Save Mandai Orchid Garden thread - Share your experiences
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Sorry I am a bit late seeing this thread, SK!
I started bird photography in 2004 and I knew the owners of MOG well. So, during one of my visits to Singapore, armed with a Nikon D2H and a 70-200mm lens, I arranged to be at MOG at dawn, well before the place opened to the public. The then Manager met me at the gate and duly opened the grounds (just for me) and asked me what I was after. I said, "The Crimson Sunbird!", to which he said he would show me where to look.
We passed the famous Bottlebrush Tree by the coffee place and he told me that I could "set-up" my equipment there. This was very puzzling as I already had my equipment with me! He said I should come back there later as the birds would only appear at that tree mid-morning. At his suggestion, I then spent time at the end of the garden at the rain shelter. I got a few shots, yes, but they were pretty hopeless really.
When I returned to the Bottlebrush Tree, I saw a huge lens on a tripod unattended. I thought to myself, "What the heck?" And then, I noticed a man wandering around aimlessly near the camera. I went up to speak to him and asked what he was doing. He immediately said he was waiting for the Sunbird, preferably the Crimson he declared, to come to a particular flower that his lens was already aimed at. He invited me to take a look through the 500mm lens, and that changed my entire bird photography life! I was a landscape and ski (snow) photographer prior to this and at best done a bit of work with a 300mm lens. What I saw was so beautiful - even without any bird!
That man turned out to be Chng Peng Eik and we became firm friends from that day on, taking trips to Sungei Balang, Panti Forest and to Ampang Forest, and Rawang, not to mention Thailand and Par. The photos attached to PE's post in this thread are those very ones - but the Crimson did not land on that flower for him. It was also that very day that I met another photographer who has become a firm friend, Sree!
So, I shall forever remember MOG with great fondness! The attached is my effort at my very first Crimson Sunbird - I decided to re-process it and change the composition from the .NEF file. It is sad that that place is no more.............
I started bird photography in 2004 and I knew the owners of MOG well. So, during one of my visits to Singapore, armed with a Nikon D2H and a 70-200mm lens, I arranged to be at MOG at dawn, well before the place opened to the public. The then Manager met me at the gate and duly opened the grounds (just for me) and asked me what I was after. I said, "The Crimson Sunbird!", to which he said he would show me where to look.
We passed the famous Bottlebrush Tree by the coffee place and he told me that I could "set-up" my equipment there. This was very puzzling as I already had my equipment with me! He said I should come back there later as the birds would only appear at that tree mid-morning. At his suggestion, I then spent time at the end of the garden at the rain shelter. I got a few shots, yes, but they were pretty hopeless really.
When I returned to the Bottlebrush Tree, I saw a huge lens on a tripod unattended. I thought to myself, "What the heck?" And then, I noticed a man wandering around aimlessly near the camera. I went up to speak to him and asked what he was doing. He immediately said he was waiting for the Sunbird, preferably the Crimson he declared, to come to a particular flower that his lens was already aimed at. He invited me to take a look through the 500mm lens, and that changed my entire bird photography life! I was a landscape and ski (snow) photographer prior to this and at best done a bit of work with a 300mm lens. What I saw was so beautiful - even without any bird!
That man turned out to be Chng Peng Eik and we became firm friends from that day on, taking trips to Sungei Balang, Panti Forest and to Ampang Forest, and Rawang, not to mention Thailand and Par. The photos attached to PE's post in this thread are those very ones - but the Crimson did not land on that flower for him. It was also that very day that I met another photographer who has become a firm friend, Sree!
So, I shall forever remember MOG with great fondness! The attached is my effort at my very first Crimson Sunbird - I decided to re-process it and change the composition from the .NEF file. It is sad that that place is no more.............
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