NPX: How long have you been interested nature photography?

Luenny:  I’ve been interested in photography since my sec school days but never did have a genre where I really like. I only really interested in nature photography when I restarted my hobby 2 years ago.

NPX: What do you like about it in particular?

Luenny:  Nature fascinates me now more than ever – particularly because of the impending crisis that our natural world is facing. I want to capture the beauty of it – particularly animals (not just birds) – as much as possible. I also like the fact that you can never really predict the subject that will show themselves when shooting animals.

NPX: How did you learn photography techniques?

Luenny:  Through books and talking a lot to the people in the camera shops – back in the days, there were no internet and everything were on flim so learning the hard way was expensive. Nowadays, it’s so much easier (and cheaper to experiment). With internet and forums available, I got a lot of inspiration from pictures that other people post.

NPX: Were there any photographer(s) that you like and influences your style?

Luenny:  Chris Johns and Michael Nichols were some of the photographers that I idolize but my favourite would be Jim Brandenburg.

A lot of Brandenburg’s photographs plays with light a lot and that’s what I try to capture. And if I have it my way, I want
to change my lighting everytime I shoot so that I can experiment with back, front, side lighting and combinations of those.

NPX: What are the stuff in your dry cabinet? What are the items in your bag during birding?

Luenny:
Lenses:
105mm f2.8 Micro Nikon
180mm f3.5 Tamron Macro
17-50mm f2.8 Tamron Macro
300mm f4.0 Nikon
400mm f2.8 Nikon
1.4TC Nikon
2.0TC Nikon

Cameras:
D200 (Badly battered up)
D300

Rest of the things I don’t put in the drybox.

During birding I try to travel light (especiallyif birding locally)
D300, 1.4TC, 2.0TC, 400mm f2.8 and SB800.

NPX: Which is your favourite bird species and why?

Luenny: Bee eaters and kingfishers. I like their vibrant colors and their active high speed lifestyle. Recently I’ve fallen head over heals for a baby owl who stare at me. I guess the list changes over time.

NPX: Which other genres of nature photography you’d like to pursue in the future? Why is it so?

Luenny: I would love to try to shoot other animals. I like animals all on the whole so it’s only natural to shoot them if I have the chance.

NPX: While pursuing your hobby, what is your most memorable moment to date?

Luenny: I guess that would be my first birding trip to Panti. I just started birding then and it was really dry. Everybody else was having tough luck and I only got a shot of 1 bird that can barely make it to post. But it was my first forest and my first kingfisher and it was a rufous-backed.

NPX: What are the challenges you’ve faced?

Luenny: Coming from a macro background, when I started birding I use flash. It was part of my natural instinct back then. But then I realise, with flash, the lighting is always from the front – unlike macro where you can put the flash on the side to create side or backlighting. So that makes the images flat and is not what I really want.

After birding with Adrian and the rest, I finally have the courage to remove my flash (well I usually mount it but off it so that I don’t have to go running back to my car when I need it). It can be unnerving because without flash, chances of getting a bad lighting is much higher and it you travel 1000 km to shoot a bird, you want it to look good. But eventually I got through the fear. After all, if it turns out not nice, there’s an excuse to shoot again.

NPX: Please share with us a couple of your favorite images accumulated over the years. Please describe to us why you like these images.

This is my first (hopefully not the only) beetle in flight shot. It has everything that I wish for there, well isolated subject, open wings showing action, side lighting and the fact that part of the beetle is cut off gives the impression that it’s coming at you. It can still be improved if I have the time.

This is one of my favourite because this is one of the rare chance where backlighting work so well for the subject. Not only that, it has other bonuses too like the warm soft directional morning light and the water on the beak causing it have a tiny spark.

And who wouldn’t like a nice kingfisher with food in mouth if taken properly?