Up Close with Nature

Gonocephalus grandis is a diurnal species that is native to primary rainforests and good secondary forests They occur mainly along streams of all sizes.  More tropical reptiles and herps here. A male adult Gonocephalus grandis,  Great angle head lizard in all his glory. A full body shot showing how long its tail is! A female, adult. She wasn't shy and let me got really close!

Sharing another full flash macro rig. This time it's from Matt (MVers on Flickr). He uses Sigma 150mm and 48mm of tubes plus 1.4X TC. More macro rigs here. Sigma 150, 48mm of extension tubes, 1.4x teleconverter, 580EX II and big DIY Diffuser. There is an adjustable panel for you to control the amount of light diffusion to suit different subject. Great idea, right? You can control the

Maliau Basin trip report, Part II. You can find Part I here. Violin beetle Jewel beetle, Catoxantha opulenta Dead leaf mantis, Deroplatys truncata Fishfly -  Neochauliodes borneensis (van der Weele, 1909), belonging to the subfamily Chauliodinae of family Corydalidae. Male adults. Mating pair of green lantern bugs, Pyrops shiinaorum shiinaorum Green lantern bug, Pyrops shiinaorum

Maliau Basin or also Maliau Basin Conservation Area, is a region in Sabah, Malaysia, which represents a geological catchment surrounding the Maliau River. Located around the center of Sabah in the Sandakan Division, it was designated as a conservation area by the Sabah Foundation (Yayasan Sabah) in 1981. Later in 1997 the Sabah State Assembly gazetted the Basin as a Protection Forest Reserve (

As mentioned in my previous post on using a single 270EX for macro, there were two issues that needed to be addressed. The two issues were: 1. shadow on the lower part of the subject 2. very dim catch light in subject's eyes. In my opinion, these two issues were caused by the fact that the 270EX was too far out and as a result, the light would come down from a higher angle. In this post, I

By now, I am sure you are aware that many of my macro friends use single 270EX as their light source for macro. Just check out this post in case you missed that. It's been proven without any doubt that a single 270EX is just as good as twin flash. Two of the easiest and most light weight ways of holding the 270EX in place are: 1. an FMMB (front mounted macro bracket).  More info about the FMMB

Another type of giraffe weevils / leaf rolling weevils spotted. Very similar to the Cycnotrachelus sp. that I have often seen and photographed, but instead of on the Bridelia sp host plant, these were found of a different type of host plant, with relatively smaller leaves. No ID on the plant yet. Giraffe weevil, male, body length approximately 9mm including the neck, and 5.6mm excluding the neck