A fine specimen

All good things goes to he who waits...

I wasn't going to settle for the images of a wounded jumping spider.
The set I took of a specimen with three legs was a start.
Somehow or rather, I knew that I would chance upon the healthy male jumper which I had last seen with a prey on its mandible.

This is a common jumper and can be found easily in gardens and wooded areas...

Second time lucky...

I combed Michelle's Jasmine tree and found the spider I was looking for. 
It was prowling on the branches and worked its way to a stalk and steadily positioned itself on a leaf.
That was the break I was looking for.
I picked it up and worked with it over a few shots.
To get things going, I started with 1x magnification on my Canon MPE-65 macro lens.
Slowly, when I got the hang of things, I increased the magnification to 2.5x and also stepped up the flash power output to get a stronger exposure.
After getting off a few good shots, I placed the jumper back to the Jasmine tree.

Tree-quarter side profile

Face-to-face

Post-processing..

I used the Adobe Lightroom 4 to post-process the shot.
For the most of it, I darken the shot to get the colour and contrast.
It worked for me as I can see the rich contrast and sharpness.
With an MPE-65, you focusing skills are vital. If its out of focus, you end up with a blur shot.
And there's no two-ways about it.. 
On the whole, I am very happy with the find and this adds to my collection of jumping spider images.

A surprise visitor at our backyard..

Our little jungle

I went to my backyard to check on a family of cats.
Apparently, the dogs had sniffed out some kittens on the pandan leaves.
To my surprise, I found a bird's nest on the Bougainvilla tree which was planted by Michelle, my wife.
Upon closer inspection, I found two eggs inside it.

The bird's eggs...

There was a little commotion when I checked out the content of the nest.
In the distance, there was a Yellow Vented Bul Bul. 
I guessed that it was the mother that flew off after I opened the backdoor.. 

The female Bul Bul incubating her eggs

A game of patience... 

I've never captured a female bird nursing her chicks before.
And this was a great opportunity to do so.
The nest was almost at eye-level and since it was just a few feet behind my toilet on the ground floor, I thought it would be good to set up a hide and observe the Bul Bul.
I made some reference with a book by D&K on birds. 
Seems that it takes about 10 days for the eggs to hatch. And another 15 days for the chicks to grow its feathers..

The day finally came: Our Bul Bul's chicks

A new arrival..

So, there I was, preparing to go to work on Tuesday after a long break.
I noticed that the pair of Bul Buls were not around. 
And when I checked their nest, two chicks had just hatched.
Probably a few hours earlier.
I was very excited to see the featherless chicks that were huddled together.
Then, in the days to come, I set up a hide in my toiled and peeked out to get a good view of the chicks in their nest.
Each time they felt the bougainvilla tree vibrate, one of the feistier chicks would extend its neck out.
Then, the mother came with food.
This was repeated every 10 or 15 minutes.

The mother feeding its young

A new beginning: the proud momma and her chick

Eating machines...

It seems that the young Bul Buls are eating non-stop.
They have a voracious appetite with the parents working around the clock in search of food
I don't think this is an issue as the neighbourhood has an abundant supply of insects and larvaes.
It would be very interesting to observe the Bul Bul chicks in the days to come.. 

The Brahminy Kite

A chance encounter...

There is a pair of kites hovering over our neighbourhood.
Today, while driving back to my house, I saw a lone Bird of Prey with a piece of twig on its mouth.
It was flying so low, its unbelievable.
Later, I took my camera out to the fence, separating a patch of wooded area and the ELITE Highway.
The Kite's natural habitat, high above Bukit Lanchong was destroyed by some developer.
Removal of land from the hill had caused a mudslide some months back.
Even the monkeys that resides there are no longer seen around.

The Kite's nest

The pair, high above our neighbourhood..

Flying low and fast..

While I was walking to the site where I had first spotted the bird, I saw one raptor flying low and fast.
I tracked it with my camera and fired a few shots.
With a burst and servo AF focusing, I managed to cap off a few decent shots.
I followed the Kite and saw another raptor beside it.
Together, they were soaring high above the skies and I kept watch for at least an hour before calling it a day.

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If the Raptors are indeed nesting in my neighbourhood, there is a good chance of capturing more decent shots of the Brahminy Kite in action.
I can certainly look forward to this during my week-long leave from work..

The Zebra Dove

Merbuk Balam

The Zebra Dove is quite an interesting bird to watch.
In the mornings, I can see them foraging for food on the ground.
A couple of days ago, I've had some decent luck capturing them on camera.
One was found in front of my neighbour's home.

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Si Murai Kampung

A common bird and a humbling experience....

I am a big fan of the Murai Kampung or Oriental Magpie-Robin.
Every morning, I can hear them sing around my neighbourhood and since its pretty skittish, my previous attempts on capturing them seem to yield only mediocre shots.

The Magpie-Robin

 Firmware update and improved autofocus

Canon updated its firmware for the EOS5DmkIII, enabling autofocus at larger apertures from F8.0 onwards.
Previously, it was impossible to activate the autofocus on the EF telephoto lenses that comes with an F5.8 aperture when you mount a teleconverter.
These "budget" lenses are for beginners like me and I relied on manual focusing to get the job done.
So far, so good. 
With the firmware update, I was able to get a focus lock and to my surprise, the results were really satisfying.

Hunt for the Murai Kampung

There is a friendly bird that hangs around the fence line around my home.
I found one and stalked it for a while and managed to get close.
With the autofocus working at F9.0, capturing the bird was really no fuss.
I worked on framing a close shot and on post-processing, tweaked with the noise-reduction software to smoothen the blown pixels..

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2013 Raptor Watch

First timers..

Michelle and I had grabbed the opportunity to witness the 2013 Raptor Watch at Port Dickson.
This is an annual bird of prey migration where species like the Oriental Honey Buzzard,  Chinese goshawk, the Black Baza and several other large eagles.
We picked Sunday as our choice day to visit Tanjung Tuan or Cape Rachardo in Alor Gajah, Malacca where its known as a Raptor Watch site.

Happy camper: wrapping up at the end of the session

 This is an annual event organised by the Malaysian Nature Society and is also a crowd-puller. 
There were many visitors at the site which is a critically-acclaimed venue for bird lovers and watchers.
Each year, birds of prey will go on a migration route from Indonesia to Northern China, Mongolia, Russia and Japan before going as far as Northeastern Australia.
Its a spectacle to see hundreds of Raptors circling the air over the skies in Tanjung Tuan. 
And there are at least 25 known migratory species in the area.
After breakfast, Michelle and I took a casual drive from our home in USJ 26 to the Ilham resort in Tanjung Tuan. 
We parked our car there and made our way to the lighthouse which is roughly about a kilometre's hike from the base of the cape.

"Dude, where's your bike?"

I met some cyclists along the way.
Guess they were puzzled as to why we were not cycling on the Raptor Watch day.
To me, its a good break from pedaling our bicycles. 
I swapped my Dahon folding bike for my Canon EOS5DmkIII and EOS7D to capture the Raptors on my trusty Canon EF400mm F5.6L lens.
When I arrived at the lighthouse (which is opened to the public once a year for two days), I met Mr Chan, a folding bike kaki.
He's with the Malaysian Nature Society's birding group and has been watching the Raptors for nearly 45 days.
What dedication! 

Anticipating the arrival of the Oriental Honey-Buzzard

And so they came.. 

Under the stifling heat, the birders made an announcement: "They are here!"
Out there beyond the horizon, the Raptors arrived in flocks.
They soared with the thermal currents high up in the air.
It was a spectacular sight to see these birds taking up the sky...

Buzzards in the sky

An Oriental Honey-Buzzard in flight

The Raptors at the peak of their appearance

A learning experience...

I have never shot a Raptor in flight and the event gave me an opportunity to capture the birds in its full glory.
With my limited resources, I had to make do with a shorter telephoto lens.
And when the buzzards came close, I missed the chance to capture them.
Even with a 1.4x teleconvertor, I couldn't get a close full-body shot.
After waiting for the buzzards to appear again, it was obvious that the wind conditions had pushed them even further away from the lighthouse.
I managed to capture a few shots which I am happy with for my record purposes and am contented with the effort.
It was my first time and with the experience gained, I know what to do and where to wait when these birds arrive again.. 

The Jolly Telamonia

That yellow spider...

Telamonia festiva or the Jolly Telamonia can be found in most wooded areas around the Peninsular.
Its a specie of jumping spiders and is also one of the colourful around.
In short, I never get tired of capturing the Telamonia on my camera.

Side profile full body shot

 Getting the most out of your equipment..
I have plenty of praise for Canon's MPE-65 macro lens.
With this, you are able to go as high as 5x in magnification.
The extreme magnification allows you to capture the spider in its full glory.
For an arachnid measuring no more than 8mm in length, you would need a lot of magnification to bring it to life on an image.
The typical set up is 1x - 1.5x in full body shot.

The higher the magnification, the harder..
Not many people can work with 4x magnification and above while shooting their subjects handheld.
One of them is master photographer Kurtis Guek.
He is one of the very few skilled macro masters who spend a great deal of time capturing spiders as well as other insects up close.
You can view Kurt's blog and his excellent advise on macro photography.
With the Telamonia constantly on the move, you would need a pair of steady hands, knowledge on full flash settings and a good diffusion technique to capture the spider.
I learned a great deal from Guek on how to control the MT24EX flash.
On 4x magnification, the challenge was to get the Telamonia in focus and at the same time, fire the correct amount of light to illuminate its eyes.
Once the focussing is in place, the finger on the trigger just reacted.
Most of the time, its a 70/30 gamble to get a sharp image.
As the MPE-65 is a full manual lens with a very narrow band, you have little room for error to produce your image.
I set the Camera's FEC (Flash Exposure Compensation) to +1.5 stops. 
On the Adobe Lightroom 4.2 post-processing software, I am able to correct the exposure to get my desired effect.
As it is, I am very happy with the results.

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The Single-striped Grass Spider

Meet Perenethis Unifasciata
The Single-striped Grass Spider is a common arachnid.
You would usually find it living on grass and leaves and this time of the year, its out in full force at Gasing Hill.
I am a big fan of predatory spiders that are non-web weavers, so, the Perenethis Unifasciata  would fit in my books nicely.
In my past visits to Gasing Hill, I've recorded a few of this spiders.
I often mistook it for a Wolf-spider which is much smaller and usually crawls on the ground.

The Single-striped grass spider as you would see it on a normal scale

Its not hard to locate the grass-spider which is roughly about 12mm in length.
All I did, was pick it up and set it on 1x magnification to get a good shot.
By right, I should have used a short macro lens like the 50mm F2.5 macro to capture a full-body shot and slowly work my way to the extreme close-ups.

A fine specimen

Working on capturing the details..

With a cooperative spider that stood still while I was snapping away, I was happy to land a set.
And the details were amazing.
It don't take much effort to work on a 2.5 - 3x magnification to bring out the character of the grass-spider.
The Gasing Hill is also home to larger predatory spiders like the yellow-gold and the magnificent Golden Huntsman. 
I hope to do some follow-up trip to this recreational forest to capture the spiders for my record.

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Slow-shutter shots @ Sg Tua

ND8 filter tryout
I purchased a Marumi ND8 filter recently.
The plan was to use it with my Canon EF17-40mm F4.0L wide-angle zoom lens.
I think this is the most under utilised glass in my inventory and having a full-frame body serves it just right.
With the EOS5DmkIII, I get a true 17mm fish eye focal length which enables me to capture landscape photographs more efficiently.

The setttings
Slow-shutter shots can result in blown highlights if you don't cut down the amount of light going into your camera.
With a Neutral-Density (ND) filter, you are able to control it with superb results.
This means, you can expose the frame with a large aperture using slow-shutter speed.
I set the 17mm at 4 seconds with an aperture of F22.
And the results were stunning.

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The Sac Spider

First encounter
The Ramadan month is a period where its usually quiet at the state forest parks.
I took advantage of this to utilise my time to capture some macro shots with my new rig on a Canon EOS 5DmkIII.
For starters, shooting full-frame is simply amazing.
Now, having walked up and down on a 2km trail, I found a couple of subjects to capture. 
Nothing really interesting until I came face to face with an ant.
Underneath it, the bug was being gripped by the jaws of a Sac spider.
This was my first encounter with the species and after making reference with a field guide, its confirmed.

Looks can be deceiving: the ant paralyzed by the spider's venom

A slow death 
The Sac spider is an ambush predator and it kills by injecting a lethal venom on its prey.
Slowly, the spider's digestive enzyme will slowly turn its victim's internal organs and flesh into a goo soup where its consumed by the spider.
I didn't notice the Sac Spider until I turned the fern leaf that it was under up-side down.
The creature was so still, I managed to change the flash power output to capture some shots under 3:1 and 4:1 magnification.
For this, the Canon MPE-65 is the only lens capable of landing such shots.
Thanks to the guidance of Macro Master Kurtis Guek, who is also an amateur entomologist, I was able use the settings correctly with great results.
Its not easy to maintain focus on a spider that measures about 10mm.
And under high magnification, the flash exposure compensation has to be set to two stops over.

Face to face with a deadly micro predator: the Sac Spider

The details
Using controlled lighting with the right amount of diffusion, I was able to capture the Sac Spider.
And since it has a rather dull and dark coloured exoskeleton, I was glad that the image had turned out allright.
With some minor tweaks on my Adobe Lightroom 4 photo finishing software, I was able to bring out the details and I am pretty happy with the end-results.