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