Simon's Bloggfly: February 2006

A day at Ubin

we had a beginners outing today at P. Ubin today, turn out was good, most attendee was from Nikon user forum. For the first time since I started out in Bcircle, this was the biggest turnout for me. Spilted into 4 groups (according to the system they use) Me and another group had the whole Sensory trail to ourselves. The day started out with all skippers, and butterfly count was really low, had to look for subjects for the beginners to shoot :sweat:, turns out khew and the other group had a tougher time over at the Butterfly hill (behind the NParks HQ), the site was too open and extremely windy (although, the sensory trail wasn't any better), so at the end, they came over. Our inital plan was to stay at either the hill or the sensory trail, but the lack of subjects got us trekking through the mangrove swamps, ending up at the palm plantation along Jalan Ubin (I think..hmmm) then we break for lunch (think we over ordered the food, 5 dishes for 6 guys.. haha). Then was back to more shooting at the trail, while khew and the others left.. (perhaps, alittle too much for beginners :P, but then I'm just recovering from my accident and I think I had a better excuse.. oh well, maybe the sun and all that walking got to them :))

At the end of the day, a +1 to my collection, wish I had a shot at the common Jay.. sigh... on the way back in Sunny's car, had cramps on my low back... (another first time.. so strange, very such attackings) Now suffering from neck aches while updating my blog... darn aches.. okie, lets see the pix then

Fruitful day at Mt Faber

One day after the posting of the Courtesan by Sunny at ButterflyCircle, we went there in search of it. Luckily, not too early, or rather not my usual outing timing which usually starts around 8-9am. So I met up with Steven at Redhill MRT @ 12pm and we took a cab on the mountain.. keke.

didn't see any flying, so when Sunny came, we went to his favorite hunt site. By around 2pm, most of the species we wanted came down and greeted us :P... you seen airplanes doing dogfights? imagine butterflies doing the same to feud off other males :). What a sight, but wasn't good for us, every so often while composition for a shot, another male would fly by and both end up fighting for terriority.

hmmm... I notice my focusing is abit out for the last few outings, wonder why, could it be due to slow shutterspeed, handshakes or did the accident cause it? will observe and see how

IT'S PICTURE TIME!!!

fresh from the oven

no new species to my list again, but what can I expect from shooting at Alexandra Hospital. Do not know why I kept going back there in the first place, perhaps should limit myself to a visit every 6 months.

last 2 weeks was pretty busy with Chinese New Year celebration, so not much shooting opportunity, except for an outing to the local zoo with my 2nd bro. Can't believe it, been ages since that kinda of outing took place.

back on track, another low productive outing, only yield 2 acceptable shots, kinda disappointed with myself lately, carried my monopod around then realised I didn't bring the quick release plate... gotta slap myself sometimes.

Then more heartbreaking news from Sunny, while I was in AH (Alexandra hospital), he went to his favorite hunt on Mt. Faber and shot a courtesan, no, it wasn't a prostitute but the butterfly, Euripus nyctelius euploeoides :ANGRY:. I have not seen one so far, so it was a new find. Hopefully, I can finish half of what I was supposed to study for my econ test by tonight and sneak off to Mt. Faber after breakfast tomorrow. Sunny is like a magnet for interesting butts

ok, pix time... don't complain if the pix isn't up to my standard, I KNOW!!! :P