Macro shoot at Lower Peirce Trail 17 Nov 2015

Testing new simple lighting setup on the MT-24EX.

Alone at 12 midnight in the Lower Peirce Trail sure reminds me of the good ol' army days.

Somehow, there was no fear, despite all the weird noises the secondary jungle was making.

The only fear was of the weather.
Because rain will definitely put a stop to my late night outing with the critters.

Click on each picture to see the close up of their eyes

Slideshow of photos taken at Lower Peirce on 17 Nov 2015

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Night Macro Lower Peirce 3 Aug 2013

After another round of setting up my lighting, I was ready to go macro shooting again..

This was done late after midnight at Lower Peirce Reservoir.

It's not everyday that one gets to spot a stick insect...

2 were spotted on the same night along the trail..

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Venus Drive Solo Afternoon Macro 10 Aug 2013

It was a lazy afternoon with the threat of dark clouds hovering over the entire Singapore..

I couldn't think of a better place to go for day macro except Venus Drive.

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Lower Peirce Reservoir Macro 21 Sept 2012

It was a misty night as it had just rained in the north part of Singapore early that evening.

I was disappointed along the way to see wet roads as the rain would have chased the insects into the depths of the undergrowth of the reservoir park.

But it was fortunate that some of the insects were still at the edge of the undergrowth, unwilling to move deeper in because they have taken much time to create their large webs and habitats.

More of my Lower Peirce experience and how to get there at this link here!
Read Wikipedia's entry on the Huntsman Spider.

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Lower Peirce Reservoir Macro 19 Aug 2012

Solo trip to Lower Peirce Reservoir Park.

Managed to see some other macro photographers there but they were already packing up at 12am when I reached.

Here are some selected shots..

For more previous treasures found at Lower Peirce Reservoir, see here.

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Macro shoot Lower Peirce Reservoir Park 21 July 2012

Was alone for a midnight macro shoot at Lower Peirce Reservoir Park.
The forest was pitch dark when I was under the foliage of the secondary forest of the park (see map below).

View Larger Map

Somehow I was fearless and had only my mind on getting good shots that night and nothing else..

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Jumping Spider Lazing on Curry Leaf Plant 25 April 2012

As an avid insect macro photographer, I also try my best to be a botanist at home.

I have accumulated more than 10 potted plants outside my house, along the common corridor and it proved to be quite useful when trying to look for insect subjects to shoot without having to travel into any forest.

Before I left the house for dinner last night, I was watering the plants. I noticed a relatively big jumping spider hopping away as it sensed the drizzle from my watering can onto the curry leaf plant that it was perching on. I was hoping that when I return after dinner, it would still be there.

When I did reach home, it was waiting for me on one of the outermost leaf of the curry leaf plant.

Without much delay, I set up my flash brackets and gave it several portraiture shots.

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Mating Couples at Venus Drive 6th March 2012

Venus Drive on a hot afternoon has nothing much except some medium sized spiders and the mating fly species shown on the first picture. ( Identified from Frederick Ho's blog as the Micropezid Fly aka Mimegralla Albimana )

It must be mating season for this species as many mating couples was seen on the leaves, doing it in the open in clear view of predators.

I guess when it's mating season, the urge to mate supersedes the need to survive...
Or perhaps the importance of survival as a species supersedes the importance of survival as an individual.

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Back from the Dead

I thought I was dying back then when I posted this post.

But I didn't die.

Though I sold off all my camera equipment in Nov 2011, I bought all back in 2012.

With my newly purchased equipment, I went macro shooting again!

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Anchorvale Park Macro 18th Nov 2011

This park near to Anchorvale Street is actually known as "Sengkang Riverside Park" and it is just opposite the Sengkang Sports and Recreation Center.


Met with new macro enthusiast cum reservist mate, Elwyn Ng, at this park and we went shooting bugs.

I am quite satisfied with my current lighting setup with this shoot.

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Anchorvale Park

Brought my family out for a swim at Anchorvale Swimming Complex and saw that there was a quiet park nearby and I went there later in the wee hours for a macro shoot.

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Sengkang Redux 29 Oct 2011

Combined both the Sengkang river macro shoots and picked out the best ones...

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Solo Macro along SengKang River 16 Oct 2011

I always wondered when I drive towards Sengkang along TPE.

How to access the river that TPE cuts across?

I can always see street lamps along the foot path along the river bank.

So late Saturday night/ Sunday morning, I made my way towards Sengkang.

Managed to capture some good macro shots despite the flash extension cable mounting failed on me.

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Spider enjoying Curry 12 Aug 2011

If the spider is ok with the curry, then anyone whom cannot stand the smell of curry are probably worse than a minuscule Jumping Spider.

This jumping spider was seen outside my house, making its home on the leaves of my potted curry plant...

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AMK Park Macro 18 June 2011

Headed out with Alex and Qingkai to AMK Park at midnight.

Me and Alex wore full length jeans with army boots, Qing Kai met us at the park with bermudas and sandals... The ants gave him a lesson to remember that night.

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Studio Shoot for Jumping Spider outside House

Found this 8 legged critter sniffing up my curry plant outside my flat.

Wasted no time in getting a blue styrofoam as background and setting up my flash diffuser.

It was also great time to test my newly purchased Kenko 2x Teleconverter for Canon DSLR bodies.

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Lower Peirce Night Macro 26 March 2011

Too eager to try out my modifications to the existing DIY Macro Flash Diffuser kit, I asked my buddy if he wanna try out night macro. 2 hours after the exchange of SMS'es, we arrived at Casuarina Road near Lower Peirce Reservoir just past midnight.

We were between the edge of the reservoir and the undergrowth. Both myself and Alex scouted for bugs along the shrubs surrounding the edge of the forest.

Armed with several torchlights, we assisted each other to shine torches at the insects while the other photographer takes the time to focus and snap, It was time-consuming but fruitful. The insects are more abundant at night and they were less difficult to spot as the darkness provided them the camouflage needed.

There were of course some weird 6/8 legged creatures, which we'd otherwse not have seen, usually.

If anyone is interested in knowing my lighting setup, do join us for our next macro shoot. Usually Friday late nights after 11pm.

A nice fat red grasshopper

This species of spider was quite commonly found at our location

Spider & Supper

Centipede

Very weird insect. Could be a newly hatched grasshopper despite its size

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MacRitchie Reservoir 23 March 2011

Another Macro shoot with Alex.
It's good to have a buddy when shooting macro.
Easier to spot out insects and can also assist to pull down branches for a better shot.

So here we were are MacRitchie Reservoir.
There was this particular short cement path that cuts through the undergrowth and links between the main road (Lornie Road) to the reservoir service road.

The footpath, unseen in any maps, is right in the center of the map shown below.

Although it was less than 10-20 meters in length, the amount of big & rare bugs we found there were more than the bugs found at other parts of the reservoir. Overall, it was a good shoot and it gave me the chance to try out my DIY diffuser prototype. It'd be modification of the DIY diffuser on the next shoot that will create the most satisfied lighting I am happy with.

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More Macro on Insects outside my House

New insects spotted on my potted orchid plant outside my house.
Sadly, they left after camping there for a few days.

Should I have little bubble thoughts added into the picture?

It looks like it is in deep thought

I simple adore compound eyes!

After taking the pictures of the fly, I couldn't stop thinking about how can something so small be so detailed and how did it evolve to become the tiny fly it is now. I wonder in awe of how each and every micro-detail of the fly is there for a specific purpose.

Though I am not a believer, I find myself saying that I appreciate "His" creations.

We, humans, can create nanotechnology, produce silicon chips with micron precision... but look at the intricacy of the details of the smallest insects, we know we can never climb the Tower of Babel and be His equal.



Tip :

My preferred aperture for sharper macro shots is at f16. I was using f11 previously as recommended by many experienced macro photographers but the Depth-Of-Field (DOF) was too shallow for me to appreciate.


To prevent underexposure and shutter shadows, I now use a shutter of 1/125 or 1/160 instead of 1/200 and 1/250.

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Illegal camper outside my house

I discovered an illegal camper outside my house.

Before the camper escaped I quickly took some photos as evidence.
Lucky for me, the illegal overstayer was oblivious to my camera equipment and did not shun me. It was also brave enough to see me in the eye and tell me that its not leaving this place for now.

This is the hairy resident whom is staying illegally outside my house in a pot of curry plant that Auntie Jaey gave us. For 2 nights in a row, it was still in the same pot of plant...

I am staying....

Now look me in the eye, I am not kidding!

This 3rd shot is actually a revised version of the 2nd shot, cropping and rotation with some colour/brightness adjustments and minimal sharpening with Gimp's "unsharp mask". Thanks to criticism and suggesions from Clubsnap's Macro Gods.

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