Drain Fly, A Macro View. The Toilet "Moth"!

Whenever we see them sticking on the toilet wall, we know somewhere within that place is a damp, wet, clogged-up hole, sponge or  pipe! It just need a very tiny dark place to breed.

My curiosity took hold of me and I decided to capture one and place it in my PhotoBox for a macro exposure. Hope you like it!

This is a shot taken through a glass. This fly certainly looks like a moth, with all the hairy stuff on its body. The look can kill, if this thing is not of microscopic size.

As it does not keep still, it has taken a different position, with better light exposure. Still, if not for this picture, I would not have known that it has puffy legs!

Would we have taken note that even the wings have long hairs? And, it can still give a good flight! So, the fact that it is a drain fly or sewer gnat (Psychodidae) does give me a consolation that it probably would not find its way onto my dinning table.

Here is a BATMAN perch. Okay, maybe more like a Dracula stance.

Up till now, it has been accommodating and it seems to enjoy being photographed. Just kidding.

And yet another pose - on the photographic twig that I use as a prop for insects. This shot shows that the drain fly can be cute and gives one the temptation to hug it!

After the photo session, I let it off. Alright, please do not let my wife know! As I discarded it outside the balcony, I am sure it will not want to come back.

Cricket Nymphs Having Fun

I breed small cricket nymphs for my fish. This adds to the variety of diets for the small fishes that I keep, in addition to their fish flakes and frozen worms. Some of the nymphs will eventually grow into full grown crickets - where I will use them to lay more eggs for the net batch of nymphs.

Here are some pictures of the nymphs. Their body length is between 2.5mm to 3mm long.

This one is a model nymph. It stays here for as long as I am willing to take shots of it. As they move around frequently, and quickly, opportunity like this is hard to come by.

The one on the left looks like a hippo. Yes, they are cute fellows. When you look at the thickness of the leaf, you will get to understand how small these nymphs are. These are less than a day old. For the record, I juxtaposed two photos together just to get this "circus" feel.

This is another one, exploring the small area where I keep them. This special area is my PhotoBox where I put little insects, eggs and nymphs together for photo shoot. When they first emerged from the egg, they were between whitish and milky. Over time, they will become darker, as seen here.

This one ran into a corner that was full of ultra-fine sand. These sand had been pounded for some purposes. Unfortunately, I did not know that they were so fine until I saw the nymphs being covered totally with them. Eventually, I had to clear the sand for they were simply too fine to be of any benefit to all the micro-insects around.

This spider came by when I was taking some pictures and I let it have one of the nymphs for food. This shot is another juxtaposed situation where I merged two separated shots together. 

 A totally "black" nymph. This is a senior and is about 2 days old.

From each batch of eggs, I would probably get between 900 to 1200 nymphs.

Sunset - A short, quick trip to Punggol

There were lots of changes to the Punggol area by this time. And, it is still evolving. Surely, Punggol is an exciting and wonderfully developed place to hang out.

However, for this evening, I was there for the sunset. Sometimes, time is not on your side and you really need to rush. Did I manage to get it? Here are some pictures of how the sky turned over within a short period of just 30 minutes.

This was taken at 7:03pm. The sun has taken a keen look at us before setting farther down. The ray is intense and penetrating.

By 7:23pm, the evening has started to settle down. Our sun is no where to be seen. All of a sudden, it seems, the ambiance changed and the area feels a bit sleepy.

Just as unexpectedly, at 7:34pm, a tinge of blueness drops by and we can feel that the temperature has dropped, though it remains humid.

By 7:51pm, from a different view, the blue hours has taken its mark. In a moment's time, it was really "the evening has come" and we moved on - home.

Woodlands Waterfront Park - Checking the Tides.

I took a lone trip to the WaterFront Park and stayed from 7:50pm to 8:40pm, hoping, to get some blue hours pictures. Instead of hanging out at the main jetty or the extended RMN Jetty, I went to the coastal area near the fuel refilling jetty.

Getting to this location is not difficult. Climbing across the rudimentary barrier and setting up my tripod between the numerous rocks and muddy soil is one slow affair. But, I am not complaining. Nature photography is mostly a series of challenging events.

While continuing with the setting up, and trying not to get my gear and backpack wet, I could see that a traffic jam is building up at the causeway, and the sky is shifting colours rather quickly - though this fact does not bother me. I am more worried for the bright jetty lights that should be coming out fast and hard.

This picture was taken at about 7:70pm. There is a reason why people like to live near coastal areas or beaches, or where there there are structures on the sea shores. And, seeing the shades of natural colour coming forth is one of them. If you are sharp-eyed, you should be able to see the traffic lights at the causeway (behind this jetty).

As it gets to the lower evening, the scene changes accordingly and the humidity level also increases. I am beginning to feel somewhat sticky to the touch. Actually, I wanted to try out a new set of filters that I ordered from the internet. Of course, the Chinese-made filters are 50% unusable as the ND filter works okay, and the graduated ND filter throws a tantrum and adds a heavy pinkish taint to the overall image.

This structure is to the right of the above pictures, and is the famous Woodlands WaterFront Jetty. The lighted area is where the Rasa Istimewa Woodlands WaterFront Restaurant is located. This shot took 203 seconds at f/20, ISO 100.