The mysterious yellow spider

Okay, back to our regular programming!Last Friday night was an amazing time for nocturnal macro photography.I found so many spiders and one of the really made my day.It was a yellow tarantula which was laying in a low profile. Took me a while to notice it because it was so still.The spider was docile enough to be lifted away from its lair. I spent a considerable amount of time photographing this beautiful creature with my Canon
EF100mm F2.8L IS macro lens and the MR14EX ring flash.The 1:1 focal length was perfect for the spider measuring about 22cm in length.

Return of the dark one

The spider in its lair

This little fellah measures no more than 1mm in length

The mother guarding its spiderlings

After a few nights of disappointment, I finally found a subject for my close-up shot.It was a black faced crab spider with its spiderlings.This was an interesting find and I wasted no time rigging up my foldable table and some
clamps to get a shot of the spider family.The lighting aspect was challenging because the spider was lying low under the cover of a
pandan leaf nest.I managed to score a few decent shots of the spiders and its young ones (measuring no
more than 1mm).It took me more than an hour to set up the shot and after I was done, the spider and its
spiderlings were returned to where it was found.

A surprise find in Bukit Gasing

Rare find: Caponiidae Curtana

The Macromaniac team at Bukit Gasing on Friday night

Teamwork: our guys working on capturing the Caponiidae Curtana spider

My macrothon outing ended with a trip to Bukit Gasing.After leaving Bukit Tinggi, TS Ching and I headed to Raju's restaurant at Section 5 in Petaling Jaya. We got there about 5pm and had an early dinner.I noticed that the food and service at Raju's really sucked.What was more appalling was the fact that one of the food handlers actually tried to warm up a piece
of fried chicken in the microwave oven after taking it out straight from the frying wok.I rejected the order and continued with some conversation with Mr Ching.One of our regulars Derrick came later. He told us two other guys were supposed to link up at the Hutan Pendidikan entrance, but later, we
found out that they were no-shows.Master Kurt joined in and after we were done with our meals, we moved on to the trail head.Since we were early, there was enough ambient light for us to hike in to the tower trail.We shot our way in and found some really interesting bugs.There were tiger beetles, spiders and a couple of butterflies at the beginning of the trail.The fun only started after dark when we rigged up a perimeter with lights and worked around it.I was rather disappointed with my Black Diamond Apollo lantern because its NRG powerpack had
yielded only an hour of light.Lucky for me, I had my back-up lights: the Surefire Aviator A-2 and my trusty Fenix TK-40.Having spent nearly two hours in the jungle, the find of the day was a two-eyed spider from the
Caponiidae family.This rare creature was thought to be a mite, and everything that we saw defied our very
understanding of spiders.I managed to squeeze about five shots on my Canon MPE-65 lens that gave it a 2x magnification.The results were satisfying and we named our find Caponiidae Curtana in honour of Master Kurt who found the rare spider.

In total, we spent about 18 hours on two locations and its a worthwhile trip because we were rewarded with so many cool bugshots!

They own the night...

A very handsome beetle

This guy is featureless. Its the most boring bug I've come across..

I've tested my Samo Frankenfuser mark IV last night with some promising results.It takes a little effort to walk out to a small wooded area near the housing estate's fencing
and the bugs are all there for the taking.While most of the beetles are similar in appearance, I found one that is roughly about 9mm
in length which turned out to be the bug superstar of the night.Apart from beetles, I also found two huntsman spider lurking on a bunch of pandan leaves.And when it comes to predators, these are on top of the food chain and they literally own the
night.Well, there still tonight at the patch of shrubs and I hope to find more interesting creatures that are lurking in the dark.

Another weekend well-spent..

I made a follow-up trip to Taman Rimba Kiara with Master Kurt G and a few new friends Bernard and Derrick including my knife kaki Kit.

Made my way to the park and had my McDonald's breakfast and a cup of coffee before I begin shooting some insects with my Canon EOS7D and my EF1oomm F2.8L IS macro lens.

Seems that my new Samo Frankenfuser mk II is holding out pretty well and yielded some good shots.

Seeing the insects up close and capturing them on my digital camera made me forget about that measely 4.7% increment that I received yesterday.

It was an awesome de-stressing session and I was totally focused on getting my act together.

I also made some new friends and am glad that my circle of friends are getting larger.

Photography really helped me to pass my time and yielded some really cool results.

Now, I can look forward to a session of night macro photography outing in Bukit Gasing!

Stalking the huntsman spider

Had a late dinner tonite after returning home from work.

After settling down the kidz, I went back to the same spot where I found a huntsman spider that was eating a beetle.

Took a while for me to locate the spider which was under the cover of some pandan leaves.

My powerful Fenix TK-40 LED flashlight had picked up the spider which was partially hidden from view.

I tried a couple of shots on my Samo Frankenfuser MKII, but the results were majorly disappointing.

But I wasn't about to give up.

With the normal conventions aside, I set up my camera's pop-up flash and used the wireless slave on my flashgun to trigger it off.

It was rigged for side lighting and getting a shot of the spider was an ease.

I also used the AutoFocus feature on my lens to get a clear shot.

Yesterday, I tried using the manual focus feature which turned out to disastrous.

So, the AF helped a bit in the night and I guess with the huntsman around, there will be more attempts to capture it in full glory..