Staying Sane...

I am glad I have my camera with me or else I think I would have lost my sanity by now. I didn't bring all my DVDs with me so what I have is limited. So... thank God for the camera. It is a good hobby. It keeps me occupied. You need to spend time out there and then when you get back, process the pictures and upload... and it is cheap as long as you don't end up upgrading or adding equipment. The initial investments is quite substantial but it will last you years.

Sometime when we look at pictures... we never think. We just think how beautiful it is but we never think what was put into obtaining that picture. There is a lot that goes into a picture. Creativity... the determination of going out... the patience of waiting... and courage. 

Determination is like when I do my moon shots. The skies are normally its clearest at about 0200 hours. And when you want to shoot butterflies it has to be in the scorching sun as that is when they come out. So you need determination to go under the scorching sun or staying up late. And even if you do have the determination you may not get the shot.

Then you need patience... take the butterflies for instance. They don't keep still and they normally have their wings up and not opened. Animals don't keep still. Especially wild animals. If you're in a zoo or a butterfly farm or a bird park, it is so, so much easier.

Then there is courage... yes courage. 

I saw the troop of Dusky Leaf Monkeys (we call them Lutung) today across from where I live, in the woods. So, I braved myself to go and 'hunt' them down. They can get very aggressive and me being alone I have to be cautious. It was just me against some 20 of them... so courage and prudence is important. There was a time when I had to watch my stepping as there was a hen and its chooks. Since I had to look up, I had to make sure I had a good footing and not step on the chooks. As I was looking up... a chook came over and started pecking away at my foot.

So, all this comes into play and then there are those damn mosquitoes... they're the worst.

This is the Lutung taking a piss. It scurried away as soon as it saw me. I only managed two shots of these monkeys. This and the other one in Flickr. Once this guy saw me the whole troop was informed and they just never kept still and was moving around a lot. A few of them were also 'playing' amongst themselves aggresively. It was scary as you have no idea if they would attack...

As I was trying to shoot the monkeys I came across this species of squirrel. It was fairly large. I would say about 1.5 feet long excluding the tail. It didn't seem to be afraid... maybe because it was about 30 feet up on the tree.

It just stayed there and watched me me the whole time. Cheeky guy... it never moved... just lepak-ed there and watched me the whole time. I waited and waited but could not get a shot so eventually I left. Moreover they were out of range.... as they had moved farther in and I could not go in any deeper. So, I went home.

At dusk... as I was lepak-ing on my balcony I saw the troop again. They were still there. They were lepak-ing as well... probably watching me as I watched them. Makes you wish you could lepak just like them right?

Now... when you get such opportunities and don't have the gear for a proper shot, you start thinking of getting other gear... like a 400mm lens... and therein lies the danger in photography. But the 400mm is not a priority. Top on my list will be a macro lens. It will either be a Tamron 90mm or a Canon 100mm macro lens.

That's the price of staying sane...