Happy Chinese New Year

Songs of a grasshopper noisily occupied my garden in the nights. Taking a  chance I looked around before leaving for Cerok Tokun on last Sunday morning; it had been exercising its natural rights to the fullest.

It came to a complete silence yesterday, this piqued my curiosity for an answer again.

Spring is coming, that marked its return to the fable as a character of decades, to carry a mandolin and continue singing, and to continue exercising the natural rights in the warmer months.

Yes, spring is coming. In the lines in the fable this reads, "Happy Chinese New Year to everyone."

Mantis, A Legend

For some reasons, a little mantis had never left a same place for three weeks, be it stormy or sunny, day or night.

A woman climbed up a mountain and watched the South China Sea at every sunrise, in anticipation of the return of her husband. But she fell ill and died after years of waiting. 

She turned into a stone that continued watching the sea and waiting for that day. This is the legend of Mount Kinabalu, that of the tiny mantis must be as great. 

But I took advantage to make the mantis my model, before it became a stone.

I had ample time for many trials and errors, and many decent shots. 

The mantis was disturbed by my camera flash, and reacted terribly in such a way that saw it posing like a professional; that was great!

I felt so great too!! (I put three extension tubes, 36mm, 20mm and 12mm, onto my Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens).

That was cruel, and yet the world is cruel. People take advantage whenever circumstances allow. Be you a mantis, a mountain, a stone or else. I am but as cruel.

The mantis transformed from black to green in the fourth week, before turning into a stone. 

East Coast, Peninsular Malaysia

My camera was not happy with the big red X that crossed a camera on a signboard. This happened outside the entrance to Terengganu State Museum. It then urged me to shoot more, and more, on the coastline. And it found me a grasshopper at Pantai Kemasik (Kemasik Beach).

I wonder whether this grasshopper had taken a ride from Cerok Tokun. But that should not be right, as I saw no grasshopper hopping around me inside my car, or it might have slept all the time due to dizziness. Everything outside the windows slid backwards at accelerating speeds. It should have not experienced this before.

By the way, the grasshopper was so interested to check me by my foot prints, while many know me through my words.

And many others judge people by their appearance, but Buddha said the human body is a skin-bag full of filth. What could possibly be attractive about that?

My camera found me little crabs. They drew textures that looked like creations of aliens. They were, of course, not though the textures looked like crop circles.

Otherwise, we are aliens too for many reasons. We are often big-headed, as big as the head of an alien, if to mention one.

And my camera continued to guide me through.....