Oriental Pied Hornbill - Pulau Ubin

D700 70-300mm @ 300 ISO400 f/9 1/400

An opportunity take, so the light and background are not great . It might be worth it to go back with the right lens...

Colours Of Pulau Ubin (6)

D700 70-300mm @ 70 ISO400 f/13 1/5

I found these drawings of plants on the inside wall of a disused wooden house. A creeper started to take over the space through the broken floor. Some post processing was applied to the capture to give an aging feel to the picture.

Colours Of Pulau Ubin (5)

D700 70-300mm @ 78 ISO400 f/5.6 1/250

Blue.

Colours Of Pulau Ubin (4)

D700 70-300mm @ 80 ISO400 f/8 1/640

Green.

Colours Of Pulau Ubin (3)

D700 70-300mm @ 78 ISO400 f/4.5 1/25

Red and gold.

Colours Of Pulau Ubin (2)

D700 70-300mm @ 102 ISO400 f/9 1/60

Mustard and blue.

Colours Of Pulau Ubin (1)

D700 70-300mm @ 95 ISO400 f/11 1/250

Taking the camera along on a bicycle trip through the island, I escaped here and there to take a few quick shots...

Purple-Throated Sunbird

D700 500mm +1.7 teleconverter ISO400 f/6.7 1/160 flash -1.3EV tripod

Many purple-throated sunbirds visit the tree as well.

Olive-Backed Sunbird

D700 500mm +1.7 teleconverter ISO400 f/6.7 1/160 flash -1.3EV tripod

Another visitor of the Asoka tree, the olive-backed sunbird. Here a female.

Crimson Sunbird (4)

D700 500mm +1.7 teleconverter ISO400 f/6.7 1/250 flash -1.3EV tripod

A simple click with the model in position!

Crimson Sunbird (3)

D700 500mm +1.7 teleconverter ISO400 f/6.7 1/160 flash -1.3EV tripod

Lucky one here. While the bird was preening his feathers, a lot of pauses were not very photogenic. This shot, on the other hand, was not bad. A slightly faster shutter speed might have improved it but the light level was low.

Crimson Sunbird (2)

D700 500mm +1.7 teleconverter ISO400 f/6.7 1/250 flash -1.3EV tripod

A few flaps of the wings seem necessary for this bird to keep up to the level of the flower. A great opportunity for a shot.

Crimson Sunbird (1)

D700 500mm +1.7 teleconverter ISO400 f/6.7 1/160 flash -1.3EV tripod

The famous Asoka tree at Lower Pierce Reservoir was populated with 5 photograpers and their big guns, 1 squirrel and many sunbirds this sunday afternoon. As it had rained earlier in the day, I did not know what to expect. The output was pretty good as quite a few birds decided to perform for us.

Walk Within The Mangroves (5)

D700 500mm ISO200 f/5.6 1/60 tripod

Walk Within The Mangroves (4)

D700 500mm ISO200 f/4.5 1/60 tripod

In addition to anchoring the tree to the muddy soil, the mangrove roots have two important roles: (a) they filter salt out of the water (balance salt intake is evacuated through the leaves); (b) they develop aerial breathing "snorkels" to avoid suffocation in the oxygen poor mud.

The darker section of the roots on the above picture show the level of water at the highest tide.

Walk Within The Mangroves (3)

D700 500mm ISO200 f/4.5 1/60 tripod

One of the characteristics of the mangroves is their impressive roots, which stabilizes the tree in the soft muddy soil in spite of being exposed to the changes in tide and the waves.

Walk Within The Mangroves (2)

D700 60mm ISO200 f/4.5 1/125

The tide was pretty high and still on the rise. Another 10cm and the branch is in the water.

Walk Within The Mangroves (1)

D700 60mm ISO200 f/5.6 1/640

I like to visit a location at different hours to take advantage of the various lights. So this morning, I had an early walk. The sky was just beautiful with the sun brightening softly the side of the clouds. I abandoned the 3/3 rule and placed the horizon in the center of the picture to take advantage of the reflection...

While more and more people seem to enjoy fishing, catching crabs or just riding their bike to Khatib Bongsu, some tend not to understand that plastics do not decompose in the nature and that they will find their garbage exactly were left them when they come back, if the wind has not blown them into the water... A shame really.

In fact and on the above picture, I had to photoshop out a plastic bottle that was floating within the composition. At full resolution, I could guess the brand of the drink...

White-Breasted Waterhen

D700 500mm +1.7 teleconverter ISO200 f/6.7 1/320 flash tripod

A relatively common but very shy bird. I saw a couple with their all black chicks. Seeing is unfortunately not photographing... I missed them... Maybe next time!

Blue Sky

D700 70-300mm @ 70 ISO200 f/14 1/250

A "simple click" while passing by.

Little Spiderhunter

D700 500mm +1.7 teleconverter ISO400 f/10 1/320 flash -1.3EV tripod

Purple-Throated Sunbird

D700 500mm +1.7 teleconverter ISO200 f/9 1/320 flash -1.3EV tripod

This is an Asoka tree that is extremely popular with photographers! For a first time there, I was surprised to count 6 large lenses targeting a the feeding birds! and this was on a week day morning... While patiently waiting for the sunbirds to perform, I was wondering about the ratio of photographers to birds during the week-ends!

Spider Lily

D700 50mm ISO400 f/1.4 1/1000

A flower and a play on the depth of field.

Malayan Colugo (3)

D700 500mm ISO400 f/7.1 +1.0EV 1/80 Tripod

"Soooo Cuuuuute" was the first comment I got for this shot. I tend to agree!

The difficulty in taking these last three pictures was the low level of light. This meant that the shutter speed had to be low for a 500mm lens (the VR II stabilization system of the lens is just excellent) and the depth of field was unfortunately limited.