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.
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| (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:
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
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