aka ‘Everything looks better in B&W’, born of a running gag between me and a photographer friend when we went to see the Genesis world premiere at the Natural History Museum. I had a free guest pass sitting in my wallet from years ago. Ten years ago maybe. It had gone flimsy and was frayed at the edges, looking like the piece of antique that it was. The staff at the exhibition counter refused it, explaining that he couldn’t take it for that would be like ‘accepting a fake ticket’. He advised me to try exchanging it for an exhibition…
© 2012-2021 Jacqueline Lau
Category: Biodiversity
As far as museum exhibits go, the Grant Museum‘s new(ish) Micrarium has taken the top place of honour on my list. It’s a wickedly wonderful place for the ‘tiny things’ that are my favourite things: the invertebrates that constitute an approximate 95% of all animal species. You won’t get that feeling if you walk into most, if not all, natural history museums. Vertebrates, especially large, charismatic, or extinct species, are grossly over-represented. Galleries of imposing dino skeletons, taxidermied mammals, birds with their wings of glory outstretched, life-sized models of Komodo dragons – that’s how to best inspire awe… right? The…
The immortal grin of a sportive lemur (Lepilemur mustelinus)
1400 – 1900 Thunderstorms, cloudy Common sandpipers Common greenshanks Common kingfisher at the pond by the Visitor Centre Crow-billed drongo just before the Main Bridge Four Oriental pied hornbills flying east across Sungei Buloh Besar, then hopping about the towering sea almond trees Blue-tailed bee-eaters by the sea almond trees before the Main Bridge, and near Route 1 Platform 1 Estuarine crocodile by the Main Bridge A few juvenile St Andrew’s Cross spiders Cotton stainer nymphs out in full force Estuarine crocodile Geometrid moth Stick mantis Oriental pied hornbill
Scientifically, technically, it’s nothing more than a suspected Eudocima phalonia, a fruit-piercing moth of the noctuid family. Superstitiously, well, I shun superstitiously, but it could be an ill omen, or it might bear the soul of a deceased relative or a close friend. That’s what the Chinese, and the people of many other cultures, believe of large moths at the doorstep. It was with a deeply unsettling realisation of the coincidental timing of the moth’s visit that I read the terrible news that reached me the next afternoon. That moths embody the otherworldly has always been regarded by me as…
There are two cats in their final instars, and I can spot at least four more eggs. They just keep coming (our poor lime plant).
When I came across this juvenile four-clawed gecko scuttling across the floor of our living room, I rushed to get my X10 for some test macro shots on a worthy subject. Lighting was tricky; instead of using the built-in flash, I used an external torch. Photos were taken in colour and converted to B&W in Photoshop.