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.

July 2013

July 2013 has now come to a close and it was a varied month with a number of visitors coming by Penang.

Dani and Jack were here for the best part of three weeks. They spent some time in Southern, Thailand, which entailed an arduous bus journey. They had a pretty good look around Penang before going back to the UK before Jack goes to Chile and Dani to Spain as part of their studies. 

Unfortunately Jack met with a bad accident when back in the UK when he was knocked off his bicycle. He was airlifted to Addenbrook Hospital in Cambridge and due to the resilience of youth was discharged several days later. He had broken ribs and a punctured lung and requires restorative dental work. He was perhaps lucky but it demonstrates the tightrope of life we all walk.

 Eldest son Paul also visited for a weekend during the middle of an Asian-based business trip. Ex-IMCB colleague Anand also visited Penang and we had some time together. It seems to be obligatory for visitors staying on a Sunday that they have to join the celebrated TRD team in the local pub quiz at Healy Macs. We have managed 2 thirds a second and 2 firsts to date. Jack needs to study more on Musicals while Paul’s knowledge on German golfers was rather lacking.

Photo shooting has trailed off as the birds complete their nesting and the wet season approaches. I spent some time with the bee-eaters that remain at Penanti. I discovered that some are having a second breeding and the chicks from the first batch assist with the feeding of their siblings. I have also searched further afield in the Botanic Gardens and Ulu Paip for more subjects. The Bee-eater chicks at Penanti had to survive a number of insults, including track renovations and snake, before they were able to fledge. I published a blog on these observations as well as indicating the mindless ‘upgrading’ on the birding site at Byram. I have been contacted by the press regarding the latter blog.

This poor Bee-eater arrived at its nest to find it covered with soil. It dug frantically to reach the chicks

A young chick has a look at the world for the first time

A Little Heron with breakfast

The stream running through Ulu Paip

Active rubber tree tapping near Ulu Paip

The magazine ‘Australian Photography’ ran a feature on my photography and I managed to win the nature section of the Australian Photographic Society’s annual competition.

Sadly my exhibition at the G-Hotel was deconstructed yesterday after an extra month on display. I was reasonably pleased with the result and learnt quite a bit from various comments.

I have been asked to produce a monthly newsletter for the Digital Division of the Australian Photographic Society. I had to upgrade my computers operating system and learn the intricacies of Mac’s ‘Pages’ program but things are progressing well as long as members provide material on time.

Friends of ours have just purchased an apartment in the same estate that we live. They are currently selling their house in Dallas, and John asked me to take some pictures during an official inspection. The views are certainly worth the investment alone. The landscaping is also very well done.

The Super rugby competition reaches its conclusion this weekend with the Chiefs defending their title against the Brumbies. I will miss the regular weekend diet until next season. Unfortunately my picks were generally along the same level as the Highlanders although I did manage one possible score. We have upgraded our TV during the month and can now view sport (and crap) in HD.

June 2013

June 2013 seemed to be a month  that was challenged by natural and made-made disasters. In New Zealand with winter around the corner a super-cold cell with storms settled over parts of the country and at least temporarily thwarted Nikki’s attempts to take delivery of Craig’s car.  Singapore last week experienced some of the worst levels of smoke haze……compliments of forest burning in Indonesia. This being a sad indictment of corruption linked  to primitive land use by thousands of poverty-stricken peasants and their families; a situation and a solution that seem light years apart. 

Smoke from Forest burning in Indonesia

In Penang the ramp on the new island-linking bridge collapsed and killed several motorists. 

A week or so later a violet storm knocked over many trees and pushed over billboards.  Unfortunately a large section of a building fell into the street and pushed a car forty metres into the earth. Only parts of the car have been recovered. A video showing the car being hit can be seen here

Helen and I were going to a function soon after the storm and drove past many fallen trees and a carpet of green on the roads. The Botanic Gardens remains closed. Fortunately Penang is not currently subject to smoke haze that has reached Kuala Lumpur. It has happened here briefly since we arrived 22 months ago.

Other than local disasters June seems to be a month for travel. Craig and Eve are in Mexico, David and Lyn in a boat off Alaska and others due to head home or off to South America

Dani has finished her second year in Cambridge with good results. The next year she will be in Spain as part of her studies and she will return to Cambridge for a final year. After the frenetic exam period the students have loosened up with the ball season. She and her boyfriend Jack  arrive in Penang for a well-earned break.

Nikki continues her medical studies and has just had a two-week break part of which she spend in an old-folks home as part of her field-work. She and her friends have started a small business featuring colourful sweets (lollies) as an adjunct to various functions.

Helen continues teaching English to some Japanese women. The number of students continues to expand. She also has an involvement with the Botanic gardens and the International Womens Association where she is a board member.  We were able to slip off for a few days this month to Fraser’s Hill where Helen explored some of the hill-trails. The accommodation is rather limited and we had some problems with mal-functioning toilets. We did investigate one location for any future visits. Helen and I also had our 24th wedding anniversary mid-month.

Coco continues to keep us amused and on our toes. She is a lovable little dog but also likes a fight and a game before bedtime…where she is determined not to let me on the bed.

 We have had several visitors this month in our home as participants in the Airbnb accommodation program. It would be more correct to say we have had one person twice with a mostly different retinue each time.
On the photographic front things continued to be enjoyable and varied. The Blue-throated Bee-eaters are in their final nesting stages and an army of helpers in bringing insects to the nests to feed the young……sometimes they play with the food.

I have also investigated other locations around mainland Penang for shooting opportunities.

Bund at Air Itam Dalam

Look-out tower at Air Itam Dalam

Green-Billed Malkoha

 Shortly before the storm hit I was in the Penang Botanical Gardens checking out a fruiting tree. 

Asian Fairy Bluebird (male)

Thick-billed green Pigeon (male)

One supply truck had it’s own mini-disaster when the breaks failed coming down the hill…the driver may or may not be grateful that Botanic Gardens have trees.

As mentioned Helen and I had three nights at Fraser’s Hill. The variety of birds seemed to be lacking this trip but I was happy with a few shots of some of the more regularly seen species.

Magpie Robin (male)

A pair of Silver-eared Mesias

 It was quiet on the hill even though the traffic police recruits chose to make it a venue for an ‘away’ day.

Several of my images have been chosen as ‘Editor’s Pick’ on the Naturescapes site. Another was used in a gameshow on English TV.

The following is the email concerning the game show;

Hi Graeme,

Many thanks for getting back in touch.

I am working on a new comedy gameshow called "Was It Something I Said?" for Channel 4 in the UK. We would like to do a round where we show contestants Instagram pictures and we ask them to try and guess the hashtag that links them all.

Your photo was posted on Instagram with the caption: Talk about a serious #trafficjam. I dare you to get out of the car with your #roadrage and see what's causing the back up

On the show we show the contestants 3 pictures posted on social media with their captions, but with a hashtag blocked out. They have to try and guess what the hashtag is that links them all.

We are also doing a live play along on Twitter, are you happy for us to use your picture in this context also?

Thanks so much,

Conor 

.....and to sign the month off ...a tribute to Guygirlz whether temporary or permanent and from 1 to 90

Take care

Graeme