Day 38 : Dusky Leaf Monkey

Despite using a 300mm lens on a camera body with a cropped sensor, I'm still not having a lot of luck in the jungle house. Nothing ever really comes into range for me to get a good sharp shot off. Today was no different. I was looking for birds when I heard a crash and saw branches moving. I had to run like mad to a better view point. I eventually spotted this monkey contemplating life on a branch. He (she?) stayed there for more than half an hour. I say contemplating life because he wasn't doing anything. Usually they're feeding here on young leaves but this chap was chillin' out. Dusky leaf monkeys have bright white rings around their eyes. Their eyelids are white as well. It's amazing to see them blink. They're also known as spectacled langurs.

Day 37 : ....and Crocs Will Fly

Haven't really had time to pick up my camera or choose my shots. I'm sure it's been reflected in my photos the past few days. Today is no different. Grabbed camera, grabbed new crocs, throw crocs in air and snap with internal flash on. I wanted a hard shadow to illustrate that the crocs were in mid-air. I took a big risk with this one. I didn't even check to see if it was really in focus. Verdict: not really but not so bad that I can't get away with it. I chucked the crocs about 5 to 6 times and as usual the best shot out of a bad bunch was the first. Once the crocs landed on me and my camera. One for my face, the other for my camera's lens. It's only funny now, wasn't then! Hopefully I'll find some time to take photos in the days to come.

Day 36 : Tarik!

My morning coffee being 'pulled' for me. Usually this is done with sweetened tea. We called it teh tarik. Literally 'pulled tea',. This is my Nescafe being pulled though.

Day 35 : Invader from Neptune

Ummm.... Take me to your leader.

My first selfie! If you're wondering why I'm looking distressed it's because I can't breathe with that thing on. It does seal against the face.

The dive centre I work for has just started to sell these things. They're for underwater voice communication. There's a receiver and transmitter which can be attached to this face mask. Great for the gadget freak or those who just don't get hand signals. Not for me though.

Day 34 : Alien Invasion

They're coming! Picture of their leader tomorrow!

This is actually a picture of pendant lights in a restaurant.

Day 33 : Chinese Painting II

So sorry to do this again so quickly (Chinese Painting I, was only yesterday!) but it's not like I had a choice. You'll understand why soon. I was back at the jungle house for a visit. I went to the front of the house with the intention of finding and photographing the pair of Raffles' Malkohas (from Day 29) again. Instead, I saw a pair of White Crowned Hornbills! I forgot about the Raffles' Malkohas plenty quick. They were wonderful creatures. Beautiful and the largest birds I've seen at the house by far. With the light you can't really see the whole tail and the white feathers which make up its crown. I was busy taking photos of the bird (one had flown to another tree) in the tree when it hopped to another branch and took flight. I tracked it and snapped away like a man possessed. And I got this picture. An entirely opportunistic shot with a ridiculous amount of luck thrown in. I do have pictures of the hornbills in the trees but between those and this one, you'll have to agree this is the one I HAVE to use.

Just like the butterfly picture yesterday, it's overexposed because my camera was set for taking photos of the subject while it was in the tree and I take photos in manual mode so there was no compensation for the sudden change in background and lighting. The conditions were about the same as yesterday as well. Overcast and gray. The world's biggest diffuser for the greatest lightsource our planet has.

Day 32 : Chinese Painting

I had three candidates for today's photo. I asked my wife (@hipponat) for her opinion as to which photo to use. I've mentioned before that she's got a very good eye. She said to use this one and I have to agree. Funny how it suddenly becomes an easy choice. She said it looks like a chinese painting. It does actually. What's amazing is that the butterfly is still happily going about its business. Look how tattered its wings are! It looks like the sails of a ghost ship!

Day 31 : Bananas for Sale

Caught this photo at a roadside fruit and veg stall. The bananas are hanging above the other wares and I managed to get the stall owner and a customer in the picture. The stall is in front of one of our favourite restaurants (perfectly steamed fish!) and we've bought fruits many times from here. The bananas are indeed very sweet and tasty. It was a good day for photos. I got many nice shots off. Just a shame about the drizzle. My poor Nikon was getting wet. I've already put my camera and lenses into the dry cabinet with the setting turned all the way up.

I also caught the image below.

This is a SOOC shot. I sometimes know when to leave things well alone. I had kept my camera away not wanting more water to get on it (it was drizzling) when I saw this man heft a pole with bags onto his shoulder and start walking. I knew I had to pull the camera out again or I'd regret it. He's going past a roadside stall and having a word in passing with the stall owner whose van that is. You can see some of the wares on the right of the stall. I don't really know how to describe it except its a type of folded chinese pancake with crushed peanuts and sugar, sometimes with corn. This is life in the small Chinese villages I suppose. I certainly don't see this in the big city. Above you can make out the Karak Highway which is famous for being haunted and claiming lives!

Day 30 : Year of the Dragon.... fly

Every morning and sometimes in the evenings, a bird ( a bulbul, I think) will tap on our windows. Probably a narcissist in love with its reflection! This evening it started knocking away so I went to grab my camera. By the time I made it outside, it had gone. So I wandered about my tiny garden and I was surprised by a pair of tree shrews. I took two shots hoping the camera settings were correct or not too far out. I will post the tree shrew picture in the Runner Up album.

So I thought I had my photo for the day and I was walking back to the front door when something started buzzing around me. A dragonfly eventually landed on my ponytail palm. It wasn't an easy shot as I was using my telephoto lens and the leaf the dragonfly was on kept moving from the breeze. I did manage to get decent shots from the side and from the back.

This had been a fast moving thing. When I saw the preview on my camera's LCD screen I was amazed by the colour! Below is a side profile of the same dragonfly.

Day 29 : Here Birdie Birdie Birdie....

I went to the House in the Jungle today and of course I was armed with my camera and telephoto lens. I have a 300mm lens and it still wasn't really enough. The animals weren't cooperating today. I got photos of macaques and this bird in today's photo is one of a pair playing about in the trees. None of them were ever near enough for me to get a proper shot. The silver leaf monkeys which quite often do come into range, were feeding in the distance. I could see them but had no chance of photographing them. So I had to crop this photo. Yes, I am hanging my head in shame.

I don't know what bird this is but it will be a very simple fix. I've sent copies out to my family. My mum and dad might know what it is but I'll be really surprised if my sister didn't. I chase fish. They chase birds. My sister is a nut-case bird watcher but of course I didn't say that and you didn't read it. She's likely more dedicated to her art than I am.

Edit: Mum won the race. She just replied me and correctly identified it as a Raffles' Malkoha, a species of cuckoo. Unique among the cuckoo family, the male and female of this species have a different appearance (sexual dimorphism). A picture of the female follows.

Day 28 : Fork!

I've rinsed my underwater camera casing and macro lens but haven't kept them away yet. This was shot with the camera in the u/w casing and the macro wet lens on the lens port. While I don't have extension rings or a macro lens for my DSLR, this is what will happen! Shot on a piece of A4 paper borrowed from the printer and lighting provided by my dive torch which I haven't put away yet either!

Day 27 : Lo-Rider

I check out every large feather star I come across these days. Previously I'd fin past them with giving them a second glance. There's usually an abundance of crustaceans living in them. In this one alone I counted three types of shrimp and this little feller right underneath which I believe to be a squat lobster. I'm not totally sure. I'll look it up in my critter book when I have time and correct myself (with suitable apology!) if I'm wrong. This is the kind of underwater photography I'm into - Macro and Super Macro!

Day 26 : Balance

The title is quite easily explained. When I'd started underwater photography, I had only one strobe. I've recently added another. This was my first trip out with dual strobes. What a difference! Previously, a picture like this one would be impossible. There would be reflections and the shadows would be very harsh. Now I can illuminate the face of this white-eyed moray nicely. Balanced.

I do not regret waiting so long to add the second strobe. Having only the one strobe taught me a lot about strobe positioning, strobe output, lighting, reflections and backscatter. It prepared me for two.

I must admit to cropping this picture by a good amount. The original picture has the whole eel's cave entrance and quite a bit of the eel. I just thought the picture presented this way really improved it by leaps and bounds. I realised it when I zoomed in on its eyes to check the focus of the picture. And oh yeah! it's in focus! Look at the eyes carefully enough and you can see the lens in the eyes. This isn't even a big eel. Just a baby white-eyed. I try not to crop my pictures if I can help it. This is only the second picture I've cropped since I started.

Day 25 : Sight

I've been away for the last three days. Been diving in pretty crappy conditions. Lousy visibility, strong currents and lots of silt. Still, getting wet is much preferable to staying dry! We did not photograph, let alone see, the two subjects we went to look for. The pygmy and dwarf seahorses.

This is a Lo-Key shot of my mask. I took the picture while I was packing. My mask has a chrome frame and black skirting. So I put it on a black table.

Day 24 : A Lesson in Perseverance

 

A lighter in one hand and camera in the other. How did it go? Exactly as the title says! :) 

Day 23 : Bubbles

My student cancelled last minute on me so I was already at the pool. Might as well get wet and try out the new camera and casing in the water. I've already tested the casing empty, sinking it for an hour or so. Camera goes in this time.

Okay, this is a somewhat a cheat. I have tried this shot before and I did it shortly before I started my project while I was trying to get familiar with using manual settings underwater. Karma quickly kicked in and I didn't get many good shots at all. This was the best of them all. Granted, it's not the easiest and sometimes quite hard on the eyes. It's about impossible to look directly at the LCD screen. I like the way some of the bubbles sparkle and of course, the rays from the sun.

Day 22 : Mini We

We got these little guys last year for our birthdays. Her's in May, mine a month later. So, I kinda knew what to expect come my turn! They didn't quite get it right. Well, actually, they missed by quite a bit. We look nothing like our little doppelgangers. It was quite an amusement to us that the makers stuck a bead of glass in my doll's face to recreate my lip ring. He's also got only one earrring when I have two. But he's a handsome fellow. More so than I am. Happily my wife is a lot better lookin' than her own little mini me.

Day 21 : Inside Looking Up

Perhaps a different and less popular view of the Petronas twin towers. My first shot here with the Canon G12 but assuredly not the last! Expect coming Saturday's picture to be shot with this camera.

Day 20 : Happy New Year

Initially I was intruigued by the sun and how it was reflecting off my car. I did three shots, one with the aperture wide open, one half way and the last turned up all the way which is this one here. Sunshine and patches of colour for everyone. Happy New Year!


First shot below with the aperture wide open.

And now halfway. This is probably the better shot but the main picture shot at f/39 is just so noisy, dramatic and interesting. Truth be told, the main shot is probably the worst of the three shots! My personal favourite is the one just above.