Dragon Enlarged

This handsome little dragon allowed me to get up close and personal so I could take as many shots of him as I wanted.

Bokehfly

A graceful butterfly fluttering over red flowers, sucking nectar from each of them. I love the blurred background!

Green

Living in a sub-urban locality in the Kerala state of India, green is a colour I see everywhere. And I see it so often that sometimes, it'll just bore the hell out of me. So here's a collection of all things green. These photographs were shot over the past few weeks.

One to Give You the Creeps

I haven't posted much about animals or other wild creatures since 2011. Anyway, here's one to give you the creeps: A bright orange cricket I found hiding in my handkerchief.

It was unlike any other cricket I've seen before; with it's long antenna, sharp 'tail' and spiky legs, it looked extremely creepy!



Reminds me of the giant insects you see in many bug movies... Imagine this guy (100 times bigger) sneaking into your bed at midnight!





As you can see, its wings are really tiny, too small to fly, and so this cricket must be a nymph. I took it out and released him.

Dragonfly Black & White

Sorry for the delay! I had been busy with school work and stuff. I haven't been shooting much recently, and my camera rarely exits the cupboard nowadays. However, there is just one shot I took of a dragonfly as it rested on a metal wire. I've been inspired by Vera to do black & white photography as well.

I might not post any photos for a while, but I will be back before long! Have a great weekend guys!

Freaky Insects You Don't Want at Home

Over a few days I spotted and photographed a number of insects in my house, none of which looked very friendly. They either had biting teeth, sharp stings or simply looked scary. I may be an animal lover alright, but these insects just made me want to think about whether I should let them stay home or not. Here's a group of wasps on their tiny 'hive'.

A really big Long-Horn Beetle. This beetle's horns (feelers) were almost twice its body length! Its sharp jaws can be seen in the second shot as well.

And here's a giant fly that none of us had ever seen before. It was huge, with a body that measured around 10cm! I had no idea what it was, perhaps some sort of mutated or evolved species of fly? I let it out as soon as I took my shot.

The Flyaway Bluebottle

I've spotted a couple of Bluebottle butterflies but have never been able to photograph one well because of their restlessness in flight. Here I shot one in mid-air as it was fluttering over the ground close to me. Not a good shot, anyway!

Mother Scorpion with Young

I spotted this group of scorpions below a large pile of rocks that were left untouched for quite a while. I was kind of expecting to find them as they are always present in such piles. There were many tiny young scorpions together with a large mother. Not wanting to disturb them, I covered the crevice with a rock and left.

Sticky's Back to Say Hi

It's evident that my friends sure are missing me. I woke up one morning to find another stick insect in front of my door, one exactly the same size and colour as the one before, and at the very same spot!

I just couldn't understand why this happened and how! It looked like the stick insect was back to say Hi or something. And another intriguing part was that I've never seen another stick insect anywhere in this area close to my house. The only one I've seen here is this particular individual who's come looking for me for the second time! Whatever the reason, I was glad he returned, as I could take a few photographs of him with my Nikon.

I let him out and he clung onto a tree trunk and slowly crawled up towards the leaves. I said bye as I lost sight of him, but I'm sure he'll be back before I know it.

Baby Bugs

I spotted this tiny cluster of bright yellow eggs attached to wall in my house one night. Curious to know what they were, I took a photograph and zoomed in to find cute little 'smiley faces' on these eggs!

The very next day, the eggs had hatched, and a circle of tiny bugs appeared around the eggs.

Bukit Timah, After a Long While

So, after a LONG stay in India, I was finally back in Singapore. I headed out to my usual hunting spot one weekend morning- Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. However, like many first trips, I didn't spot any interesting reptiles or such, just a few invertebrates.

Colours!

I photographed this dragonfly one evening. The photograph looked rather lifeless at first, with dull colours. But after increasing the contrast a little, I realized how colourful and beautiful the image was. The green background with the various little colours of the dragonfly totally lit up the image.

Butterflies & Caterpillars

I spotted and photographed several Common Mime Butterfly caterpillars one afternoon. One of them hadn't grown as much as the others, its size and colour was one stage behind. They can be easily mistaken for bird poop.

The others had grown a bit more, and had red spots on their body.

Later that evening, I spotted a bright and beautiful butterfly taking shelter as it started to drizzle. I'm not sure of the species, but these sure are common here. I took several shots at full zoom (200mm) and was really satisfied with a few!

Huge Beetle Grubs

My grandfather is a nature lover. Or more like, he did agriculture for a living, and still indulges in planting crops around the house and eating natural fruits grown in our compound. One day, he got a pile of manure to feed the plants and while he was digging through the pile, he spotted several huge beetle grubs. These grubs are the larvae of a species of beetle, and they feed on such manure.

These beasts were huge, about 5 inches in length, and disgusting (to some, even more than that)! Even I couldn't bear to look at their milky white and blackish translucent insides.... Ugh! So I quickly took a couple shots before our chickens found them and started feasting on them.

Pray hard you get a good sleep tonight.

Night Hunt

I went out for a short night hunt in the frontyard one cool night. I was expecting to find many nocturnal creatures I had yet to see, but it turned out the hunt was a rather boring one. All I managed to find were a couple of common critters. Like this katydid.

And a Two-Tailed Spider with two small legs and 6 long ones.

And nasty mosquitoes that made me wish I never went out at that point of time!

And, well, the big resident frog, who apparently was getting stung by four mosquitoes at once on his face. Zoom in and try to spot the mozzies!

I decided to retreat back indoors because of the mosquitoes.