Another colour changing building in central Singapore - the Cathay

Problem
How do you photograph buildings which change colour at night?

Answers
You have these options:
Take several shots over a minute or two. Then print two or three alongside each other showing the greatest contrast in colour.
Take a video, slow and soothing as the colours gradually change and cars and bicycles and people move past.
Take several shots. Edit them and show them one after another as a slide show.
Play with animation on a slide show system such as Powerpoint or Keynote (on the Apple devices such as the Macbook) or Mosaic. Use special effects to show the pictures going from left to right, fading in and out, sliding over each other sideways or up and down. One of the effects buttons will show you several options.
Take several shot and animate them at speed to show the colour change faster and more dramatically.

Stories
I was crossing the road towards the Cathay building when I saw the pink colour wall fading. Was it really changing colour? The effect was so slow that you could not see the colour changing. Yes, after a minute or two (the lights were very slo to change for the pedestrians) I saw that it was turning from white to blue.

I started to take a photo, but the traffic lights changed in my favour. I glanced left and right and the road was clear and for a split second I was tempted to stop in in the middle of the road and take a photo. No. Don't.

It isn't worth it. It's never worth risking your life for a photo. You can find another place for a photo. Further along the path.

I remembered the time I had tried to photograph the statue of Captain Cook in New Zealand. I stood in the middle of the road. Another photo. Another. Another. Noise - an approaching tram!

As I tried to step to one side to avoid it I found another tram coming the other way. The sound of one masked the other. With two trams I had not much choice. No time to dither. I had to run one way or the other immediately - and fast - faster than the approach of the tram.

I just made it.

(Unlike the time in 1984 when I was knocked down by a car in Corsica. But that's another story.)

So, you'll forgive me if I don't have the perfect photo.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.