Newton Liu Photography

Web app · 2026Under construction

eBird Explorer

A birding trip planner built on eBird’s live data. For a given area, users input target species and the engine searches for where they’ve been reported lately, and which hotspots hold the most of them, generating an actionable plan for birders.

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eBird Explorer's Area Plan for Quebec: six trip areas across the top, Trois-Rivières picked, and its hotspots ranked by how many target birds each has reported, each bird listed under its hotspot.
Area plan: every hotspot in an area, ranked by how many target birds it holds
eBird Explorer's Species Matrix: target birds down the side, Quebec trip areas across the top, each cell marked Reliable, Possible, No reports or Not enough, with its checklist rate.
Species matrix: each bird against each area, by its share of complete checklists

Web app · 2026Under construction

Photography Planner

A planner for landscape photography. Pick a date and a base, and it searches for and scores photography spots for different times of day and different elements (sunrise, sunset, golden light, soft light, fog, stars and aurora) using forecast, tide and space-weather data. Then it builds the day: when to wake, where to drive, and a backup for each session, with the reasons behind every score. It started with a stormy week in Charlevoix, Quebec, in October 2026.

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Photography Planner's day plan for Sunday 18 October 2026 from Baie-Saint-Paul: wake at 06:31, then golden light at the Baie-Saint-Paul lookout scoring 10, golden light at Port-au-Persil and stars at Petits Lots, each session with leave, arrive and shoot times, its reasons and a backup.
Day plan: when to wake, then a pick and a backup for each session, with the reasons
The spot sheet for the Baie-Saint-Paul lookout on Sunday 18 October: an hourly chart of low, mid and high cloud, fog and rain for the day, a sun and moon timeline, and the dawn, sunset and dusk times.
Spot sheet: the day’s cloud layers, fog and rain hour by hour, against the sun and moon
Map of Charlevoix for Saturday 17 October 2026, each saved spot marked by its best score for the day, from Hautes-Gorges in the north to the Baie-Saint-Paul lookout in the south.
Map: every spot marked with its best score for the day

Web app · 2026Under construction

Retreat Finder

A finder for places to stay on trips. Claude searches Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com and hosts’ own sites and reads each listing. The app scores every place against a curated taste: views, designs, workspace, solitude, etc. It shows the evidence behind each judgement, remembers every rejected place and why, and tracks prices for exact dates.

Open the app → Password required

Web app · 2026Under construction

Site Ranking

Inspired by the viral food ranking app Beli, this is a personal ranking system of the eBird hotspots a user has birded. Each visit gets a score for the quality of the birds, the number of species and the experience; then, pairwise comparisons put every site in order within its tier, so the list says which places were really the best. It runs alongside eBird Explorer and shares its sign-in.

Open the app → Password required