The Mountain And Its Rainforest
Don't Rush It.
Published on February 16, 2004 By Hans Rabani In Photography
I need to remind myself.
To be a good nature photographer, I would believe the most important thing is patience. Patience is a virtue that requires constant, if not daily,practise. Going back into my catalogs of images, I noticed the good looking images were those that were taken when I actually spent more than a minute, tweaking and adjusting the camera's position and exposure. While others, if they are in the viewfinder, just adjust the exposure and click. A little bit more than just point and shoot. Nature photography needs more involvement.

In Sabah, or to the rest of the world, North Borneo, just about anywhere in its geography, has photo opportunities. Either or in between, from the Summit Trail on Kinabalu National Park, where the highest walkable mountain in South East Asia is, or to the sweatingly humid dense rainforest in the Danum Valley (Lost World).

All it takes is a bagpack of change clothings for 3 days (cotton), canned foods, a tent, insect repellant (rainforest only) and loads of ASA 400 films (3 rolls of 36 per day as a start), spare batteries and ziplock plastic bags. Find a guide and go photo trekking.

And as you walk, take a good look around you. If you see anything interesting, stop and get a closer look. And then find another look from another angle. And when you found the best look, shoot it. Or better yet, just shoot at all the angles you find interesting. Shoot first and ask yourself later. At least, you can live with the bad shot later, rather than remembering you should have taken "that" shot !.

Just about any camera is good enough. Correction, just about any "light" camera is good enough.As long as you are pretty good at using it and knows more about photography, than you did, last year. Light is rather subjective by the way. Checking through National Geographic, one of its nature photographers recommended Nikon N65D. It is lighter, smaller and you could get what you are looking at. And if you are digital, Canon EOS Digital Rebel (EOS 300D) is pretty good too. Light and quick focusing in low light compared to other digital SLR in the same category. Only remember to bring 2 spare batteries for a 4 days trek and a minimum of 512MB memory. Almost all the shots in this website,http://groups.msn.com/northborneo, was taken either by Nikon N65D or Canon EOS Digital Rebel. There were other shots too,taken by Fujifilm S602Z and they were pretty good.especially macros. Its zoom lens, Fujinon EBC at its widest is F2.8.

Patience in getting to know more about photography, learning from other photographers, getting to know your camera and obviously, what you are shooting at, could get you a lot of good pictures. Along the way, sees a lot of nature and its bountiful beauties. Just like anything else, it takes time and patience. Just don't take too long. I learnt that, not just film has reciprocity. Even your subject too, has its limits. So shoot while you can. You might not be able to see it again.
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