Night Walk At Venus Drive (08 Feb 2013)

Finally got my hands on the Raynox DCR250 Super Macro Lens from a local store and surprisingly, it was selling at slightly cheaper than online.

Wanted to try this out with the LED ring lights that I bought earlier. Another round of adjustments again.

The sky has been raining for the past few days and today is no exception. I have been planning to try out the new lens at Venus Drive and were pretty much mentally prepared that the night session will be a wash-out. Despite the wet weather, the urge of wanting to test out the new Raynox lens drove me on to set out in the night even though the rain only stopped for about two hours or so.

As expected, the place was absolutely drenched through and through. Everything looked wet. Not about to give up, I looked for some fallen tree logs and sure enough, there were a few of the fungus beetles (Eumorphus quadriguttatus) crawling around. My first live test subjects for my new macros lens.

The new lens proved to be harder to handle then expected. The depth of field was a little short and I was not about to do the adjustments there and then due to the rain. I ended up using the zoom instead. Thankfully, I still managed to get some decent shots. In fact, the Raynox lens is so much better than my macro lens filter which tends to distort at the edge when I use a longer zoom.

Here's photo of a small 3mm fungus beetle. Was not able to get a nice shot with my old lens but am glad that the Raynox lens can zoom in so closely without any distortion. Guess this is value for money since the cost of the Raynox lens is a several times that of my macro lens filter. Well, still need to work on the depth of field as the elytra of the beetle in this shot was not in focus. Need to see how to diffuse the LED ring flash also.

Moving along, the place seemed to be full of this type of fungus beetles. You can see them on almost every fallen tree log that I came across.

More of the fungus beetles (Eumorphus quadriguttatus) and this one is not as wet compared to the earlier ones.

There were a number of these small litte beetle, each about 2mm in length.

More wet Eumorphus quadriguttatus.

While combing the fallen logs for beetles, I came across this beautiful little beetle (less than 2mm). The elytra has a metallic sheen to it. My photograph skills did great injustice to this beauty.

A tiny 2mm fungus beetle was clinging to a tree trunk, looked pretty dry I must add.

More tiny beetles. Am having a little bit of a problem with the new lens and light, so this shot was a total wash-out. Added it here to document down what I saw.

A better shot with this larger beetle.

Cute fungus beetle larve and a patch of white fungus.

At the edge of the white fungus patch, I found this little beetle (3mm). Darkling beetle?

I finally found this beetle. Was wanting to take a nicer photograph of this beetle to replace my poorly taken one.

More closeup of the tiny beetles that were crawling all over the place (less than 2mm).

More of this type of fungus beetles.

 Another beetle, this time round a side shot. Didn't know that it is pretty hairy.

My favourite shot for the night.

 More fungus beetle. This time showing the long legs.

 Another closeup shot. See the poo?

 An interesting beetle which has a matted-black coloration.

An interestingly long beetle larve.

Another shot of the tiny fungus beetle. I really need to work on the focusing.

A fungus weevil and sadly, out of focus.

 A close up of a wet Eumorphus quadriguttatus.

My final shot before I left the place - fungus beetle larves.

The trip was not as bad as I have expected and it gave me a better feel of what need to be done with the new lens and lights.

A Morning Walk At Upper Seletar Reservior (02 Feb 2013)

After a dismal testing of the LED lights the night before, I decided to take a walk at the Upper Seletar Reservior in the morning to test out the LED lights again.



Just a stone's throw from the carpark was a plant that was full of this type of beetle. They look very much like a Leaf Beetle.


Moving further, there was a tree with a fungus beetle larvae. No adult fungus beetle was in sight.


Walking along a particular stretch of tall hedges, there were a number of the Hoplasoma unicolor flying around. The Hoplasoma unicolor seem to be in great abundance here.


Walking along a shaded trail, a tiny beetle caught my attention. It looked like a Net-winged Beetle but was completely black as compared to the bright red coloration of the other Net-winged Beetle found in Singapore.

Along the way was this little beetle at about 2mm in size. Looked like a leaf beetle.


This came as a pleasant surprise as I was not expecting to see this Tiger Beetle. In fact a few of them were busy running around the dead log.


Found a really tiny beetle, about 2mm. It was not an easy beetle to photograph, especially given the strong wind that was blowing at that time. Nevertheless, I managed to get a few decent shots of it.


Coming to a spot where there is a sand pit of sort, there were a few of this type of tiger beetle Cicndela aurulenta.

I moved into a small trail  and was hoping that there will be some interesting beetles. Not much actions except for this beetle. A ladybird?

Further down the trail, I came across this  really small weevil beetle. It is less than 2mm in size. Looking back, it was pretty amazing how I managed to spot it in the first place.

Another tiny beetle (3mm)...

This beetle was rather bold as it allowed me to photograph it for a while.

Just before I leave for home, this Net-Winged beetle came into my view finder.

This morning walk was pretty good with a good selection of beetles. Looking forward to the next walk.

A Walk Around The Neighbourhood (01 Feb 2013)

Just received my mail order of a LED ring light for my camera, so itching to go take some photographs with it. As the night falls, off I go to the wilder part of the neighbourhood to catch some night actions.

Sadly the number of critters that I came across is not as high as my excitement, but nevertheless I managed to get some photographs. I have been using my camera build in flash and using the LED ring light which also doubled as a flash, was a challenge. All my camera settings were not right which ended up with poorly taken photographs.

Here's what I encountered during this trip of testing the LED light. Do pardon the quality of the photographs.

First beetle that appeared was this Apogonia expeditionis,  which became extremely difficult to photograph when the wind was blowing non-stop at the location.

Moving on to the tree that I last saw many beetles and true enough there a couple of the Anomala variegata, that were having a wonderful feast with the leaves.

Then came the Adoretus compressus which hang gingerly unto the leaf, with the strong wind blowing.

More of the Apogonia expeditionis and the photography with the new LED lights proved to be a bigger challenge than expected. I was not able to get a good setting with my camera to match the light.

A beetle was on a piece of dead log and it became my test subject for the LED light. Soon the lights went off, it disappeared without a trace. Guessed it had enough of the flashing.

Just when I was about to leave the log that I noticed something that looked like a beetle. Looking closer confirmed it. It was a fungus weevil that camouflaged so well with the log.

In a nearby tree was this little beetle (2mm). This is one of the better shots that I managed to get using the new LED light, which honestly was not good at all. Notice the reflection of the LED ring light?

There was a fallen tree and on it I found this fungus weevil which looked different from the earlier one, given the much long antennae.

The night seemed to be a Apogonia destructor night where I found dozens of them feasting on the leaves. You can easily see why it is so named.

The highlight of the night walk was this 2cm long horned beetle, which stood pretty still for me to take a number of shots with it. Sadly the photographs using the LED light did not turn out so well.

More Apogonia destructor.

Just before the going back, I came a cross this little beetle which became very restless when my light was shining on it.

The last beetle for the trip was another Apogonia expeditionis which together with another dozen of them, feasting on a almost 'botak' plant.

The trip was not as fantastic as I was expecting but it did give me a feel of how to use the LED light. More adjustments needed.