Tiger Beetle Mania

I can't wait to get back to my insect hunting walks after returning from a golfing trip to Kota Kinabalu. Although nursing sore elbows, I set off with my heavy Sigma 150mm macro and tripod to the woods nearby, hoping for new finds. And lo and behold I spotted my first tiger beetle, darting along the gravel path. At first I hardly notice the sudden swift movement of the tiger as I walked along, because my eyes are always three metres ahead to scan for insects. The tiger does not scare easy, it only runs when your foot is nearly on top of them. What a beauty, as I strained my eyes on the beetle, not daring to take my sight off it as it camouflaged so well with the colour of the gravel.

This specie of tiger beetle, the Cicindelidae Aurulenta, although quite common in the parks, is very difficult to spot. It is said to be the fastest insect on the ground. If you take your eyes off it for a micro second, when it decides to take off your eyes cannot follow where it stops. I've been back to the same spot several times and these beetles are territorial insects; they seem to welcome my presence as they don't consider me a predator. I have been watching its movements for a while and have seen how quick it grabs hold of an insect, lounging at it and crushing its prey with its strong mandibles. I suppose it is because of this ferocity and stealth that it is called the tiger beetle.

After watching the tiger for a while I can approach it with my macro lens to within 30 cm. However, I've not been able to get a good frame of the tiger as it is at ground level. Shooting the tiger requires me to lie on the stomach with elbows resting on the gravel to get a reasonable clear side view shot. If the tiger senses your presence she will show you her bottom and Kenny Nair, may even send a jet of fart at you. I've seen something bluish from her posterior as she shows her stuff.


Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright
In the Forests of the Night
What Immortal Hand or Eye
Could Frame Thy Fearful Symmetry?

W Blake

I dream of capturing the tiger standing proudly on a rock with its outstretched front long legs, looking up to the sky like a howling wolf at night, what a beauty it would be. No such luck yet, but I believe I will snap that photo one day when I know the tiger's habits better.

Kota Kinabalu

I was invited to a golfing holiday in Kota Kinabalu, a place I had always wanted to visit especially for the purpose of climbing Mt Kinabalu, the highest mountain in the region. I used all my persuasive language to get blessings from my wife to go there with the golfers for 5 days.

Kota Kinabalu, a two hour flying time from Singapore, is a growing capital of Sabah. It is very scenic, you cannot be too far from the jungle or the mountains and you are just next to the unpolluted waters of the ocean. It's a paradise for scuba divers, naturalists, mountaineers, trekkers and insect hunters.

Our hosts Allen and Jeanette were simply great, they looked after us from the moment we stepped out of Jet Star Airbus to the day we boarded the plane back to Singapore. The first pleasant surprise I had was that Allen told us that we would be staying in his kampong house up the mountain, some 40 minutes away from town. I've heard much of the serenity of mountain resorts in K Kinabalu, and immediately I regretted not bringing my camera gear for shooting insects which I know would be in abundance up the mountain. Fortunately I brought my Lumix prosumer to take some tourist pictures of the visit.

It was golf frenzy everyday at some of the nicest golf courses in Sabah. These golfing friends are golf crazy, 18 holes everyday and if possible another 9 in the afternoon. I told myself, that I would play by listening to my body and see how much it can take before it starts to complain. Dalit Bay Golf Club was a beauty only matched by the Sabah Golf and Country Club. We did'nt have a chance to visit Sutera Harbour Golf Club and Nexus Resort Karambunai Golf Club which are highly rated over the courses we played in. However it was not golf all the time, we visited the beautiful Manukan Island half an hour away by fast speedboat. This nearby island has clear waters and long sandy beaches. The sea food in KK was just mouth watering and we simply piled on the cholesterol rich seafood for most of the evening meals, with the belief that the golfing exercise will wipe out the excess calories consumed the night before.

My best experience is the stay in the mountain villa, some 700 metres above sea level. First we had to ride the 4-wheel drive Range Rover up the steep slope in the evening and down slope in the morning. The drive was certainly not for the faint- hearted. In the night, the insects sang us to sleep and waking up to the fresh morning mountain air is certainly something to remember. We were awoken by the screaming eagles calling at about 6am every morning. A morning walk on the mountain track is must and for those who are Taiji enthusiasts, it is spiritually invigorating. My good friend and golfing champion Gan, took us to a great photo spot to shoot the sunrise with Mt Kinabalu towering over us as the sun peeped up the horizon.

It was truly a glorious 5 days of unwinding for me and experiencing quite a few first times: first overseas golfing trip by budget airline, 4-wheel drive up and down the mountain, golfing for four consecutive days, staying up the mountain resort, watching sunrise with Mt Kinabalu in the foreground, driving my room mate out with my loud snores.

Soon it was time to go home. My friends knew what to do buying up some of KK's famous dried sea cucumbers and fish maw for their wives. I bought some too so as not to be left out. We brought home pleasant memories of KK and for good measure I brought home two sore elbows to remind me to slow down.

Creepy-Crawlies

Over the past week, I've been shooting nothing but bugs and other crawlies. They are bugging me all the time; even in my sleep, I dream of the critters that got away, and especially the female spider wrapping up the male for dinner after having mated with him. My favourite location to look for the bugs is Telok Blangah Hill Park which is close by. Whenever I have an hour or so, I'll just nip up the hill to hunt for them.

Mornings are the best times, as the bugs come out in search of breakfast, it is a bit tricky for them as they may also fall prey to other hungry predators, and become breakfast meal for others. As I had become a familiar harmless figure amidst the bushes, the bugs just ignore me, some even pose for me, inviting me to take the shots. Two insects seemed to like my presence, the assassin bug(Hemiptera Reduviidae) and the orange coloured leaf hopper (Bythoscopus Ferrugineus). Sometimes, I swear they were putting up a big smile for the shots.

To be successful in insect hunt, one must be able to imagine oneself as an insect darting from bush to bush and encountering all kinds of friends and foes, and always on the lookout for food, and to be especially alert to keep predators away. You gotta to be jungle smart to stay alive. You are lucky if you have safety in numbers like in an ant colony, otherwise it's everybody for himself, using the God-given talents to survive. Caterpillars seem to be easy picks, but they appear quite aggressive, with spikes all over their body and also emit horrific odours to scare away anyone who comes near. I must try to collect enough of these strong odours and spray them in the crowded MRT carriage if I want to secure a seat.

Hunting and shooting these insects, gives me such a thrill, especially when I spot an insect which I have not seen before. As a novice every outing is a new experience, since there are about a million insect species around the world. These do not include spiders, scorpions and centipedes. These outings have become my learning journey into the world of insects. Not so long ago, people would actually go out with a big net and swish around to collect the insect species, pin them and store them for identification and study. It's a cruel way to learn about the insects. Now, most people like me, would photograph them and file them away digitally for study and identification. I do it the hard way, on a tight budget. I use a prosumer camera and close up lens to capture the images. It is the hard way because I will have to get pretty close to the insects to photograph them: at a camera to subject distance of between 10 to 20 cm. I don't have the luxury of more expensive camera lens which would give me more working distance, thus ensuring the insects don't get frightened away by the camera being too close.

Sometimes I go out with a friend but mostly I hunt alone. I laughed at myself when I get into a comical situation as when I spent a good 5 minutes shooting a bug and later found out it was actually the skin of the nymphal stage that the adult fly had shed, but the skin and shape of the bug remained intact. Another occasion, I was engrossed into shooting something I thought was a new find, but later found that it was a leaf or seed of a flowering tree. The forest play tricks on your vision as you concentrate on doing your thing.

One day I was so thrilled to spot a male fighting spider; it brought back memories of old when as a kid, I would go and trap these male spiders and groom them for battle with spiders of other kids. We went through sex education the practical way with these spiders. Often the children would catch the female spiders as mates for the male, thus enabling him to fight better after having mated, so that was what we thought. Kennynair, we found that this did not work for all males, some males after mating become weaker, and when they face another male spider they become "puchat" and show their tails.

The Marina Barrage

The Marina Barrage was officially opened by young Lee a few days ago. Was he ever happy, the barrage was the result of what his daddy, old Lee wanted to see 20 years ago. The barrage is an artificially built tidal gate 350 metres long built across the Marina Channel to prevent sea water from getting in during high tide, and to pump out excess water from the Marina Bay to sea when the level rises due to heavy rain, thus preventing flooding of low lying areas. It is a fresh water reservoir which may be used for all kinds of water sports and other recreational activities. A three-in-one thing, and four-in-one if it can also prevent Tsunami into the Bay.

Singaporeans are very proud of this new icon in the Bay, we can now tell the Malaysian politicians politely, that if they want to sell their excess Terbau water to us after 2016, it will be at a reasonable price. For years, they have threatened to turn off the tap at the JB Causeway, maybe one day, we can do likewise at the Woodlands side, when the water flow is in the reverse direction.

Back to the Barrage, I went recce earlier, before the opening day, but the security was tight and did not allow anyone to go near the barrage. Anyway, last night I asked my friend to go with me but he was very kiasu, he checked with the Weather man and told me not to go because they expect thunder storms even though the sky was blue at 6.00 pm.

As a golfer, I am a bit of a meteorologist myself. At 6.30 pm I sized up the movement of clouds, the wind direction, the blue sky, behaviour of insects and then maintaining the power of positive affirmation (meaning shut your eyes and ignore all negative signals) - I went. It was a relief, no ERP charges, no parking charges, free entry to Barrage, but must bring few slices of bread - why? - because there were lots of jam along the highway.

You get a good feeling when you walk into the facility. Although standing on reclaimed land, I felt safe, policemen and security guards were plentiful, not to mention lots of NS men who were putting up the final touches for an event the next day. Earlier, I had done some homework, looking at pictures of the Barrage and deciding where to shoot, so I head up to the roof top and shot the Barrage itself - looks like a short aircraft runway, I hope some drunken pilot don't land his Airbus thinking it to be Changi Airport. Then I went over to the spot overlooking the city and took some spectacular shots showing the Durian, Raffles City, Sheare's Bridge, The Singapore Flyer, Pan Pacific, Marina Mandarin .....all the way to Kallang Basin. Kennynair,the Flyer had only the courtesy lights on, even at 8.00pm when the sun had long set. I then called my friend and told him that the weather was perfect at the Barrage and complained to him that I was still waiting for the thunderstorm.

Now, I still need to walk the 350 metres stretch of the Barrage itself to take some shots of the city from there. On the left of the Barrage was a long row of at least 10 pavilions, supposedly for young couples to whisper sweet nothing to each other while enjoying the cool breeze and the spectacular lights of the city. While I was shooting away, a young police couple was making their rounds, probably whispering sweet nothing to each other - they think of everything, don't they. They stopped to chat, she said " It's beautiful out here, isn't it, pity the Flyer lights are not on." I agreed with her and said that the timer lights must be out, I would have to call them tomorrow to put it right. The young constable said, " You have a good hobby, sir, may I see some pictures?" I showed him some shots, and said photography kept me away from places like Geylang. The young lady constable agreed with me, ya away from the red lights and the Karaoke bars and the roughnecks. She also preferred patrolling the Barrage to Geylang. Singapore police are such nice officers now compared to years ago. If you are across the causeway and a police officer smiles at you and calls you "tuan" and politely tells you that your vehicle had crossed a double white line and that the fine for the offence is RM$ 300, you'd better get some Ringgit ready.

Ten minutes later, the same police couple passed by me and he commented "Sir, I see the Flyer lights came on for you". I said "Ya, it's beautiful, isn't it." I told him, I had prayed hard for it to come on, and it did. That's the power of prayer.

I was done for the night, but still need to walk to the end of the barrage just to tell my friend I had walked the entire length. At the other end I found a few soldiers relaxing and were very chatty and polite. Perhaps they were still expeting Mas Selamat to slip away from the Barraage. One told me that the scenery is gorgeous but may not be so, once the Integrated Resort is up, because it will block some of the city lights. I told him that the IR buildings would be quite spectacular too. Gosh I realised that even our soldiers are so polite and respectful - Can they fight in a battle situation? Would our soldiers say sorry to the enemy because they had accidentally shot one of them in battle. Shouldn't they be trained to be rough, tough and feared rather than to appear soft, tame and polite. I must ask my friend how they train recruits to throw a hand grenade: Should it be:

Under arm throw at the same time say politely " Excuse me,I am throwing the grenade at you, sorry ah". or
Overhead throw and the same time shout - "Kennynair." or other mean battle cry.

I feel better if it was the second.

Kallang Basin

I just love to come by Kallang Basin, clean water, fresh air and open spaces. It's hot in the day but cool in the evening and the condominiums around there seemed to be painted so very often, to give a freshness around the place. I remember very clearly one hot day in 1980 when I went fishing right here in the Basin on a small motorised sampan. There were fishermen wading in the metre deep mud, they were casting nets to catch whatever that could survive in those waters. The water was murky and black, it had a fermenting smell caused by years of rotten garbage under the Basin. It was also a graveyard for the tonkangs - left to rot in the mud of the Kallang basin- this area was used for boat building until the early 90s.

Last week I went recce on my bike - it gets heavier each day. I started from ECP Fort Rd to Tanjong Rhu to the stadiums, then up Merdeka bridge to the other side of the Basin, where school children gather to paddle the canoes and dragon boats. The park was in a mess, construction, digging and fencing all over, but I still managed to ride the bike along the edge of the Basin towards the Singapore Flyer where there were more construction crews dismantling the steel girders used for the F1 racing some weeks back.

On the way back to Fort Road, I met Ah Pek near Oasis Restaurant - he gave me a lecture on how to cope with life, as you grow old in Singapore . "Don't get sick," he said -" eat moderately and stay away from cigarettes, alcohol and sex. Exercise daily to keep fit - better still like me, I am 72, I get paid for cycling around the park to clear the rubbish. When it rains, I find shelter, and when the weather is hot I clear the areas in the shade. Daily expenses are very high, I bring my own food and drinks to work, and save some money in case I get sick. Don't depend on your children to support you; they have their own money problems, what they earn are hardly enough for their family. They also need to save money for their children's education - See Peh Kwee" ( means very expensive) he said.

I tend to agree with him with almost all what he said - as for sex, he was referring to the nearby Geylang brothels. If he was'nt going like a rocket I would have added in a few things for him to think about - he was so happy to have someone listen to his philosophy of clean living and self sufficiency. - Ah Pek is right - you know. Economy is bad and unemployment is on the rise. I shall have to postpone buying the macro camera lens for awhile.

Last night the weather was good and visibility excellent, so I went to the Kallang Basin to shoot the night scenes. Kennynair, got to pay ERP charges at 6.45 pm - as if petrol taxes are not high enough - and got to pay car parking some more. But the park at the condo belt is beautiful at night, with the city lights gradually being turned on as the sun sets. Some dragon boats and sailing boats were returning to base thru the Sheare's bridge, - I think no ERP (Every Road and River to Pay) yet but the natural gantry is already there.

Sheare's Bridge leading to the city is a delight to watch and now the Flyer is an icon from any point along the Marina Bay and Kallang basin. At 8 pm I was hoping that the condo lights would come on and that the Indoor Stadium would also turn on its lights - no such luck, with electricity rates up by 21.5%, nobody would be fool enough to turn on their lights for the sake of an amateur photographer. My friend asked me why must pay so much for electricity when oil price is on the way down. How to explain ? - Must be the New Maths they teach in schools nowadays, or perhaps can blame on business guru Steven Covey's bad habits -" Start with the End in Mind". Kennynair, End in mind for SP - To make $1 billion a year, then work backwards on how to achieve this figure, easy way is to increase rates, hard way is to reduce salary and bonus of senior executives. Who dunno.

The Oasis Restaurant which used to light up beautifully at night had closed its business. It is a deserted building now - no more lights to brighten up the Basin. Most buildings in Singapore don't last more than 35 years. The 7th Storey Hotel at Rochore Road, once the tallest building along the road in the 60s, will be going down shortly to make way for the MRT station. It lasted 45 years.

I got down to do my thing and finished at about 8.30pm, at which time there were still a lot of joggers and walkers in the park - somehow many foreigners especially from IT India live in the condominiums - great place to live, clean, fresh air and near the city. If they long for nostalgic India, it is not far away. My friend told me they had a great Dewali party two days ago with fireworks and Bollywood dancing along the Basin.

I had a good time shooting the Bridge - but Kennynair - not enough lights around the Basin, leh!

Horrible Incounter

This morning, I went up TB Hill to look for bugs and shoot them. So lucky man, right infront of me a small spider web with the little critter meditating quietly, maybe sleeping too. I set up my gear and took all the time I need as that fella was just inviting me to shoot.
No such luck man, the wind came and swayed the web and I could not focus at all. Friendly neighbour came along to kaypo, wanted to hold my rod to steady the focus - no help at all the critter was swaying peacefully with the breeze. All of a sudden she woke up and was all excited, she wriggled sexually and my friend told me there was another critter in the web. It looked like the male of the species and maybe want to have sex with female partner. I thought maybe they wanted a family photo. I waited thinking if they have sex, they need to warm up. No man, all hell broke loose I could'nt get my gear in focus, the web was vibrating violently as though struck by earthquake, Kennynair, the sex act was so fast I could'nt get a shot in at all.
I thought the calm will now come after the storm. No way man, within the next ten seconds, the female wrapped the male up in a jiffy and imprisoned him to be left to die and be consumed later. Wow, I realised that I had witnessed the visciousness and the aggresiveness of the female spider. Have sex then dinner later, courtesy of the male. What a price to pay. Good lesson to learn from this horrible incounter. Don't play play with the female of the species, they go for the jugular.