SkyBlueSky

In Kars

First day of a 2 week plus trekking / photo adventure in the north eastern Turkish city of Kars.  A little rough but welcoming. More to come.

36 Hours in Vientiane for The New York Times

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.

Penang for the New York Times

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.

 

River Deep, Mountain High

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)

Turkey Bound

Off to Turkey January 19-February 13. Editors can contact me at +6012 206 2779 or via the website.

Looks like it will be cold with a chance of snow in Istanbul. First stop is a cup of tea here while I get my bearings.

(above: Turkish fishermen share a meal in the galley of their ship. Sinop port on the Black Sea coast October, 2011).

Foraging

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.

My Date with The Bachelorette

One thing about freelancing is that you never quite know what's going to happen next. One minute you might be sitting there thinking it's finally time to start that archiving project that you've been putting off for umpteen years and the next you may get an email asking if you're free to shoot stills for a reality TV show. That's basically what happened when I received an email from a prodution person at Disney / ABC Television asking if I would be free to shoot an episode of a reality show they would be taping in Chiang Mai.

The brief was pretty simple - candid portraits and action shots of cast and crew. Clean back plates of all sets. Turn in unedited, untouched jpeg images within 24hours of the shoot. The day will begin at approximately 8:30am and end at approximately 5:30pm. Transport to and from location(s) will be provided.  ( and PS - clean your lenses).

As I wrote here I had no idea what the show was until I was able to ask some of the other crew. Not, as it turned out it would really matter, since I have been outside of US pop culture for some time. So much like a 'blind date' I figured I would work through the day and either have fun or get punched in the face.

A long day but it really was fun. There were no 'sets' or a formal script. I found out that there would be two locations in the course of the day but everything else, for my part anyway, was kept open. It was basically 'run and gun' all day. The challenge for me was to stay out of the way of 4 to 6 camera people and an equal number of sound people. I was jumping in and jumping out of 'scenes' all day. Not ideal, but that's how it works. The cast and crew were total professionals and if you see the show the 'bachelors' took an absolute beating throughout the day. How they managed to stay upright to the end I'll never know (it was about all I could to to get in the tuk-tuk at the end of the day).

Two days after this assignment I was shooting this story which for me is probably more familiar turf. But it never hurts to stretch out and try something different. All in all a good experience. The client was happy and I learned a few things in the process - like drink plenty of water and never miss a chance to use the bathroom because you never know what might happen next.

 

Going green in Kao Hsiung

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.

Chiang Mai for the New York Times

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.

 

Faces of Ipoh

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!"