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