Oct23rdTwtup [photos]

Since it has been exactly a month since the #Oct23rdTwtup, I don't think it'd mean much if I write a long post about it, so let me just share some photos I took during the event.

The event banner that serves as the backdrop of the stage

My Twitter username was already up on the wall when I arrived!

The Twitter / Foursquare checkin station for people without mobile internet nor smartphones. My name on the wall was exactly behind this checkin station.

Twitterbird motifs were all over the place.

The large banner for everyone to sign. Can you spot my name?

Since most of the scribbles around it were in black, I chose a blue color to stand out a bit.

Some twitteroos that actually posed for my shots.

I noticed Joe Flizzow (@flizzow) before I was about to leave.

C Loco (@cloco) also posed for my camera!

Can't remember who used my camera to take this photo of @hawayou. 

I also saw on the walls twitter usernames of tweeples that I follow.

There's @hawayou and my highschool friend @zurairi

I also saw @r3belicious

Here's @kruel74

Social media pro En Shamhardy @shamhardy (bila nak dapat jumpa ni bro? haha)

Aznil Hj Nawawi and Lis Orked (@rainingheaven)

@nrlhasanah

Had to leave early because of other commitments that night. But before I leave, I managed to checkin at the Foursquare checkin station to get my badges.

Checking in at the venue immediately as I arrived landed me the Swarm badge

Checking in at the event as I left landed me the Super Swarm badge! I believe it was the first Super Swarm in Malaysia. I'm not quite sure. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Oh, and if any of you know any of the tweeples in the photos, can you please identify them by their twitter usernames so I can put the usernames in the captions. Thanks!

-ihsankhairir-

Injured Ant

For the good part of an hour, I was down on my belly like a lizard, prowling upon six-legged crawlies not to feed upon them, but to immortalize them in photos.

I perchanced upon a large ant with an unusual walking pattern. As if it was helplessly wandering around looking for something, or running away from an unseen predator.

I roleplayed myself into becoming this peculiar ant's predator, pretending that the ant was scurrying away from my predatory eyes (or rather eye, because DSLRs are not stereographic/stereoscopic).

Capturing this oddly wandering ant proved rather difficult, as it was really hard to anticipate its movements due to the unpredictable and random walking pattern.

After almost half a hundred shots, and reviewing them on the computer, I realized why this ant was so oddly peculiar.

It was injured.

I don't know how it happened, but somehow, the ant got a small shard of glass stuck to the tip of its abdomen.

Assuming ants can feel pain, I felt sorry for the six-legged creature much later.

I had a feeling that this ant did not survive the day. For an insect so dependent on the strength of swarms and the support of its colony, there was no way an injured ant could have survived the day.

The ant must be so unlucky to have been pierced by that shard of glass. Who would've thought that a broken piece of glass could hurt something as small as an ant?

-ihsankhairir-

P/S: For another closeup of an ant:
Angry Red Weaver Ant

Wet Dragonfly

The morning was a wet one, it having rained the night before. I spied around for subjects to shoot, and just next to my shoulder was this dragonfly resting on a leaf.

Since it was morning and the sun wasn't too harsh, I was able to shoot this dragonfly without too much overexposure on the surroundings. I tried my best to make sure I can capture the details on the eyes, the torso and some of the wings, especially the dewdrop on its right hind wing.

I like photographing dragonflies for a few reasons. First, they are big, bright and colorful, so you don't need to be too close to capture the beautiful details. Second, they are not easily frightened, probably because they are predator insects, so as long as you don't disturb them or touch them, they'll stay in that one spot. Three, their flight paths are predictable --- they will stop and stay at the same spots after they've flown around the area, so you can actually expect where they will land next if you've observed one long enough.

I hope you liked these dragonfly photos I captured a couple weeks ago. For other dragonfly photos I captured in the past, you can visit the following posts:

Re-chasing Dragonflies (July 2009)
Insects Mating After Feb 14th (February 2010)

Comments and/or critique are welcome!

Dog-like Horse

I saw this horse lying down on the ground, not moving, as if it were dead.

Then I saw the marks on the ground that showed that the horse had been moving, and I felt relieved. The mammal was still alive.

I really thought it was dead. Or at least dying.

Until it rolled over on its back.

Just like a pet dog.

It continued to roll over on its back over and over again, probably trying to hit that particular hard to scratch spot of itch.

...

These photos were taken during a visit to the animal park section of Malaysia Agricultural Park in Bukit Cerakah, Shah Alam.

It's been a while since I last posted anything about my photographic explorations. I have been quite busy with work and have almost no time to dedicate to this beautiful hobby.

I shall try to sporadically post more photos I recently captured here and there, where I waste away my Nikon D60's shuttercount for valuable photographic experience.

Please do drop any comments, critique and/or suggestions regarding the photos in the comments section below. Feedback is very much welcomed!

-ihsankhairir-