Customer Reviews

Palms of Malaya

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It is with utmost regrets that I learned of the demise of Dr. T.C. Whitmore this morning when I surfed the internet. I had known Tim way back in 1965 when he was the Colombo Plan Botanist working at the Forest Research Institute, Kepong, Malaysia. We were colleagues then. I was employed as the research photographer at the Institute.
He often came down to my lab. to consult with me with regards to photography in the gloomy tropical rain forests and I would advised him how to go about capturing the images successfully...! Once, Tim was overly excited when he asked my help to develop a roll of film in which the last two exposures captured a pair of swimming Malaysian tapirs along a jungle river.
I was not only able to salvage these two important exposures but also used my best efforts to develop the film in a special developer. The result gleaned one of the issues of the Malayan Nature Society Journal's cover...!
In this book on palms, Tim was able to used several of my professional pictures on forest palms and he kindly acknowledged my contributions here too! I lost touch with this good friend when I finally settle down in Canada. But I still treasure this book and one other that he so kindly sent to me with my photographs within them.
Looking back, Tim and I spent a good deal of time in the forests of Malaysia to document photographically the many interesting aspects of the typical rain forests. I also recalled spending more than a week with Tim, his two botanical assistants and native plant collectors in the wilds of Kelantan State Storm Forest. This unique forest has tall trees with a curious bend some 20 feet above ground - a phenomenon due to the effects stormy weather...! When this photographic mission was over, our entire party came to the Sungei Gelok River - an international boundary dividing Malaysia from Thailand. We were fortunate to photograph a series of impactful pictures depicting the employment of elephants in hauling logs. When we got back to the Institute, Tim and I jointly wrote and submitted an article, entitled: LOGGING ELEPHANTS IN KELANTAN in the Malaysian Forester.
I shall miss this former good colleague which I come to like and appreciate his vast knowledge of the tropical rainforest. Tim was also a prolific and learned writer.
MAY HIS SOUL RESTS IN ETERNAL PEACE WITH OUR RISEN LORD, JESUS CHRIST....