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!