Informal Macro Outing Group: February 2011

Saturday, February 26, 2011

5/2011 - Venus Drive (26 Feb 2011)

Venus Drive is one of our favourite macro shooting sites, so I am glad to organize an outing to this place on Sat, 26 Feb 2011.

The weather was good, quite cool and the light was not too harsh. When I arrived at the Car Park (meeting point), most of the participants who had signed up were already there, with their gears all set up and ready to shoot.

Due to the previous day’s rain, the grass was a bit waterlogged, but it did not deter the shooters. Most of them started by exploring the grassy area outside the nature trail.

(Starting point of Venus Drive)

(Yeo TL in action)

(Yeo, Allan, Victor, Ming)

Thanks to a cue from Allan, we were also able to locate a group of caterpillars near the entrance to the trail. Many of us had fun taking turns to take some photos of the hungry caterpillars which were defoliating the leaves.

(Hungry caterpillars by Darren Chng)

I noticed the authorities had widened the trail and that was a welcome news to us. It was easier now to navigate the trail and to set up our tripods and camera without obstructing the other hikers and joggers.

As we walked further into the forest, we saw leaves glistening with raindrops that probably came with downpour the previous night. The air was refreshing with the wet vegetation.

(Forest Path by Phoebe Leong)

(Kyaw Htay, Allan, Endy, Sharon)

Quite a number of interesting subjects were spotted here such as mating two-tailed spiders, two-tailed spider with prey, a rare blue moth, huntsman spider with babies, etc. But the one that really got us excited was a large Colugo or flying lemur hugging comfortably onto a tree trunk, about 4 to 5 metres away from the ground.

More surprises awaited us as we advanced deeper into the forest. They were lots of dry leaves and dead logs on both sides of the trail. However, one dead log stood out from the rest. Hiding beneath it, was a cluster of pretty bright yellow mushrooms. A real beauty and they looked very much like those corals found in the sea. Allan called them “Land Corals”!

(The advantage of shooting in a group)

(When the master shoots, the rest watches!)

(Pano view of "Land Coral")

Please click the following links to see some of the pictures taken during this fruitful outing:

Participants (20) - Darren Chng (Trip Leader), Cai Yixiong, Endy Tan, Allan Lee, Sharon S. Lim, Tony Png, Anthony Quek, CT Lim, Phoebe Leong, Chan CP, Victor Loh, Kyaw Htay, Joshua Fong, Jia Yin, Yeo TL, Wong Heng Meng, Eugene Hu, Ming, Joyce & John Wong

Saturday, February 12, 2011

4/2011 - Kranji Nature Trail (12 Feb 2011)

Even though it was the 10th day of Chinese New Year (年初十), a strong team of 20 macro shooters turned up at Kranji Nature Trail (KNT). The weather was good and at the car park meeting point, we saw a beautiful golden sunrise not too far away. Surprisingly, nobody bothered to take any snapshot of it, probably because we were too busy exchanging CNY greeetings!

At the entrance of KNT, there were plenty of greenery and bushes under an open sky offering great opportunities to photograph dewy subjects. Below is a common hopper with dews taken under backlighting condition.

(A backlit hopper with dews - Anthony Quek)

We did not stay around the entrance for long as the sunlight was too strong for our liking. We moved about 150 metres inwards where we could shoot under the comfort of sheltered trees.

(150 metres from the entrance)

Most of us spent almost 2 hours here as there were abundant of subjects to keep us busy! CP Chan was the luckiest as he had the luxury to shoot under a very comfortable environment. I would not want to move a bit if I were in his position!

(Now you know why many people joined IMOG outing!)

However, there are others who are more adventurous and preferred to explore deeper into the bushes for the sake of finding rare insects as demonstrated by Foong & Xingjian:

(Foong & Xingjian in action)

Many spider species (some with preys) were sighted here such as Hasselt's Spiny spider, St Andrew's Cross spider, Golden Web spider, Lynx spider, large jumping spider, etc.

(Happy meal by Lee Yan Leong)

(Large jumping spider by Joe Kellard)

Other subjects spotted include various hoppers, dragonflies, colourful sting bug, caterpillars, butterflies, changeable lizard, a "human-liked face" bug, etc.

As we explored further into the trail, it eventually led us to the seashore with the Johor Straits on one side and mangroves on the other. At the mangroves, it was not difficult to spot all kinds of crabs. However, most of them were skittish in nature and hard getting close to them. CT Lim was fortunate to photograph a friendly male Delsman's Semaphore crab.

(Delsman's Semaphore crab, male, by Lim Cheow Tin)

After more than 3 hrs of shooting, most of us were tired and we took a rest at a shelter near the mangrove forest where we had some nice chit-chats.

(Foong, Allan, Sharon, Hazel, Yan Leong)

(CT Lim, Foong, LS Ong, Allan, Yixiong, Sharon, Anthony, Hazel, Yan Leong)

We called it a day at 12 pm and went to the nearby coffee shop for lunch. Since Endy had to leave early at 10 am, I would like to use his pet phrase to conclude this outing ie. "it was another very successful IMOG outing!".

Please see the following links for other images taken during this outing:

Participants (20) - Anthony Quek (Trip Leader), Cai Yixiong, Endy Tan, Allan Lee, Darren Chng, Sharon S. Lim, Tony Png, CT Lim, Phoebe Leong, Nick, Ong Lim Sim, Hazel Han, Loy Xingjian, Koh Ming Yong, Lay Tyng, Joe Kellard, Fonng KT, Chan CP, Doris Ng, & Lee Yan Leong