Butterflies at University of the Philippines at Clarkfield

Shot with HS50EXR camera, July 30, 2014.

I would appreciate if someone identifies this black butterfly.

Unknown insect at Clarkfield.

It is not beautiful to look at, mimicking dead leaves, but perhaps that is its own camauflage defense. I suspect it is a member of the leafhopper family but I am not into entomology.

Photo taken with a Fufilm HS50EXR, July 8, 2014, U.P. Clarkfield, Program Mode, shutter 1/550 s, fstop f/5, 1:34 p.m. Size: 640x480.

F-18 fighter plane

It can fly so fast but my Canon SX50HS was able to capture it. But as usual with photos of fast fighter jets, I had to crop the image.

I have doubt that the Philippines can afford and operate this complex fighter aircraft.
Here is an excerpt from the Wiki article about the Vought F-8:

However the local US Military Mission doubted the government's ability to afford these fighters, and assessed the Philippine Air Force as incapable of operating and maintaining complex aircraft. In addition, due to the LEVELS of CORRUPTION corruption that existed in the country at the time the Americans had doubts on their ally's ability to properly secure technologically sensitive spare parts and related equipment. Therefore, as a compromise, the Philippine government was offered (and subsequently purchased) 35 secondhand U.S. Navy F-8Hs that were stored at Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona in late 1977.

A surprising yellow bird visitor at UP Clarkfied

I try to carry my camera with me always and yesterday January 28, a yellow bird just flew past me to land in the trees besides the canal of UP Clarkfield. I was taken aback, but I knew I have to catch a photo quickly. The camera focusing was not fast and accurate since I used an adapter with UV filter attached. I hope someone will be able to recognize the colorul bird.

Egrets at Candaba which is starting to look like one big rice paddy.

I visited candaba last Sunday January 6, 2014. The whole place does not look like a wilderness, instead the place was full of hectares and hectares of rice fields, duck-raising ponds and fishponds full of water lilies. There is even a big highway being constructed in which according to some connects Candaba to Bulacan. Nevertheless, here is a photo of migrating egrets caught on our Canon SX50HS.

I do not think the birds would like to stay in Candaba, which does not look wetlands anymore. It should have been declared a wilderness a long time ago. But with population pressures, politics and mismanagement of natural resources, Candaba as a migratory bird capital is the most laughable description of the wetlands.

Moon with Jupiter, January 15, 2014.

The moon with planet Jupiter is captured in these photos. Halos usually appear when there are high clouds with ice crystals. These usually occur at or near the full moon phase.

Moon with halo,January 14, 2014

I took photos of the moon with a halo, and with the planet Jupiter shining bright within the halo. I was disappointed that I saw some lens flares in some of the photos, perhaps due to the very bright moon's reflection of the Sun's rays. Modern lenses have multi-elements glasses inside. We tried adjusting the center position of the camera, avoiding the direct focus on the moon in some of the shots, so that the flares would have minimal impact.




Here is an example of lens flare ruining an image of the near or full moon. The full moon will be on January 18, 2014.

All photos taken handheld, with the Canon SX50HS superzoom camera.