Your S’pore Story: ‘We want people to have a sense of calm with our videos or photos’

While most people like to associate Singapore with futuristic skyscrapers or hipster restaurants, Ms Lee Beixin, 33, and Mr Robin Lam, 33, prefer to showcase a lesser-known side of the country: its biodiversity, wildlife and nature landscape.

Through their respective Instagram pages, @beixin and @robinlamhj, they have told stories of Singapore, depicting serene natural scenes and moments of quiet introspection.

Watch their video here.

The married couple’s shared passion for visual storytelling has even led them to give up full-time jobs to work on a business in nature and travel photography and videography that has taken them all over the world, from Mongolia to Australia. Ms Lee was a former teacher, while Mr Lam worked as a creative producer previously.

Despite the opportunity to broaden their horizons overseas, what they truly love most is the daily joy of being surrounded by nature in Singapore.

Here, the married couple shares more on how their love for the outdoors sparked their journey into visual storytelling and why they are passionate about capturing Singapore’s hidden natural beauty.

“Before the Covid-19 lockdowns, whenever we travelled, we would take road trips out of the city where it would be quieter and be more of what we like. During the pandemic, we naturally went to quieter spots in Singapore – the early mornings at parks, especially Bishan Park and MacRitchie Reservoir, where you see aunties and uncles doing taichi, and there’s music and the birds. It’s nothing super extraordinary, but the feeling of such everyday moments is magical.

Plus, Singapore is not the first place you think of when you think of nature and biodiversity. So, we wanted to focus on a niche that you can’t see on Google, like interesting spots that we want to show to the world. Before this, when you think of Singapore on Instagram, it was very flashy or maybe even about Chinatown.

We started out doing black-and-white photos but added more colours along the way to showcase nature’s colours. When we started, we had a ‘faceless approach’, so we never put our faces on camera. We have always been consistent about this subtle approach to photography and film-making because we aren’t the true heroes but are there to give context and scale to the landscape.

Our world is kind of hectic, so we want people to have a sense of calm with our videos or photos. Even if you think you don’t like nature, we hope to inspire you to go for a hike for the first time, and maybe you will appreciate nature and with this comes the desire to protect it.”

For generations, The Straits Times has told The Singapore Story. To celebrate our 180th anniversary, we’re putting the spotlight on our communities – for you to tell us yours, from all around Singapore. Discover the stories from your neighbourhood as the series continues at Your Singapore Story.