Category: Nature

Nature

ARPS #1: Emeralds of Spring

The photography talk conducted by my dad at the Ngee Ann Photographic Exhibition last weekend brought back some good memories of the images I took on outings with him. A collection of some of those images eventually ended up in my portfolio for my successful application for ARPS in September 2003. The next few updates will feature images from the portfolio together with my thoughts on them. To start off…

Emeralds of Spring was taken more than two years ago at the Botanical Gardens, Singapore. A brilliant (but hot!) day provided wonderful sunshine by the sundial pond which was filled with brilliantly-lit leaves of the Victoria Amazonica. Because of the strong back-lighting, getting a correct exposure was tricky, made even more difficult by having to use the LCD (of my G3) in bright light to compose the final shot. I like the details of the leaf patterns captured as well as the repetitive pattern of the lily pads, whose monotony is broken nicely by the largest leaf at the top.

Exposure information – Camera: Canon Powershot G3, ISO 50, Shutter: 1/400 sec, Aperture: f/8, 35mm effective FL: 43mm, Metering mode: Spot, Exposure Mode: Manual

“It’s Not Easy Being Green…”

I finally got my hands on a Canon EOS 20D Digital SLR after resisting the temptation to get one for the last few months. Andy Gray’s take on 20D vs 300D helped, as like Andy, I was previously a user of a Canon EOS 300D although I must say that he owns a lot more great lenses than I do! Initial impressions of the 20D has been very good, although there are some things with my 300D that I miss: Zoom Browser’s auto-renaming when transferring files from the CF card (the 20D comes with its own File Viewer Utility which is less intuitive when it comes to file transfers), CaptureOne’s support for 20D RAW files (the 3.6 update that covers the 20D has been delayed time and again), the 300D’s cheap cable release for slow shutter shots (will have to get the RS-80N3 later), and the battery grip (the BG-E2 for the 20D has had notorious reviews for problems and bad design).

Still, I had fun testing out my new toy this morning while at the Botanical Gardens. The above is just one of the test shots that I did. Taken with the 20D mated to a Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO Super Macro II lens. More new shots to come in time…

Ceriagrion cerinorubellum


Damselflies have always been good macrophotography subjects for me especially since they can be found in abundance at the Botanical Gardens in Singapore. Alas, the beautiful ponds where this insect can be easily found are undergoing upgrading works at the moment. I took this picture in March earlier this year with a newly acquired macro zoom lens. A reflector was used to provide foreground fill-in to highlight the details within the damselfly.