A walk in the park

I have the fortune of living next to a foresty jungly park area. I decided to take a short walk in the area directly behind my apartment block, just to see if I could take some nice plant or bird photos. To my surprise, I saw so much more than I expected. I had to stop myself from taking more photos, there were so many things to see and capture. I need to go back a bunch more times!

There's a sign pointing to the boardwalks in the park area; the languages are representative of the main races of this island.

I saw a few birds, here are two photos. One is of the ever-present yellow vented Bulbul (yes, he lives up to his name), and the other is of a Kingfisher.

I saw two squirrels:

Here are two types of flowers that I saw. I have no idea what either of them are. I was especially intrigued by the pink one that looked like it was a cross section.

One of my favorite trees here in Singapore is the cannonball tree. It gets its name from its cannonball-like fruit, I would imagine. Those things can get to the size of a basketball. It has interesting waxy flowers. Here are the flowers:

And here is a hilariously suggestive pair of cannonballs:

Planet neighborhood

I've been trying to nurse my favorite fish, a cute little platy, back to health. She was at death's door yesterday, so it's been tough. I couldn't find the time to take a decent photo, so I just took an older photo and made a "planet" out of it in Photoshop. It's not the best photo for a planet, and I didn't hide the joining bits, but I think it came out looking rather interesting.

East, West and rest

I didn't get a chance to put a photo up yesterday, so I'll do that today instead. I know that there are a lot of things wrong with this photo, but I did like the combination of the Chinese panels and the Western-style Christmas decorations. Yes, the lighting inside and outside was rather yellow.

Here's one of Kazu lying down on her favorite chair. Although a "lazy shot" on my part, the photo does capture the essence of Kazu. She's a fat, lazy and sweet cat. But she does have two ears.

Happy New Year!

I spent the eve with friends in the downtown Marina area. They'd booked rooms in Swisshotel, which possesses spectacular views of the area. One of my friends had a room that faced out to the Marina, which was not only a beautiful scene, but also the venue of the fireworks. We were on the 56th floor, so the fireworks looked like they were right in front of us. It was absolutely spectacular. A once in a lifetime experience. And I didn't bring my DSLR. I kicked myself a billion times last night.

I got really crappy photos from my iphone (3gs, not 4). Here's one of them:

 

The fireworks were located above the colorful patch on the water in the middle of the photo. The colors changed throughout the night, the view was simply breathtaking.

Bad Fence

I noticed this badly painted(I think it was brown over white) fence at my parents' house. I thought that the colors and textures formed by the peeling paint and the dead/dying creeping plant were interesting.

Cute and ugly

I was so excited today, because I was going to my parents' house, which holds a treasure trove of subjects for photography. They have a large garden with lots of flowers, so I was going to practice my macro shooting. Well, it started raining before I got there, and it only stopped when I left. Go figure.


I caught a photo of their adorable little terrier mix, Ben. Since it was dark, and I was kind of reluctant to increase the ISO any further, the shutter speed was low. As a result, the image shows the hallmarks of camera shake and subject motion blur. I think this photo had potential, but now it's too blurry. I guess I could post process it and make it look like I took it through a soft lens.

I managed a rather sharp photo of an ugly fly with my Tamron 90mm macro lens, despite having to stoop over at an awkward angle. I was trying to capture the little red flowers (Ixora) and caught sight of this little fella. Obviously, the photo could have been better if I had used a tripod and external flash, but I'm not sure I want to see this fly in any more detail anyway. Sour grapes?

A flower and me!

I finally managed to take my camera out with me, by sneaking it in my large "new" handbag. I have been using my old and tattered bag for a long, long time, but I finally switched bags just so I could cram in a DSLR with a decent length lens (eg. my 55-250mm). I was still deathly afraid of people staring at me, so I would whip out the camera quickly from my bag, snap, and swiftly return it to its hiding place.


Because of my fear, I didn't manage to shoot any decent photos. Here's a photo I kind of liked, but I didn't have time to compose or to focus properly. I set the aperture way too big, and I missed the focal point as well. Still, I like how the bougainvillea "flower" (the purplish bits) is actually made up of leaves, and the real flowers are nestled inside, ignored but still beautiful in its own right.

I got my new camera strap, it's a Black Rapid Rs-4. I love it! It slings across my body, allowing me to walk around easily, and my camera is accessible with a smooth and quick motion. I took a photo of myself while using that strap. The photo is noisy and the strap can't really be seen. But it's the first photo I've taken of myself with the camera.