33/09 - Chua Chu Kang Ave 5 (19 Dec 09)

(A Threesome by Allan Lee)


(Caressing by Anthony Quek)

Participants (8) : Allan Lee (Team Leader), Kyaw Htay, Yeo TL, Kenneth Ng, Michael Ooi, Pegi Lee, Sharon S. Lim & Anthony

32/09 - Wild Wild West (12 Dec 09)

(My Tapered Head by Darren Chng)

Participants (15) : Tony Png (Team Leader), Allan Lee, Darren Chng, Sharon Lim, Cai Yixiong, Ong Lim Sim, Hazel Han, Yeo TL, Lim Chuan Kwee, Chan CP, Kyaw Htay, Anthony Quek & Pegi Lee with 2 friends

31/09 - Upper Peirce (27 Nov 09)

We had another great IMOG outing at Upper Pierce with 16 participants. The condition of the terrain was wet and muddy, not what we expected because the weather was dry the last few days before the outing. Some parts of the track was blocked by fallen trees and we had to skirt around or walk in between the trails. Nevertheless, the tough condition did not stop us from shooting. Apart from some common subjects, we saw a Huntsman spider eating a Harvestman, a pair of mating common Two-tailed spider, a spider with a triangular abdoman, a Green Tree snail, few Copper Cheek frogs but no chance of getting close to them. The star of the trip was the beautiful male damselfly, Libellago Aurantiaca. We ended at 12.30 pm and had Bak Kut Teh for lunch at Sin Ming Road.

(Forest Damselfly, Libellago Aurantiaca by Allan Lee)

(Slug by Richard Erh)

Participants (16) : Allan Lee (Team Leader), Wei Luen, Richard Erh, Teck Nam, Kenneth Ng, Hazel Han, Ong LS, Yeo TL, Shereen Ng, Ngee Chye, Peter Low, Tony Png, Sharon S. Lim, Eugene Hu and 2 friends.

30/09 - Holland Woods (21 Nov 2009)

We started our macro shooting at about 7:40 am. The site was a bit wet as a result of the rain the night before. Along the path, many of vegetation were covered by numerous debris which seems to be newly stired up by vehicle probably at early morning before we arrived. There are still quite a large number of dragonfly, mostly Crocothemis servilia (right, by Lee Yan Leong), a couple of damselfly like ischnura senegalensis (left, by Stephen Lim), Katydid hopper, and many spiders include Wolf Spider, Lynx spider and crab spider. As usual, the site turns to totally exposed to the hot sun at about 11am, and participants were started to leave.

Participants (9): Cai Yixiong (Trip Leader), Teck Nam, Eugene Hu, Kyaw Htay, Stephen Lim, Catherine Sum, Tan Peck Kheng, Sharon S. Lim, Lee Yan Leong.

29/09 - Night Macro @ Venus Drive (7 Nov 09)

We had a successful 3rd night macro outing in Venus Drive with 16 macro enthusiast attended. The weather was fine except that the initial part of the ground was a little damp and wet due to the previous days of rain. Other than that, most of us enjoyed the outing. It was also a good experience for those first timers in night macro.

We saw many lynx spiders, very common in the day and yet they are also quite active at night. Sac spider, some sort of garden spider spinning its web, St. Andrew Cross spiders, Cyrtarachne Bufo spider, many bull frogs that stayed in the open, middle of track, preying on insects. A few brown-coloured praying mantis, many snails, hoppers and sleeping dragonflies.

The stars of the night were the Stick Insect, Scorpion and the Bioluminescence Fungus. We spent about 3.5 hrs in the dark trail and left before 11.00 pm.

Pictures: (Scropion by Cai Yixiong, Bioluminescence Fungi by Allan Lee, Hopper by Lee Yan Leong)

Participants (16) : Allan Lee (Team Leader), Cai Yixiong, Lee Yan Leong, Sharon Lim with a friend, Pegi Lee, Richard Er, Wei Luen, Jess, Catherine Sum, Hazel Han, Michael Ooi, Eugene Hu, Hanry Wong, Ngee Chai & Anthony Quek

28/09 - Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West (31 Oct 09)

A little drizzle was not an obstacle for 13 enthusiastic Macro Shooters. They came down all the way (some stay in Jurong and Bedok) to meet us, to hone their nature photographic skills. The rain brought us luck. We did not go far (exploring the other areas, the fern garden, open bushes, and shaded woods/old rubber plantation.), just concentrated on a stretch of the lotus pond. We found interesting water droplets everywhere, fishing spiders, frogs (big and small), a butterfly, 4 nos. of big hairy beautiful yellow caterpillars, pretty lotuses, and the star of the day was a newly emerged dragonfly (right picture by Yixiong). The outing ended at about 11am when the sky was gloomy again. We all had a great time, and had lunch together at a hawker centre behind the public library.

(Newly Emerged Dragonfly by Allan Lee)

Participants (13) : Endy Tan (Team Leader), Joshua Fong, Cai Yi Xiong, Pegi Lee, Joe Tan, Allan Lee, Agnes Goh, Michael Ee, Sheereen Ng, CP Chan, Rosemary, Michael Neo & Patrick Tay

27/09 - Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve (17 Oct 09)

We met at Kranji MRT station at 7.30am and moved to SBWR at about 7.50am. Our shooting was shooting was supposed to start at the outdoor classroom in the middle of Loop 1. The group was distracted while on our way there as a median size Malayan Monitor lizard was posed very nicely in the middle of the road, and many of us were just having a good time shooting it. The outdoor classroom is just next to a pond and there are many kind of various plants there, which provided us with more opportunity to get macro subjects. We found robberfly, dragonflies and a lot of beautiful bugs which were ,unfortunately, under very difficult lighting condition. Later on, when we were shooting along the way back to the Visitor Centre, there were quite a no. of praying mantis, cicada cast, spiders, etc.

(Praying Mantis by Cai Yixiong)

During our shooting, there were many visitors passing by. Rey, Con and PT Lee who were birding there came to chit-chat for a while. We finished at 12.30 pm and then moved to have lunch at Sungei Kadok. Generally speaking, the site is good but the subjects there were quite spread out in term of area, and many visitors moving around while we were shooting which may have affected our shooting.

Participants (19) : Cai Yi Xiong (Team Leader), Pegi Lee, Ong Lim Sim, Stephen Lim, Lee Yan Leong, Sharon Lim, Agnes Goh, Eugene Hu (with wife and a friend), Yeo Tang Lim, Hazel Han, Kyaw Htay, Joshua Fong, Rosemary, CP Chan, Tan Peck Keng (with nephew) & Shannon Ong.

26/09 - Sungei Ulu Pandan (3 Oct 09)

At first it seemed that there were not many subjects as half of the group walked fast and reached the end of the site. Luckily, some participants concentrated, looked carefully in the bushes and found quite a few subjects just near the entrance to the path. We saw some grass hoppers (common grasshoppers -4 species, uncommon grasshoppers -3 species), plant hoppers, 3 species of katydids, 3 species of moths, 3 species of skippers, 4 species of spiders, 3 caterpillars, stick insect, fleshfly, dragonfly, etc. But the stars of that day were the long caterpillar and the weird looking monkey hoppers which allowed us to take close-up for hours. We ended at about 12 pm and enjoyed our lunch together at TradeHub21.

(Monkey Hopper by Cai Yixiong)

(Long caterpillar by Sharon S. Lim)

Participants (11) : Endy Tan (Team Leader), Cai Yixiong, Vincent See, Simon Ow, Pegi Lee, Yeo TL, Sharon S. Lim, Michael Ooi, Kyaw Htay, CP Chan & Rosemary

25/09 - Dairy Farm Nature Park (26 Sep 09)

Dairy Farm Nature Park was officially opened on 5 Sep 09. Being a new nature park, it attracted a high turn out of 17 participants joining this outing. Our meeting point was at Carpark A (nearer to the main road) to make it convenient for those who do not drive.

(Setting up at Dairy Farm Carpark A)


(Photographers in action @ Wallace Trail)

Partipicipants (17) : Anthony Quek (Team Leader), Allan Lee, Endy Tan, Tony Png, Sharon Lim, Ong Lim Sim, Yeo TL, Darren Chng, Kyaw Htay, Michael Ooi, Vincent Ng, Vincent See, Pegi Lee, Michael Ee, Chung Wah, Lester Koh & Lee Yan Leong)

24/09 - Upper Peirce (29 Aug 09)

This morning's IMOG outing to Upper Pierce/Nee Soon Swamp was an exciting one. The place has great potential and there were many creatures which we seldom see in our usual macro sites. We saw huge/giant ants about an inch long, millipedes, strange look creature (Beetle larvae), frogs, Geosesarmar crabs, tree snail, etc. There are also quite a number of dragonflies and damselflies. The place was wet and possibly rained in the previous night or early morning. While we were there, it rained for about an hour too. Light was poor but by about 10 am, the sun was out. We ended our outing at about 1:30pm, and all of us were quite happy about what we got there... ;)

Few subjects could be found here, and many more will be posted in the NPSS Website (http://npss.org.sg/forum/)


(Copper-cheek frog by Lee Yan Leong)


(Millipede close-up by Allan Lee)


(Green Tree Snail by Cai Yixiong)

Participants (14) : Cai Yixiong (Team Leader), Endy Tan, Allan Lee, Tony Png, Anthony Quek, Ong Lim Sim, Lee Yan Leong, Shereen Ng, Pegi Lee, Joshua Fong, Sharon S. Lim, Tan Peck Kheng, Peter Low & Joe Tan)

23/09 - Margaret Drive (22 Aug 09)

We had another successful outing at Margaret Drive (MD). The weather was good, except that it became a little hot and windy in the late morning. The start as well as end point were quite shady, not affected by the late morning sun as it was sheltered by tall trees and vegetation. The area was quite big and we could explore further in our next revisit to MD. A very nice green colour spiky moth caterpillar was found in addition to some common subjects such as, Lynx & Jumping spiders, Leaf Beetles, few species of butterflies & moths, Preying Mantis & many Bark Lice (see right picture by Allan Lee).

Shooting started before 8 am and stopped at around 11 am. Thereafter, we headed to Adam Food Centre for an early lunch before making our way to the afternoon Photo Critiques and sharing session.

(Flower buds by Allan Lee)

Participants (9) : Allan Lee (Team Leader), Endy Tan, Shereen Ng. Hazel Han, Chan CP, Yeo TL, Eugene Hu, Vincent See & Peck Kheng.

22/09 - Bedok Rise (1 Aug 09)

We started at 7:45 am by exploring the furthest left side (hilly area) from the gathering place. Not many butterflies were seen like the 1st trip in January 2009 (more than 16 species were found in last visit), this time only fewer than 8 species were observed (but very active, flying around).

We spotted some leafhoppers, grasshoppers, tiny little praying mantis, ants, bees and a fallen Green Crested Lizard. It was lucky to survive a falling into a silty water ponding:

(Fallen Green Crested Lizard by Endy Tan)

We also saw an uncommon dragonfly which Mr. Tang Hung Bun has identified it as a female “Rhyothemis obsolescens” which is rarely seen. This female has some different shape of clear wing patterns compared to the male (see attached side and top view records). It was a low flier (but quite active at about 8:30am) when it temporary perched on something all the four wings kept moving in a wavy movement up and down, left wings to right wings. Quite an interesting insect.

(Uncommon Dragonfly by Endy Tan)

Finally, we ended our trip at the valley under the foliage of sea almond trees at about 11 am.

Note: for member who drives please do not park in front of continuous single line as police was observed to be patrolling the area.

(Backlighting Ant & Tree Hopper by Allan Lee)

Participants (6) : Endy Tan (Team Leader), Allan Lee, Krist Lim, Joshua Fong, Hazel Han & Kway Htay

21/09 - Venus Drive (18 Jul 09)

We had a nice weather today. By 7.45 am, all came and we proceeded with our shooting. There were not many interesting subjects at both sides of the bushes near the entrance of Venus Drive. We went a little in and spent quite sometimes at the small stream. Mating dragonflies, dragonfly with prey and some colourful damselflies were spotted but most were quite sensitive to us. The popular Green Crested Lizard was also seen but it was quite high up in the branches to shoot. Other interesting subjects include baby spiders, molting hoppers, wasp and interesting leaf (see right picture protographyed by Peter Low). At 9.30 am, it was getting quite hot near the stream and so we proceeded further into the forest. Over here, subjects spotted include 2 different forest mating damselfies, butterflies, 2 different robberfly species (one with prey) tiger beetles (blue & green species), "mantis fly", etc.

We stopped at about 12 pm and went to the nearby hawker centre along Thomson Road for lunch.

(Mating forest damselflies by Anthony Quek)


(Robberfly with prey by Anthony Quek)

Participants (10) : Anthony Quek (Team Leader), Darren Chng, Stephen Lim, Ong Lim Sim, Hazel Han, Shereen Ng, Teo Ngee Chye, Peter Low, Joshua Fong & Goh Teck Leong.

20/09 - Wild Wild West (4 Jul 09)

WWW at end Corporation Road was still as wild as before but the environment was more comfortable for shooting this time round. The tracks or walkways were well maintained with no overgrown grass. The ground were also not muddy (because of dry weather) and not so many mosquitoes than expected. It was a little windy at times but we still managed to shoot. Many common subjects were found with quite a good number of butterfly species. We left around quarter past 11 and met a few birders (Wei Luen, Richard & Ming) for lunch at a nearby food centre.

(Baby Caterpillars by Allan Lee)

Participants (6) : Allan Lee (Team Leader), Endy Tan, Hazel Han Shereen Ng, Kyaw Htay & Lee Yan Leong

19/09 - Holland Woods (13 Jun 09)

It was raining the night before but, fortunately, it stopped at about 7 am allowing us to proceed with our planned outing. There were not many subjects spotted and captured, which was quite a normal thing after a heavy rain. Nevertheless, there were still many dragonflies around such as the Crothemis servilia (see left picture by Pegi Lee), which is the most dominant species on the site. We had to stop shooting at about 11.30 am when it started to rain again.

(Crothemis servilia, male dragonfly by Cai Yixiong)

Participants (4) : Tony Png (Team Leader) , Cai Yixiong, Endy Tan & Pegi Lee

18/09 - Segar Road (30 May 09)

We started at about 7:45 am but was forced to call off at about 10:10 am due to heavy rain. Segar remains as one of the good shooting sites as there are still quite a number of shooting subjects to be found during this short period. A mating pair of Stinkbugs, a bird drop spider, crab spider with prey, a lot of lawn wolf spiders on the ground, mating darters, etc. We were glad to see our friend old Michael came to join us. Also, it was a pleasant surprise to see Ng Hwei Min, our ex-treasurer, appeared in our outing for the first time.

(Mating Stinkbugs by Cai Yixiong)


(Lawn wolf spider with prey by Chan CP)

Participant (11) : Cai Yixiong (Team Leader) , Ong Lim Sim, Pegi Lee, Shereen Ng, Endy Tan, Darren Chng, Joshua Fong, Rosemary Ong, Chan C P, Ng Hwei Min & Michael Ee

17/09 - Margaret Drive (23/5)

Margaret Drive macro site is an accessible and pleasant place to walk around and do some macro shoot. There were mating moths, grasshoppers, moths, lynx spiders, crab spiders, St Andrew spider, some dragonflies. Subjects-wise not as productive as places near nature reserves such as Chestnut Avenue, Kranji Nature Trail, etc. Hazel met Frank Starmer who frequents this macro site and his view was that much more careful scrutiny would unveil more subjects from this interesting place.

(Cicada exoskeleton by Darren Chng)

The condition of the terrain has improved as compared to a previous outing there when it was the rainy season and large areas were water-logged. Having a Macdonald at the nearby Ridout Garden was a good feature of this macro site! It was great that Hazel and Rose had introduced their friends to our macro group. Perhaps if the friends are interested, they can sign up with Endy as NPSS paid-up members. Another passing thought is that with a laptop, and with air con comfort, we can actually have a "part 2" for our outings which would include image viewing/sharing/critique and participants can also share some Photoshop tips. Strike while the iron is hot. Oh yes, great to see Chuan Kwee our long time pal and NPSS member!

(Mating Day Moth by Rosemary)

Margaret Drive recommendation level for future outings: Slightly above Medium, but not High.

Participants (14) : Darren Chng (Team Leader), Shereen Ng, Wong Loong Tat, Hazel Han with 2 friends, Endy Tan, Pegi Lee, Kyaw Htay, Joshua, Chan CP, Rosemary with 2 colleagues & Lim Chuan Kwee

16/09 - Kranji Nature Trail (16 May 09)

Weather was good in the early morning. By 8 am, all participants arrived some as early as 7 am. There were many common subjects such as leaf hoppers, dragonflies, lynx spiders with prey, crab spiders with prey, butterflies, Shield bugs, Bee, etc., However, by 9.30 am, it started to become hot and humid. As expected, there were many mosquitoes especially as we proceeded further into the nature trail. A few of us were also attacked by ants which was quite a distraction! Nevertheless, most of us continued shooting until we called it a day at about 12 pm. We drove to the nearby canteen to have our lunch and chit chat.

Catches of the day were spiders with preys which Kranji Nature Trail is well known for.

(Lynx spider with prey by Allan Lee)

Participants (13) : Anthony Quek (Team Leader) , Pegi Lee, Ong Lim Sim, Kyaw Htay, Hazel Han, Wong Loong Tat, Shereen Ng, Ngee Chye, Richard Ho, Chan CP, Allan Lee, Darren Chng & Cai Yixiong

15/09 - Sungei Ulu Pandan (9 May 09)

This is a new macro site introduced by Endy Tan. Response was good with 12 participants. We saw cricket (see left photo by Yan Leong), katydids, centipede with prey (see bottom right photo by Allan), spiders with prey, bettles (shield bug, scarab caught in web & lady bug), butterflies, caterpillar & pupa, and moths (mating and camouflaging). Many species of birds were sited too.

Participants (12) : Endy Tan (Team Leader) , Lee Yan Leong, Tony Png, Pegi Lee, Ong Lim Sim, Wong Loong Tat, Kyaw Htay & son, Hazel Han, Allan Lee, Joshua Fong & Shereen Ng

14/09 - Bukit Timah Cycling Trail (25 Apr 09)

This is a new macro site introduced by Yixiong. We met at 7.30am. After parking, proceeded to the Bukit Timah Bicycle Track. We shot at a nearby stream. The weather was fine. There were spiders, rare damselflies, green crested lizard (see left photo by Kway Htay), praying mantis beside other subjects. We stopped at 11.am and lunched together.

We had to be especially careful to keep out of the way of the mountain bikes that came hurtling very fast downhill.

(Praying Mantis by Cai Yixiong)

(Stick Damsel, Pericnemis stictica by Kyaw Htay)

Participants (10) : Tony Png (Team Leader), Cai Yixiong, Hazel Han with 1 friend, Allan Lee, Kyaw Htay, Ong Lim Sim, Rosemary, Chan CP, Edwin & Shereen Ng

13/09 - Singapore Botanical Garden, Ecolake (18 Apr 09)

SBG Ecolake used to be a good macro site with variety of subjects but it didn't seem to be the case on this particular saturday. There were still many dragonflies and damselfies. Fortunately, we managed to spot a colourful red shield bug nymph (see right photo by Darren) which can be considered as the catch of the day for some of us.

Paricipants (7) : Darren Chng (Team Leader) , Pegi Lee, Wong Loong Tat, Richard Ho, Anthony Quek, Cai Yixiong & Endy Tan

12/09 - Night Shoot at Bukit Batok Nature Park (11 Apr 09)

The original plan was to shoot at the Hindhede Park next to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, but being changed at the last minute to Bukit Badok Nature Park as the car park of BTNR will be closed at 7:30pm, and no public is allowed to enter the Nature Reserve at night. (Most of the Singapore Island was raining except the BTNR area). BBNP seems to have a little drizzle shortly before we arrived. The vegetation is a bit wet, but did not affect our shooting activity very much.

(Spitting spider with babies by Chan Wei Luen)

Interesting subjects sited by by the group are Colugo (did not manage to shoot it as it moved quickly up to tree), Leafy Katydid (By Wei Luen & Ricjhard), False Scopion (by Allan), Garden Spider (Allan), Moth, Zodariidae spider (CYX), Malline sp (CYX), Spitting spider (by Richard; Destine), Forest Cockcroch (Yan Leong), Crab and toad, etc. It was another successful night macro conducted by our IMOG.

(Asiatic Toad by Richard Erh)

Participants (10) : Cai Yixiong (Team Leader) , Allan Lee, Endy Tan, Hazel Han, Ong Lim Sim, Destine Ang, Kelvin, Chan Wei Luen, Richard Erh & Lee Yan Leong

11/09 - Rifle Range Road (11 Apr 09)

There was a drizzle rain at early morning but fortunately, it stopped one hour later when we were moving to our gathering point. The results for the trip were very good. Shooting subjects may not be so abundance as in many other macro sites, but with a great deal of varieties, especially for some species that occurs only in forested area such as the blue wing damselfly Vestalis Amethystina (by Lester & Allan), rare butterflies - Five Bar Sword Tail Puddling (By lester), and Blue Jay Puddling (By Lester), unknown black-ringed yellow caterpillar (by Allan) and juvenile Red Bug (by CYX),Red Beetle (CYX) etc ..

(Five Bar Sword Tail Puddling by Sher Woei)

There were also a good number of spiders, few jumping spiders, lichen spider (CYX), Golden Web Spider(Tony, CYX), Twig-like feather-legged spiders (Hazel), lyn spiders (Teck Nam), etc. Wei Luen has even shot a snake. Some of us left early, and all were happy with the trip.

(Red-necked bronzeback by Wei Luen)

We ended our trip at about 12:30pm and went to have lunch together. It turned to a heavy downpour after we finished our lunch. Great timing for our trip!!! Rifle Range Trail appears to be a good macro site for further exploration of forest species.

Participants (14) : Cai Yixiong (Team Leader), Allan Lee, Endy Tan, Michael Ee, Tony Png, Lester Koh, Hazel Han, Ong Lim Sim, Destine Ang, Kelvin, Chan Wei Luen, Richard Erh, Kyaw Htay, Teck Nam, Fong Sher Woei , Ong Wee Sien & Lee Yan Leong

10/09 - Admiralty Park (4 Apr 09)

Admiralty Park is a good macro site with lots to offer. There were a wide variety of spiders and some were spotted with preys.


(Bee in flight by Allan Lee)


(Spider with prey by Ong Lim Sim)

Participants : Allan Lee (Team Leader) , Kyaw Htay, Tony Png, Ong Lim Sim, Chan CP, Roy Sim,

9/09 - Venus Drive (28 Mar 09)

(Planthopper by Darren Chng)


(Fungus by Hazel Han)

Participants : Tony Png (Team Leader) , Hazel Han, Darren Chng, Fang SC, Mike,