Morining Walk At Venus Drive (01 Jun 2013)

It rained heavily the night before and spoiled my plan to go for a night shoot. The morning was exceptionally sunny with blue sky and only a few scattered clouds, a perfect weather for a walk at Venus Drive. The vegetation at the place was pretty wet but nevertheless my enthusiasm was not dampened.

Looking around a patch of tall grasses, a Spiny Leaf Beetle flew past and landed on a blade of grass.

After a few minutes of chasing the beetle around and photographing it, I was taken by surprise by this Ladybird Beetle that landed directly in front of me. Guess that my reflexes are not as fast as the beetle and I was only able to get two shots of it before it flew away. What a wasted opportunity to photograph this lovely beetle.

The next beetle was a Leaf Beetle (Lema rufotestacea) sun tanning on a leaf. It remained pretty still while it was warming up its 'engine'.

A stone's throw away was another Leaf Beetle (Lema diversa). Unlike the earlier Leaf Beetle, this one was hyper-sensitive to movements. Fortunately, I was able to close in on it and took some closeup photograph of this colorful beetle.

Moments later, another Leaf Beetle (Lema cyanella) decided to join in the photo-shoot.

Moving on, a small beetle (~8 mm) was found on a blade of lovely red leaf. This was the same kind of beetle that I came across at the Tampines Eco Green Park.

A surprise find was this Net-winged Beetle (Dictyopera aurora).  It is rather small compared to the other Net-winged Beetle that I usually come across.

Moving on to a fallen tree log, a Fungus Beetle was spotted beneath some bracket fungus.

As mentioned before, you can easily find this beetle after rain. I easily came across about 10 of this beetle during this trip.

At another tree log, I found this lovely Fungus Beetle (Platydema monoceros). Notice the 'horn' at the tip of its thorax.

On the the same tree log was this Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus assamenis).

Moving into a shaded part of the trail, this lovely red beetle turned up.

Moving further, a tiny (~2 mm) Leaf Beetle was quietly sitting on top of this leaf.

Moving along the trail, I came across this interesting beetle that was crawling on this leaf with some difficulties. This beetle looked the same as a similar beetle that I came across earlier on but with a slight variation in terms of color.

Under a big leaf was this brightly colored Ladybird Beetle. Love the color of this beetle. Notice that it is still pretty wet, probably due to the rain a night before.

At almost the end of the shaded path, a brown Leaf Beetle appeared. Pardon the dimly lit photograph.

An interesting looking Leaf Beetle flew past while I was looking around for beetles.

After a short while of photographing the above interesting looking beetle, a Fungus Beetle flew across the path. This was a surprise because it was flying in broad day light, which is something nocturnal creatures would not do.

On a low bush nearby, I found this interesting-looking Weevil Beetle. It was rather hyperactive and was moving around. Notice how wet the leaf and you can imagine how heavy the rain was the night before.

Then another Leaf Beetle appeared. Lovely color contrast.

Almost at the end of the trail, I found this beetle sitting on the edge as though it was wanting to watch the world passing by. This beetle was about 2 mm in size.

Every time when I past by this big tree, I will surely look for this type of beetle. This time round, I only managed to find this one. I wondered what happened to the rest of the beetles.

After almost two hours on the trail, I found this lovely pink Net-winged Beetle resting on a blade of grass.

Despite the wet condition at Venus Drive, I was able to photograph some interesting beetles. How wonderful!

Morning Walk At Venus Drive (25 May 2013)

It rained in the early morning but not wanting to miss the opportunity to test out my new camera, I decided to still go to Venus Drive for a quick walk. The place was wet and the prospect of finding beetles in such wet condition seemed slim.

After walking for 5 minutes, a beetle finally flew past and landed on a leaf nearby. It was a 3 mm Spiny Leaf Beetle. Notice the wetness of the leaf that the beetle was on.

The next beetle was a common Tiger Beetle (Cicindela aurulental). Although this is a rather common beetle that one would encounter in our parks and nature reserves, this was the first time that I come across it at Venus Drive.

After encountering the Tiger Beetle, it was a while before I found this Fungus Beetle sitting calmly on a white fungus. It was motionless despite all the camera flashes on it. This was probably due to the wet weather and overcast sky.

The next beetle was this <3 mm beetle on a blade of palm leaf. You can easily find this type of beetle in abundance after rain.

Moving further down the trail, a Darkling Beetle was found hiding between a leaf and a dead log. This type of beetle usually come out in the night, and finding it in the morning was really a surprise find.

Another 'late' sleeper, a nocturnal Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus assamensis) that can occasionally be seen in the day time.

Walking further down the trail, a flash of red passes the corner of my eyes. It was a Net-winged Beetle (Dictyoptera aurora). This is a hyper-sensitive beetle that is easily spooked.

This Leaf Beetle was found under a leaf. It must be due to the overcast sky as it remained motionless despite me turning the leaf over and kept flash photographing it. It remained motionless after I returned the leaf to its original position. Amazing.

Into the shaded area of the trail, an interesting beetle (~15 mm) was found in between two leaves.

Coming to a rotting tree stump, a small (~5 mm) Ground Beetle (Pericalus tetrastigma) was seen running on it. I did not spot it until it started to move. It blended nicely with its background, and with the low light condition, it was almost invisible when it stopped moving.

Passing a group of bird photographers, I came across this small 3 mm Leaf Beetle. Thinking back, it was such a big contrast as I was only carrying two small cameras, whereas the bird photographers were lugging all their huge and heavy gears (super-zoom telephoto lenses, tripods, etc). Glad that I am taking macro photographs of beetles.

Another 10 minutes passed by before this lovely beetle appeared.

Walking into another shaded area, a 5 mm Leaf Beetle was found resting on a leaf.

Nearby, walking gingerly on a wet leaf was this interesting looking Weevil Beetle. This was the first time that I come across this type of beetle. It was a fast beetle and did not for a moment stop moving around.

Almost at the end of the trail, a small (~5 mm) Click Beetle was seen resting on a shaded leaf.

The last beetle (~2 mm) was found at the base of a big tree. Although it was a rather small beetle, its orange coloration contrasted  strongly with the brown background of the tree, thus making it to stick out like a sore-thumb.

Although the trip was a short one, it was a good opportunity for me to get familiar with the new camera. Hopefully with more of such trip, I will be able to get better photographs in the future.

Night Walk At Venus Drive (17 May 2013)

Have been looking forward for the night to test out my new Sony SLT-A58K camera for night macro shoot. The weather is nice and dry, so I made a beeline for Venus Drive when the night got dark. For this trip I decided to make use of the ring-LED light that I bought some time back but was put aside as I didn't like the light-ring effect on shining subjects. Nevertheless, I decided to use it after considered that I may not be able to hold a torch light and adjust the focus of the camera with another.

The first beetle that appear was a commonly seen Darkling Beetle. It took me a while to get used to the features of the camera, so photographs taken for this beetle was not very sharp.

The second beetle that appeared looked very much like the Phyllophaga marginalis Chafer Beetle but it is smaller and with slightly different coloration.

Nearby was another Chafer Beetle (Adoretus compressus). This is a commonly encountered beetle in the night.

Further down the trail was another Chafer Beetle (Apogonia expeditionis). This is also a commonly encountered beetle, that can be found in parks and gardens. 

An unexpected find was this Fungus Beetle that was sitting on a leaf. Unexpected because this beetle is usually found on or near rotting logs. I didn't like the light ring reflection on the elytra of the beetle.

Coming to some fallen tree log, there were a number of this Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus assamensis) on it. The ring-light worked nicely on this beetle unlike those beetles with shiny elytra.

On the same log was this 3mm Fungus Beetle (Platydema unicornis). This is the first time I come across this Fungus Beetle at Venus Drive. Interesting to note the unicorn-like horn on its head.

Another small (~3 mm) Fungus Beetle on the same tree log.

Moving onto another fallen log nearby. This time round the log was full of this type of Darkling Beetle, all about 10 mm in size.

A few of this small (~5 mm) Fungus Weevil (Eucorynus crassicornis) were found the same log. The coloration of this beetle matches very closely with its background, which render it rather difficult to locate through the camera's view finder.

Moving along onto another fallen tree, I came across this 3 mm roundish Fungus Beetle.

On the same log was this great find  - a male Darkling Beetle (Cryphaeus gazelle).

An interesting find on the trunk of a tree. It is about 2 mm in size and looked like a black speck until you zoom-in and see the interesting pattern on it.

A curious little black beetle (~3 mm) was found on some large white fungus at the base of a tree stump.

On another tree was this 2 mm Fungus Beetle. It was a great challenge to photograph it as it was very sensitive to the light shining on it and was moving around quickly. The quick movements turned out to be challenging as I am still not used to the camera.

Another tiny (~2 mm) Fungus Beetle (Beccariola coccinella). Not easy to focus on such a tiny beetle especially when it was also moving around quickly. Only managed to get some sharper photograph when it decided to stop for a few short moments.

A Fungus Weevil high up on a tree trunk. A test of steady hands. This is when I realized that my the other camera (Canon SX30 IS) is so much lighter. The focusing and depth of field was a challenge for this overhead shot.

While photographing the Weevil Beetle, my attention was drawn to some movements at the lower part of the tree trunk. It turned out to be a 3 mm Click Beetle (Xanthopenthes schawalleri). Like the other beetles, it was hyperactive and was moving on the tree trunk quickly.

Desperate to want to catch a nice photograph of this beetle, a blew a breath of air at it. To my pleasant surprise, the beetle stopped moving and allowed me to photograph it for a short while.

Resting on a dead log was this female Darkling Beetle (Cryphaeus gazella). Notice that it does not have any horns growing out of its thorax, unlike the male beetle I photographed earlier.

Interestingly, there were a large number of this shiny little beetle (~4 mm) on another rotting log nearby.

Hiding in a crevice on a piece of broken tree log was this 5 mm Darkling Beetle. The good thing about this beetle is that it can remained pretty still for you to photograph, even with all the camera flashes.

On a leaf near to the log was this lone Fungus Beetle. I was not able to get a good shot of it due to its odd location it was found.

Finally the first Ground Beetle (~15 mm) for the night. This beetle was particularly cooperative as it didn't attempt to fly away despite the strong light. This was unusual as they often flew away when I photograph them in previous sessions.

Near to the above was this smaller (~10 mm) Ground Beetle with a much darker coloration.

Passing by some ferns, I found this tiny beetle (~2 mm). This was the only photograph that I managed to take before it dropped off the leaf because of the camera light.

Resting on a tree trunk was this 5 mm Darkling Beetle. It looked slightly rounder compared to the earlier Darkling Beetles.

Almost nearing the end of the trail, a pair of mating Lady Bird like beetles were disrupted by me. Interesting to see them move in unison despite one was moving backward.

The last beetle for the trip was this hairy Fungus Beetle, perfectly camouflaged with its surrounding.

This was a good trip as it provided me with some good 'field' experience working with the new camera in the night. I hoped to be able to shoot better photographs with this camera soon.