Jurong Bird Park

This was a great training session pre-Borneo Jurong was perspiration village this morning! Burping fresh durian I mounteed the monorail with a couple of our group to survey feathered friends.

This a fabulous display of our avion friends but I've a bit of niggle in the back of my mind about the ethics of restraining free animals. Where a species is endangered and the organization has a breeding program that's fine. But with other I'm not so sure.

When nature designed birds it didn't spare the horses on colours or creative design. Framing a a kleidoscope of intricate patterns and saturated colours is a beautiful challenge. But what I loved most was trying to capture the personalities of the birds. These are contributions from group members.

TIP:
1.When photographing through wire mesh -
2. use telephoto lens, wide open aperture eg f4,
3. put camera lens as close as possible to mesh,
4. keep subject as far from background as possible

Photo of Colin Woods and Dale Neill by Sue Pow

Singapore Zoo

Ten years ago I visited the Singapore Zoo, met my Zoo guide Pamela Wildheart and decided to call our little company Wildheart. I wasn't allowed Wildheart because Colette Dinnigan had registered Wildheart for her lingerie range. So Wildheart Adventures was born.

One of the most attrative features of Singapore Zoo is the ability to view animals in relatively natural habitats. Most can be viewed without looking through glass or wire mesh.

Half the group were on DSLRs and the other half on small compacts - almost exclusively Panasonic Lumic TZ10s. The TZ10 is without a doubt the budget wildlife camera par excellence. Those with DSLRs and long lenses were given the sermon about aperture priority, monopods, tripods and gastropods. Here area few of their results.

The photographs that appeal to me the most are the images of mothers with babies; in particular the primates. They are just so like us (ora rae we like them). I think we could all learn a lot about child rearing by spending a day or two ay the zoo.

Red Lantern Tour

The REd Lantern Tour with enthusiastic Singaporean guide Helena was absolutely fascinating. Helena guided us up and down a myriad of streets and lanes in Chinatown providing a colourful history of early Singapore and the role played by the working girls of Singapore.

Red is a colour the world has always associated with blood, passion and China. It is also the colour most revered and feared by photographers. One theory of the 'Red Light District' is that railway workers would leave their rail lamp outside a girls room to show that she was busy.

The tour took us to Chinese medicinal shops where strange aphrodisiacs were on display including geckos and deer's penis. It made the mind boggle a little.

We traversed several laneways in Chinatown where brothels were still operating. The old buildings originally had small 'doors' where the 'honey buckets' were left out. The 'honey buckets' were the toilet buckets and were collected and transported to the sewrage plant. The last of the honey buckets only ceased in the 1980s.

The symbol of a brothel was a numeral in red on a white background. The numeral 8 was a lucky number.

But Chinatown was much more than brothels - its a vibrant mix of restaurants, cafes, stores and traders. WE visted a specialist store that produced sweet smoked meats the traditional way. The fires are still lit daily and large circular disks are covered in thinly sliced meat and smoked before being barbecued. It was similar to beef jerky but better.

Textures and Patterns

We tried avoiding the boring 'rules' relating to photography - the much vaunted rule of thirds etc. If I hear that quotes just once more I'll probably apply the so called rule of thirds to the photographer and hang, draw and third him. But we did chat about texture and pattern.
The only rule of photography I always abide by is U never microwave my camera for more than three minutes!

Butterflies on Sentosa Island

Onto the Singapore monorail for a 15 minute trip to Sentosa Island. Perth could do witha few monorails. It looks like Singapore is about 50 years more advanced in their thinking.

Up half a dozen flights of escalators with monopods, tripods and camera bags in tropical heat - thank god for the escalators and into the butterfly enclosure. Some of the flutterbies were quite passive and static inviting photographs. Others were barely still fora hundredth of a second.

Lunch at Kopitan

Resort to Plan B. We all fronted the Singapore Food Festval at high noon to discover it closed! A quick recce and Colin discovered Kopitan. You can eat for $2, dine out for $5 ansd havea banquet for $10. Everyone was asked to shoot their lunch.
Lunch pics: Ann, Marg Neill, Marg Sayers

Botanical Gardens and Orchid Display

The Gallery Hotel is an Art Noveau Hotel on Robertson Quay - couldn't get a better spot for a photography workshop. The design, art and photography are inspirational. Even the breakfast was insprational.

The ladies charged off to the Gardens while Colin and Dale checked out eating venues. The femmes did a great shoot without any help so Colin and may keep out of this. Then followed the first worksop PM with wine and cheese - just the way all workshops should be organised. We hada dash at +/- compensation and auto-btacketing and shooting wild wombats with fill flash.

Photos:
Orange orchid - Ann
Green leaf - Sue
Red flower - Lynette
Mauve orchid - Marg Sayers
Group - anonymous Singaporean lady