SAN PABLO CITY – Looking beyond what the eyes can see was one thing photographer Romy Ocon imparted during the Earth Day celebration in Laguna on April 22. Apart from taking on the challenge of shooting wild birds with his camera, he is also struggling with color-blindness.

Ocon, 43, was born with the disability. He recalls how he used to wear colored socks in school, thinking that they were white. “My teachers thought I was simply stubborn for not following their instructions,” he said.

Although he can recognize a tad of colors, he has difficulty distinguishing shades, as in blue from violet. “It became a problem when I indulged in photography,” he said.

The condition became even more of a disadvantage for the photographer of birds since the feathered creatures are usually identified by their plumage.

To ensure that his shots are accurate, Ocon uses the white or color balance available in digital cameras, a feature that adjusts primary colors in an image to produce the correct neutral colors. “If you are able to get your white correctly (during image processing), all the other colors will follow,” he added.

Ocon’s 11-year-old son Romeo, who is starting to go into “birding” or bird photography as well, plays a big role in his profession. Ocon would ask the boy to look at the raw photographs and compare them with images in books and plates.

“He is very good with colors. In fact, I call him my color consultant,” Ocon said. From there, father and son would enhance the colors accordingly while processing the images.

Caught on cam

Just like any other bird hunter, Romy used to shoot birds with an air rifle. But his passion for photography led him to realize the challenge of shooting birds with perfect timing and appropriate angle and light – without harming the subject.

“Bird photography can be shared through various media such that people will learn what they will miss when destruction of the birds’ habitat continues,” he said.

In 2004, Ocon decided to retire from the family’s business in construction chemicals so he could concentrate on bird photography. His first major exhibit was the Earth Day celebration of local and national artists at Kusina Salud restaurant in San Pablo City recently.

Ocon’s photographs have been displayed online at different Philippine bird forums and on his own blog site. His search for wild birds has brought him to places as diverse as Palawan, the Cordilleras, Davao, Central Luzon, Subic and Laguna.

His shot of a stripe-headed Rhabdornis (Rhabdornis mystacalis) in February 2006 made it to the Handbook of the Birds of the World, an international multivolume series on avifauna produced in Spain. Taken at the Subic rainforest in Zambales, it was deemed one of the rare times the bird was “captured” by the lens in its natural habitat.

Tip of the iceberg

Of the 614 bird species in the Philippines, 195 are endemic, Ocon said. He has been able to photograph 252 of the species, but he said he was only “barely able to touch the surface.”

He classifies the birds as residents or those staying for the breeding season, migrants or those seasonally moving to other locations for favorable conditions, and endemic or those native in the land, which he is more interested in.

Apart from their plumage, Ocon is able to appreciate how birds survive naturally in the Philippines from the time they are bred until they mature. Bird photography makes him realize how privileged humans are with all the amenities in the world.

“Birds are an indicator of the environment’s quality. They look for two things – food and safety,” he said. The presence of birds indicates habitat, forests and water systems, he added.

At present, over 10 percent of the Philippine bird species are globally threatened. Only around 300 pairs of the Philippine monkey-eating eagle are left, as of Ocon’s last count.

He remembered his son asking him why illegal hunters are not ashamed of what they are doing. The words so struck him that he wished to go to that level when people would stop harming the environment not because it was illegal but because they would be ashamed to do so.

“If people will see what they will lose, they might start taking action,” Ocon said. He hopes to raise the people’s awareness on the need to protect the birds’ habitat in much the same way that his subjects are able to soar to new heights.

(Romy Ocon’s Gallery may be viewed at http://romyocon.blogspot.com)