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A mini comparison of RAW photos development

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I recently downloaded a trial version of DxO PhotoLab 8 to explore its capabilities and compare it to my current RAW file converter, Adobe Lightroom Classic, along with the camera manufacturers’ own RAW converters. For this comparison, I used RAW files from five different camera bodies, all of which I have owned at some point.

Test Objective

The primary goal of this test is to evaluate the colour and tonality of each processed images. Since I frequently shoot using auto-ISO, my exposure settings can vary. To ensure a fairer comparison, I made necessary adjustments to only exposure, colour temperature, and tint. Other than cropping (done in Lightroom for consistency) and applying noise reduction for some DxO PhotoLab’s processed images, I avoided additional edits like contrast correction, highlight recovery, saturation boosts, or any others to keep the comparisons straightforward.

These adjustments reflect my personal taste, and everyone’s preferences for colour and tonal balance may differ. The conclusions here are hence purely my own. You also can download the zipped file at the end of this article to view all the processed files and form your own opinions.

Theese comparisons are organised by camera models.

Canon EOS 1DX Mark II

This is the oldest camera in this comparison. For Adobe Lightroom, I used both the Adobe Color profile and a custom colour profile. For comparison, I used Canon Digital Photo Professional 4 (DPP) with the Fine Detail Picture Style, and DxO PhotoLab 8 with its default camera profile.

Pink-necked Green Pigeon

Black-backed Kingfisher

King Quail

Nikon D500

The second-oldest camera in this comparison. For Adobe Lightroom, I used both the Adobe Color profile and the Camera Neutral profile. For comparison, I used Nikon NX Studio with the Neutral Picture Control, and DxO PhotoLab 8 with its default camera profile. The Camera Neutral profile in Adobe Lightroom closely matches Nikon’s in-camera Neutral Picture Control in NX Studio.

Thick-billed Green Pigeon

Black-naped Oriole

Tiger Shrike

Sony A9

This camera is often considered challenging in terms of colour rendering. However, with the right adjustments to colour balance (temperature and tint), it can produce good results with the right software. For Adobe Lightroom, I used both the Adobe Color profile and a custom colour profile. For comparison, I used Sony Imaging Edge Desktop with the Standard Creative Look, and DxO PhotoLab 8 with its default camera profile.

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Straw-headed Bulbul

Coconut Lorikeet

Canon R5

This is my underutilised backup camera, and I haven’t taken many photos with it. For Adobe Lightroom, I used both the Adobe Color profile and a custom colour profile. For comparison, I used Canon Digital Photo Professional 4 (DPP) with the Fine Detail Picture Style, and DxO PhotoLab 8 with its default camera profile.

Stork-billed Kingfisher

Grey-headed Fish Eagle

Narcissus Flycatcher

Sony A1

This is my current main camera. For Adobe Lightroom, I used both the Adobe Color profile and a custom colour profile. For comparison, I used Sony Imaging Edge Desktop with the Standard Creative Look, and DxO PhotoLab 8 with its default camera profile.

Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot

Blue-eared Kingfisher

Rufous-tailed Tailorbird

Grey-headed Fish Eagle

Scarlet-bellied Mountain Tanager

Discussion

Processing 17 images using four different methods each has been quite a challenge. While some images could be tweaked for better results, I’ve imposed a deadline for this review. I chose more challenging images with varying dynamic range, exposure, and colour balance issues across several camera models. For the more contrasty scenes, I chose to keep the scene a bit underexposed so as not to have too much highlights blown out, so as not to overly penalise the converters that have a higher contrast starting point.

After reviewing the images, my initial impression is that getting colour temperature, tint, and exposure within an acceptable range is more crucial than the choice of RAW converter itself. In the end, the final conversions are not ALL that different from each other in feel to be honest, although I have clear favourites.

The manufacturers’ software offers good colour and tonality as expected, but their controls can be unintuitive and lack the ability to easily revert experimental changes, although the RAW files remain unaffected. Despite these limitations, they provide a solid starting point for further processing.

DxO PhotoLab produces consistently pleasing results. While I can’t measure what the “correct” colours are in this comparison, the outcomes look natural and satisfying. I’m quite impressed with DxO’s feature set, particularly its RAW conversion, denoising, and lens correction capabilities. It’s a mature software package, and I can see myself using it for more challenging conversions.

Adobe Lightroom conversions, particularly with the Adobe Color profile, don’t excite me. This profile is too contrasty in many situation although that can be adjusted. It seems to have trouble with rendering very saturated colours that are present in some birds, regardless of contrast adjustments. However, for the Nikon D500, I’m content with the Camera Neutral profile.

Ultimately, colour and tone preferences are personal, and what works for one person may not work for another. Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop dominate the RAW conversion space, and most users are satisfied with their rendering, so perhaps my dissatisfaction is more of a “me” issue.

If you’re curious, you can download the original processed files in zip format for closer inspection here (48.5Mb).

A short guide for new birders in Singapore – 2024

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Welcome to the World of Birding!

Firstly, welcome to the exciting world of birding! Birding in Singapore offers a unique experience. Despite its small size, Singapore boasts rich biodiversity, giving birders the chance to encounter an impressive variety of species. The island’s size, combined with its excellent infrastructure, makes it easy to reach birding locations anywhere quickly. The comparatively large birding community, and advanced tools for sharing bird information, further enhance the experience. Not only is it easy to find and photograph birds, but it’s also easy to connect with like-minded people in the community.

1. Choosing the Right Equipment

One of the biggest challenges for new bird photographers is deciding what gear to invest in. A camera that can shoot birds from a distance is essential, but this doesn’t mean you need the most expensive gear to start.

  • Camera Options: For beginners, starting with an affordable, easy-to-use camera is wise. The Sony RX10 IV, though compact, provides excellent mobility and decent zoom (up to 600mm equivalent). It’s user-friendly and produces high-quality images in good light. For those willing to invest more, an APS-C mirrorless camera like the Canon R7, paired with the RF 200-800mm lens, offers greater versatility and range. Another option is the Sony A6700 with a 200-600mm lens. These combinations allow room for upgrades as you progress in your photography journey. Lastly if budget is a severe constraint but you still want an interchangeable lens camera system, consider buying a pre-owned Nikon D500 coupled with the Nikon AF-S FX NIKKOR 200-500mm zoom lens.
  • Lens Focal Length: The lens is arguably the most important part of your bird photography kit. For distant birds, a telephoto lens with at least a 300mm focal length is the bare minimum. More focal length is always welcome, but bear in mind that longer telephoto lenses tend to be heavier and harder to carry during long walks. A focal length between 500-600mm is a good sweet spot for many wild birds.
  • Tripods and Monopods: Stability is crucial, especially when using heavy telephoto lenses. A tripod can be useful when photographing birds in one location for extended periods, while a monopod is more portable and helpful for tracking birds on the move. Consider more affordable brands like Benro, Sirui and Leofoto for your first tripod/monopod. The overall weight of your camera and lens determine the optimal setup.
  • Binoculars: Even if you’re primarily interested in bird photography, a good pair of binoculars, such as the Nikon MONARCH M5 8×42 series, is invaluable. Binoculars help you locate birds and study their behaviour from a distance before deciding on the perfect shot.

2. Bird Identification

After spotting or photographing a bird, how do you know what species it is? Fortunately in 2024, there are several excellent resources that can assist you.

  • Merlin Bird ID App: This free app is a fantastic resource for identifying birds using photos or song recordings. It’s especially useful for beginners who may not be familiar with bird species. You can download it here.
  • Online Birding Communities: Facebook groups like Bird Sightings or Telegram groups (here or here) dedicated to birdwatching are great platforms for connecting with fellow birders. These communities can assist with identification, birding tips, and local sightings. Additionally, as you know more birding friends, you may get added to private WhatsApp groups that discuss sightings in smaller, more focused settings.
  • Books and Field Guides: Once you’ve identified around 80-100 birds, I recommend investing in a field guide. Before that, you can pretty much rely on the community for assistance. Once your each that number, I think it’s time to learn more comprehensively about the birds, and field guides are excellent learning material, if a bit dated with many other free online sites available for basically the same function. A good review can be found here

3. Other Resources for Birds

  • eBird: eBird is your best friend when it comes to discovering rare bird sightings in Singapore, finding popular birding locations, and recording your own sightings. You can find it here.
  • Birds of Singapore website: This website provides a comprehensive account of all wild bird species in Singapore. It includes photos, descriptions, and links to external resources. Visit Birds of Singapore for more information.
  • Xeno-canto: A great resource for bird sound recordings. You can access it here.

4. Learning Bird Photography and Camera Settings

Technical mastery is key in bird and wildlife photography, as birds are fast-moving subjects often found in challenging lighting conditions. Here are a few tips:

  • Shutter Speed: For perched birds, a speed of 1/500 sec is often enough. For birds in flight, 1/2000 sec is a good starting point and you adjust lower or higher depending on the speed and distance of the bird. Burst mode helps capture multiple frames in quick succession.
  • Aperture: A wide aperture (low f-stop) like f/4 or f/5.6 helps create a shallow depth of field, blurring the background and making the bird stand out. Use the widest aperture available for most shots unless specific needs arise.
  • ISO: Lower ISOs (e.g., ISO 100-400) yield better image quality with less noise. However, in low light, increase ISO to maintain a viable shutter speed. Most modern cameras handle higher ISOs well, so don’t be afraid to push it to ISO 800 or higher if needed.
  • Autofocus: Continuous autofocus (AF-C or AI Servo) is recommended for moving subjects. Many cameras have subject-tracking modes that help the camera lock onto and follow a bird’s movements. If you camera comes with bird subject detection mode, use the “Wide” or “Zone” settings, but in trickier conditions, learn to quickly switch to single focus point for manual subject detection.
Coppersmith Barbet at Ghim Moh Link

Coppersmith Barbet breeding pair at Ghim Moh Link. Settings: 840mm, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 500

5. Learning the Basics of Composition

Composition elevates your photos from snapshots to compelling images. Here are just a few tips that may help

  • Backgrounds: Pay attention to the background. A clean, uncluttered background helps the bird stand out. Changing your angle slightly can make a big difference.
  • Action Shots: Capture moments of movement, like birds taking off, feeding, or interacting with their environment. These moments bring life to your photos and tell a story.
  • Eyes in Focus: The eye should always be sharp and in focus. The viewer naturally connects with the eyes of the bird, so having them clear and focused makes for a more engaging image.
  • Use of Light: Lighting is critical to any type of photography, including bird photography. Soft, natural light (early morning or late afternoon) is ideal for bird photography as it casts a warm glow, enhances colours, and reduces harsh shadows. Also be aware of the position of the sun, as that also determine the quality of the light.
  • Negative Space: This refers to the area around your subject. In bird photography, leaving a larger portion of the frame empty is often preferable than a frame filling shot. Sometimes you may want to show the environment in which the bird reside, and therefore the bird should only be a smaller part of the frame.
  • Perspective and Angles: Try varying your shooting angle to change the feel of your photograph. Shoot at eye-level with the bird for a more intimate perspective, or shoot from below for a more majestic or imposing view.

6. Post-Processing Tips

Editing your photos is important, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Start simple:

  • Basic Edits: Programs like Photoshop, Lightroom, or Capture One are popular among photographers coming from other photographic genre, but beginners to photography can start with the software provided by your camera manufacturer. Begin with the simplest edits—cropping for better composition. Adjusting exposure, colour balance and contrast can significantly improve the final result too. Just avoid over-editing.
  • RAW vs JPEG: If you’re new, shoot in JPEG, as the camera processes the images for you. As you progress, perhaps switch to RAW for more detailed, flexible editing. Please understand that for the majority of bird photographers, JPEGs are sufficient for high quality photos. It is after all a steep learning curve to learn how to process a RAW file to exceed the quality of the in-camera JPEG.
Adult Black-winged Stilt at Tuas South

Black-winged Stilt at Tuas South. Settings: 600mm, 1/800s, f/4.0, ISO 250

7. Where to Go Birding in Singapore

The birding community you join will guide you to the best spots for birdwatching. However, if you’re just want to photograph a few birds quickly, here are a few beginner-friendly locations:

  • Parks and Gardens:. Depending on where you stay, there is always a suitable birding site nearby. Try Jurong Lake Gardens if you stay in the west, Pasir Ris Park if you stay in the east and Singapore Botanic Gardens if you are looking for a more central location. Look out for garden birds like sunbirds, flowerpeckers, orioles, ioras, cuckoos, crakes, junglefowls and a whole lot more in these popular spots.
  • Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve: This location is perfect for shorebirds and migratory species, especially during migration seasons.
  • Windsor Nature Park: Located next to our largest nature reserve, you’ll find more forest birds in location, including bulbuls, parrots, woodpeckers, barbets, owls and others
  • Singapore’s Abandoned Quarries: Singapore Quarry and Hindhede Quarry are great places for photographing kingfishers, eagles, swiftlets, and bee-eaters.

8. Advice

  • Be mindful: It’s OK to be excited about a bird you have never seen before. But look at where you are walking to avoid hazard. Look at where the rest of the bird photographers are positioned, so as not to block anyone’s views. Observe where the experienced photographers are placing themselves, because they are likely to have found a better shooting position. Don’t just simply shoot the bird at first sight unless you think it’s flying away in an instant. Observe their behaviour, understand them to anticipate what they are going to do next.
  • Gear Acquisition Syndrome: As you improve, beware of the desire to constantly upgrade your gear. It’s an expensive path, so be mindful of your purchases.
  • Social Media: Posting your bird photos on platforms like Facebook and Instagram can be rewarding, but it’s too easy to get caught up in the chase for likes, follows and shares. Balance your time spent online with time spent enjoying the hobby.
  • Travel: Singapore’s bird species are only a small fraction of the world’s birdlife. Consider travelling to broaden your experience and deepen your appreciation of the world (and birding).
  • Passion Over Clout and Profit: Pursue it for the love of the hobby and the joy it brings you. If you’re no longer enjoying it, it’s okay to explore other interests.

Lastly, don’t hesitate to seek help when needed. Every experienced birder started as a beginner, and the birding community thrives on mutual support. As you gain experience, you’ll have the chance to pay it forward by helping others. Good luck, and happy birding!

P.S. I am not affiliated to any of the equipment and brands I recommend. Please feel free to shop around for the things you like, and get the best bargain.

From forum sites to Merlin Bird ID app

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I’ll like to take a different approach to this story and meander a bit first. When my daughter was born, I developed a keen interest in photographing her, eager to document her growth over the weeks, months, and years. Back in the early 2000s, capturing every moment of life with a mobile phone was not the norm. At that time, compact digital cameras were the primary means of photography. My first digital camera was a Fujifilm MX-500, which I purchased in 1998. By the time my daughter arrived, this was the camera I used to take her first few photos. However, it was outdated by then, so I quickly upgraded to a Canon Digital IXUS 400. This was a significant improvement, but as my daughter became more active, I realised I needed a better camera to capture her in action.

That’s when I upgraded to a Canon EOS 300D. A more sophisticated camera like that required actual skill, so I turned to a local forum called ClubSNAP to learn more about the technology and techniques for taking better photos. Through browsing this forum, I was introduced to the world of nature photography, particularly the stunning bird photography that was displayed in one of the subforum. I thought to myself then that one day, I would explore that genre.

Fast forward to 2010. With more time on my hands, I decided to buy a Canon EOS 7D and an EF 300mm f/4 L IS lens to start photographing butterflies and birds around my neighbourhood in Punggol. I took numerous photos of birds, but I had no idea which species they were! When starting a hobby like bird photography, one doesn’t begin with all the necessary resources in hand. Just as I had done when I bought the Canon EOS 300D for my daughter’s photos, I returned to ClubSNAP. I soon discovered that, over the intervening years, the go-to place for bird photography discussion had shifted to another forum, NaturePixels (now defunct).

Amidst all the beautiful photos and photography topics posted, there was a Bird Identification subforum where one could ask for bird identification help, and more experienced birders would respond. I made it my mission to identify all the birds I had photographed, and over the next 2-3 years, I asked numerous ID questions. One person stood out in answering them: his forum nickname was jiaolong, and he was exceptionally patient and knowledgeable. I must have asked more than 100 separate bird identification questions in total.

By November 2010, based on some forum posts about interesting rarities spotted there, I made my way up to Bukit Timah summit. I met a few fellow photographers, took more bird photos, and struck up conversations. One of them clued me in on two things. Firstly, I should explore Bidadari, which had already become a popular topic at the NaturePixels forum. Secondly, I should join a Facebook group called Birders Group. This was a revelation. I started actively participating in that group and got to know more bird photographers in real life. As I became more acquainted with people, I was invited to join my first birding-related WhatsApp chat groups.

Around the same time, I also stumbled upon another site: a Yahoo Group called wildbirdSingapore (now defunct). Yahoo Groups was an old-fashioned online discussion board/mailing list hybrid, and wildbirdSingapore was one of the boards where local birdwatchers and birders from NSS had been active since around 1999. Clunky and outdated as it was, joining and participating in this group helped me connect with birdwatchers rather than bird photographers. Interacting with this community quickly made me realise their expertise in all things related to local birds. To keep up, I began buying bird field guides and doing the hard work of learning not just how to photograph birds, but also about their identification details, their habitat, behaviour, and more.

At the end of 2011, the birdwatchers at NSS were interested in holding an official Big Year for 2012. I think they were quite surprised when a photographer joined, especially one with barely a year and a half of experience. I decided that part of my education would be to challenge and benchmark myself against these birders, so there was no shame if I performed poorly. My birding buddy See Toh joined as well. Part of the Big Year involved updating our periodic scores in a Facebook group called SG Big Year Birders. I decided to ask everyone participating in the Big Year to join a WhatsApp chat group too. Inadvertently, this catalysed a significant change in Singapore’s birding culture. While the birders were more experienced and could find and identify birds on their own, I was already deeply embedded in other WhatsApp chat groups and Facebook groups. I even created and managed a Facebook group for bird photographers called SG Birders. These groups and their participants were my eyes and ears on the ground, so I had far more information about rarities than anyone else. By sharing this information quickly in the Big Year WhatsApp chat group, common etiquette dictated that some of these initially hesitant birders began to reciprocate by sharing their own rarity sightings.

I performed very well in the Big Year 2012. In many ways, I demonstrated that a sufficiently motivated new bird photographer could excel in this endeavour, provided one is willing to think outside the box, know how to crowdsource important information, and persuade others that it’s in their best interest to share. But the first Big Year also revealed something else to me: the gap in bird-related knowledge between the average bird photographer and birdwatcher needed to narrow for the community to move forward together. I knew many bird photographers wanted to know where to find and photograph rarer birds. If only there were a place where one could discuss where the rare birds were, as well as a place where discussions about bird identification were not only welcomed but encouraged. On the birdwatcher side, they also realised their own dwindling numbers contrasted with the ever-increasing number of bird photographers, and these bird photographers served as valuable eyes and ears on the ground. In 2013, I started Bird Sightings Facebook group to bring these two groups together for what I considered a win-win situation. I thought it would be a small group, but an effective one. In retrospect, the smaller group size allowed for better communication than a larger one that now exists.

In 2016, I started the Singapore Birds Project, with one of the aims being to complement the Bird Sightings group in helping to raise the standard of knowledge about local birds. I believe both the Facebook group and the project achieved their aims. There are now many talented birders and bird photographers who are knowledgeable about birds and helpful to each other, especially to those just starting out, thanks in part to the resources provided in the past. Many are also now hybrid birdwatchers/bird photographers, so the old classifications and divisions based on the equipment used are no longer as relevant.

However, let’s take a closer look at the situation now in 2024. A new birder might still join Bird Sightings or use the Birds of Singapore website. Or they might not. Their first experience in identifying a bird might be through the Merlin Bird ID app, or by joining large Telegram groups dedicated to instant bird sightings. They may check eBird for the latest rarities and as a way to find out more information about the birds they’ve seen. Or they may still use larger WhatsApp chat groups or join Instagram to communicate and share with their community there. These newer tools, and others that will inevitably emerge, together with the affordability and improvement in cameras technology have lowered the barriers to entry into our hobby even more and that’s a good thing. The lowered barrier of entry has resulted in Singapore’s birding community becoming much more diverse. This diversity in the community is a strength. A broader range of people with different skillsets, abilities, and experience will result in a community being more adaptable to new challenges. A diverse community often comes up with better, more creative, and innovative solutions to problems, as well as to opportunities, leading to better outcomes for everyone within it. The challenge from the perspective of the community as a whole, as always, lies in organising itself to work towards common goals rather than splintering off when things don’t align perfectly.

Looking back at the changes over the past 14 years or so, it’s clear that it wasn’t just technology being replaced. The ways in which birding groups organised themselves and their members in the past no longer seem relevant, and the value proposition for joining them has diminished. If incumbent community groups become complacent or fail to adapt to evolving birding norms, it could lead to newcomers or segments of the community bypassing them and organise themselves differently. Nature abhors a vacuum, and eventually most of the community will inevitably move to those with fresh approaches and leadership.

P.S. I realise that blogs like this have seen their heyday, and most birders I know now favor Facebook posts. But I prefer this medium, where I can write without worrying about reach or likability. Peace!

Bidadari Park Revisited

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When I first took up birding in 2010, Bidadari, once a cemetery, had become a hotspot for birds and birdwatchers. It was a migrant trap that attracted a lot of migratory species of birds that stayed for a day or two, much to the delight of birdwatchers and bird photographers then. You can read more about the historical place and the birds here.

We always knew the place was slated for development even when it was at its prime.  There were proposals to save the area and even a Facebook Group that I co-moderated trying to advocate for its conservation. Though the group eventually fell into inactivity, it was once a vibrant online community with many fascinating posts about the site and its birdlife.

Returning to Bidadari, ultimately the development got the green light to proceed, but with some concession to preserve a small part that was referred to as the hillock.  Bulldozers soon arrived, and today, a new HDB estate stands where Bidadari once flourished.

On 3 September 2024, Bidadari Park which was the redevelopment of a park within the new Bidadari HDB estate was officially open to public. The hillock, likely the last remnant of Bidadari’s original vegetation, still stands. This area, affectionately dubbed “Bida Studio” by birders, was once a prime spot, with small bushes and fallen branches attracting flycatchers, cuckoos, kingfishers, and shrikes. The birds emerging from the foliage often offered great views.

I haven’t visited the new park yet, but I’ve heard that migrant birds have started to appear, and I’m eager to explore it once the crowds thin out.

New birders might wonder how the new park compares to the old Bidadari. While the green space may still serve as a migrant trap, the old and new locations share little physical overlap. Below are Google Earth images from 2014 and the latest from 2024, with a thin yellow line roughly outlining the border of the old Bidadari.

Singapore’s Scops Owl – Revisited

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Ten years ago in 2014, I wrote about the possibility of the resident scops owl in Singapore being a distinct species on its own. The conclusion by our local ornithologist was that it’s probably not, and more work needs to be done to further understand the relationship and territorial delineation between all the closely related (Sunda/Collared/Indian) Scops owls.

While updating my own Singapore bird checklist recently, I noticed that there was an update that I initially missed out. In turns out that cnephaeus subspecies from Malaysia and Singapore has been reassigned from Sunda Scops Owl to Collared Scops Owl. A closer scrutiny showed that the paper that prompted this revision was published in the Avian Research journal titled  “Continent-wide vocal leapfrog pattern in Collared Scops Owls obfuscates species boundaries“, co-authored by Meng Yue Wu and Assoc Prof. Frank E. Rheindt. The latter being the same person I quoted in the original article that many years ago!

You can find versions of that paper here and here.

They did the work using publicly available song recordings from xeno-canto. The research paper is interesting and some of the conclusions drawn are also noteworthy. Please go and read. I’ll copy a long paragraph here for the most pertinent one to our local scops owl’s species assignment:

Many tropical Asian bird species complexes are divided into an equatorial rainforest species centred around the western Indonesian Archipelago and a closely related monsoon-forest inhabiting species from the Asian mainland (Eaton et al., 2021). Whenever birds display such a biogeographic constellation, the Sundaic species virtually always extends north to the Thai-Malay Peninsula and reaches its northern limit at the Isthmus of Kra, where the range of the continental monsoon species takes over. Owls of the Collared Scops Owl complex were long thought to follow this geographic pattern, with cnephaeus from the Thai-Malay Peninsula invariably assigned to O. lempiji from Indonesia. However, our bioacoustics-based reassignment of cnephaeus to O. lettia suggests that these scops owls defy this biogeographic pattern, as the continental O. lettia extends south all the way to Singapore.

I’m not interested in editorialising too much, but I think the best lessons I have learned from this:

  1. Crowd-sourced birding information (photos, videos, audio recordings, GPS coordinates) continue to be useful tools in doing real and interesting science.
  2. Unlike what most may imagine, scientific advancement need not always be about expensive tools and techniques; ideas are equally important.
  3. Empirical data lead us to sometimes unexpected conclusions, but that’s rather characteristic of scientific progress.

Starting the Singapore Birds Project

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Let’s begin with a little side-story from a decade ago. In 2014, on top of getting involved in another birding Big Year, I slowly got closer to the birders from the NSS Bird Group. Eventually, I helped them set up their WordPress blog, Facebook Page and a separate Facebook Group as well. It was an active period, both in birding and in things concerning birding. On the latter case, I started strategizing for NSS on how to build an online presence that served the birding community better. Engaging the community’s interest included a lot of writing birding articles on our blog, drumming up interest in and moderating the newly formed Facebook Group and Page and explaining birding best practices in person. I was everywhere and involved in many things. It was a good year and I became an improved birder and a better communicator in the end. Winning the Big Year against experienced competitors then was just the cherry on top.

By 2015, I was also invited to join the NSS Bird Group’s Records Committee and was considered part of the inner group of leaders involved in the Bird Group. But unfortunately all was not well, for reasons I’ll explain in more details one day. In the end, we parted company amicably and I gave control back to NSS members most of the assets I’ve spent my effort building. Pity that in removing my role from the WordPress site, articles I authored were no longer reflected as mine.

The entire thing was not as bad as it may sound here, as I was actually on friendly or at least polite terms with most of the NSS birders, even today. We just have different ideas on what’s the best way forward, and I did offer my suggestions on how they should proceed in finding new talents to groom for bigger roles in the future.

By the end of the year in December 2015, having some time to reflect, I felt re-energized and motivated to move forward with my own plans instead. I came out with a few ideas on how to contribute back to the birding community and one of them was to create a bird app, with an emphasis on nice bird photos provided by the local birding community itself. So I posted my thoughts in the independent Facebook Group I set up earlier called Bird Sightings.

The idea of the bird app was well received but there were more pressing matters at hand. Part of it was that we still needed to compile all the information needed for the bird app, like photos, description of the birds, habitat of the birds, it’s breeding range and all the other things that at that time were not as readily available. I thought we’ll fill in those parts first and then perhaps move into app building. So first thing first, we needed to build a website to facilitate in the writing, and in asking for contributors to actually write, and/or provide photos. I’ve actually outlined some of the process in building the site in a blog post at here.

For the content site, I persuaded my birding buddy See Toh to be the main editor and writer, and I helped contribute some write-ups as well, but my work was mainly at the back-end. I have also persuaded members of the birding community over at Bird Sightings FB group to provide great photos of some of the birds. Within days, we got something out as a start.

For reasons that I have now forgotten, my first write-up was actually posted as a page here in this blog first rather than at the new Singapore Birds Project site, so you can actually see what I wrote here unchanged from the day it was posted:

So on 4 January 2016, the project’s website was launched. It was a modest and pretty bare site, but we intended to move quickly to fill the gaps.

See Toh was great at writing the species accounts, and we very quickly filled out the outline for many of the uncommon and rare species. We cannot help but be birders looking out for rarities and hoping that our write-ups will facilitate future sightings of some of these species. Knowing that the species write-up was going well, I self-relegated my efforts to the back end of things and to figure out what information was important to fellow birders, and what was possible to do with my limited scripting knowledge and resources. In 2016, what we felt important was to provide birders that came to our pages with information about the bird species with regards to their description, how they differ or look the same as other species, where they can be found and where they came from if they are migrants, what’s their behaviour, and very importantly, clear photos of said birds to aid in visual identification.

I wanted both the Malay and Chinese name for birds included in the website, because I thought we needed to cater for some of the Chinese speaking birders among us, and I always felt an affinity to the Malay bird names being that many of the resident and common birds in South-east Asia would have been named first by the native inhabitants, and the English names were somehow less interesting. The first problem was I am Chinese illiterate! Secondly there were quite a few different Malay names of the same birds created by different field guide authors. For the former problem, thankfully there were multilingual birding list provided by IOU that was just a matter of extracting them throughs some scripting. For the Malay name, I had a friend Tou Jing Yi, who was actively compiling them and updating them to the current taxonomic treatment. His website is here.

For those thing we cannot fully provide, we provided links to other sites that could. In 2016, Oriental Bird Images (OBI) was a useful resource for bird photos, xeno-canto was important for bird calls and song, Wikipedia was important for general information about the species. In 2024, the order of importance have changed, with eBird taking over many of these needs. The challenge for the website (which is now called Birds of Singapore), is to continue to stay relevant and helpful to birders new and old. For that, a new generation of birders are charting the way forward. Oh yeah, the bird app thing? It never happened during my watch. We just took a different journey!

P.S. In writing this entry, I relied heavily on Facebook to confirm details of events. I am still a bit wary of the longevity of Facebook in terms of preserving some of these older postings. There is no guarantee that in the future things will remain as is, so I’ll try my best to write them down here in this blog.

My short adventure photographing birds with film

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Back in 2015, I decided on a whim to dabble a little bit in film photography. I got both a second hand Canon EOS 3 and a medium format Pentax camera from eBay. I remember them being pretty cheap as everyone was abandoning their film camera for the latest DSLRs then. I didn’t shoot much, and most of what I shot were family photos. But I did take it out on occasions to shoot with my 500mm lens on the Canon using Kodak Portra 400 film.

Here are a few of the photos that I managed to scan and process recently. Yes, it has taken about a decade for me to end my procrastination!

Maybe the quality of the photos were’t as good as that of the digital equivalent, but it was fun and educational at the same time. Just for a fun comparison, here’s the Little Grebe taken on the same day as the one with film, except it was captured with my Canon EOS 7D Mk2.

Little Grebe at Lorong Halus

Hello world, once again!

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It’s been quite a while since I’ve written here. I started this blog in 2014 and in the first few years, was rather prolific. As time passed, other projects took over, work came in the way, and  my main means of communication shifted over to Facebook.

In the past year or two, I’ve passed over most of my responsibilities to successors both in my work and personal projects. In other words, I’m now retired, and happily so. It’s been a blessing to let go, sitting back and letting others have the opportunity to lead and succeed.

Recently having helped a bit in transferring over the websites for the Bird Society of Singapore, I’ve found some time to rearrange some of my own online presence, including my photo site and this old blog of mine. To simply things, both have been transferred over to a new server and under the same domain now.

Perhaps with more free time now, I’ll write a bit more here. Fingers crossed!

 

 

10 Years of Birding

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Just a short post announcing the completion of 10 years of birding for me. Photo below is a collage of all the bird species I have seen in Singapore for that period of time.

10 Years Species Singapore

The number of species photographed in Singapore from 29 April 2010 to 28 April 2020.

Birding update on November 2018

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I am still indulging in this hobby after all this while! Nothing much have changed, but most postings and activities have shifted to Facebook groups.

It is getting progressively harder to find new bird species, but there is no real timeline to achieve any goals these days. I have settled on a routine of visiting certain places regularly with my camera. Mostly I get to see more common species. On bad days, I just get rained out. On very good days, I get the thrill of seeing something new and get reminded why I still lug my heavy equipment to the field.

So here’s a collage of all the wild bird species I have seen so far in Singapore since I started 8 and a half years ago. 331 species seen and photographed. Not a milestone, just a snapshot of my birding progress. Seen from afar, the collage is mostly small birds with blue sky and sea, green foliage and earthy tones. Just the way I like them!