Botanical Garden field trip

Yes!!! At last the big day has come right after a stressful period with my exam.

My 1st outdoor shooting where i have chosen botanical garden as my choice.
The reason behind this choice is because of the waterfall and the nature there.
My objectives for the trip is to learn the functioning of the camera, to make use of the waterfall to take pictures using shutter mode, to hunt and shoot insects.

And as a newbie, I think i should go there first to practice the shutter speed, aperture, and the iso. I bought all my equipment needed and also have done a DIY ring flash , but apparently i lose among the way back....Lucky for the DIY portion, no money is involved as i used scrap materials.

I reached there around 12 :30 pm, the weather was very warm and humid.
The sky was covered with dark clouds. I get down from the bus and took a slow walk to the garden, in a short 3 min... It started to pour suddenly. I ran in to take shelter.
I took serveral photos at the waiting area and saw how Singapore try to cultivate orchids.
Then @ 14:15 pm, the rain stops, although it is still drizzling, I took the risk of taking the camera out for my main objectives.
I go to the waterfall to shoot a couple of photos, and then later i went near the pond to look for insect to capture.hahaa...
Enduring the mosquito bite hahaaa...but lucky in botanical garden, they do control the level of mosquito breeding ground well... therefore i still fine to contribute to the nature using my young blood.hahaaa...

I started to saw my artists, taking the camera and started my journey of chasing butterflys and dragonflys.
The best closeup shoot of the dragonfly is also post up here for my viewers to enjoy the satisfaction of the owner.




























Never seen insects having sexual mating each other right.... hahaa...
Here is one good candid shot i took for my artists.
Species: Unknown
But you should have look on their shocking insect faces when i took the camera and start moving toward them... they turn and look at me and my camera. Shit we are being caught red handed.Yhe expression was shock and surprise. I can felt their sudden and shocking feeling as if we are mentally connected together. They want to try to move way but they are so closely in the process of making love. They try the left right left right method of moving but i think they also lazy to move away or no strength to move away... hahaa... use too much energy for the process (wabby legs).... hahaaa.... then they just try to turn their faces away and continued with their mating process....
Think this is the funniest picture i took for the day.

My 1st experience with macro

Have bought a Sony DSLR Alpha 200 @ MS Colour AMK Central on 31 Jan 2009.
I was rather happy with the performance of the camera. But one thing I face is I love macro pictures while this camera cannot really proved me..May be because I am also a newbie.

I started to look about new solutions to take macro pictures and saw things like we can use Hoya close-up filters +1 to +4 to take macro images.
(Low budget solution as compare to Macro 50mm and 100mm lens)
I then went to Cathy photos on 3 Jan 2009 to ask for the +4 close-up macro filter but no luck to be found, as they only sell +3.

I started to roam around the area, and saw a shop Deluxe Camera selling Vitacom 0.45 wide w/macro.
I wonder any one out there have try before.
So i bought it and came home for test.
And here are the result of this lens.
It came with width angle and macro lens.


I believe this is a cheap solution too as it cost me $100 SGD to have width and also macro.
But i wonder how the +4 close-up filter if i will to get hold of it, will it also give me this results?

One thing which i found it strange about this lens is that at the certain angle, it blur out the top of the images. I wonder if this lens are built in this way. So if i will to get +4 close-up will the images presented be better??


Anyway i enjoy the shutter sound and the function of the camera as a beginner.


Way to go.. Have started to blog my photography experience and wait for people to give critic about my photos.