That’s about the amount of luggage I was hauling around this afternoon. How’s that figure? Well:
- Manfrotto 190CXPRO3 tripod + 488RC2 ballhead ~ 2 kg
- D300 ~ 0.9 kg
- Sigma 150mm macro ~0.8 kg
- Sigma 10-20mm ~0.7 kg
- SB-600 with batteries ~0.5 kg
- Bunch of filters + remote trigger ~0.25 kg
And the Tamrac shoulder bag must have weighed at least half a kilogram on its own.
I wanted to make sure I was getting back my $950 investment of the Sigma 150mm macro lens, so we both hit the Singapore Botanic Gardens on Sunday afternoon just now, arriving just before noon. It was a marvelously nice day for photography. The sun was high up and nary a overcast in sight. The park was pretty packed with people too, though most looked like they were picnic-goers.
Ling and I have quite a symbiotic relationship when it comes to macro photography. Ok, so we’re married and we’d better have that kind of relationship. But when it comes to taking shots, I’m the shooter while she’s my spotter. Husband-wife team haha. Over the nearly 4.5 hours we were at the park, she pointed out all the interesting flowers, tell me their names, and whether the flower is good health and if I should be taking pictures of them. Me, if I’d was left on my own I’d be struggling to tell the difference between a flower and a snail.
Some of the better photos in this run were taken at the National Orchid Garden, which charged $5 per adult ticket. I was initially just a mite apprehensive about paying money to take pictures for a bunch of plants, but it was money well spent. I think Ling was fascinated and seeing her cheerily go from flower to flower was fun. She’d point out a flower for me to capture, then merrily skip and recce ahead to scout for more photo subjects leaving me behind her still trying to set up a perfect shot.
Funnily, I was expecting to see a lot more other macro photographers around the Orchid Garden. But from the 2.5 hours we spent in this section of the park alone, it seemed as though I was the only bozo hauling around a fiercesome-looking tripod with a D300, heavy lens on a tripod collar and a flash unit with Demb Jumbo diffuser, alternatively standing, kneeling, standing tiptoe, squatting, and sitting on my butt as I went from flower to flower to get shots.
We didn’t exhaust the Botanic Gardens for sure. I think we covered perhaps a third of the park and half of the Orchid Garden by the time it was 4 pm, which was about when my legs were wobbling. Yeah I no longer have the stamina of my previous days when I could march 40 km in Full Battle Order. So, we reoriented ourselves back towards the exit. And it was just when we were heading out of the Orchid Garden when we ran into several groups of macro photographers all carrying impressive equipment. It’s a bit of a funny sight as we walked past them, because we were each eyeballing each others’ equipment.:)
A selection of the about 400 pictures taken in the 4 hours are here; the flower labels are all done by Ling.
Oh yeah; I didn’t manage to find the Thinktank Bazooka Bag which I was looking for just before heading to the park. But as the photo below shows, there was a far better alternative; my very own Tripod Girl.:) Don’t play play; she can easily swing that thing and whack your head!
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