The pleasure of working with passionate professionals

March 21, 2023 in Article, Story, Travel

In the last 18 years or so, as I’ve travelled the world in search of new and interesting images, I think I’ve worked with a truly vast array of guides, fixers and travel companies both local, regional and international. Now, this was a necessity - I chose to never use one of the many companies offering “travel photo tours” as I have always found them to be too superficial, mostly inflexible, extremely expensive and ultimately, geared for people looking to add ready-made images to their portfolios - and, to make things worse (for me anyway) they are usually “led” by another photographer who assumes, by definition, to know more than you do. Not falling into this category (and not having upwards of £7,000 for two weeks to spend), I have always gone it alone.

Ladakh for the hapless travel photographer...

September 07, 2022 in Advisory, Review, Travel

Ladakh has been a part of the world i’ve wanted to visit for years - after all, why wouldn’t I? There’s amazing monasteries perched on hilltops against dramatic background scenery, there are monks and novices, there are beautiful valleys and rivers small and large and there are, more importantly for me, tribespeople to meet and photograph. And all that in a small area - relatively - easily accessible from New Delhi and, from rumours, relatively inexpensive. So, this summer, I actually went - found a really good guide and fixer who claimed to be able to do everything I wanted to do and we were good to go.

Photography in the middle of the Huaorani territory

April 28, 2022 in Technique, Advisory, Gear, Travel

Few things in life are as easy or creative as photographing the Huaorani - apart from the fact they’re simply amazing and wonderful to photograph, they inhabit one of those truly blessed places in the world where, despite it’s challenges, photography can take a hundred different turns and expressions.

A new approach to sustainable cultural tourism

April 27, 2022 in Story, Advisory, Travel

There have been a number of articles and arguments lately on people attempting to visit and photograph remote, previously unreachable, tribes, be that in the Amazon or the Andaman Islands or any of the other places such tribes still live. The arguments against it are many but they essentially filter down to: “live them alone as the modern world will only bring about the destruction of their innocence and their way of life”.

Why we don’t deserve good things…

November 16, 2021 in Rant, Advisory, Travel

As photographers we live a sort of charmed life - we get to travel the world and, in exchange for loads of effort and exercising our art, we get to experience incredible people and amazing places. It’s not an easy life - certainly gets harder every year - but it can be magical. But despite that, we are, really, not very nice people - we are selfish, most of the time ignorant of the world around us, inconsiderate of others and, more and more frequently, downright nasty. I have always known that, but it was only recently that I felt, for the first time, its effects!

Should you go where you shouldn’t go?

May 26, 2021 in Advisory, Travel

In these days where “wanderlust” has been replaced by “travel advice”, “travel restrictions”, “traffic light countries” and all those negative connotations, sometimes it’s worth stoping and thinking about the bigger picture. In fact, it may be worth thinking a little bigger than we used to - going outside the usual parameters, looking at places we have always discarded.

Travel at the times of the pandemic...

January 08, 2021 in Advisory, Travel

Travelling during a pandemic can be extremely challenging, more hassle than travel ever used to be (or, between us, ever should be) and it entails risks. Yet, at the same time, with just a bit more careful planning, it not only allows the cautious traveller to continue doing what they want but also presents a lot more opportunities for better trips (and better photography).

Three generations of Hamer warriors, Omo Valley (1200ws at full power, 120cm octabox, camera right)

Travelling with light

December 31, 2020 in Travel, Story, Technique

2020 has certainly been an insanely challenging year for all of us - for photographers a time for introspection, of rethinking a million billion things, of looking back and forward, of finding new creative avenues and pathways. Stuck inside our homes, cut off from our clients, our models and our muses, unable to collaborate with all those people who give life to our ideas we were forced to look back to our past work and, in more ways than one, reevaluate it. At least, that was what I did and it led me to, well, think differently.

Sometimes you just fail - completely and miserably!

September 19, 2020 in Technique, Travel, Advisory

Even the best laid plans…(or why I completely failed during my last trip!)

…and yes, I am fully aware of what I’m saying: my last photographic foray was a failure. Maybe not complete in the absolute sense of the word, but certainly miles away from what I had plan, what I had envisaged and what I wanted to achieve. Even to this day, more than a month later, it fills me with anger and bitterness that I don’t know how to overcome. But maybe its better if I explain.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to Mr Teekam Chand Pahari!

January 22, 2020 in Travel, Story

Mr Pahari is a street photographer plying his trade - and what a trade it is - on the streets of Jaipur, a few dozen meters away from Hawa Mahal (also known as the Palace of the Winds). Armed with a camera built more than 100 years ago, a bucket of water and a piece of cloth in lieu of a backdrop, Mr Pahari shoots, develops and sells portraits of his clients and has been doing so for the past 30 years, just like his father and his father’s father before him. The portraits he takes are reminiscent of those images we see in museums only they feature us, dressed in our colourful, branded, every day t-shirts and shorts - a far departure from those elegant and timeless portraits of the late Victorian era.

Photography at the Mt Hagen Show in Papua New Guinea

August 30, 2019 in Travel, Advisory

Let me start by explaining exactly why I chose to write this “Photographer’s guide to the Mt Hagen Show” - especially since this is not something I usually do. Believe it or not, I did not put this together because I know better or I’m a better photographer, but because after searching for months for any article, blog post - anything really - which describes what happens during the show, what visitors should expect and so on, I came up with absolutely nothing. All I found were a few vague descriptions, some shaky videos but nothing to give a photographer enough to adequately prepare for what happens.

The early morning train coming through Train Street (this is the 6am train, going from Hanoi to Danang)

Hanoi's Train Street (and why social media can be a very bad thing for tourism)

May 05, 2019 in Travel, Rant

Researching what is worth seeing in Hanoi one cannot but stumble upon a mention of the famous Train Street. You get to read about the train which passes “inches from the houses” (it doesn’t), about the locals who live “right on the tracks and only move moments before the train arrives” (they don’t) and about how “crazy it all is” (it isn’t) and you start dreaming about it and wanting to see it and so on and so forth. I mean, let’s face it - it sounds absolutely tantalising and amazing - the antithesis between the fragile human with the massive metal beast that is the modern locomotive, especially in this day and age of political correctness and safety-above-all. So, if you’re in Vietnam for something more than cheap booze and party, Train Street is a must see, right?

Before you criticise someone, look to yourself...!

October 07, 2018 in Travel

More and more, whether you travel to Nottingham Forrest or the lower borders of the Omo Valley, chances are you’ll come across groups of photographers, lugging backpacks, tripods, lenses etc., all seeking the perfect picture and willing to go to any lengths, pay any amount of money, to get there. And this is wonderful - imagine: we’re living in an age where every single one of us can see the world through a thousand other eyes, for free, and draw inspiration! It’s wonderful.

But, there’s a dark side to this and it’s damaging our world…

working with professional photography fixers

January 24, 2018 in Travel, Advisory

We all come across images which awe and inspire us - in fact I’m willing to bet that every image which stops you dead in your tracks inspires something within you! This is true for everyone in the world, but even more for us photographers, because sometimes these images drive us to try and get some equally good ones. So we pack our bags and travel to exactly the same destination, at exactly the same time as the original image and…guess what, nothing - absolutely nothing - is like we imagined or planned and, even worse, those images we were 100% certain we would capture are nowhere to be found. How can that be?

Well, the images are there - trust me - but sometime (actually, most of the time!) you need some help to get to them. And that help is a professional fixer.