27/10 - Choa Chu Kang Ave 5 (11 Dec 2010)

At the junction of the Brickland Road and Choa Chu Kang Avenue 3, near the Hai Inn Temple, there is a drainage Canal surrounded by a pathch of forest. This patch of forest has been the playground for many of the great macro photographers like Rey Aguila, Darren Chng, etc., from NPSS in the old day. As more of the macro sites in elsewhere been discovered, this old playground has getting less attention in recent years. We had our last outing of the year on 11 December. The weather condition was very nice as it was rain before the dawn and turn to overcast  after 7:30am and lasted for the whole morning.

Ming and Choon were concentrating on ??

(Stephen and Ken were searching...)



(Let's start!)

Number of subject are not so abundant as before, but we still found quite a variety of them to keep us busy for the whole morning, e.g. an uncommon Neoscona spider, beautiful tortoise beetle, stingbug, american giant snail, dragonflies, and butterflies etc...

(Leopard Lacewing by Rey)

(Spider by Stephen)

(Sting bug by C T Lim)

(Tortoise Beetle by Yixiong)

Participants (13): Cai Yixiong (Trip Leader), Rosemary Ang, C P Chan, Stephen Lim, Ken Lim, C T Lim, Ong Ngee Ming, Tan Kiat Choon, Heng Meng, Endy Tan, Doris Ng, Kyaw Htay and Rey Aguila

26/10 - Punggol Forest (13 Nov 2010)

A record of 28 participants joined the event, that morning. What a gathering! There were so many regulars and new faces, too! Some even went through a very long journey from Jurong to support this outing. It started around 7:50am with a site showround by the trip leader. He explained that there were 3 designated patches of forested area for the photographic activity. 

(At the meeting point)

Pretty soon, we started exploring the 2nd patch (recommended), where it has an open grassland beside it, 2 streams and some internal paths inside. 

At the grassland, some members found a beautiful lacewing, everybody was very excited about it, as this was the first encounter in IMOG outing. Some other insects were also observed, such as spiders and butterflies.

(Eugene & Ngee Chye in action)

Meanwhile at the 2nd stream, another bunch of people managed to take some photos of a praying mantis, dragonflies, and our Allan found some very interesting eggs of lacewing (which later he shared in his post at " http://npss.org.sg/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6570 " with an interesting clip from a documentary. The way a lacewing lays its eggs is just simply amazing!).

(Taking photos at the 2nd stream)

Continuing from the stream, members ventured into the forested area. It seemed a bit dark and Allan complained " Endy, Why didn't you tell me it would be this dark? I should have brought my torchlights!" Despite the lighting condition, a lot of beautiful bracket fungus, spiders, and various hoppers were found inside.

(In the forested area)

Going back to the 1st stream,  participants found some interesting dragonflies, beautiful fungus, ground crickets, and many little young field frogs. It was so much fun looking at these froggies. They kept jumping around. Taking photos of them was a great challenge, though!

(Members were busy finding subject at shallow stream)

Then, our last stop was the tidal drain opposite the forest. There, we observed the many species of crabs, some mudskippers, a crab-eating frog, mangrove landsnails, an asian toad, and a super cooperative dragonfly which allowed all of us to get very near to do close up!

The trip ended at about 11:30am and about 9 of us, who stayed till the end, had lunch together at a food court of block 310, Punggol Road. The third patch of the forested area remains unexplored, hope that we can visit again. 

Participants (28) - Endy Tan (Trip Leader), Allan Lee, Cai Yixiong&Joyce, Sharon S. Lim, Anthony Quek, CT Lim, Steward Ong, CP Chan, Rosemary, Shereen, Freddie, Eugene Hu, Goh Teck Leong, Yeo Tang Lin, Kelvin Chiew, Ken Lim, Foong KT, Elaine Huang, Kyaw Htay, Tan Peck Kheng, John Wong, Teo Ngee Chye,  Wendy Leong, Hazel Han, Hein Moh, Tan Teck Nam, and Vincent Wee.

25/10 - Wild Wild West (9 Oct 2010)

Wild Wild West at end Corporation Road was as wild as before with some interesting actions such as an uncommon crab spider sucking an earwig dry, a molting hopper, etc.  Agriocnemis Nana, a very rare and the smallest damselfly in Singapore, was also spotted here (id pending confirmation from Mr Tang).   Please come back for more updates ....

(Crab spider with prey by Sharon S. Lim)

(A female Crocothemis Servilia dragonfly by Foong)

Participants (10) - Allan Lee (Trip Leader), Darren Chng, Sharon S. Lim, Cai Yixiong, Endy Tan, CT Lim, CP Syn, Foong, Simon Ow & Joe Kellard)

24/10 - Holland Woods (2 Oct 2010)

After a long break, I was glad to be leading a macro outing for the IMOG again. On Sat 2nd Oct 2010, I led an outing to a macro site beside a canal we fondly called “ Holland Woods”. It was situated off Clementi Road, opposite the Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

(At the site where participants were busy shooting)

Thanks to a solo trip there by one of our members, Mr Peter Low, we knew that Holland Woods was rejuvenated again, with lots of tall grass growing at the site and many damselflies making their re-appearance.

(Lots of tall grass attracting many damselflies)

By 7.30 am, many of the participants had already started shooting. There was no shortage of subjects as the place was teeming with a local species of damselfly commonly known as the Common Bluetail. The male of this species are green and blue in colour. The females can look exactly the same as their male counterpart or be peach or golden orange in colour!

(Blue & Blue by Darren Chng)

(Blue & Peach by Allan Lee)

(Blue & Orange by Anthony Quek)

The good thing about shooting macro in a group like this is that when any one spotted a good subject, he/she could share it with others who were interested….after, of course, taking enough good shots! Sometimes we also shared equipment, for example, the plamp to keep the plants (in this case, mostly grass) stable in the morning breeze. Sharing of ideas and pointers took place easily between old friends and the camaraderie on the morning of Sat 2nd October was excellent.

(Michael Ee in action)

Meanwhile, I was referred to a mating damsel pair by Peck Kheng and had a great time shooting it. Someone commented that these damsel pairs could mate in mid air while flying from perch to perch! It also seemed that certain damsel mating pairs were more still and cooperative (towards us) than others. We wondered if damsels had unique personalities like humans!

The terrain was quite hard to navigate as there were a lot of tall grass. Setting up our cameras on tripod was somewhat challenging. But most of us did the best we could and got some decent shots. Using a teleconvertor (esp. 1.4x) also increased the “reach” of our macro lenses.

I was very grateful to Michael Ee for sharing something that he spotted: a lynx spider preying on a Common Bluetail damsel. I took some shots of this memorable scene and was quite delighted with the result.

(Lynx spider eating a female Common Bluetail damsel by Darren Chng)

At some time after 9 am, some dark clouds began to gather in the sky and we were worried the outing would be prematurely cut short by rain. But the heavens showed restraint until sometime after 11am, when the sky finally opened up. The participants proceeded to a kopitiam in Clementi Central to have their lunch. I am sure most would agree with me that it was a hugely successful trip!

Other images posted at NPSS:

* OMG! Take your pick! (Sharon S. Lim)

* Back to Holland Woods (Darren Chng)

* Holland Woods (Simon Ow)

* Coupled Damselflies (Allan Lee)

* Shots from Holland Woods outing (C T Lim)

* Yellow ones (Sharon S. Lim)

Participants (13) : Darren Chng (Trip Leader), Allan Lee, Anthony Quek, Sharon S. Lim, Michael Ee, Lewis, Sheeren Ng, Simon Ow, Kyaw Htay, Stephen Lim, Chan CP, Tan Peck Kheng, CT Lim

23/10 - Thanggam Forest (25 Sep 2010)

“H..E…L….L…..L……O……. There, Everybody. 

It is time for Project Macrolumbus again!

Calling ….. All Brave men! and All Brave women of IMOG!  

YES! WE WANT YOU!

Come! Join us! In another exploration trip in mainland Singapore! “

... that was how the invitation started off to all members, at the middle of the week. Later on, Saturday morning, 13 people decided to go on a journey to seek out beautiful macro photos at a new site in Thanggam. The outing started at about 7.45am,  Darren and Xiong ge came a little late. At the beginning of the path, I saw Carlo, Ravi, Eugene, and Darren were busy with their found subjects.

There were so many butterflies and insects under the shade of some tall trees! Lime butterfly, common mormon, psyche, common grass yellow, striped albatross, common evening brown, some 4 species of skippers, lesser grass blue, monkey hopper, assassin bugs, mating cotton stainers, mating flies, dragonflies, and some moths.

Moving in further, at the Elephant Grass and Morning Glory path I found Anthony, CP, Joshua, Allan, Xiong ge, Mr. Ong, Sharon, and Stewart were happy taking pictures of some beautiful wild flowers, caterpillars, spiders, dragonflies, and some other insects. So, I joined in the fun to photograph some blooms.

Some photos taken by members not far from this area :

Hours passed, next, we went through a thick patch of tall elephant grasses to get to the forested area.

Going into the forest, our Allan led the way of the exploration team. Not long after, we spotted quite a numbers of creatures : millipedes, dried leaf mimicking katydid, spiders, asian toad, and a lot of beautiful fungi!

A few more interesting subjects found in the forest :

All of us had a wonderful time searching and taking photographs. What a nice place! We had only explored 40% of the entire area. We will definitely come again in future. 

At about 12pm the trip leader showed participants the way out of the forest and walked to the main road. Soon, most of us were having lunch at the famous Jalan Kayu Prata Restaurant and some were having delicious prawn noodles.

Participants (13) : Endy Tan (Trip Leader), Allan Lee, Anthony Quek, Cai Yixiong, Carlo Caparas, Chan Choon Phiow, Darren Chng, Eugene Hu, Joshua Fong, Ong Lim Sim, Ravi Srinivasan, Sharon S. Lim, Stewart Ong

22/10 - Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West (18 Sep 2010)

Every Saturday is a special day for all NPSS IMOG members.  Early in the week, the trip leader will broadcast the venue to explore, announce the time to meet and how to get to the location.  By Thursday, all enthusiastic members will RSVP their attendance and a final headcount will be taken. Our much anticipated Saturday lies in the hands of the weather God.  


It was a great day to begin with and the weather was cool in the early morning.  I think it rained in the wee hours of the morning. The big pond was filled with a large number of lotus leaves but not many flowers were in bloom.  The garden keeper told us that June would be a better time to visit.   By the way, the fisherman had gone fishing elsewhere because fishing is not allowed in the pond.  




While the rest were busy setting up their equipment, I took a walk to the pergola and it was pretty in pink with Antigonon leptopus (common name Coral Vine, Honolulu Creeper, Chain of Love, Hearts on a Chain or Love Vine) in bloom.  Compared to Ang Mo Kio Town Garden East, this park is bigger and built on a hillock. A 120-step staircase will take you to a public square where many elderly uncles and aunties were swatting themselves to the rhythm of some frumpy music.  One of them told another that it could get rid of aches and pain. Hmmm ... I seriously doubt so!


We did not just forage for subjects around the pond this time, but we ventured across the garden.  Shereen found a Chrysalis with very colourful thorny spikes. I actually counted and there were at least about 20 spikes!  For the record,  a Chrysalis is the pupal stage of a butterfly.   The term is derived from the metallic gold-colouration found in the pupae of many butterflies.  I have never seen anything like it and I wonder what species of butterfly would emerge from it.

(Chrysalis taken by Allan Lee, spotted by Shereen Ng)

While I was intrigued by the Chrysalis and trying to figure out which was the best composition I should take, Peck Kheng, Shereen, Freddie, Rosemary and Choon Phiow moved on to another site near the playground. There, they found Shield Bugs both the adult and juvenile. They are commonly known as Stink Bugs because they have glands in their thorax between the first and second pair of legs which produce a foul smelling liquid. This liquid is used defensively to deter potential predators and is sometimes released when the bugs are handled carelessly.  

(Mating Stink bugs taken by Peck Kheng)

(An adult & two juvenile stink bugs by Chan Choon Phiow)

People were seen walking along the footpaths that meander through the forest.  After an hour of walking, foraging and clicking, the sun came shining down on us including the droplets of water and little bugs.  

(Shadows by Anthony Quek)

We gathered around the butterfly nectar plants and there were at least 3 species of butterflies hovering around the Lantana camara bush (common name Shrub Verbena, Spanish Flag or Tick Berry / in  Chinese 五色梅).  Not too far away, I chanced upon a Batik golden web-spider, known for the impressive webs they weave.  I stood about 3 feet away and the web spanned 2 feet across me.  

(Batik golden web-spider taken by Sharon)

Acisoma panorpoides (common name Asian pintail, grizzled pintail or trumpet tail) was found perched on a log.  It flew away a few times but each time it returns, it landed on the same log.  It was very shy but cooperative so I took the opportunity to move in closer.

(Dragonfly taken by Sharon)

We gathered around to chit-chat and waited for Ong L S to have a go at the Stink bugs.  Hopefully he is happy with his shots otherwise there will always be another opportunity for improvement.

Participants (14) : Sharon S. Lim (Trip Leader), Anthony Quek, Endy Tan, Allan Lee, Joshua Fong, Tan Peck Kheng, Shereen & Freddie, Yeo T L, Kyaw Htay, Rosemary and Chan Choon Phiow, Simon Ow and Ong L S.