Mr. Chew Yen Fook was born in Singapore and is now living and based in New Zealand. He has an unusual passion and an uncommon job: he loves nature and runs a photo-library of his own specialising in natural history photography, supplying many international publishers and have been involved in many book projects. Sony has also just released a CD, Wings of the Orient, that features some of his most recent works. Sintercom chats with Yen Fook about his childhood, why he chose to get off life's beaten path, and of course about photography.

Tell us about your childhood, family and how you became a photographer. I was the youngest child in the family of six children and my father was 53 when I was born. He is 93 and lives with my mother, who is 80, in a five-room flat at Tampines.   Photography was nothing new to me as it was a family business. I was brought up with the belief that there was nothing glamourous in photography, the sooner I get away from it, the better. It was, afterall, a tool for survival. My father was one of Singapore's pioneer press photographer and he was active during and after the war years. He was involved in a lot of photography for the British Army after 1945. He finally settled down in Geylang and started his own studio in the mid-1950s. As a child I never wanted to be a photographer as I hated the smell of chemicals in the dark room. My father's darkroom was not air-conditioned so it was not pleasant being in it. During the school holidays, I would be in the dark room making black and white prints, preparing chemicals while my friends would play and enjoy themselves. As a kid I swore that I would have nothing to do with photography when I grew up.

Yen Fook in 1969... and in 1972 at age 15

Whilst the darkroom was a curse, somehow I secretly discovered the joys of nature through photography. I also stealthily experimented photography with my toy microscope. I discovered that photography provided an artistic outlet in a grim, boring world of processing and printing other peoples' snapshots. Ironically, I am the only one in the family still involved with photography today. It was a fateful day in early 1980 when I picked up a copy of the newspapers advertising for a press photographer's post in The Straits Times. I wanted a job so I applied and got it. No one the family knew that I had applied for a photographer's job. It wasn't greeted with much enthusiasum. I remember my mother used to keep my microscope (which I bought for $19.90 at MPH bookstore in 1970) when I was a young teenager so that I can concentrate on my exams. I loved, and still love no less, the micro-world of creepy-crawlies. Protozoa, planktons, desmids, diatoms, pollens, parts of insects, plants and on and on.

Delivering a lecture on wildlife photography in National University of Singapore

Yen Fook at the launch of his first book, "Wild Birds of Singapore", during the Photofair'89 at the World Trade Centre. He is flanked by his wife, Chor Siang, on the left and a sales promoter on the right.

I believe that success in life is like climbing a mountain and there are many ways of doing that. As to whether I have achieved some degree of success in life, I would say 'yes', but I must qualify that by saying 'success' to me is not money but enough of it to live comfortably. More so, it's a state of mind when one feels that one has made positive contribution in some ways towards the betterment or happiness of other peoples' lives in the society at large, be happy and generally at peace with the world around, and being able to pursue the things one love without any hindrance. I would say I have not achieved 'complete success' because I may never be able to attain that. My wife used to work with MOE as a Gifted Education Specialist. She is now pursuing her post graduate studies in NZ. If anything, my wife and I share the same passion in life - Nature.

Photographing mud skippers, St. John's island 1983

When did you start taking up photography and trekking for wildlife, what drew you to them? which would you say is more important to you now? Photography is an extension of myself. Through the language of photography I seek to inspire and motivate positive actions. I started taking my first photograph at nine using my father's camera to capture sunset scenes, trees, blue skies .. all the wonders of nature that gave me comfort and happiness. As a child, I used to wander away for hours looking for flowers, insects, spiders and felt at peace with mother nature. This special feeling is still very much alive in me.

When I was a professional member of the press corp from 1980 to 1990, I had many opportunities to report on things I loved - nature and birds. I was at once a photographer and reporter and was fortunate to have had the liberty of working independently. During that time, I had worked with Straits Times, New Nation, Singapore Monitor and then I said, 'enough, I want to be on on my own'. And I am on my own now and away from home. I find cities stressful and crowded. I needed living space.

In his photo department at the News Centre in 1986 Covering the surrender of 1,000 Thai communists guerillas in 1982.

I have traveled a fair bit and my materials now cover parts of North America, India, SE Asia, PNG, OZ and NZ. More traveling will come... Antarctic, South America, Siberia, Mongolia. Anywhere I can look for nature and wildlife. I will move as long as I can move. My passion for nature and wildlife has not changed since the day I picked up a camera 31 years ago. For me, nature photography encompasses everything that has to do with father earth and mother sky, and the distant universe. Planets, stars, milky ways are all part of nature. Birds are just part of nature.

Crossing a stream in NZ

An explosion of hungry, newly-hatched butterfly catepillars

What are for you the most and least enjoyable aspects of working as a wildlife photographer? The satisfaction of seeing excellent photographs of whatever I was pursuing after a long, tedious, hard, trying time in a mosquito and leech infested swamps. I can't think of any unenjoyable aspects of wildlife photography. Can you specify?

After seeing nature and wildlife in so many countries, can you compare them? What, for you, are their charms and perhaps drawbacks? I must stress that I haven't been to that many places. However, the places of greatest diversity is in the tropical belts of the world and they stretch from South America, Africa, India, SE Asia, PNG and parts of Australia. I haven't been to the tropical region of South America and Africa, but from my experience, Malaysia and Indonesia are perhaps the most fascinating in terms of flora and avifauna. I must also mention that Singapore, too, has an interesting variety of nature and wildlife but the pressures of a city state, unfortunately, doesn't quite go too well with it. Naturally in terms of biodiversity, the tropics has more to offer than the temperate climes. But whilst the tropics is great for bio-diversity, I dislike the humid heat. New Zealand may not offer the rich diversity of flora and fauna but it is a very pleasant in terms of climate. In the way of landscapes, NZ is really great, rather like Australia or the States. In the final analysis, nature is beautiful no matter where it is. Man, alone, poses the greatest threat.. David Suzuki, I am sure you have heard of him, said in his TV programme on 'Amazonia': "Death is a natural part in the ancient cycle of life. Without death there would no evolution, no miracles of species newly born. But the death of the forest puts an end to birth itself." I can't agree with him more.

Yen Fook's favourite combination : a tele-fresnel flash adapter mounted on top of a 500mmf4 lens with 1.4x converter. This system, invaluable in photographing rain forest birds by stalking, increases the flash output by 4 stops. Little spiderhunter is caught perching on a ginger flower.

Red Munia photographed in Bharatpur, India

Tell us about your favourite bird. F: I can't answer this. All I can say is that my love for birds have no discriminations. I love them and I love them all. To me, even the house sparrow is special. I used to be interested only in eagles and birds of prey. The spectacular hunting techniques ... But that feeling has now changed as I get more deeply involved with all kinds of birds.

Tell us more about that change, and the other change where you decided that even the freedom of working as an independent journalist was not enough to make you stay in the city. What are the feelings that made you change your mind? Were they related? To the first part of your question. It's very simple and straightforward. I studied common birds in flight from people who make high speed films and was amazed that even the common swallows displayed incredible agility, perhaps even more so that eagles. The way they drank water or caught insects on the wings was simply amazing. Seeing is believing and there is no such things as "lesser birds". I was intrigued.

Bar-headed geese taking off (deliberate blur shot)

Greglag geese over Bharatpur, Rajastan, India

On the second part. After some years in journalism, I find that it was more rewarding for me to venture full scale into nature photography as that gave me undivided time to pursue and concentrate on something I have always loved, and found to be most meaningful in my life. Anyway, I've never liked the city simply because there are just too many people, cars, shopping centres, bright lights and houses. Yah! True S'pore is a garden city, but what's there to offer in the way of real wilderness? Compare Sungei Buloh with Mai-poi in HK or the 80 mile beach in WA. The latter has 800,000 birds during the migratory season. Well, Sungei Buloh has about what - one, two thousand during the migratory season? Maybe less. Don't know now. Having said that, I must add that Singapore is a great place to live with an exciting cultural mix and an efficient government. But you must, first of all, be able to afford it if you wish to enjoy it! It's very much a materialistic and status-conscious society.

Were you ever taken ill because of the tropical jungle environment -- dengue fever, malaria etc.? Fortunately I have not experienced any 'disasters' yet, as I always took precaution and got the right malaria pills for the right region. In other words, I was very careful for if I fell ill or die, what good is it for me and my work? My most 'unpleasant experience' was being bitten by leeches and the record is 20-odd bites to each leg. That wasn't very much and nothing to boast about. I know of people who got two to three times more!

Between predator and prey : an ageless struggle between a tree snake and a frog

With his students in 1996 Exploring the world beyond the naked eye

Did you have to camp out for many days in the jungle to get some shots? What was that like? Tell us more of how you work on this and other assignment -- do you research before shooting, do you work alone or in a team etc. Professional nature a photography is not happy-go-lucky guess work or aimless wanderings to nowhere looking for that perfect shot. I always teach my students ( their age ranges from 14 to 70) that there are ten factors that make up a successful nature photographer : passion, patience, perseverance, spirit of adventure, energy, knowledge of photography, specialised knowledge of animal behaviour, planning, sense of art and a code of ethics (what you can do and what you ought NOT to do to harm nature & the fragile eco-system).

I worked a lot with scientists and as you can see, the people I was involved in in the preparation of those books are all people with intimate knowledge of the relevant subjects. Of course, I too, have gained specialised knowledge over the the years. For example, knowing when the forest figs trees will fruit is a scoop in the sense that you can encounter over 60 species of birds that come to feed. And that's where the photo feast starts. The time of year is also important - the breeding season is particularly rewarding.

Shield bugs caught in the act

Flower of Sterculia sp in dramatic side lighting

My favourite companion is Ken Scriven, who until two years ago, was the executive director of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) for 21 yrs. He is not only a passionate bird watcher but also a bird sound recording fanatic. He has since retired and at 68, is my buddy for many of the wildlife adventures in Malaysia. Ken first came to S'pore from the UK in early fifties and then he went over to Malaysia and finally settled in Petaling Jaya. He never wanted to return home to the UK and loves the tropical heat! He was, and still is, passionately in love with Malaysian birds. He also speaks fluent Cantonese. You know once you get into the scientific circle of friends, you will know where to go for what. And these full-time scientists or serious amateurs will be most helpful! It's a lot based on contacts and who you know.... like everything else in life I suppose.

How is your work different from other nature photographers? I believe every nature photographer is different as no two pictures taken by two photographers are exactly alike. But I don't think I am any way more special than any other nature photographers. We all develop our own styles and pursue the areas we most love. I must say that I still am learning from others and others may learn from me. But what I want to achieve is to cover as many areas of nature photography as possible. I am now venturing deeper into photomicrography and would like to get involved in astro-photography at a later stage.

Mr Chew has to date authored or co-authored eight books. His pictures have been used in many international books and magazines, the latter of which also bear some of his writing contribution.