..but no cigar as they say. But I was very pleased to have been selected as a finalist (in three categories) in the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year. The organizers have been kind enough to post the winners here.
If you happen to be in London (or you're feeling particulary generous and would like to send me) an exhibition of the finalist (including your's truly) are on display at the Mall Gallery through April 29.
Congrats to all the winners. See you next year!
I had not been to Vientiane for years so I was chuffed when the NY Times asked me to head over there a few weeks back to shoot a '36 Hours' piece. Check out the article here and the slideshow here.
Of course, it being Asia I knew there would be changes, and there were (big time). But scratch the surface and what I knew and liked about the place came back. Great people, great food in a (relatively) laid back, funky city. Thanks to all the great people I met on this quick trip. Hope to see you again as a tourist.
It's always nice to do a story close to home so I was delighted when asked to photograph 36 Hours : Penang for the New York Times. (Go here for the slideshow).
Assignments always push me to do a little more, like knock on complete stranger's door at 8:00am to ask if I can take a photo (above) from their window.
..or to climb on to a fishing boat to see what I can see..
..but mostly it is about trying to see the place with the eyes of a visitor. ..
..scenes that I might sometimes take for granted..
But there really is so much cool stuff here that I'm still finding new things about the place. And the best part is that it seems to still be getting better.
For more Penang check out past work in the NYT here as well as a 'self assigned' series 'My Penang',
or take a musical tour here.
I shot the cover and provided content for this month's Singapore Airlines SilverKris magazine where I followed white water rafters down Chiang Mai's Mae Taeng River.
and (gulp) rappelled 55 meters into the appropriately named Anxiety Crisis State Cave where I took the cover shot.
A special thanks to photographer, climber and overall renaissance man Dan Morris (pictured above) and the crew at Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures for their help with this shoot. These guys really do put safety first and trust me, I would not have done the rappell if I wasn't confident that they knew what they were doing. Good folks to know if you're headed that way and want to do some climbing.
Who knew northern Thailand was more than just food.
(Chiang Dao mountain)
(Wat Tham Paplong at the base of Chiang Dao mountain)
The brief went something like this : 'stay at a luxury resort in northern Thailand, forage for wild herbs, fruits and vegetables, pick organic vegetables from the properties' garden, watch prep and cooking, shoot portraits of chef, eat said food, ride elephants (OK - I added that part), bring back pretty pictures.'
I heart my job!
Here are the outtakes. Look for the final results in this month's Travel + Leisure SEA.
If you've heard / read much about Taiwan's industrial development you would probably not think that green and Kao Hsiung would be used in the same sentence. Back in the day I knew people that would go there on business. It was the kind of place you got in to and got out of as quick as possible and, if you were lucky, managed not to breathe. So shooting a feature story for Travel + Leisure SEA on Kao Hsiung's efforts to 'go green' might seem like a nearly impossible challenge.
But infact my sceptisim proved to be misplaced. Kao Hsiung really does have some cool stuff which will make it (IMHO) one of the most liveable cities in Asia.
Tons of bike trails (courtesy of a huge 'rails to trails' program), bike rentals plus wetland areas and parks (yes, in an Asian city).
The great thing is that all this is just the beginning - there's more to come. Check it out.
Back in March I was contacted by the New York Times to photograph a 'food driven' story in Chiang Mai. Not entirely new territory. I've been spending a fair amount of time in Chiang Mai this year with a heavy focus on food. The assignment got elevated a notch when I found out that I would be following along with author J.J. Goode, Pok Pok owner / chef Andy Ricker around a few of the places that inspired him. The article is on line here with a bonus audio slide show here.
All in all, big fun and good eats, and I knew Andy was a cool guy when he said that Chiang Mai's Myung Mai market was his favorite in S.E. Asia. I can relate to that.
Some of you may have plowed through my previous post where I blathered on about the challenges I faced photographing this story in Ipoh. But, at the end of the day that is all crap. It doesn't matter what the photographers issues are what matters are the people on the other side of the camera. Whether they knew it or not the people of Ipoh made my job so much easier just by being their naturally chilled out selves. For this I say "thanks, Ipoh!"
In August, 2010 I shot an assignment in Ipoh for Saveur magazine which I'm pleased to say is seeing the light of day in the October 2011 issue (out now).
When you ask Malaysians about Ipoh they often get this faraway look and mumble something along the lines of 'You've got to try X, then X, then X..' In short Ipoh is the Malaysian culinary Disneyland. So needless to say, apart from the thrill of shooting for a publication known for the high quality of its' photos, I was also glad to know I was going to eat very, very well.
Or so I thought. Here's the backstory, literally.
We had just returned to Malaysia from an epic 5 week trip in Turkey where too much gear, a steep, winding 5-story staircase and an evil taxi driver conspired to strain my lower back. I've had these kinds of things before so I really wasn't concerned, figuring that with a few days and some ibuprofen I'd be fine.
So when I got the call, a week after arriving back home, from the Saveur photo ed asking me to head up to Ipoh I didn't give it any thought.
The day arrived and I packed the car and headed north - nervous but excited . I arrived at about 4pm and got right to it shooting in and around 'old town'. Later that evening I met the story's writer and her uncle who would be with us for part of the 2+ days shoot. We set out a plan and agreed to get going at sunrise.
What transpired between our meeting and sunrise will probably make this the most memorable assignment I've had to date. I had tucked myself into bed and was reading when seemingly out of nowhere I got a stabbing pain in my lower back, followed by a cramp in my right thigh.
This was not your 'normal garden variety' pain.. it was the kind of physically contorting pain that will send you jackknifing around the room. I popped a few more ibuprofens but nothing I could do would stop what seemed to be a full-on needle attack of my spine.
Lying wide awake at about 3am I started to think that I might need to call Saveur and try to take a raincheck but I knew that wasn't going to happen. Being good folks they probably would have said 'yes' but from my side I knew I couldn't go there. I was hired to do a job and they counted on my doing it. Put on your 'big pants' and do it, I told myself.
I finally passed out from sheer exhaustion around 4am and when the alarm went off two hours later I felt like maybe the worst had passed. I got out of bed -- and fell directly into the wall. My right leg was numb and would barely support my weight. I'm thinking it's just that the leg is asleep, so I proceeded to get in the shower and wait for that needling, tingly sensation you get when an appendage 'wakes up'. But it never came.
My leg stayed numb. And I still had work to do.
One thing that I've learned as a photographer is that the position you get yourself in before taking a photo can make all the difference. The frame isn't going to come to you, you've got to go to the frame. You have to find the 'sweet spot' that gives you a knockout vantage. That might be standing on a chair, or squatting or even laying on the ground.
All well and good when both legs are functioning as they should, but throughout the shoot I found that one of my legs just wouldn't do what I told it to. I discovered this when I climbed on a chair for an overhead in a dim sum shot that ended up being the opening shot to the article. I could climb up but couldn't climb back down.
So I stood on the chair much longer than I actually needed to to get the shot. I stood there for what seemed like a lifetime taking pics and trying to think of a graceful way to get down, short of asking for help, which of course I couldn't do. Eventually I grabbed a corner of the steamer table (which was, uh, steaming hot) and got myself down to floor level.
One challenge down, 48 hours and change to go.
I spent most of the day working around town, walking block by block looking for scenes and people to photograph and scoping out light for shots the next day. By 8:30pm or so I decided to call it quits and grabbed a few beers and ice to take back to my hotel.
Writing this now I distinctly remember that first cold sip as I propped myself up on a stack of pillows, the ice pack nestled in the small of my back. I downloaded the day's images and then waited for what I hoped would be a much needed good night's sleep.
Stupid me..as soon as I closed my eyes it came at me again..that stabbing, now excruciating pain..another 4 am night.
Out the door early again the next day. I wanted to hit Sun Yoong Foong Coffee Shop before they put the chits down, which would block the sun. When I arrived the light was there and I was having a great time -- but for new problem.
Now it seemed that the pressure from whatever was happening in my back meant that I couldn't lift my right foot at all. So when I walked it kind of sounded like when you get a flat tire: flop, flop, flop.
At one point I got on my knees to photograph the vendor above and found that in order to push myself back to standing I had to drop to all fours. The folks in the coffee shop were gracious but clearly concerned for what I assume they thought was a problem with my state of mind.
I still had a fair number of locations to cover so I just kept moving and shooting despite the pain.
The other frustrating thing was that I wasn't eating all that well. The back thing suppressed my appetite. Plus I was in work mode, unwilling to take the time for a meal lest I miss a critical shot.
Later that afternoon I met Shaik Acandeen, proprietor of C-T Corner Cendol . He said I looked tired. He said 'perhaps you should sit and have some cendol'.
And so I did..and he was right. Not that there's any sort of healing properties in cendol but sitting for those few minutes gave me a chance to think about the shoot and realize that I was in the home stretch. I would go until dark and then do a little more in morning but either way I would be heading back to KL by noon the next day.
The next morning I was up before dawn. The light was soft as I shot around town. I was still walking around with my 'flat tire' foot but what kept me going was the certainty that in 5 hours, for better or worse, I would be in my car heading south.
There was one last stop with the writer to shoot Ipoh's most famous dish: Hainanese-style poached chicken with bean sprouts and hor fun / rice noodles.
I photographed the dishes, then did something I hadn't yet done. I ate the props. They tasted very, very good. Maybe not in quite a Lt. Colonel William Kilgore way but close. That chicken tasted so good because I realised I had made it to the end, that I had done my job and finished my work -- something I didn't think I could do two days before. After lunch I got into the car and popped in a CD. This tune came up and I hit the freeway.
No matter how much you shoot or how many jobs you've completed every assignment has its challenges. It's so easy to second-guess your work. These may not be the 'best' images I have ever produced, and anyway that's not entirely for me to judge.
What I do know is that I pushed myself to do something that I didn't think I could do. I'm going to be carrying that around with me for while to come.
I shot a food driven feature in Malaysia's Kelantan State for this month's Travel + Leisure SEA. Most of the story centered around the capital, Kota Bharu which admittedly is not the most attractive city in S.E. Asia and made even less attractive by several days of unseasonal, rainy weather. Still, at the end of the day I met some of the friendliest people I have encountered in any part of Malaysia (I thought Penang folk were friendly but when I got back Kelantan they really seemed 'cold' in comparison) and had some truly amazing food. Check out the mag then check out Kelantan. Also, in the same issue, check out one of my favorite images from Saigon on the "Last Look" page. Here are few that didn't make the Kelantan cut.
