Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve : Film & Grain Part 2
Sungei Buloh is split into two segments. After walking through the first segment as seen in part 1 of this series, we reach the second segment. This is the place I distinctly remember visiting many many years back, when I was a child then. The place remains exactly the same since the last time I visited, except for this colorful wall or fencing seen above. Drawings of various animals can be seen on these panels, even one alligator with a hyper enlarged head.
There. Another monitor lizard. This time round it’s much bigger. Or fatter. See those sharp claws? Yeah, I risk my life to take this photo. Just kidding. This is one lazy monitor lizard. Throughout the 10+ minutes when I was beside it, it barely moved an inch. The only thing that was moving was it’s head, where it glanced at me when I stepped closer. After deciding that I will make a bad lunch, it turned it’s head away again.
Mug shot of the same monitor lizard. If this is a person, he probably looks like a grumpy, slightly emotional old man. Look at that mouth and eyes. I had a comment from a friend who said this picture was a tad too sharp, causing the scales to look rather intimidating. If anyone thinks so too, let me know yeah? I personally favor sharpness in a photo. I aim to achieve sharpness in the main subject, most of the time at the eyes, where the soul of the photo is often captured. A badly focused eye or face ruins the photo, at least in my opinion.
Walking on and on along the reserve, I spotted this furry little guy. Up went my camera, and off went the shutter. But I know the shots were not going to turn out well. Because I am psychic, and I can tell the future. Kidding again. All these time I was photographing objects compositioned at the ground level, where the sunlight was plenty. But this squirrel was hidden in the dense foliage, where light was scarce. So, anyone with basic photography knowledge will know that poor lighting gives sucky photographs, most of the time. In my case, low light would mean a limited shutter speed, and taking photos of fast animals like squirrels require as fast a shutter one can manage.
With the focus still on the squirrel and hoping that it will not run for its life away from me, I quickly turned up my ISO to compensate for the low light. Down went the aperture, as I did not want to pump the ISO beyond 1600. All done in a second. Which would not be possible if a photographer does not know his/her gear well enough. Which is why people say in photography, practice makes perfect. But then again, that applies for almost everything we do in life, with the exception of suicide, because that can only be done a limited number of times. Sometimes, once is all a person gets. So yeah, don’t practice that. And that was how I got this shot.
A high end professional telephoto such as the Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 or the new Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 would render better optics and bokeh, but hey, I’m broke. But that is my goal. One day, when I can and willing to afford one, I will purchase a high end professional lens. Photography is not entirely dependent on how sophisticated your gear is, but good equipment never hurt anyone take good photographs. If you can afford it, go ahead and get it. Else, just stick with your budget lens and practice hard. Logically speaking, any modern camera with a half decent sensor can surely beat film cameras decades ago solely on specifications. And those cameras produced top shots in their own time, so there is no reason sucky gear will produce bad photos. Just don’t get too sucky a camera and lens.
Okay. I have no idea what this is. Some kind of shelly creature, I guess. I just thought that it makes a good photograph based on their shape, pattern and color. While strolling along the path, I found them sticking to the trunk of a rather tall tree, so snap.
Found another squirrel. Or maybe it was the same squirrel I saw earlier. These guys ran fast, jumping from one tree to another. Poor photographer had to turn round and round, recompose and refocus just to keep this dude in frame. Thankfully, the squirrel stopped for a while atop this branch, giving me enough time to recompose and take the photo.
Check out Part 1 of this 3 part series on the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.