The marvels of nature macro photography: a workshop by Nicky Bay

WARNING: Do not continue reading this post if you are entomophobic or arachnophobic. If you do not know what these terms mean, carry on. You'll find out if you actually are.



My friend Nicky Bay is holding a couple of workshops on macro photography, and I thought it would be great to help publicise these workshops. More details are provided in his blog post.

Saturday Seringat-Kias

A small group headed out to visit Lazarus Island on one of the last early morning low tides of the year. While the rest headed towards the rocky shores of Lazarus Island, Kok Sheng and I decided to explore a lagoon located in the north of Seringat-Kias; James and I had previously checked out this area in April 2010. On that occasion, we visited that lagoon during the day, and it was raining, so we might have missed out on a lot of the marine life that lived in that lagoon. Hopefully, we would find a more interesting variety of critters this morning.

Chek Jawa in June with the Naked Hermit Crabs

(Photo by Kok Sheng)

With it being the June holidays, the Naked Hermit Crabs received an overwhelming response for our monthly guided tour on the Chek Jawa boardwalk. And so 5 guides showed up on Saturday morning, ready to take on the crowds and share the sights and sounds of this very special place.

Timberland Earthkeepers: Like the deserts miss the rain...

Over the last two days, as part of Timberland's contributions towards fighting desertification, we helped to prune poplars, and also planted pine saplings. Today, we bade farewell to Inner Mongolia, and embarked on the next leg of our journey, to the city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province.

To find out why I'm so gleefully holding a leafy branch, read on.

Timberland Earthkeepers: Circle in the sand...

(Photo from Timberland Singapore)

Yesterday, it rained for most of the day, making our pruning of poplars a cooling and enjoyable (if somewhat wet) experience. While it meant that we didn't end up baking and getting burnt to a crisp, I was somewhat hoping that the weather would change, and we would get to experience the desert. After all, deserts are defined by low amounts of precipitation; it would be ironic (and disappointing) if we ended up spending our days here in the Horqin Desert getting soaked in the rain.

Today, we finally found out what it was truly like being out in the desert. I'm just hoping that I don't suffer too much from this sunburn.

Timberland Earthkeepers: With you in the summer rain...

(Photo from Timberland Singapore)

During one of our briefings before this trip, Cheryl did mention how it rained unexpectedly last year, catching the Timberland Earthkeepers participants unaware and out in the open. I came here expecting to experience the scorching sun and blasting winds of the desert, only to end up cold, wet, but definitely not at all miserable here in Horqin.