Informal Macro Outing Group

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

Saturday, January 29, 2011

3/2011 - Dairy Farm Nature Park (29 Jan 2011)

It started drizzling at 6 am this morning around the western area and looking up at the dark cloudy sky, we were not very optimistic that we could proceed with this outing. However, that did not stop 17 enthusiastic nature photographers who turned up punctually at Dairy Farm Nature Park. 老天不负苦心人, the rain stopped at about 8.15 am and all of us were delighted and began setting up our gears ...

(Dairy Farm macro site)

(What's up there?)

(Kam Wai in action)

(Yixiong in action)

Below are some macro shots taken today. We would love to see your interesting images too and we hope that you could share them at NPSS forum or send them to npssimog@gmail.com so that we could update them at our blog here.

(Golden Web Spider by Allan Lee)

(Hasselt's Spiny Spider by Allan Lee)

(Uncommon Robberfly by Anthony Quek)

(Snail by Anthony Quek)

(Morning dews & leaves by Sonia Zou)

(Butterflies by Sonia Zou)

Pleasee see the links below for more images taken during this outing:

Participants (17) - Allan Lee (Trip Leader), Cai Yixiong, Endy Tan, Anthony Quek, Darren Chng, CT Lim, Sonia Zou, Kyaw Htay, Phoebe Leong, Joshua Fong, John Wong, Ken Lim, Lau Kam Wai, Hazel Han, Chee Tham, Simon Ow & Lee Yan Leong

Saturday, January 22, 2011

2/2011 - Chestnut Avenue Forest (22 Jan 2011)

We were blessed with a nice weather this morning where 15 nature lovers gathered at a forest area near Chestnut Avenue, a new macro site introduced and led by Cai Yixiong. Here are 4 images showing the condition and the greenary of this place:

(Start of the Jungle Trail)

(Members queueing to shoot a rare subject!)

What can be happier than taking photos with NPS(S)-IMOG?

From near to far

Allan, our macro expert, has already posted his images taken during this morning at NPSS website (see below links). We hope and we would appreciate it if you would share and post your interesting photos there too.

Blogging in progress! Please come back for more updates ...

Participants (15) - Cai Yixiong (Trip Leader), Allan Lee, Anthony Quek, CT Lim, Sonia Zou, Kyaw Htay, Phoebe Leong, Grace Loo, Elaine Huang, Ong Ngee Ming, Joshua Fong, Lee Yan Leong, Byran, Peter Low & John Wong

Saturday, January 8, 2011

1/2011 - Bukit Batok Forest (8 Jan 2011)

This is our first IMOG outing for year 2011 and it was a good start which attracted a big group of 25 participants with 2 children! We are glad to have John Wong to be our 1st Guest Leader for leading and introducing this interesting macro site to us. We welcome and look forward to have more guest leaders for future IMOG outings.

[Only Byran (photographer) & Endy (came late) were not in this group photo]

The entrance to Bukit Batok Forest is near the junction between Bukit Batok Road and Bukit Batok West Ave 7. There are 3 jungle trails (left, front & right) and we decide to explore the one on the right. At the start of the trail, there were already many subjects to keep the group busy, one of which is a "Prince Charming" spotted by Rey.

(Two curious kids watching Rey & Stephen in action)

Immediately, Rey & Stephen quickly set up their gear and started shooting it at different angles. Unfortunately, this prince charming didn't like such attention, so it jumped off and disappeared into the bushes. Even then, our macro grandmaster Rey still managed to get a beautiful side view shot.

(Asiatic Toad by Rey Aguila)

(Members were busy shooting at the start of the trail)

As we moved further in, many subjects were sighted such as African snails, dragonflies, hoppers, stink bugs, butterflies, caterpillars, interesting wild flowers, etc. In particularly, there were many spiders having their breakfast and most members took turn to photograph them.

It is really encouraging to see many participants sharing their beautiful images at NPSS (see below links) and we hope this would continue in future IMOG outings.

Participants (25) - John Wong (Guest Leader), Allan Lee, Cai Yixiong, Endy Tan, Darren Chng, CT Lim, Sonia Zou, Ken Lim, Syn CP, Stephen Lim, Kyaw Htay, Lewis, Foong KT, Ong Lim Sim, Phoebe Leong, Soon Hock, Hien Moh, Teoh Chee Meng (with 2 children), Ng Tong Leng, Simon Ow, Surin Chan, Rey Aguila, Byran, Joe Kellard, Anthony Quek (Coordinator)

Thursday, December 30, 2010

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