His website title seems to implies he is from a sort of ancient tribal community but once you meet him and talk to him, you will feel he is actually is more of an Asian “Indiana Jones” character. Read on …

NPX: Hi MM, can we know what you do for a living?

MM: Many of my friends call me a full-time adventurer, but I think it is more accurate to refer myself as being a bum. But to feed my kids, I work as a health-care worker. Below is a picture of my old office.

NPX: How long have you been doing photography?

MM: My parents got my very first camera, a Kodak Instantmatic when I was probably 7 years old. It was since then I have been taking photos, be it crappy photos. When I was 12 years old, I “inherited” my father’s 35mm film Agfa Rangefinder Camera. My very first 35 mm SLR was a Nikon EM back in Junior College. Over they years I have experimented with various photographic types; from medium format (6×6), to large format (4×5), to panoramic cameras. It took me a long time to switch from film to digital. My very first digital SLR, a Nikon D70, was only as recent as late 2004. I am still using it today.

NPX: What got you started in photography?

MM: I cannot really remember but it was sure fun taking blurred images when I was seven, and burning those Blue Cube bulb flashes was really cool too. But seriously, much of my early inspiration was to just have visual memories of my life during my younger days.

NPX: What is/are your favourite genre/s of photography?

MM: My favourite is Adventure Photography… which is basically documenting the various adventure pursuits that I am addicted to.

Being in the great outdoors so often gives me lots of opportunities for Nature, Landscape and Travel Photography. The last few years my focus has become rather parochial and I have been concentrating primarily on Avian Photography.

NPX: Who are your photographic influences?

MM: My main photographic influence and teacher is actually not a person, but the National Geographic Magazine. I used to study the photographs in this magazine and learn what makes their photographs tick. There are three photographers who motivate me most. They are Galen Rowell, Art Wolfe and Frans Lanting, whose works has been very inspirational for me.

NPX: What kind of stuff do you put in your camera bag?

MM: It really depends on where I go, and whether I am trekking or travelling with a vehicle. When I go on long treks, I carry the minimum of one camera body and two zoom lenses, a 12 – 24 mm and a 75 – 300 mm. If I have vehicular support, I carry a second body, the 75 – 300 mm is replaced by a 600 mm (and teleconverters), and I usually have a 200 mm macro lens with me too. Other essential accessories include a set of extension tubes, tripod and gimbal head, and a car window mount. A flash, flash extender, remote trigger cord and even a hide may be packed for some locations or situations. If I have the luxury of space and weight, I pack my 300 mm along too.

NPX: What’s the most challenging aspect of shooting your favourite genre of photography?

MM: Hmmm let me see… dangling on a rope 50 meters above the ground at minus 10 degrees, with one hand on an ice-axe and the other on the camera shutter… I must confess that the most challenging aspect is not to accidentally drop the lens cap.

NPX: Describe your worst followed by the best photography experience you encountered while out in the fields.

MM: My worst photographic experience? I haven’t had one. I have missed countless photographic opportunities, and lost a couple of cameras and lenses (be it broken or stolen), but that is life. My best photographic experience? Just being out there and doing it is the best thing in life.

NPX: How many bird species have you caught with your camera and over how many years?

MM: Wow, this is a challenging question. I first started Avian Photography in 1989. Not sure how many bird species I have captured on film, but since shooting birds on digital from 2005, I probably have in excess of 500 species of birds.

NPX: I know you have a beautiful bird mobile. Care to describe it and also a sexy photo of it wrap in wet mud?

MM: Being a noisy beast painted in bright orange, I cannot really call that an effective mobile bird hide. It’s not very good at attracting featherless birds either, but just this once it manage to attract not one but two very pretty chicks…

NPX: How do your family feel about your photography passion? Do you guys travel often together and where to so far?

MM: My wife and kids are not as enthusiastic about photography as me but they sure do enjoy the opportunity to travel. As a family, we have taken the less trotted path of driving to Northern Laos, visiting hill tribes of Northern Thailand and Northern Vietnam, exploring the ruins of ancient Cambodia, trekking the Great Wall of China in winter, climbing the highest peak of Scotland, camping in the great Australian outback, and countless expeditions into the wildest jungles of Malaysia. Below is a picture of the Mountain Family during one of their travels.

NPX: You don’t look much of a city dweller to me, so what other adventurous activities you do besides birding till date ?

MM: I just love being in the outdoors… be it chilling out by a campfire on a freezing winter’s night, or just watching the sunset from a secluded beach. For a bit of kicks, I enjoy trekking, mountain biking, kayaking, caving, and off-roading. For even greater adrenaline rush, abseiling, canyoning, ice-climbing and mountaineering is the way to go.

NPX: If you have to choose TWO favourite nature (preferably bird shots) photo which you have taken, which will they be? Reasons for choosing them?

MM:

Concordia in Northern Pakistan is a magical place, the only place on earth where you can see four of the highest peaks of the world at one spot. Galen Rowell calls it the ‘Throne Room of the Mountain Gods’. And Singaporeans are just mad enough to fly kites in this surreal place. The image was captured in chilling sub-zero temperatures, as the evening alpine glow backlit the rainbow-colored kite. In the distance behind stands K2, the killer mountain.

Many of you would have seen this photograph, which was captured in 2005. In fact I was with 3 other photographers (was actually sharing the same hide with one of them) when this image was made. We were happily photographing this family of grebes on their nest (me being rather trigger-happy) when a dragonfly started flying around the birds. In a split instance, the adult grebe reached out and caught the flying dragonfly. I pressed the shutter and managed only to capture two shots of this moment, as my CF was full after that. In retrospect, I could have missed this shot completely; saved only by those last two frames in my CF. Till today, this image remains one of my most memorable captures.

NPX: Thanks Eric, its a great pleasure interviewing you.

MM: Thank you.
You could check out Mountains and Beyond[1], Eric’s website to view a vast variety of nature images he had taken over the years. I would take a peek if I were you.

Images are copyright of Mountainman

_____________________________________Interview edited by Roger Deng