Wild Night at Semakau

We have a real fun evening last week end at Semakau after the Project Semakau Transect Survey.

It happens that it was a full dress rehearsal for NDP, we got to see some of the actions from Semakau too!

Besides the NDP show, we have beautiful sun-set, clear blue sky with the moon in sight too! A nice & cooling sea breeze, wow is one of the best venue to have BBQ!

When the sky get darker, some even starts to dance under the beautiful moonlight. With naked eye, the moon appear like a crescent. Using my camera with some zoom, the whole moon can be seen!

The darker part (covered by the earth) can be seen clearly when I took this shot with longer exposure.

When I change the setting, I can even see the crater on the moon surface! Wow! A camera can really change our perspective towards the moon!

The photo above was taken in Semaku too! We do have places in Singapore where light pollution is minimum and have the effect like at the Savannah!
With minimum light pollution, star trails photography is possible too. The photo above was taken with 4 mins exposure. Once the exposure are extended to at least 30 mins, you will have really nice star trails photo! I also taken some shots on fireflies! You can read more about it here.Well, from the expression of these people... Semakau Rocks!!!

Firefly of Semakau

I've been wanted to take photo of firefly in Singapore after my first attempt I did while I was at Taiwan in April earlier this year.

Due to habitats lost, to see fireflies in Singapore is already a challenge not to mention to photograph it. One of the site that watching of fireflies is still possible in Singapore will be Pulau Semakau, the first & only off-shore landfill of Singapore.

A close look at the firefly, the light produce chemically are emitted from the abdomen of the fireflies.

The photo above was taken using long exposure. Taking photo of fireflies in Singapore is possible!

My Encounter with Fireflies

What a sad story to hear that another fireflies breeding area is diminishing soon. People around the world paid to get to the site where fireflies can be found to look at these wonders created by nature. Yet, there are people just didn't realise what they have lose. Is always the coolest thing to do just sit down and watch their luminous flashes of light that is truly a magnificent after the sun-set and right before the night falls.

On my recent trip to Taiwan, I was lucky enough to visit 2 areas with fireflies. Fireflies watching are usually carried out during summer when the temperature are warmer. I was told to try my luck by the locals as it is still early spring when I visit those 2 areas.

The first site that we went was a forest about 5 km away from our accommodation. After dinner about 7pm, we decided to try our luck to see if there are any fireflies. We were told not to turn on torch light as it will cause the fireflies to go hiding. The sky was quite bright as it happens to be full moon on that night and we have no problem walking without turning on our torch.

Yes. We are lucky that there are some fireflies activities. I’m using long exposure time to capture the blinks of these synchronous fireflies.

It was during day and totally not planned for when I visited the 2nd site. We were at a hill top for bird watching and were told by locals that there is a very nice valley not far away. So I decided to give a try and it turns out to be another fireflies breeding area. Yeah! How lucky!

The path to the valley are covered with pebble stone and looks like a dry river bed.

The road became narrower and the air are more humid as I go deeper (and there are more ferns include tree ferns too).

The entire path are in fact covered with pebble stones! There are water ponding on some part of the trail and there are lots of mosquitoes. Whenever it rains, the rain water will flow through this tiny valley to the lower area. This valley or ‘crack’ was actually the creation of prolong flowing of rain water.
Half way through the trail, I saw lots of flying insects hovering in front of me and whenever I get near, they flew off and I don't know what they are. So I just simply take out my camera and take a photo. After upload to my pc then I realise they emit lights!I search the floor around that area and I saw something very familiar! Yes is fireflies! I been trying to find out more info on fireflies on what they do during day and if they really hide during day time. Does this means that fireflies also active in the day?? Could the flying insect fireflies too?? ... i really don't know