August 2013

August is a slow month with nature photography as the migrant birds are sunning themselves in Europe and the bee-eaters are done with their nesting cycle.

It is a good time to catch up with work on the computer and I have additionally been asked to edit a monthly newsletter for the digital division of the Australian Photographic Society. I have put out two editions already but there are a lot of dinosaurs in that society and they are not forthcoming with articles when asked.

I have also been approached by a printing company/bookstore chain to write a book on Nature Photography. I expect it will be quite a lot of work for minimal return.

On the family front the Incas are back in NZ after a good look at central America. Al had her purse snatched in Chile and Doug had his appendage bitten by a shortsighted sea lion in the Galapagos.

Nikki is coming to terms with kids under the poverty line and shortsighted Government funding agencies. Dani has been the most challenged of all. Last month Jack had a near fatal accident when he was knocked from his bicycle. He was airlifted to Addenbrooke’s Hospital with broken ribs, teeth and bleeding from the brain. He fortunately recovered quickly but his mother was also in an out of hospital at the same time with acute pancreatitis. Dani was nurse, morale-lifter and general organizer. Both she and Jack were supposed to be in Spain and Chile, respectively. Both have delayed their departure while Jack has profound and expensive dentistry.

The other unfortunate occurrence was I am now a year older…..just as I was hoping to forget birthdays too many people reminded me. Helen and I took a couple of days out and stayed at a 5 star hotel on Langkawi, which was undergoing renovation. It was nice in parts. Our room had a great bathroom but the aircon tried its best to mimic arctic conditions (there were enough penguins around as it was) and refused to shut off at the set temperature. The pool and surrounds was really nice and better still it was an adults only pool. There were other family pools.

Reception area is behind the men and there are copious fish ponds (good for Jack)

A salt-water swimming pool

Adults only pool

Dawn on the beach. A glimpse of a Thai island on the right.

Common Butterfly Lizard. This species live in sand holes at the edge of the beach.

The cook is making a fancy roti for breakfast.

I only took a relatively small lens with me and did not shoot much. We went on a boat trip into the mangroves and there were only two of us on the boat. Unfortunately there are too many cowboy tour operators who speed through the mangroves and feed the kites and eagles with things they don’t need. We also saw the people on one boat has given the macaques a large packet of peanuts. We had fairly heavy rain descend on us and we hastened back to base. Our guide Zoher was pretty good and explained how the different plants in the mangrove forest propagated. The mangrove area is quite substantial on either side of the waterway but in the past the authorities foolishly allowed a charcoal industry to occur with fairly strict quotas. As often happens one operator got greedy and cut a lot of mangroves down behind a facade of healthy plants. They were then all closed down.

About to embark on the mangrove trip

Crab netting. The motor is a modified grass-cutter

Zoher explaining how seed-pod from a mangrove tree is constructed.

Remnants of a charcoal kiln

An immature Brahminy Kite flies past the mangrove forest.

An immature Sea-eagle dives from a tall tree

An immature Brahminy kite with rain on the hills behind

It seemed to be a month of Jacks. A medium sized Monitor Lizard the staff called Jack would come across the road from the mangroves help himself to a few fish from the decorative pond and swim in the adults only pool. At least I did not see him ordering a Pina Colada at the bar.

I  had always wonder what dug the holes in the sand at the top of the beaches. Lower down I had seen crabs scuttle to safety but I observed it was a lizard that turned out to be a Common Butterfly Lizard......a blanket term for around 8 different species. The Malayan Butterfly Lizard only consists of females and breeds by parthenogenesis. This species is not found on Penang or Langkawi but is located on the adjacent mainland.

One curly haired resident was sad to see bags out before Langkawi and parked herself in mine for about 15minutes.

At the beginning of the month Ramadan finished with Hari Raya celebrations. We had two groups staying at the house with 4 from a church group, all very nice ladies and then another two young ladies who were at an Indian product fair. They were here 5 nights and we did not see a lot of them but they were very nice people as well.

Back to nature photography I also had an article published on the website ‘Naturescapes’. It was about the benefits of working a local subject.

Another sad event happened during the month. I was told by friends at IMCB that one of the previous board members and a very nice man had passed away at the age of 60. I worked in an area close to Tony Pawson and had a number of discussions with him on our shared work area. He was touted as a likely Nobel Prize winner. 

In the last few month Malaysia has become like the Wild West. There have been a number of shootings in Penang on the streets during the day. This has been gang-related apparently as they fight for turf. The locals are becoming scared to go about their daily activities. Guns are apparently readily available and Singapore has given it's citizens a warning about going into Malaysia. The police raided a gang headquarters in a Condo in Penang and shot dead 5 gang members. These things do not happen suddenly it is like a volcano erupting, there are both reasons and signs of problems that have been ignored like the many traffic violations.

To end the month I had two nights in Singapore on an academically-related visit. It was good to be back in organised and tidy Singapore for a while. I also had my camera serviced by Canon as I don't trust the system here. The hotel room had a nice view of the centre of Singapore. The other shots are across the waters to Sentosa, an island I used to shoot bee-eaters and now you shoot  craps in the Casino. The final shot is a nice wall mural on the ground floor of the Canon offices.

Back to Malaysia yesterday and straight into traffic jams as it was National day and a holiday.