Monday, September 27, 2010

Oh My Hair!

Is been a long time since I last take a real close-up photo of Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax). Is quite common however, is not easy to spot them as they hardly perch openly during day.
I saw this Night Heron last week end. This night heron is comfortable with me and did not go hiding although she knew my presence. Isn't she adorable, is so hilarious to watch when she do preening.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

New Travel Companion

"What lens should I bring for the trip?"... "What is the best lens I should get if I wanted to start nature photography?"... "Should I bring macro lens or zoom lens?"...

Regardless the level of photographer, one of the question I received the most about nature photography no other than type of lens to buy or to carry. Before I can answer this question, I always ask back "What do you intend to take then?". Types of lenses to bring very much depend on what we intend to take. Landscape, insects, birds or simply portrait. Each subject require a different lens as the distance between the subject and the camera is different. By identify the subjects, it helps to decide what lens to buy or to carry. Usually I will carry two lens with me, one zoom lens & one standard lens (that can act as macro too). However, if you intend to buy a Nikon camera, you can consider the new lens that just launched last month AFS-Nikkor 28-300mm / 3.5-5.6G ED VR. After years of feedback finally Nikon came out this lens that cover from landscape/portrait to even birds photography! You can use this lens as your travel lens or standard lens!
These are the photos I took using my this new travel companion without tripod as I wanted to try how good it is if I wanted to travel light.
Since this lens can zoom up to 300mm, I use it to shoot birds. I have no problem shooting both Mynas!Since this is a travel lens, very high chance that I will see something small and beautiful.... so I use this lens to shoot as macro. First this caterpillar. I then give it a more challenging task. The lens didn't fail me, look at the details of the photo above! So as this tissue paper like flower that just about 1.5cm wide.
More macro shots!
I then use it for landscape. I first shoot it with F22 with shuttle speed of 1/15sec. I then lower it to 1/2 sec to test the optical stabiliser (VR). Without tripod & filter I managed to create the effect as above.
Taking night shots is a breeze with the VR stabiliser. So if you are looking for a travel lens or simply want a 'multi-purpose' lens. Get this new lens from Nikon (if you are using Nikon camera...) This is my first choice of lens whenever I wanted to travel light.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Olive-Backed Sunbirds

Olive-backed sunbird is one of the very common bird that can be found even in urban area. What do Olive-backed sunbird feed on?
Nectar is one of their main diet.
Through camera, we get to see what we usually missed just by our naked eyes. The nectar of Helicornia is richer than I thought. Just look at the nectar that splashed out from the flower!
They also feed on small insect & also spiders!

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Water Monitor Lizard at SBWR

Many times when I heard somebody shouting "Crocodile" in Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, very high chance is a water monitor lizard. From a distance they did looks like crocodile. Like with other reptiles, monitor lizards are cold blooded, which means they don't maintain their body temperature instead follow the environment.

Cold blooded also often refer to lacking feeling or emotion. Do monitor lizards really lack of feeling & emotion? Monitor lizards feed on anything that they can find and swallow including other monitor lizards!After seeing this monitor lizard keep the juvenile close to them at all time, they aren't really 'cold blooded' isn't it?
Judging from the size, the lizard on the left should be the father (male lizard are larger in size) and the mother on the right. What a happy family!

Monitor lizards use their fork-tongue to smells the air to look for food.
I am not sure if the monitor lizards also use their tongue to communicate as seen on this photo.
Monitor lizards is very common at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, check it out when you next visit there!