Planned to go to Botanic Gardens with Dicky to shoot some close-up photographs of insects/flowers/etc on 28th July, Saturday. A few days in a row, beforehand, everyday was filled with rain, so I got concerned it would also rain during our outing. I checked the forecast for that day, which claimed rain on late morning/early afternoon, and decided to chance it.

Was supposed to meet Dicky at 9:30 am at Botanic Gardens. Before I go on, please be informed that the last time I stepped into that place was about a decade ago, and I had no idea how to get there. I checked online on how to get there, and also asked my mom. Both gave differing answers. I took a chance and went with one of Street Directory's solutions.

Stopped at Newton MRT station, and turned left at Exit B. Walked for a while... Thought to myself, "Crap, this doesn't look right..." Called my younger brother, and asked him to help me check Street Directory's website. Unfortunately, he wasn't familiar with the site, and I ended up getting super frustrated with him, and ended the call by swearing at him thank you. Gah.

I immediately felt guilty. Tried to calm myself down. Went back to Newton MRT station, checked the locality map and wanted to smack myself. I had turned the wrong direction after exiting Exit B. Took a shot of the damned map with my phone, went out Exit B and turned right. >_<"

I SMS-ed my younger brother and apologized. I promised to buy him some food when I got back. Heh.

Went to Newton Food Centre, where I was supposed to take a bus to the Botanic Gardens. Was walking towards the place, when I wondered, "Where the fuck is the bus stand?" Hahahahahha. Went inside the damned food centre and instinctively went one direction, which happened to be where the bus stand was at. Wow, lucky.

Waited for 170 (which I could've taken from Woodlands, but I figured it would've taken a much longer time - although, at this point, I had thought it would've been faster actually), and Dicky SMS-ed me that he had already reached. Crap.

Boarded the bus, and after a while, past a sign with an arrow that pointed the direction to Botanic Gardens. Dropped off, walked towards that sign, and walked towards where it pointed. Okay, I don't know who was the moron who decided to put that stupid sign there, but I think there should've at least been an indication how far away it was! 'Cause I think I probably did a route march around the area before I reached the damned Botanic Gardens! I almost gave up at one point, thinking that I was most probably lost, and hailed a taxi. The kind taxi driver told me that it was just a short distance away and I got out of the taxi and continued walking.

I walked inside and found out that Dicky was on the other side of the Botanic Gardens. Great. He was nice enough to go over to where I was though. We were to meet at the Evolution Garden so I made my way over there and walked around a bit. Then sat down and started to clean my filters and attaching them to my Lumix FZ-5.

Dicky finally reached me after about 15 minutes or so. He suggested going to Eco Lake to shoot (see if you can spot where that is on the map), and along the way there, we stopped if we saw anything interesting. It was my first time out macro-shooting, and I'd never known the techniques to it. Learned quite a bit from Dicky, but I could never get my hands steady enough to get a good shot. I brought my tripod along, but I didn't think them insects would wait patiently at one spot while I set the tripod up.

Most of the tries I did turned out very blurry, usually because of my handshake. I couldn't stand still long enough at the same focal range my autofocus was set on, to get a good shot. Wait, did I explain that correctly, Dicky? Heh.

I did get an okay shot of a white flower (I was at Botanic Gardens, but I didn't bother to learn the name of this flower. Hurr. It looked plain.) I don't think it can be really considered macro though. Looks just like a snapshot to me.

We saw some really disgusting bugs/insects around Eco Garden, near Eco Lake. I took pictures of several, but I really don't want to post them up. Very disgusting. There is this one interesting picture that I will share, though.

Sorry there was some handshake there. I have no idea what that thing is... But it was caught on a spider-web and it looked quite interesting, albeit disgusting... So I shot it. :D

There was nothing notably interesting to shoot at Eco Lake. We really weren't there to shoot flowers and trees, which I suppose would've been a better choice than insects, for me, at least, 'cause they were much more still. Hurr. I saw some black swans (I think... They're swans, aren't they? Err... Should be right : Black swan) and shot one. Not a close-up shot, but just a photo for fun.

After walking around for a while, and seeing not much to shoot, Dicky suggested we go back to where he typically shoot at. Which was at Swan Lake. Which, if you look at the Singapore Botanic Gardens map, was all the way on the opposite side! >.<

Keep in mind that I had felt like I had just did a route march on the way over... Then we went from the middle of the Botanic Gardens to the Eco Lake, which was on one side of the place. Now, we were walking to the other end. Needless to say, I was sweating like crazy. -_-"

I agreed on going to the Swan Lake 'cause Dicky said the bus stop he got off was near there. I didn't want to bother figuring out any other way to get back home, after walking and getting lost several times on the way over. Haha.

Saw another interesting thing along the way... A basket spider-web. Erm. This thing confuses me.

By the time we reached Swan Lake, it had started drizzling a little bit... Rain was sporadic, so we continued shooting. I kept thinking, "Man, if I was holding over S$1.5K in my hands, I'd get out of the rain!" But hey, Dicky was confident his D80 was resistant to water enough. He asked me if I wanted to go under shelter or shoot first. It was only a few raindrops here and there, so I figured we'd shoot first. Since we were already there, and if it did rain, we might not get another chance.

Omg, omg, I finally managed to get a good clear shot! Woohoo! For those who thinks macro photography is easy, I assure you, it's not! But maybe that's just 'cause I'm such a noob. It's one thing macro-shooting a 50 cent coin in the comforts of your own home, but it's a whole other thing altogether trying to shoot a living moving thing.

I got closer to the dragonfly, and managed to get the shot below. There's a slight handshake to the picture, but it doesn't look that bad when downsampled to this size.

There were some grasshoppers there, and I managed to get a couple pictures of one. I was shooting the head of this bugger, but it went and turned around so I was shooting its ass. =_=" My auto focus was locked on the middle part of its body, and I had forgotten all about my aperture when I shot this image. That's why this picture is crap! Hahaha.

Yes, you're looking at the back of the grasshopper. It had 2 dots on its back that look like eyes to deter off its predators. When did we learn about this, primary school? Haha.

We then decided to call it a day and seek shelter. Went to a nearby food court and had our lunch. If you ever go to the Singapore Botanic Gardens, I recommend what I had for lunch, the Grilled Barbecue Chicken Rice at the Indonesian Food stall. It's not chicken rice exactly, but rather a grilled barbecue chicken with rice. Heh. But it was goooooodddd.

It looks charred here, and it was slightly (just the skin, really), but it was good-charred! Try it out if you get the chance. Trust me, it's superb. :)

After lunch, we headed to the bus stop. Took bus service 7, dropped off opposite Takashimaya and stopped at Famous Amos for a while. Bought 3 brownies (1 for myself and 2 for my younger bro - he loves the junk food) and 300 grams of the classic chocolate chip cookies. See, I keep my promises. Haha. Then went home via MRT.

The night before this outing, I had trouble sleeping, and I finally fell asleep at about 6 am. I had asked my mom to wake me up at 7 am. So, the whole day I was working with just an hour of sleep. Hahahaha. Funny thing was, I didn't feel sleepy at all until the train ride back home.

I don't think I will go back to Singapore Botanic Gardens anytime in the near future. :P