A Lost To Birding Community

I was shocked and sad to know that a friend of mine had passed away on 24th August 2011. The news received on 25th through his Facebook account and I had to read it more than once to realized that the sad news was true.

Choo Tse Chien, a bird lover and one of the best birding photographer in Malaysia. He was a mentor in giving advices to me on bird photography.

My friendship with him was a short one. I knew him for only about a year and we only met once. That one time that we had met was not a 'friendly' kind of meeting. We only shake hand, introducing our self and talk about birding photography gear (his gear mostly as he had this 600mm F4 Nikkor Lens and I was only with my 400mm f5.6). Yes, it was a short meet-up as coincidentally we were birding at the same spot in Fraser's Hill. After that, although I got his business card, I had never called him up and almost forget about him. Even I can't recalled his name.

Then after a month, through a relative of mine, he introduced me to a birder that he met during the Langkawi Bird Race through Facebook. I adored my new friend passion in birding photography and also his adventure in bird watching. Through Facebook we communicate either through his wall and my wall. Even we exchanged private messages mostly talking about birding. After a while only I had realized that hey, this was the guy that I had met in Fraser's Hill. I accidentally had his photo while birding in Fraser's Hill and asked him whether the man in the photo was him. And yes, he also shocked to see the photo and recalled our meet up.

After that, we kept communicating with each other and he was planning to come over to Melaka for birding. I had also planned to purchase his Sigma 150-500 lense and he introduced me to a flash enhancer called 'Better Beamer'.

Although I only managed to knew him just for a short period, he was a very kind person and I feel his lost even. I guess that his other friend and buddy that had knew him for a longer period will deeply sadden as I am positively sure that he was a great friend to them. A lost of a friend and a lost to Malaysia birding community even ... may you rest in peace Chien !

 Our first and only meet - up @ Fraser's Hill

For those who had missed his work, you may visit his webpage at http://www.aviannaturescapes.net