Macro Outing to FRIM with Shutter Asia!

April 10th, 2007 by ShaolinTiger at 3:35 PM MYT - 1,415 views

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!

Termite Army

Colourful Fly

Fly

Spider chilling in his web

Spider

Weird T-shaped bug

T-shape Bug

Cute beetle

Bug that looks like a peice of old wood

Woody Bug

Damselfly

Blue Jumping Spider

Katak Kenching or Pissing Frog

Katak Kenching

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!

Tags: cricket, forest-research, frim, frogs, macro, Photography, tamon-90mm, tamron, termites, wildlife

Posted in Photography | -

Related Posts:
- FRIM Outing Part II - Weird Bugs and Scenery
- FRIM with Shutter Asia - May 26th
- Shutter Asia Forum - Keeping Photography ALIVE!
- KL Butterfly Park Redux - New and Improved with Milk Bottle Diffuser!
- World Lupus Day - May 10th & Anything Butterfly Contest
- Macro at the Kuala Lumpur Butterfly Park - Taman Rama-Rama

9 Comments so far

Cheryl on April 10th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Using Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.11 on Windows XP

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.
Jonathan on April 10th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Using Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.11 on Windows XP

Somehow the sight of this insects gives me goose bumps
Albert Ng on April 10th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
Using Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.3 on Windows XP

Where's the oneness with 1:1 yo? (I'd think you could get closer?)
vicky on April 11th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Using Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.3 on Windows XP

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
Casey and Peanut on April 11th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Using Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows XP

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
stupe on April 11th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Using Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.3 on Windows XP

Shaolintiger - don't think those are termites la...termites are transparent in colour...
ShaolinTiger on April 12th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Using Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.3 on Windows XP

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?
stupe on April 12th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Using Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.3 on Windows XP

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!
ShaolinTiger on April 16th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Using Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.3 on Windows XP

stupe: No worries, and useful site, thanks