Diversity...

Diversity...

In the U.K. I heard it said time and time again, "you have to specialise, find your niche". Apparently you can't be a commercial photographer, travel photographer, food photographer, fashion photographer, etc etc, you can only be one kind of photographer. There is no denying that certainly in London, and I expect other major photographic hubs such as New Your and Paris this may be the case due to the concentration of photographers. While I was in London I focused on editorial portraiture and dabbled with fashion, it worked for me and my portrait game became strong as a result of the practice and focus. I did make some effort with food photography and also shooting some product, but mostly concentrated on portraiture which I enjoy a great deal anyway so it was fun.

However I do like to diversify and had varied my subjects alongside my chosen "niche". I don't accept half measures from myself, or my team, everything I shoot, I shoot to the best of my ability, no matter what it is. Pushing to see faults, learn and correct them through a range of subjects has undoubtedly enabled me to take knowledge from one discipline and apply it to another. It also keeps me interested and driven in my work, feeling fresh and sustaining my inspiration in image making.

The first time I returned to the UK after moving to Taiwan I had a meeting with Roger Tooth (head of photography at the Guardian). It was music to my ears when he said that photographers can be more versatile, it was like a green light to explore, learn and develop myself further. We, as photographers should always be reaching to be better and produce better images, if we don't do this then why continue?

I work hard to be the best I can be across all the disciplines of photography I work in. This is paying off with work coming from a multitude of sources and across a range of genres. Regular readers will know about my Nat Geo Traveller assignments which I really enjoy. Travel can encompass all areas, street work, landscapes, portraiture, fashion and food...

So I suppose what I am saying is that I think it is possible to shoot at a high level across the different disciplines of photography if you put enough effort into it. Unfortunately what I see most times is "photographers" flitting from one to the next without spending enough time on any to become proficient. I feel they are trying to look for their photographic identity by jumping on a trend. More often than not they end up copying other and better photographers work badly. There is nothing wrong in taking cues from other photographers work, at the end of the day though, as a photographer it is your voice you need to get heard, and your style you need to develop. It needs to speak through all of your work, whatever subject you are making a photograph of. Concentrating long enough and practising hard enough to become not just proficient, but able to produce good, consistent and high quality work will bring great rewards, personally and professionally. Consistently trusting in myself and my communicative ability, my style, I believe does show within all my work. This is now reflected and confirmed by the diversity of work I get to enjoy shooting.

I love image making, I am starting to expand even further and moving towards creating fashion film. I am learning new software and fresh techniques almost daily. It is a great challenge which I simply enjoy so much. There is a wonderful feeling of producing something that you can feel proud of, that your team can feel proud of and that all of you enjoyed creating. I hope that my work brings pleasure to others too, and some inspiration. 

My plan is to never stop pushing myself, to always try and stay fresh and explore the boundaries of image making. And finally to go back to the start of this blog, I have to say there is some truth saying you can only be one kind of photographer, that is the best photographer you can be. If you want to shoot multiple genres, then practice them all equally hard and with the exact same mind set. Be honest with yourself, be your biggest critic. Listen to others also, it may not be what you want to hear, but take it on board and try to be objective.

Nowadays I am shooting mainly commercial, fashion and portraiture, I think these are the areas I get most creative pleasure from working in and I definitely have the most fulfilment working with people and a team.

My travel work with Nat Geo Traveller is fun for me and I will continue to do that as and when the opportunities present themselves, I do love an adventure in a foreign land, or even around the one I live in. That reminds me that I have not yet relayed the story of my epic thirteen day scooter tour of Taiwan last year, I will write that for you in a couple of blogs time. 

Next time I will finish up on my China assignment, for now though I hope that you enjoyed this, get where I am coming from regarding reaching to produce your best work and aim to do the same yourselves, no matter what you do for a living or a hobby.

Until then, check out my Website, Instagram , Tumblr, Twitter and Linkedin. Remember to LIKE COMMENT and FOLLOW.

Feel free to get in touch, if you have any questions, bookings, assignments etcetera, I am always interested to hear from you (contact me).

Love to all...

One last thing (which is amazing), my blogs are now becoming available in Chinese and can be found here.

I like to fish....but....

I like to fish....but....

Last time I spoke with you, I was talking about the morning visit to meet Qinchenshan's Pandas. This time I am going to relay the story of the afternoon's visit to the Cerealia Caviar Sturgeon farm.

Lying among the beautiful mountains of Dujiangyan the concrete fish pens funnel through fresh and oxygen rich ice melt water, perfect conditions for the Sturgeon that lurk below. To say Sturgeon are an ancient animal could be a slight understatement. Their evolution dates back some 240 million years, all the way back to the Triassic period. Having hardly changed as found from early fossil records, they have proved to be perfectly designed to survive. Only now, thanks to humans and harvesting of Sturgeon eggs for caviar in the wild have they become endangered. Farms such as this one are countering the need to catch and harvest wild fish, producing a very high quality caviar which is distributed all around the world to grace the tables of connoisseurs of this luxury delicacy.

Personally I am not the biggest fan of caviar, it just doesn't do it for me. I don't hate it, but like my wife with scallops, I feel those who appreciate it more should enjoy it. Having said that, I was lead to believe there would be an opportunity to actually try the fish itself, and that it really is very delicious. Similar to Sharks, Sturgeon do not have bones as such, instead they are all muscle around a cartilage like frame. The skin is smooth and scale free, armoured with hard plates with sharp edges along the sides and back, this teamed with their sheer scale, growing on average to 7-12 feet in length protects them from predators. The largest Sturgeon on record was a Beluga female captured in 1827, she weighed over 1500kg and measured a whopping 24ft!

After the fun Panda morning, I was looking forward to this amazing lunch, as ever though I got a different surprise, and treat. The surprise was not just for me though, it was for my friend and guide Olaf (Guest Experience Manager at The Six Senses Resort and Spa Qingchenshan). We were not offered the Sturgeon lunch, instead we were offered a chance to get in the water with these beasts and give them a hug. Well I thought that sounded like a splendid idea, Olaf on the other hand, having watched Jaws the night before was a little less enthusiastic.

This life experience was only given to us as they were purging the tanks and refreshing the water for the fish. As you can see the water level was drained, this meant the fish were much more concentrated in the couple of feet depth that was left. This level of concentration didn't do Olaf any favours, neither did my teasing as I gladly got into the cool water on the hot and sunny day. The fish are very solid as you can imagine, I tried to gently move through the water, almost stumbling as they brushed and banged unseen against my legs.

Snow (the lovely lady in the water already) was as amused as I was with Olaf's reluctance, but eventually we got him in and his fears were all but allayed.

  

I have fished on an off for most of my life and am quite used to handling them. I also am a fully trained rescue diver and enjoy seeing them in their natural environment. These guys were something different though. Bumping your leg into them felt a bit like trying to push a reluctant horse, they were slow most of the time and wonderfully docile. Maybe it is because the species has been around for so many millennia they have become super chilled out. Snow showed us how to give them a hug, I kind of knew it was best to not grab them, but to be gentle, calm, slow and deliberate so the fish didn't feel threatened.

I am not sure how much experience with fish Olaf has had, but they kept slipping through his arms with a splash.

My advice in English was echoed by Snow in Chinese "handle them gently and with care, like a woman...haha."

Having seen Olaf find success, I handed my camera to our driver and went back to greet the fish properly and have a closer look at what beautiful creatures they really are.

The sunlight hitting the fish made it shine golden, you can really see the platelets along the flanks of the fish and its whiskers which help it hunt out it's food in the heavily coloured water, what a beautiful animal.

Finally it was time for all three of us to have our photo opportunity, or should I say four.

I am not sure how much the fish enjoyed that, but as you can see it was smiles all around for Snow, Olaf and I. I for one loved the chance to get in and see a Sturgeon up close an personal, what a great and graceful animal.

For me it is experiences like this that make travel so exciting, working hard has given me the privilege to shoot for Nat Geo Traveller UK, and have these experiences. Life has taught me to generally say yes when an opportunity such as this is presented. How many times in life will a person get to hug a Sturgeon after all, and share that experience with such lovely people, not to mention one from China, one from Germany and me from England. Wonderful.

I am going to continue with my China assignment, however I feel my next blog may be on a different subject, one that I have been thinking over for a couple of days now. That will wait, so for now I hope that you enjoyed the tale of this little adventure with the beasts beneath.

Don't forget to check out my Website, Instagram , Tumblr, Twitter and Linkedin. Remember to LIKE COMMENT and FOLLOW.

Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions, bookings or inquiries.

Until next time love to all....

   

National Geographic Traveller and the Panda Picnic....ish!

National Geographic Traveller and the Panda Picnic....ish!

Pandas, they are cute and cuddly right, well that is the image we project of them. Our lovable, playful black and white furry friends. For years we were always excited by news that males or females were being flown in to help with the attempt to rejuvenate the dwindling wild population of these humble creatures. Thanks to science, humans have now managed to work away around the frustratingly unsuccessful matchmaking and in Dujiangyan's Panda paradise there is a baby boom, well cub boom I guess. So I was very much looking forward to heading to Panda Valley for a proverbial Teddybears Picnic.

It can get pretty hot in Szechuan, and on this day it was clear blue sky's and edging past 34 degrees centigrade by 09:00. Not too much of a problem for me, but Pandas prefer it a little cooler, after all sitting around all day and eating bamboo is hard work. Almost as bothersome as donning a giant Panda suit and trapesing about on a social media exercise, which is what my friend, and guide Olaf (Guest Liason Manager at the Six Senses Resort) was having to endure.

He managed to terrorise a couple of children, entertain a few more, apologise for not being able to broadcast with the Pandas as they prefer it indoors with air con on full blast and that was my Panda adventure sadly. I got to look at them through the glass as they sat in a comfortable, temperature controlled environment eating. I found out that that is what they do pretty much, just eat and chill, not such a bad life huh. Then we were off to meet another wonder of nature, the Sturgeon.

Don't tell me that you thought I didn't get any actual Panda shots haha, of course I managed a few.

Next time I'll show you the Sturgeon farm and the fun we had there, I'll leave you with this silly picture of the Kung Fu Panda getting his butt kicked....

Don't forget to check out my Website, Instagram , Tumblr, Twitter and Linkedin. Remember to LIKE COMMENT and FOLLOW.

Feel free to get in touch, if you have a questions, bookings, assignments etc..

Love to all...

What I do on assignment for Nat Geo Traveller - Qingchenshan.

What I do on assignment for Nat Geo Traveller - Qingchenshan.

If you have been following along on my write up of my latest assignment for NGTUK, you will know that I have spent an evening in Chengdu, just hanging out, and then travelled to Dujiangyan before finally reaching The Six Senses Resort and Spa. The single ticket from Chengdu to Dujiangyan cost about 10 pence for a 45 minute trip, are you listening train services and governments, that is properly subsidised public transport. I had enjoyed my massage and facial and was now feeling refreshed and ready to continue.

Walking is best when on assignment. It is slower, allows more time to explore and really feel the location, get a handle on the atmosphere, look around, you know, be there. I was not quite prepared for the climb ahead of me though, I have lived in Asia long enough to know better. 

It isn't far to the foot of Qingchenshan from the hotel, but it is quite a trek to the top. My GPS indicated I had walked about 16km up to the top of the mountain from the resort, shuttle buses are available to the gate, but I didn't want to miss anything. Having walked all the way up, I caught the cable car back down, but was seriously feeling the fatigue later that afternoon. That is the next blog though, this one is the climb, the endless steps and the birthplace of Taoism. 

My Taiwanese family practice Taoism, it is a religion, similar to Buddhism but not quite the same, it is very popular here in Taiwan. If you want to know more I would suggest looking here: Taoism. It is an ancient philosophical, ritualistic and spiritual religion, beautiful temples are all over Taiwan, they are pretty nice to visit and very chilled to hang out in, Longshan in Taipei is my favourite in the city. On Qingchenshan there is the eldest and some of the most beautiful I have visited. Now beauty isn't always because they are colourful, beauty comes in many forms and these are beautiful because of history, and the tangible feeling you get from that, you can almost taste the history it is so thick in the air.

So I will start at the foot of the Mountain and the walk to the gate...

A beautiful sea of yellow lines the shaded pathway to the start of the climb.

There are other options of places to stay, it is pretty, but it isn't The Six Senses.

The first gateway, it's not too much further to the top from here, only another 13km!

Through this and there is a chance to see your first temple, grab a bite and then head to the ticket office.

Entrance to Jianfu Palace, notice the restaurant and shop to the left.

The ticket office is just that, not too exciting but I was amused to see the throbbingly busy and well stocked tourist information booth...

And so with ticket, map and GPS I set off...

I would not advise making a purchase before you climb the many many steps, purchase on the way back and have less far to carry it.

I figured these were to help people who had succumb to the effort of the climb. There were lots of old people, so it made sense some people may get into trouble, and need mountain rescue.

Possibly stationed along the route in case a rapid response was needed?

I was so wrong, they were just for folks who can afford to pay to be carried and feel no shame in that. Maybe I am wrong, but being carried is one thing, spending the entire time on your phone in such a beautiful place really got my goat I have to say.

The guys doing the work seemed happy enough though, they must be super fit, imagine spending every day carrying tourists up and down mountains.

An ancient bridge helps me get my bearings on my way to the five caves, and the birthplace of Taoism.

Fashion finds its way up the mountain.

As you raise along the path, you travel through many temples.

The worn steps and moss covered stone wall really demonstrate the history and age of this serene place.

Refreshing Cucumber and Watermelon are available all along the journey. Make sure you take water and advantage of these refreshments as the going is not all easy.

The path winds down into a crease in the mountain side, you might not realise, but these are the five caves, and very busy with people moving through. Mind your head!

Near the top there is an amazing temple built into the mountain, it is fully constructed of wood. there is a small eatery and this fascinating building on the left here.

The entrance to the wood fronted cave temple.

It was a hazy, muggy day and the visibility was not great sadly, I bet on a clear day the view seems endless.

I reach the Shangging Palace the highest temple on my journey before heading back down the mountain.

Prayer candles flames flicker.

A pilgrim makes his prayers.

Giant incense sticks burn and red prayer ribbons adorn the trees and bushes all around the temple gods.

That was the end of my climb, I had to get back down the mountain and quickly too. That evening I wanted to be in Dujiangyan to make a photograph of the irrigation system. Fortunately for me there is a cable car and I was soon back to street level.

As I walked back to The Six Senses, I found the locals had the right idea, stinging hammocks in the shady trees by the river and paddling in the cool mountain water, what better way to spend a hot afternoon with the family. The locals always know the best spots....

Back in my room, a quick shower and a phone call to order a taxi then I was off to Dujiangyan, that is for next time though, so as ever I hope you enjoyed this. I hope that you are enjoying all from my little story about being on assignment for NGTUK, the next instalment will be in a couple of days.

All images in this piece were shot on my Fujifilm X-Pro2, it is a great travel camera, it shoots fashion pretty well too, I need to use it for some more of that, and show you the results.

Until then, check out my Website, Instagram , Tumblr, Twitter and Linkedin. Remember to LIKE COMMENT and FOLLOW.

Feel free to get in touch, if you have a questions, bookings, assignments etc..

Love to all...