MALAYSIAN WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY

                                                                Juru GPS Location: N 05 18.831   E 100 24.732 Location of Juru, Batu Kawan and Byram Local fishing fleet at Juru Juru, Batu Kawan and Byram   are mainland Penang locations that face Penang island. They are accessed from Penang Island via consecutive off-roads along the North-South Highway with Juru being the first in line on the Southern drive. The shooting territory at Juru consists of a reasonably wide  road that runs parallel to a mangrove forest that is interspersed with inlets hosting a local fishing fleets.   Segments of the road abut the forest directly while others have a tidal ‘ditch’ in between the road and the forest. The road runs North and South so the morning sun lights the forest well. Discerning nature photographers need good light and for birds………..good perches. Batu Kawan has a range of good perches within lens range and Byram has many excellent perches in the form of dead trees

        It is my intention in this article to outline some locations within an hours drive from Penang Island that offer nature photography opportunities. One of my major aims with my photos is to provide illustrations to interested or dis-interested parties as to the beauty of the natural world and what they stand to lose with unthinking and self-interested ‘development’. I prefer to share information rather than sequester it, which too many photographers tend to do. There is always a danger of overpopulation of the long lens brigade that is witnessed currently in land-restricted Singapore. Malaysia is big enough to a greater population of hopefully well-intentioned photographers so my aim is to help them or the overseas visitors. These folk provide the visual window to our precious natural heritage.        I have separate blogs to the delights of the prime photographic locations in the region so those mentioned below are considered secondary sites. Most will have seasonal variat

Diagram of the shooting location at Byram (orange road) The rubbish mound between the pond reflection and the clouds A rainbow at the entrance to the estuary When I came to live on Penang Island I was given three GPS locations, which were the recommended bird photography sites. One of these was adjacent to the large refuse dump at Byram. The dump is located on mainland Penang, on the coast facing Penang Island. The Pulau Burung Landfill Site (PBLS) is a semi-aerobic landfill located in Byram Forest Reserve. The total area of landfill is 63.5ha which receives 2,200 tons of solid waste daily. The site was established in 1991. Landfill is the technique most employed worldwide for the disposal of municipal solid waste in developing countries such as Malaysia. In landfills solid waste decomposes through a series of combined physiochemical and biological processes giving rise to an extremely polluted liquid called landfill leachate. The poisone