I am in the Black Canyon

Safe at home, back in Malaysia on 14 Nov 2009. Didnt even take time to write my journal of my holidays (Sigh).

Well, hopefully, I would get some time to write. Meantime, just sharing a few images taken in the Black Canyon, Gunnison, Colorado.

That evening, Norman and I decided to do fishing. Armed with a fishing licence for the day and newly purchased fishing rod from Walmart, we headed down to the bottom of Gunnison Canyon for some fishing experience. Needless to say, after a few tangled throw, we gave up on the activity.

Darkness came pretty fast on us. An idea dawn on me...I am going to try star photography.

Amateurish and without experience, we had fun trying out different angles and different settings.

Well, till next time when I find time to write, good day to you!

Ebenezer - stone of help

I have the privilege of attending the Music & the Spoken Word on the 4th Oct 2009. The last song sang, was my favorite - Come, thou fount of every blessing.

It went with the following narration by Bro Lloyd D Newell......

"Some 3000 years ago, Samuel the prophet led ancient Israel to victory over a powerful enemy. Samuel placed a large stone at the place of their deliverance and dedicated it as a monument to God's assistance. He called the stone "Ebenezer" which meant "stone of help". The stone became a symbol of the Lord's goodness and strength.

This practice of raising memorials to divine help has deep roots in ancient Israel. Generations earlier, after the Israelites crossed the mighty Jordan River on dry ground and entered the promised land, their leader, Joshua, commanded the people to gather 12 stones from the river and build a monument. He explained that the purpose of the monument was to build faith in future generations, that "when [their] children ask....in time to come, saying, what mean ye by these stones? they could tell their children how the Lord helped them in their hour of need.

The beloved hymn "come, thou Fount of every blessing" alludes to this biblical practice with these words:

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;

Hither by Thy help I'm come;

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,

Safely to arrive at home.

Life is full of rivers to cross, full of challenges to overcome. However, those who see with an eye of faith understand that they did not cross their rivers alone.

In a way, each of us could raise an Ebenezer, a memorial of the divine assistance, heavenly favor, and forgiveness extended to us. It may not be a monument of stone - indeed, hearts filled with humility and gratitude are the most meaningful memorials. Whatever form our memorial takes, acknowledging the help we've received renews our hope that by His good pleasure and in His due time, we will safely arrive at home. "

Maybe one day, i can build an e-ebenezer to the Lord....right now, I just want to say "thank you Lord, for everything...."

Had some chance to do some photography while out here in Evanston Wyoming.....the scenery changed very fast...from beautiful autumn golden colors to cold snow fall to barren leaves now...Here's a few shots to share of a bird called black-capped chickadee & also some shots of a badger! both are just so cute....

Cheers....

Living a life of unemployment...ha ha...

I will just use this image to represent my feelings now.....i looked grouchy, don't I? Why????

Well, since i don't need to report to office, I should be out there in the fields and doing bird photography, but instead I am right now stuck at home, with a whole lot of mess every where as I am trying to pack all my stuff into boxes...and getting things ready for the movers to come in this Thursday!

Oh I wish i can pack faster or at least throw things away faster so that I dont have to pack them...ha ha........still have lots to go...taking a break for a minute, and enjoying a cool iced ribena.

This weekend would be the stake singles' convention to Mawai/Sutera Resort in Johor, and next week, I would be heading out to the mountains of Utah.....

Who says life as an unemployed is tough? ha ha....ok ok.....when the resources run low, i guess i better stop laughing....cheers!

Life goes on....

Common Kingfisher

Well, 31st August has passed by.....that was the last day for me as an employee of BP. Been with BP for 9 years - 2 years in Malaysia and 7 years in Singapore....It has been an interesting journey...but i am happy to say I am not missing my work yet...ha ha..

For past one week, i have been doing bird photography every morning ~ it was relaxing and fun. i get to meet many photographers as all of us were trying to shoot a juvenile plaintive cuckoo...Also fun, Singapore is a real sunny and hot country - After just three days out in the sun, I am totally tanned - finally, had to run to Beach road and get some long sleeves shirt and a wider brim hat..

1st Sep to 3rd Sep - Chinese & Japanese Garden

4th Sep - Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and Chinese/Japanese Garden

5th Sep - Panti Forest, Johor

6th Sep - Sabbath day

7th Sep - Did all my banking chores today ~ change address and canceling the credit cards ~ so no birding at all. But hope to do again tomorrow, at least for first one to two hours in the morning.

Sharing here two photos taken in Panti Forest - Velvet-fronted nuthatch. It was so fun shooting this hyperactive bird which defied all sense of gravity and was just going round and round the branches and happily pecking away.....

No CF card (again!!!)

Someone reported sighting of a milky stork in Japanese Garden. The first I heard about the news was on Monday (?)...anyway, I was very excited and looking forward to Saturday so that I could shoot the bird. (my seminary students were shocked when I said I want to shoot the birds....had to explain my "shooting" is using the camera, and not guns! guns are illegal here anyway..ha ha..)

Anyway, on Friday, i couldnt contained my patience and brought my camera gear to seminary (just the 300mm lens). Headed to Japanese Garden and did a couple of shoots - I didnt like the turnout as I was shooting with short lens and without a tripod.

So, Saturday morning came - I woke up early, and started packing my camera gear. I was a bit kiasu that day, i wanted to bring my 300mm as well as my 500mm lens...my camera bag was so heavy that I decided to take a taxi to japanese garden. Cost me $10 (oh dear)...a train ride would only be in the region of $1.50 i think.

I reached the place where the stork has been sighted - but there was no stork to be found. Undaunted, i set up my equipment - all ready, a thought came to my head - "did I put a memory card into the camera??" Guess what???? I did not!! I have all the equipments ready, and without a camera memory card, I might as well not have any equipment at all....i could kick myself that day!!!

After half an hour (texted a few photographers but none was shooting in Jap Gdn that morning), I packed up and leave - on my way out, I met another photographer - and was very glad that he had spare memory card. Great - I turned back and head back to the original spot. No great photos opportunity that day - well, it is just another adventure and experience for me to learn to check my equipment before heading out for an important shoot. Sharing a pic shot that day....The milky stork didnt turn up ....left the place at about 10am plus and head to Botanical Gardens to join my ward singles' picnic.

Little Heron

Panti forest Johor Malaysia

Image is courtesy of Mike Wong

Just to share a capture by Mike Wong of a group of us photographing a whiskered treeswift high in the tree top....The desire to get keeper shots do require drastic action such as climbing on top of the car to get some vantage point...Ha ha...

Another of birding days...

The following week (1 Aug 2009), I made my way to the spot where the Stork-billed Kingfisher was - I went very early, hoping that I would be able to take my shot before the group arrived, so that I wont be disturbing them...But the SBKF didnt turn up until much later. It turned out to be a blessing as I get time to know the photographers more and even more amazing, when the bird did turn up, the guys let me take my shot first before they took up position.

Stork-billed Kingfisher

I also took many shots of the more common kingfisher here - Collared Kingfisher. The parent (first image) was more difficult to take because it flew away before I can get close, but the juvenile was more easy to approach.

Collared Kingfisher (adult)

Collared Kingfisher (juvenile)

And yesterday (8th Aug 2009) I was very privileged to follow a group of photographers to Panti forest in Johor. Usually, I would just walk along the main road looking for subjects to shoot, but Con, a very seasoned photographer, took me into the forest when he heard the calling of the Rufous-collared Kingfisher. I had difficulty handling my equipment in the thick of forest, but I did ok, and it was a great experience! Con has six leech bites, I was glad that I wore leech socks and could get away with zero leech accident..ha ha...Not a great image, but it is priceless as this is on many photographers 's wish list. :-)

Rufous-collared Kingfisher

Just a bit of update in my life - I changed my mind (two days ago..ha ha..) and decided to continue to live in Singapore for the time being, and try to search for a job to sustain my living expenses. I am still working it out in my mind whether to move out of my comfortable flat for a cheaper place or even downgrade to a room....I will think it over and hopeful that my Heavenly Father will give me the guidance to make the right choices.....As I was quite stressed a bit on trying to make decisions, I finally said to myself - just enjoy the month of september....and park the rest of the problems aside for a while - things will turn out fine. That helped a lot to wash away the anxiety bit, so let's see.......

Life goes on....

I started my calling as a seminary teacher on 7th July 2009. I thought waking up at 4.15am every weekday is a tough deal for me, but surprisingly, it was not so bad after all....It was terrible in the beginning, i tried to get my body to get used to wake up early by doing so a week earlier before my calling start...and i was glad that I did that. For the first two days, i could only wake up the mind, but my body didnt want to get out of bed at all....now, it is okay...i could even wake up early in weekends!

something that i have never been able to achieve in my annual resolution for years "go to bed early and wake up early" using my own strength & resolution - but with the calling and the blessing, i finally able to tick off as "yes, i am doing it now.."

Another of my resolution is to do regular exercise. Well, hopefully, after I leave my company, I will have more time to do birding, and that would be considered "exercise". That would be a fun exercise! ha ha...

A shot of a sunbird in Singapore Botanical Garden with a group of photography students. I was invited to attend along although I have not signed up for the class. I was grateful for the opportunity. I was also very excited because the teacher gave me a grade of "A" for this shot (on the condition that I did some more post-processing) but nevertheless, i was excited. This was shot with D300 camera with a 300mmf4 lens.

Yesterday, I went for my morning photography walk again in Chinese Garden. I met a colleague there which I have never chat with in the office, but yesterday, we had a nice chit chat on camera equipment. Later, I saw another man with long lens, and I greeted him to ask him how his day was. This was followed by another interesting chat on bird photography - but most interesting was, because I chatted him up, he was able to tell me of places where he has seen birds in the Garden. He told me of a resident stork-billed kingfisher nearby. He told me of some less friendly photographers there too. With this additional information, I make my way to the place where the stork-billed KF was sighted. And truly, it was there. I take a few shots of the bird, and saw that a group of photographers have also gathered opposite the small brook and waiting to shoot the bird. I inched closer to the bird and it flew off to another perch. I wanted to inch closer again, but the photographers gave me warning not to get close. Later the bird flew again to a further away from their side of perch, over to my side...And again, I wanted to go closer to the bird (you cant shoot if the bird is too far away!), and i could hear shouts from the other photographers saying "tell her dont go near to the bird". So I stopped in my tracks and just relax...No point shooting from so far away anyway. One guy crossed the brook and came over to me and I greeted him and we chit chat....He apologised for the behavior of the person who shouted at me....what surprised me that as I am being friendly and chit chat with him (these are a group of elderly senior man who were now interested in bird photography), he too started sharing with me things he knew about this bird...its behavior and the time that it would showed up. Another guy came over, and the first guy asked this guy to show his pictures. He took out a clear folder and there were plenty of bird pictures there. Many pictures were birds with fish in their beak. That was what these guys were going after. I complimented the pictures, telling him how good it was...(some were really good)...and soon, he was telling me where I could find these birds - some were eagles even.... Wow...these tips are valuable! ha ha.

They were interested at my camera setup (probably curiosity is what started them to approach me anyway as I was carrying my full 500mm setup, whilst they were handholding 300mm and 400mm...). Soon the place we were standing was rather hot as the sun was right over our heads, and the men tell me to go over to their little island across the brook where it was shady (and where the bird appeared more often). Inside me, I was amazed - by just being friendly and not offended by their initial objection to my presence, I am now even invited to their circle and again they told me of the things that they have observed and shot.....It is just amazing to me. I couldnt find out all these things by myself. I was glad that I spoke to all the three group of people that I met yesterday - speaking to people is new & uncomfortable to me, i dont like to speak much or draw attention..........but i am finding it is quite fun too to speak with people of same interest & I could learn lots! I will try to greet people more often, rather than shying away.

I didnt get a good shot of the stork-billed Kingfisher, but I have had a great day and experience learnt. So, overall, it was a great day for me.

Stork-billed King fisher (above) & Yellow-vented bulbul (below)

Catch up time....

Lallang grass at the fringe of paddy field...shot while waiting for birds to appear...

Oh dear...time moves so fast......What have i been busy about lately? Plenty!! Let me start from the earliest that I could recall.....

End of May - My employer issued me the letter of retrenchment, making it official. My last day with BP is 31 August 2009. Though I have known this fact for quite many months, I still felt "sad" & "down" on the day that I had to sign the letter.... Anyway, sister Brown said it is normal to feel that way after being with BP for 9 years...so I am fine again. Now, I am looking forward to my retirement...ha ha. I signed up for a job placement program (paid by BP) and I was shocked at how some are being retrenched - he worked for a bank - he was called into a meeting room one day, he was handed a letter and was asked to pack immediately and leave the office premise! my gosh...how prepared one could be in this situation??? I am counting my blessings....

In that sense, I am grateful that I can go to the Manila temple on 26 May 2009 for some quiet time, and also to take some photos....A new publisher has approached me for some temple photos for their new temple book - hopefully, one or two will be chosen again....

I have kept myself more than 100% busy on my bird photography - to the extent I think I am now addicted to the bird npss forum...oh dear!! I had spent much time on computer, either to learn of a photo processing software, or learn new photography techniques etc....there are just too many things to learn and I want to learn them all at once...instead of the wiser counsel of line by line..... I hope to start a business in bird photography tours...I dont know how I can do it, but that is my dream........

Two pictures of birds to share - white throated kingfisher from spore botanical garden, and a Scaly-breasted Munia shot outside my home in Malaysia.

So, what do you think Heavenly Father's answer to my addiction? He gave me a new calling, sent through his servants. I have this impression that I should let my stake presidency know that I am leaving Singapore soon, so that they have the time to consider new people to replace my calling with the singles. I somehow added my bishop in the email. To cut story short, my bishop believed the email is his answer to his prayer for a name to a calling....I was called to the stake presidency office...i am waiting to hear the word "you are now released......." instead, i heard the word "we would like to extend a call to you....." That woke me up! ha ha...

Who wants to take a guess what my additional calling is? It is very very engaging that now my time is more balanced btw church and bird photography.....hee hee...

Fraser's Hill trip

Pic - Flowers along the Jelai Waterfall trail

1st May 2009 - 4th May 2009

I went with the Nature Photography Society of Singapore (NPSS) on a 4 days 3 nights trip to Fraser's Hill in Pahang, Malaysia. We set out at 4.30am from Spore which meant that I had to wake up at 3.45am! And for 3 consecutive mornings, i automatically woke up at that time too. ha ha.

Pic - The group, after a sumptuous dinner at Singapore House (courtesy of Han).

It was a wonderful trip and I met many fun and nice people with the same interest ie photography. It must be common everywhere for Canon users will tease the Nikon users and vice versa on who has the better equipment. There were many quite funny moments too - just camera-talk jokes.

Sharing a few of the bird photos taken during the trip. On Sunday, I decided not to go out with the group - however, I have to admit that it was real tempting as I watched others photographed the birds that come to the resort's feeder from the balcony of my room. In this kind of situation, I am glad I have my Book of Mormon with me. 

Pic - Family of Large Niltava (Male, Female & Juvenile)

Many Chestnut-capped Laughing Thrush visited the feeding station. One particular bird, we were laughing at it because instead of eating the mealy worms, it collected them from the ground - should any of the worms dropped from its beak, it will pick the worm up again, balancing the rest still on its beak...funny antics - its final count was 7 worms before it flew away.

Pic - Chestnut-capped Laughing Thrush

Pic - Silver-eared Mesia 

Last but not least, a mammal - this is a Malayan flying lemur (colugo). It stood frozen there (could you see the mozzies biting him??) and I shot almost a hundred shots within the space of one hour - it has two choices for defense - not moving in hope that we would not spot him or to scoot up the tree! I was glad it chose the former and stay put for me to photograph it.

I had fun on this trip - it has been a long while since I went on a bird outing.

My AF Focus is cured!

I have been moaning about my many out-of-focus shots with my 500mm lens. I was clueless why the photos are mostly Out Of Focus (OOF) - I have already eliminated those culprits such as AF mode, AF type, subject motion ( I took shots of a big rock & still turned out OOF !) , camera shake ( there were spots in the picture that were in focus), so what else have I not done?

As I studied my OOF shots last night, I saw "AF Finetune = 0" as part of the EXIF. I surfed the internet and finally struck gold. The search brouught many links which described my problem. What will we do without internet??

http://www.flickr.com/groups/nikon_d300_users/discuss/72157603567131829

http://photomatter.com/Reviews/NikonD300b.html

http://www.focustestchart.com/chart.html

Rather than following their steps to do the AF finetuning, I sent all my lens to Nikon service center today since they are still under warranty.

D300 has a function that you can finetune the AF from -20 to 0 to +20. With my 500mm plus TC1.4x, the finetune figure turned up to +17.

Tested my lens today - AF works MUCH better now ..i might still tweaked it a bit as I do more field tests. Some of my photos today of the White breasted waterhen in Singapore Botanical Garden - eco-lake (luckily she turned up..otherwise, I dont have any subject to test my lens...ha ha).

I liked the way she turned her head to look at me...that made this picture sweet.

I wished I had lower my camera so that I could take it at eye level...it would it make a more powerful shot.

cutie one again....

the eye was so sharp, i am impressed, but sad to realise that the beak is not in focus due to motion i think..so, this shot should rank as trash.... :-(

Camera setup

This is my camera setup taken with my phone camera (ha ha)..(I have since, added an additional battery pack to the bottom of the camera body)....I am also crocheting a brown cover to cover up the yellow foams (i think these yellow foams scare birds away.....)

This morning, I was in Japanese Garden to take some bird photos. I was alone. A guy came and approached me. He asked "Are you a professional?" "No" I replied. "Then why do you use such big lens?" he continued to ask. I was dumbstruck not knowing what to answer....ha ha.

Here's a link on top ten annoying things to say to wildlife photographer...it is funny!

http://www.paulburwell.com/blog/2009/03/top-ten-annoying-things-to-say-to-wildlife-photographer/

Crimson Sunbird at Mandai Orchid Garden Spore

10th April 2009 (Good Friday)

It was a public holiday in Singapore. I made my own way to this Garden again...(one thing that is not fun venturing out on your own was that there is no one to watch your equipment should you have a need to go for emergency :-D. )

I spent the whole afternoon there, until it was too dark to take any photos and mozzies started getting hungry. Total shutter released - more than 400 count, sb900 automatically shutdown due to overheating, camera hanged due to full buffer memory.........reached home, looked at the results...less than the number of my fingers were sharp...... ...and none of the shots with the bird looking at me even ! But I was consoled by the people in the npss forum - it is already a very good result if one can have one good photo per month . .. ha ha. Enjoy......everyone said I have improved compared to my first posting....yippee.......wish weekend comes earlier......

Little spiderhunter

With comments received from the forum, I re-processed the picture and here is the final outcome.

Nature Photographic Society of Singapore

Today I posted my first thread of photos in an online forum. I also learnt that I need to do photo/post processing in order to make the photos nicer (just like ladies putting on make-up before they step out to public places...ha ha ha).

http://npss.org.sg/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1395

They have some very nice and helpful people there that are willing to share what they have learnt, and oh boy, I have lots to learn.

Shot of a little spiderhunter, with post processing.........saturation and USM (50,5,5,).

Today I also learnt that Adobe Creative Suite Web Premium (which include Photoshop CS4) is selling at S$99 as student edition. Normal price is S$999........Should I buy???? Of course! Although some said it will be under utilised... :-(...Next question Mac version or PC? ..oh boy oh boy.....choices make me dizzy....ha ha

Finally, I am birding again........

I took half day leave on Thursday, 2nd April 2009, as I could not wait any longer to test my new lens. I made arrangement with a person I met in a bird photography forum so that I could learn from him......

When he (rey) saw me, he was surprised to see that I am a lady. I use a "nickname" in the forum. He asked me why I bought this huge lens (500mm) instead of a 300mm...I said it was the advice of those in the forum. I had initially decided on a 300mm but someone replied that it was not enough for bird photography, and said I should get at least 400mm....I got the 500mm.. :-). Rey said that the advices were given on the assumption that I am a MALE. I guess he was right...the weight of the lens (almost 4 kg), the tripod and head (another 1kg +), and camera + flash + etc (almost 1kg)....nearly killed me that day...we walked quite deep into the forest to look for kingfisher....we didnt see any! ha ha. It is still a good day for me to go on a field trip with him. And luckily he checked my setup - I didnt fasten in the tripod head tight enough.....I just cant imagine if my lens dropped on the ground..........oh dear dear me... Needless to say, my shoulder ached for 3 days and I am almost certain it was bruised!

I did a bit of DIY on my tripod - bought a sponge from Daiso $2 shop and strapped it onto my tripod legs where they rested on my shoulder....it worked...it really felt so much better now. But it is real ugly....need to think how to DIY it better....might end up buying the real stuff, maybe.

So, on Saturday, I contacted another person from the forum who agreed to take me out bird photographing. This time, I thought he was a lady (from his name...French has a way of naming a guy name in a lady's spelling...ha ha). Anyway, I again had great fun photographing birds....one thing I need to note though....photographers go without lunch on field trips! Luckily I had brought some chocolates....Next time, I will pack some sandwiches.

Ok....still a beginner in bird photography...need to adjust / fine tune the settings...but I was just so excited and started triggering the shutter release the moment I see a bird that I forgot all the rules of nature photography...Well, I guess I will learn as I go out more....

A Collared Kingfisher - this was heavily cropped as the birds were far across the lake...too far to have good quality image...


This is a spiderhunter - I think we spent more than 2 hours sitting and waiting for it to turn up...it came regularly, but only stayed for a few seconds before it flew off again....but each time it came, I would jump to my camera setup and just fire the shutter away......ho ho ho....

The spiderhunter again...this time, she posed nicely for me...

I am still not pleased with my output as most of my other pictures didnt achieve the sharpness that this lens could deliver....and, practice makes perfect....I believe!

New lens

THIS WAS IN MY DRAFT BOX FOR SO LONGGGGG......

Just a record so that I can remember when my new super telephoto came in. Yupp, Nikon delivered it one week earlier than promised. Got my lens yesterday (25 Mar 2009) in a super heavy hard case. Will post some photos of the lens later. I still cant take it out to the field yet as I am waiting for my tripod head....just put in an order online with Wimberley.....(I cant even believe this is me....I dare not even think of how much I have spent...)

Okay..some photos

21st Mar - Relief Society Birthday party.

Sister Christine Ng requested me to be the photographer. I am excited as well as nervous. I dont know whether to use my new camera (which I am still not familiar) or use my old Canon S3. I know pictures with my new DSLR would be superb if I take it correctly, but what if I dO not? Finally, I decided to use my new camera (otherwise, when will I ever use it if I dont trust it!!) and as back-up, I gave my S3 to Michelle Lee as the backup photographer...haha. I had a great time taking photos...The RS sisters put on a fashion show....

I think I am going to love this camera..............