Birthday Girl 24th September 2010

24th September is the birthday of my missus.

I brought her out to Clarke Quay to reminisce our dating days when we used to go pubs and clubs with friends.

As our kids are growing older, we can afford to hang out late occasionally. Though we went to have drinks at the pubs without asking any of our friends, we had each other's company and it was nice to be on a date with the missus.

Bedok Reservoir View Canal 15 Sept 2010

It was a hot late afternoon on 15th Sept 2010.
I was on leave that day so I can spend some time on the hobby.

I walked along the canal on the side that is nearer to the condominium and crossed over to the other side of the canal by using Bedok Reservoir Road which forms a land-canal bridge junction.

As seen in the picture below, I was on the left side of the canal and I walked toward the bridge ahead ( which was Bedok Reservoir Road ) to cross to the right side of the canal, where there are more trees and shrubs.

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This has to be the 4th or 5th time that I brought the tripod out without using it.

I wore my army boots and brought only my camera with the Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens attached and my Nissin Di866 flash unit with a DIY diffuser.

I climbed up the grassy slope on the right side of the canal and arrived at a muddy plateau. There were many dragonflies at this location, probably due to the many tire tracks left by heavy trucks that are operating in this area. These tire tracks become puddles of water after a heavy rain and they attract dragonflies.

Managed to find a nice perch that allowed this single dragonfly to return again and again and again. I didn't leave any mercy in depressing my shutter button.


Here are the better pictures of the lot.
My portraiture of this single dragonfly.
BTW, my daughter, Isabel, thought this was a bee due to its black & yellow body colour.

Click on each picture to see it in finer details..such as the compound eyes..

It's worthy to note that for this single dragonfly, I exhausted 2 sets of batteries and on the 2nd set of batteries that are non-rechargeable, I fired so many flashes that the Di866 eventually gave an "Overheat" warning!

Tekka City View and Boat Quay 10th Sept 2010

Alex said the view at Tekka was nice from the top floor of the HDB block, so we went there with our gears. After that, we went to Boat Quay along Singapore River

Botanical Gardens Macro 6 Sept 2010

It was a late afternoon and it was an overcast sky.

I did not expect any rain but within an hour of reaching there, the thunder forced me to stop to look for shelter.


Luckily, there were some good catch and though the impending rain stopped me short, I ended my trip with a satisfactory bounty.

This looked like some form of jungle cockroach

A grasshopper that looked like its feelers got chopped

Shallow Depth of Field allowing only eyes to be in focus

Body in focus

This winged insect spent so much time grooming a single leg...

I was able to take multiple shots and it had not finished grooming

Still going at it, sniffing and cleaning.

It must have stepped on poo....

This beetle was golden in colour when viewed with naked eyes.

The flash did its colours injustice.

This cluster of ants makes one wonder... "Where's the sugar?"

You can see the hair of the dragonfly!

Compound eyes!!!

Wings designed by nature

Massive compound eyes!! I like!