Borneo Photography
Why Sabah Is One of the World's Great Wildlife Photography Destinations
From Mount Kinabalu to the Kinabatangan River and Danum Valley
From the granite peaks of Mount Kinabalu to the winding Kinabatangan River and the rainforest of Danum Valley, Sabah offers an extraordinary mix of landscape and wildlife photography. Here are the places I have been researching for my first Borneo expedition, along with the photographic challenges and possibilities that make them so interesting.
When you think about Borneo, what comes to mind?
For most people, I'd imagine it's orangutans, tropical rainforests and perhaps the odd enormous insect that you'd rather not discover in your hotel room!
And while all of those things are certainly part of Borneo's appeal, there's a lot more to this extraordinary island than you might initially expect.
I've been spending quite a bit of time researching Sabah, in Malaysian Borneo, as I put together my first photography expedition to the region in 2028. The more I learn about it, the more excited I become.
Within one part of the island, you can photograph towering granite mountains, atmospheric highland landscapes, winding rainforest rivers and some of the most remarkable wildlife habitats in Southeast Asia.
What really interests me is the variety. One morning you could be working on a landscape composition beneath Mount Kinabalu. A few days later, you could be sitting quietly in a small boat, watching proboscis monkeys moving through the trees along the Kinabatangan River.
And then there's Danum Valley, where an entirely different world awaits beneath the rainforest canopy.
So I thought I'd share some of the places I've been researching, what makes them photographically interesting, and a few things worth considering if you're planning your own Borneo photography adventure.
Mount Kinabalu: Borneo's Incredible Mountain Landscapes
Stock photograph: Mount Kinabalu photographed from Kundasang.
Photo: Jason Thien / CC BY 2.0. Unmodified.
Let's start somewhere you might not immediately associate with Borneo wildlife photography: Mount Kinabalu.
Standing at approximately 4,095 metres, this enormous mountain dominates the landscape of northern Sabah. It's also the centrepiece of Kinabalu Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site recognised for its exceptional biodiversity.
Now, you don't need to climb the mountain to appreciate its photographic potential. From a landscape photography perspective, I think some of the most interesting possibilities lie in the surrounding highlands.
The Kundasang area offers views towards the mountain across rolling hills, valleys and agricultural landscapes. Clouds can gather around the summit, mist can drift through the valleys and the entire scene can change dramatically over a relatively short period.
What I'd look for when photographing Mount Kinabalu
Personally, I'd be particularly interested in exploring the mountain at first light. Not just for the possibility of beautiful colour on the peaks, but for the atmosphere that changing weather can create.
A completely clear sky might give you a lovely view of the mountain, but add a few layers of mist and suddenly you've got something with much more depth.
I'd also be bringing a telephoto lens. We often associate landscape photography with wide-angle lenses, but longer focal lengths can be wonderful for isolating distant ridgelines and creating compressed, layered mountain compositions.
And if the clouds decide to swallow the entire mountain? Well, that's photography for you! Rather than packing everything away, I'd start looking at the surrounding landscape. Sometimes the conditions that ruin the photograph you planned lead to something much more interesting.
Kinabatangan River: Wildlife Photography From a Boat
Stock photograph: The Kinabatangan River in Sabah.
Photo: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas / CC BY-SA 3.0. Unmodified.
Now we're getting into the part of Borneo that has really caught my attention.
The Kinabatangan River in eastern Sabah is one of the region's best-known wildlife areas. Its surrounding forests provide habitat for an incredible variety of animals, including wild orangutans, proboscis monkeys, hornbills, crocodiles and Bornean elephants.
What makes the Kinabatangan particularly interesting for photographers is that much of the wildlife watching takes place from boats.
Instead of walking through thick rainforest vegetation, you're exploring the river and its forested banks, looking for wildlife moving through the trees, resting in branches or feeding near the water.
Early morning and late afternoon can be rewarding periods for wildlife watching, although no particular species or sighting is guaranteed. Wildlife has its own schedule, and I'm fairly certain the orangutans haven't been informed about ours!
The challenges of photographing wildlife from a boat
Photographing from a boat is quite different from standing on solid ground with a tripod. Even when the engine is switched off, the boat can drift or rock slightly. Your subject might be moving too, and the light beneath the forest canopy can be surprisingly poor.
That's why I'd prioritise a reasonably fast shutter speed and a flexible telephoto zoom lens. Something around 100-400mm or 100-500mm can be an excellent starting point, depending on your camera and the distance to your subject.
And remember, you don't always need to fill the entire frame with an animal. A proboscis monkey sitting among the branches, with the surrounding rainforest forming part of the composition, can tell a wonderful story about where that animal lives.
Stock photograph: A proboscis monkey photographed in the Kinabatangan area.
Photo: Ostaehli / CC BY-SA 4.0. Unmodified.
Why time and patience matter
One of the reasons I'm interested in private boat arrangements for my Borneo expedition is the additional flexibility they can offer. With a small group of photographers, we can spend more time observing behaviour and exploring photographic opportunities without trying to satisfy a large group of people with completely different interests.
Naturally, everything still depends on wildlife, river conditions and the judgement of our local guides. But having that flexibility is something I consider particularly valuable for photography.
If you are particularly interested in photographing from the river, I have a more detailed guide to Kinabatangan River wildlife photography from a boat, including camera settings and practical field advice.
Danum Valley: Photography Beneath the Rainforest Canopy
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Stock photograph: Morning mist over Danum Valley rainforest.
Photo: Christopher Michel / CC BY 2.0. Unmodified.
If the Kinabatangan River is about exploring the edges of the rainforest from the water, Danum Valley offers something quite different.
The Danum Valley Conservation Area protects approximately 438 square kilometres of forest in eastern Sabah, including extensive areas of unlogged tropical rainforest.
This is the kind of environment where enormous trees tower above you, vines and vegetation fill almost every available space, and the light filtering through the canopy creates a constantly changing scene. It's also important habitat for orangutans, gibbons, hornbills and many other rainforest species.
But I'm just as interested in photographing the forest itself.
Finding compositions in the chaos
One of the biggest challenges in forest photography is that there can be simply too much going on. Branches, leaves, vines, tree trunks and overlapping layers of vegetation can make it surprisingly difficult to find a clean composition.
I experience something similar when photographing woodlands closer to home. Sometimes you have to slow down, stop trying to photograph everything and start looking for smaller scenes.
Perhaps it's an enormous tree trunk with wonderful texture. Maybe there's a shaft of sunlight illuminating a patch of vegetation, or an interesting arrangement of leaves against a dark background.
Stock photograph: Lowland rainforest in the Danum Valley Conservation Area.
Working with limited light
Wildlife photography beneath a rainforest canopy brings another challenge. Light. Or rather, the lack of it!
Even during the middle of the day, dense vegetation can make conditions surprisingly dark. If you're photographing an animal moving through the trees, you may need to increase your ISO considerably to maintain a usable shutter speed.
That's absolutely fine. I'd much rather come home with a sharp photograph taken at ISO 6400 than a blurry one taken at ISO 800 simply because I was worried about noise.
The important thing is understanding when to prioritise shutter speed, when to accept a higher ISO and when conditions simply aren't suitable for the photograph you're hoping to make.
For a closer look at the challenges of working beneath the forest canopy, have a read of my Danum Valley rainforest photography guide.
Photographing Wild Orangutans in Borneo
Stock photograph: An orangutan in Sabah. Location-specific encounter details are not implied.
Photo: T. R. Shankar Raman / CC BY-SA 4.0. Unmodified.
I couldn't write an article about Borneo photography without talking about orangutans. They're extraordinary animals and undoubtedly one of the biggest reasons wildlife photographers are drawn to the island.
The Bornean orangutan is classified as Critically Endangered, with habitat loss and fragmentation among the major threats to its survival.
Encountering one in its natural environment would be an incredible privilege. But there's something I think is important to discuss when it comes to wildlife photography: wild means wild.
There are wildlife experiences where encounters are managed, including rehabilitation facilities where feeding may form part of an animal's care. Those facilities can play important roles in conservation, but they're different from searching for genuinely wild animals in their natural habitat.
For my Borneo expedition, the focus is very much on the latter. That means we might spend hours looking for orangutans without seeing one. We might hear something moving through the canopy only to discover that the animal is completely hidden by leaves.
Or, if we're fortunate, we might encounter one in beautiful light, with a clear view through the trees. That's the uncertainty of wildlife photography. And personally, I wouldn't want it any other way.
Photographing behaviour, not just portraits
Of course, everyone would love to come home with a beautiful orangutan portrait. But I think there's something equally special about photographs that show an animal within its environment.
An orangutan moving through the canopy, feeding among the branches or resting high above the forest floor can make a wonderful environmental photograph. These images tell us something about the animal's life, rather than simply showing us what it looks like.
We should also remember that the animal's welfare always comes first. No baiting, no attempts to force an encounter and no disturbing wildlife just to get a better photograph. There will always be another photographic opportunity. An animal's welfare is far more important than any picture.
Beyond Orangutans: Proboscis Monkeys, Hornbills and More
One of the things I find so appealing about Sabah is that the photographic possibilities extend well beyond a single species.
Proboscis monkeys are perhaps the next most recognisable animals associated with Borneo. With their distinctive noses, enormous bellies and rather wonderful expressions, they're certainly interesting photographic subjects!
They're also social animals, which creates possibilities for behavioural photography. Rather than concentrating exclusively on close-up portraits, I'd be looking for interactions between individuals, groups moving through the trees or animals silhouetted against the evening sky.
Then there are the hornbills. These magnificent birds are another major attraction of the Kinabatangan region. Photographing them in flight will be a very different challenge from photographing monkeys resting in the branches.
You'll want to be comfortable tracking moving subjects, using continuous autofocus and selecting shutter speeds appropriate for birds in flight.
And while larger wildlife understandably attracts plenty of attention, I wouldn't overlook the smaller creatures. Kingfishers, forest birds, reptiles, butterflies and other inhabitants of the rainforest can all provide wonderful photographic subjects.
One of the great pleasures of being out with a camera is discovering something you weren't originally looking for.
What Camera Equipment Would I Bring to Borneo?
I have also put together a full Borneo camera gear and packing guide, but there are a few things I would place high on my list.
A good telephoto zoom would be my starting point for wildlife. I'd also bring a wider lens for landscapes, rainforest scenes and atmospheric photographs around Mount Kinabalu.
But perhaps one of the most important pieces of equipment is something much less exciting: a decent camera rain cover.
Borneo is tropical, humidity is high and rain can arrive unexpectedly. Protecting your equipment matters, especially when you're travelling through remote areas.
I'd also think carefully about spare batteries, memory cards, dry bags and a sensible way to carry your equipment without bringing every lens you own. And believe me, as photographers, we can be quite good at convincing ourselves that we need absolutely everything!
For rainforest wildlife, I'd generally prioritise a manageable setup over carrying an unnecessarily heavy collection of lenses. You want to be ready when something happens, not digging through your camera bag trying to decide which lens to use.
The Real Appeal of Wildlife Photography in Sabah
I think one of the things we sometimes forget about wildlife photography is that it's not always about the photograph.
Of course, we all want to return home with images we're proud of. But spending time in an environment, learning about the animals that live there and beginning to understand their behaviour is a huge part of the experience.
And that's what makes the idea of photographing Sabah so exciting to me.
You've got the dramatic landscapes around Mount Kinabalu, the extraordinary wildlife possibilities of the Kinabatangan River and the completely different photographic challenges of Danum Valley.
There will almost certainly be frustrating moments. There will be missed photographs, difficult light, unpredictable weather and wildlife that decides it has absolutely no interest in posing for us.
But there will also be those moments when everything comes together. And sometimes the images you remember most are the ones you never planned to take.
Join Me in Borneo in 2028
I'm currently developing a small-group Borneo Photography Expedition for 27 June to 10 July 2028, taking in Mount Kinabalu, the Kinabatangan River and Danum Valley.
The expedition is designed for a maximum of six photographers, with an emphasis on wildlife photography, beautiful landscapes, responsible encounters and plenty of flexibility to respond to conditions in the field.
Rather than rushing between locations, the aim is to give ourselves meaningful time to explore and photograph what makes each environment special. You can also browse my landscape photography workshops and expeditions for other destinations.
And whether you decide to join us or head off on your own Borneo adventure, I hope this article has given you a few ideas and perhaps a little inspiration for what could be a wonderful photographic experience.
Thanks so much for reading, folks.
Explore My Borneo Photography Expedition
14 days in Sabah, from Mount Kinabalu to the Kinabatangan River and Danum Valley. Maximum six photographers, with a photography-first approach and realistic expectations of wild encounters.
Explore Borneo Expedition 2028 →