the floor.

Tunnel of books is one of the must visit place in this bookstore.

I enjoyed visiting this one of a kind bookstore.