We organised an outing to FRIM on Saturday morning over at Shutter Asia (Details here).
The Forest Research Institute Malaysia is a large park just North of the city towards Selayang, it’s around 10-15 minutes drive from the end of the LDP after the Penchala Toll.
Welcome to the Forest Research Institute Malaysia, one of the leading institutions in tropical forestry research, both within the country and abroad. Founded by British colonial forest scientist in 1929, the former Forest Research Institute with Dr F.W. Foxworthy as its first chief research officer, became a statutory body governed by the Malaysia Forestry Research and Development Board under the Ministry of Primary Industries in 1985 and then in 2004, FRIM became a statutory body governed under Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
The 600-ha site in Kepong located 16 km northwest of Kuala Lumpur, is surrounded by the Bukit Lagong Forest Reserve. The Institute, which has been awarded the MS ISO 9001: 2000 accreditation, is headed by Director-General Dato’ Dr. Abdul Razak Mohd. Ali.
We went there to mainly shoot macro and enjoy the countryside!
I came back with some shots I’m really happy with! This series is focused on Macro, I’ll show some environmental shots later.
Termite Army!
Colourful Fly
Spider chilling in his web
Weird T-shaped bug
Cute beetle
Bug that looks like a peice of old wood
Damselfly
Blue Jumping Spider
Katak Kenching or Pissing Frog
The jumping spiders were so cute staring up at the camera, jumping all over the place (including on the camera, the lens, the flash, my hand and down again).
More coming soon..
All shots were Taken with Tamron SP90mm f/2.8 Macro lens and SB-800 flash, handheld using full manual settings.
Do keep an eye on the Shutter Asia Events section and perhaps you can tag along next time!
I love macro shots, especially ones of insects.
Reminds me of that documentary ‘Life in the Undergrowth’ narrated by David Attenborough. Amazing.
It is a shame we as Malaysians can hardly name any of our own trees, insects, birds and plants.
Somehow the sight of this insects gives me goose bumps
Where’s the oneness with 1:1 yo? (I’d think you could get closer?)
why did i not know abt the outing? i didn’t follow close enough on shutter asia!
Btw, those are really really good shot!!!! My favorite is katak & spider
The Pissing Frog picsare as good as National Geographic & Animal Planet Pics. You have an eye for good shots. Keep it up.
I wish I could take good pics of my two pet dogs (Shih Tzu & Dachshunds).. They move around too fast!
My current camera… Nikon Coolpix 5200 & Fuji Finepix S6500fd…. Cheers
Shaolintiger – don’t think those are termites la…termites are transparent in colour…
Cheryl: Yeah we do need more entomologists though. You would be surprised though, some of the hardcore macro photographers I shoot with know the name of virtually every insect, including the latin scientific name.
Jonathan: Try being in the jungle a couple of inches away from them haha.
Albert Ng: Most the insects are at 1:1, I force the focusing to 1:1 then move my body to get the desired focus. These things are tiny though, most of them are just a few mm across, and I don’t have a close-up filter. It’s hard to say though as the camera doesn’t record focal distance.
vicky: Thank! I really love the frog too.
Casey and Peanut: Thanks, just learning, I’ve got a long way to go yet. Come join us at Shutter Asia 🙂
stupe: There are black termites too, if they aren’t though I don’t know what they are, any ideas?
thousand apologies…
there is black termites.
i’m like some frog under the coconut shell!
🙂
Termites Identification
Upon closer inspection of the terrific macro shots, i did notice the “termite ants” above resemble more like ants because it has segmented body with thin waist and thin neck where else a termite has no segment or noticeable waist/neck.
*making mental note that termites are fat slob like me, no shape, ants are women, shapely*
LOL!
stupe: No worries, and useful site, thanks 🙂