Up Close with Nature

Come herping with us this Nov 12th, 2017, or Mar 11th, 2018! Spots are limited so don't wait too long! Don't fret if can't make it on either of those dates. There will be more to come! You can also request for a special tour on dates of your choice as long as there are at least three of you. Our first Borneo Herp Tour in May 2017 went really well and we found many awesome herps

Please spread the word that our little eco-travel company is going strong, and we've just added a trip to Borneo. Very exciting! For more information, please check out http://www.orionherpadventure.com/borneo.html - May 1, 2017 - 8D/7N Field Herp Adventure - USD$1,270 (approx RM5,700) If you are in the USA, feel free to call up this number: USA+1.248.798.3274 (Troy, Michigan) Or email

It is the time of the year to round up some of my favorite images taken in the year of 2016. Again, lots of herps (amphibians, reptiles) this year. However, unlike last year, not many species added to my photo collection. Also, most of the images you see here are taken with my new favorite lens - Laowa 15mm 1:1 wide angle macro. Snakes #1 Beautiful Red-headed Krait (Bungarus flaviceps),

Wallace's Flying Frog (Rhacophorus nigropalmatus) Laowa 15mm F4 1:1 wide angle macro lens is the first 1:1 wide angle macro lens in the market, and it is still the only wide angle lens in the market that can achieve native life size magnification. A big thank you to Venus Optics for shipping me this lovely lens.  I received my Laowa 15mm from Venus Optics back in June, 2015, and have been using

Borneo Herping Trip - Part II - Lupa Masa Rainforest Camp, Poring After 3 nights at the highland part of Sabah, we moved on to Lupa Masa Rainforest Camp - a lowland forest in Poring, for another 3 nights. First, a little bit about Lupa Masa Camp. Lupa Masa Rainforest Camp is located on the borders of Mt Kinabalu National Park, in primary Borneo jungle. If offers an authentic jungle experience

In March 2016, I spent 3 nights herping at a montane forest of Sabah with 3 guests of mine. Because of the extremely dry weather, we didn't find many species of snakes despite looking hard. However, finding a Hypsicalotes kinabaluensis more than made up for all these! More pictures of this stunning lizard later! If you are interested in joining me on either a herping trip or macro photography

Since I have three different UV flashlights, I thought it would be a great idea to do a side by side comparison of all three. Here are the three UV flashlights I have purchased so far. 1. Inova X5MT-WUVT High Powered Ultraviolet LED Flashlight US$40.45 2. Ubesta 3-in-1 15+1 3xAAA Flashlight US$11.563. UltraFire® 3w Ultraviolet LED Flashlight  US$7.46 First, I tested them, one by one, on a RM10

It is the time of the year to round up some of my favorite images taken in the year of 2015. Again, lots of herps (amphibians, reptiles) this year with many new species added to my collection. AMPHIBIANS More amphibians here. #1 - I think this is possibly the cutest frog face in the world! Malaya Bug-eyed Frog (Theloderma leprosum). Malaysia. #2 - One of the most awesome frogs I've ever

I have never been a fan of ring flash / ring lite because the light is harsh and diffusion is not easy, but with Stephen's new and easy-to-DIY diffuser, getting good light is no longer an issue. You might want to check out another interesting method of diffusion for macro ring flash here as well. All text and images are by Stephen Barlow (SteB1) The aim of this diffuser design was to produce

Khai Yai National Park is about two hours' drive from Bangkok. The main reason we went there, of course, was to look for my favorite lanternflies (Fulgoridae), especially the Pyrops. We managed to find five different species of them during our 5D/4N stay in the national park. I will be hosting more macro workshops in locations in Thailand and also Borneo in the near future. Limited seats only

Venus 60mm F/2.8 Ultra Macro Lens is the world's first 2:1 macro lens with infinity focus.  Yes, 2:1 i.e. 2X magnification. Native 2:1 magnification, all built-in - you don't have to add any accessories like extension tubes, teleconverter or Raynox diopter lens! All without losing the infinity focus too! And since you don't have to add tubes, you won't lose the ability to focus to infinity,

It is the time of the year to round up some of my favorite images taken in the year of 2014. Lots of herps (amphibians, reptiles) this year with many new species added to my collection. Instead of just 36 favorite images like the past few year, there are 108 favorites this year. If you would like to see more of any of the species posted here, just click that image and that will take you to my

Lampyridae firefly (Lamprigera sp. - ID credit: Michael Geiser, Gene Mesher) attacking and later eating a Giant African Snail (Achatina fulica. ID credit: Tan Siong-Kiat, Marcus Ng) that it killed earlier. Selangor, Malaysia. I first spotted the firefly because of its glow in the dark. You'll see the time stated above each image 8:36pm 8:36pm 8:36pm. The snail tried to escape! 8:

Polypedates discantus (Malayan Slender Tree Frog) is a new species described in 2013. This species was previously confused and thought to be Polypedates leucomystax (Four-lined Tree Frog). Polypedates discantus (Malayan Slender Tree Frog). In fact, when I look through all my previous shots of Polypedates leucomystax, I found a couple that are like Polypedates discantus. Like this one:

Plan a herping / macro tour with us. More details here on Orion Herp Adventure Travel. Tours in and around Peninsular Malaysia as well as Borneo are available. Sumatra, Thailand and Vietnam too in the near future. Snakes of Malaysia: These are all the snakes that I have photographed, mostly from within Peninsula Malaysia. Although far from complete, it should still be good for identification

Amphibians of Malaysia: Frogs of Malaysia / Amphibians of Malaysia. Frog Symphony. White Spotted Tree Frog / Cinnamon Frog (Nyctixalus pictus). Selangor. White Spotted Tree Frog / Cinnamon Frog (Nyctixalus pictus). Selangor. White Spotted Tree Frog / Cinnamon Frog (Nyctixalus pictus) amplexus. Selangor. More bugs (mainly) porn here. Spiny Wart Frog (Theloderma horridum). Selangor,

Lizards of Malaysia Cat Gecko (Aeluroscalabotes felinus), Selangor. Cat Gecko (Aeluroscalabotes felinus), Selangor. Cat Gecko (Aeluroscalabotes felinus), Selangor. Cat Gecko (Aeluroscalabotes felinus), Selangor. Cat Gecko (Aeluroscalabotes felinus), Selangor. Beautiful Bent-toed Gecko (Cyrtodactylus elok). Malaysia. Beautiful Bent-toed Gecko (Cyrtodactylus elok). Malaysia.

Plan a herping / macro tour with us. More details here on Orion Herp Adventure Travel website. My second herping trip of the year. January 20th, 2014. It was one of the best herping trips ever! Just look at our haul and I am sure you'll agree. Note: the color profiles of these images are in AdobeRGB and may appear washed out/pale in certain browsers. A baby Striped Bronzeback (Dendrelaphis

Plan a herping / macro tour with us. More details here on Orion Herp Adventure Travel website. Montane forest, Banjaran Bintag, Perak, Malaysia. Jan 3 to Jan 5, 2014. All images taken with a Canon 40D, Tamron AF 60mm f/2.0 , Canon 270EX II   , and DIY Diffuser. Mostly taken at night. The first herp we found was this little Mock Viper (Psammodynastes pulverulentus) The only other species of

2013 is coming to an end and as usual, I went through all my 2013 images and came out with this mosaic. Again, created using Big Huge Labs' Mosaic Maker. Only a couple of new lantern bug species for 2013, but lots of new reptiles and amphibian images. Definitely looking forward to photographing more snakes in 2014! 800x800 pixel mosaic Since the bigger mosaic might not work, here's a smaller