Getting the right shot often requires a lot of hanging around

… Research published earlier this year has suggested that there are an estimated 3.5 billion cameras currently in use across the globe.  The reality of this mind blowing statistic will be all too familiar to those of you that travel and take photographs, inevitably meaning that in the prettier and more interesting parts of our planet, if you decide to point your camera at something you will more than likely be sharing your vision with at least one other digital sensor.

So what makes one person’s travel photos better than another’s?.. and how can you improve the quality of your own?  Well, over my years of travelling it has become increasingly apparent to me that the truth about learning to shoot great images really only comes down to two things:

Life experience and camera experience.

Life experience is a very personal journey that every photographer essentially takes alone.  The way to learn from the life experience of other photographers is to study their photographs and use them as inspiration for your own journey but as far as I’m concerned I can’t tell you how to let your life experience unfold.  Only you can allow that process to happen.

Camera experience on the other hand is something that is a little easier to communicate. Camera experience represents the interface between your life experience and your photographs and is something that appears to evolve in a remarkably similar way across the careers of most photographers. As such, it is certainly something that I may be able to offer some of you some interesting insights into.

The internet is awash with tips on improving your photography which appear to ignore the simple fact that photography is an intuitive art form which owes everything to our innate human ability to understand what it is that we all find beautiful or interesting rather than to any set of cerebral laws that we could ever sit down and learn, so I’m not planning on making this an article about the rule of thirds or the ‘decisive moment’ or any of that stuff that I predict will blossom naturally in anyone who wholeheartedly practices this craft.

Instead, here I have summarized five simple practical choices that I made in my photography career over the years that definitely helped me to improve the quality of my images.  If any of them strike a chord with you then give them a go… they worked for me.

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1.  When shooting people, stop using your long lens so much

After many years of perusing the portfolios of aspiring photographers, I can safely say that the single most common factor I see leading disillusioned travel photographers to accumulate huge collections of mediocre travel images is an unhealthy dependence upon using long lenses for shooting pictures of people.  I hate to say it folks, but for most people the inconvenient truth about this addiction is the fact that it is born out of one thing and one thing only… fear.

I don’t think that it’s any coincidence that the English language has evolved the use of the verb ‘take‘ to describe the process of taking a picture.   For me, this etymological hint serves as a reminder to us that when we photograph someone, maybe we shouldn’t overlook the fact that we are in fact taking something from them and that in just about every other aspects of our lives, when we take something from someone we normally ask first and say thank you afterwards.

Why should it be any different in photography?  Asking and thanking involves connecting with people and long lenses make that a very easy thing to avoid.  They tend to put a large distance, both physically and emotionally between you and the people you are photographing which does a fine job of insulating you from any potential intimate interaction.

I’ve seen it many times before.  This lack of intimacy will show in your images.

Losing your big gun will mean that you will have to start connecting with your subjects again.  I know all too well how nerve racking that process can be.  Believe me when I say that even after all these years, I still get butterflies in my stomach when I have to approach a stranger in order to photograph them. That’s a fact of life for me but as far as I’m concerned a healthy and invigorating life involves addressing a lot of uncomfortable feelings like these, so if you recognize an aspect of yourself in what I’m saying then you will have to feel the fear and do it anyway if you want the power of intimacy to resonate within your images.

Don’t get me wrong.  There is a place in this world for long lenses… I  use a 200mm f2.8 and 400mm f5.6 but I would say that when I’m shooting people, I generally tend to use them in order to condense the background contents of my frame, often when I am photographing somebody in their environment.  However, using a long lens to pick off people in a crowd like a sniper shooting his victims is certainly something that I don’t condone if you want to make your images stand out from the rest of the drones of travel photographers who are regularly shooting unexceptional head shots and portraiture on their long lenses.

Using a long lens to condense the background contents of an image (400mm)

“What about the fact that when you use a long lens you get more candid shots of people because they don’t know you’re taking their picture?”

Candid?.. Yes, possibly.. Dull? .. most definitely.  I’ve often heard this argument used to justify hiding behind a camera, fostering laziness and producing bland, unengaging pictures IMO.  Why not try and get a candid shot with a short lens?… now that’s a real skill.

Try this technique next time you decide to approach someone to take his or her picture.  Instead of snapping them and bolting, try asking them if they wouldn’t mind if you accompanied them for a little while whilst you take some photos.  If they say no, then thank them and move on.  However, if they agree then in my experience before not too long they will have forgotten you are there, and your resulting images will have a far more intimate feel to them. This technique works particularly well when you are visiting people in their homes.  Just make sure you can give the situation your full time and attention, which also means forgetting about your cameras .  The quality of your images will be a direct reflection of the degree to which you engaged with both your subject and their environment… and in my experience, the biggest part of that is usually what happens when your cameras are packed away in their bag.

2.  Start using fast, prime lenses

Not a lot of people realise this, but a fixed 50mm f1.8 lens is probably the cheapest lens you can buy for your DSLR.  Sadly, the first thing that many aspiring photographers do after they’ve spent a small fortune on a state-of-the-art digital camera is to go out and spend an equally exorbitant amount of money buying a zoom lens that, whilst it may well have the ‘latest’ auto focus and auto exposure technology, is very often stuck with an aperture that will only open as far as f3.5.

For me, some of the greatest photography happens in the places where light is delicate and soft. (See tip no. 4).  These are the places in which prime lenses really come into their element.  Rooms lit by fire light, dark corridors, very early mornings and late dusk… to get sharp punchy pictures in these kind of environments you will need a lens with an aperture that opens to at least f2.

I sometimes hear people say that you can compensate for a small aperture with ISO.  This is a grave mistake in my opinion.  If you believe this then you will be missing out on the incredible benefits of using fast fixed lenses.  Even your expensive f2.8 zoom lens will struggle in a room lit by candlelight, but pop a relatively cheap 50mm f1.4 on to your body and the room will literally come alive with potential images.

When people sing the praises of prime lenses they tend to focus on the image phenomena that these lenses produce, in particular bokeh and the really shallow depth of field that fast primes can give you.  Whilst I appreciate that these are great selling points for these lenses, what actually excites me more about using primes is the way that they can literally shift your whole attitude to image making by opening you up to new possibilities.  Allowing you to venture into very low light situations is one obvious opportunity but many of the ways that primes can influence your photography tend to be a little more esoteric in my experience. Somehow, their visual clarity and simplicity will influence the way you choose to use them and that can have quite a profound effect on the kind of pictures you produce.  Primes also compel you to zoom with your feet rather than the barrel of your lens offering you more dynamic perspectives on a situation and they do a great job of inspiring a more minimalist, uncomplicated view of photography that will definitely be reflected in your imagery.

Sometimes, I feel that zoom lenses encourage people to be a jack-of-all-trades whilst a beautiful fixed prime lens may gently tempt you to become a master of one.  In my experience, once you’ve started using primes, it’s hard to go back.

85mm - f1.2 - 1/8000 sec - ISO 50

Over the years I’ve owned just about every lens there is, but I can honestly say there’s still nothing quite like the feeling of going out into a vast crowd of people at dusk with just a 50mm f1.2 and a smile.  This is photography at its most Zen in my opinion.

If you’ve never owned a prime before, start by going out and buying yourself a second hand 50mm f1.8… it may just change your life.

3.  Stop using auto exposure

In my experience, as your photography skills improve, you will naturally begin to reject the automatic functions on your camera. (excluding autofocus, which I class differently)  The first one to go will no doubt be auto exposure.  Cameras aren’t too bad at predicting exposure when you are shooting in ‘flat’ light, but other than that they are terribly naive when it comes to predicting what you want.  Luckily for you, digital SLRs allow you to review an image instantly, so these days there is no excuse for messing up your exposure.

Once you start taking your photography seriously, controlling every aspect of your exposure will become imperative, especially if you follow my advice in tips no.2 and 4 and start shooting in low light situations.

I’ve been using roughly the same simple technique for manually exposing for many years now:  Whilst making sure that I am always acutely aware of changes in light intensity, upon entering any situation the first thing I do is meter for the highlights in that place.  This means making a correct exposure for the brightest part of the situation that I anticipate to include in my frame.  Then I know that I can shoot away to my hearts content until I reframe or notice the light change, at which point I will adjust the aperture (or shutter speed) appropriately using the respective dials on my camera.

Pictures like this are impossible to shoot using auto exposure

More often than not, unless you are shooting outside on a really variable or contrasty day (which I don’t recommend anyway… see tip no. 4), or in a situation where a light source is erratic (e.g. Around fires burning at night) your exposure will be relatively constant and easy to follow, a skill that you will eventually end up doing subconsciously.  However, in the beginning when you are learning to manually expose you may have to shoot a quick frame and check the exposure on the camera’s review screen every time you feel that the light intensity has changed within your frame.  But don’t worry, it will become second nature the more you do it. I promise you.

4. Start shooting more photos outside of ‘office hours’

Time after time, photographers who are trying to break into the industry show me their travel portfolios and I’m amazed to see that 99 percent of their images were shot in the harsh light of broad daylight.  There’s normally a very simple reason for this.  Predominantly, people don’t like getting up early and by 5pm they are starting to feel hungry for dinner, but also I think that many photographers work office hours just because that’s what everyone else does and it makes their life easier.

Well, if you are one of those people then I’m afraid to say that your photography has hit a wall…  one that you won’t overcome unless you start venturing into more delicate lighting situations. This means stepping outside of your tour guide’s working hours or if that isn’t possible, swallowing your fear and knocking on a few doors to go and visit people inside their homes and places of work during the day.

I can already hear a lot of you protesting already… “Many cultural events only happen in broad daylight!”  Yes, this may be true, but I would say this to you…  IMO one amazing image shot in fantastic light is worth a hundred OK frames shot in the harsh light of a sunny day.  That’s my opinion.  In my experience, you can always find a way to make at least one shot in great light, no matter what the situation. You may just have to think outside the box a bit and invest in a little extra effort to help make it happen.

Nothing beats the golden light of the setting sun

During the daytime when it is sunny, shooting indoors allows you to work with the harsh light outside.  More often than not, all you need is a room with just a single window or a door letting light in to produce a lovely image.  For an easy way to shoot a timeless portrait when the sun is too harsh outside, the easiest thing to do is bring your subject inside, position them facing the source of daylight and shoot from a position to their side like this..

If the light is too harsh outside, bring your subject indoors

It’s such a simple technique used by pro photographers the world over and one that can improve the quality of your portfolio no end.  All it takes is a little extra organisational effort and some time to connect with the person you wish to photograph.  Oh.. and try not to forget your please and thank you.

As far as I’m concerned, when you are working outside you should be aiming to shoot as much as you can around dawn and from late afternoon onwards including night time, when you can work with the many colour temperatures of man-made lighting around to enhance your images.  If there is something or someone particular that you wish to photograph outside then my strong advice to you is not to even begin to start thinking about taking any pictures until the sun is low in the sky.

5.  Switch to ‘back button focus’

My final tip is only for people who use auto focus, but I would hazard a guess that this is probably 100 percent of you.   It’s a really simple technique that makes auto focusing and image composition much easier and faster.

As far as I know, all cameras come with the auto focus function assigned to the shutter button by default.  Normally, half pressing it will cause the camera to focus before you fully depress the button to take the picture.  If you wish to hold focus you are required to maintain this half-pressed position after every frame but often you end up refocusing each time you finish shooting a frame or rapid succession of frames.

By reassigning your auto focus function to a dedicated button on the back of the camera you can free up your shutter release button leaving it to do just one thing, the thing it does best… take a picture.  With this new configuration, (Using a Canon DSLR in manual mode), your thumb is now used to both focus with the back button and adjust aperture on the wheel and your first finger shoots images with the shutter release and adjusts shutter speed with the top dial.

I normally get blank stares when I tell people about switching to this configuration, so don’t worry if you’re currently sitting there frowning at the screen.  However, I have yet to meet anyone who went back to shutter button focus after they mastered this configuration.  It takes a bit of getting used to in the beginning but once it becomes second nature you will wonder how you ever worked any other way.

I can’t speak for Nikon users, but for all you 5D Canonistas out there… in your C.FnIV:Operation/Others custom function menu, Shutter button/AF-ON button should be set to 3:AE lock/Metering + AF start and the AF-ON/AE lock button switch should be set to 1:Enable.  (C.FnIV menu will then read: 3 1 0 0 0 0).  This will make the (*) button on the top right back of the camera your auto focus button, and disable the auto focus on the shutter button.

Update: If you’re a Nikon user, HERE is a great tutorial on how to configure your camera for back button focusing.  Thanks to @celenabeech for the link.

For me, a dedicated focus button is essential for shooting fast moving action with an erratic focal plane

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A quick recap:

1.            Face your fear and lose the addiction to your beloved long lens.

2.            Let fast prime lenses take you on an adventure into the twilight.

3.            Take back control of your camera by learning to manually expose.

4.            Get up early, keep shooting until late and stay out of the midday sun.

5.            Try back button auto focus. It worked for me and thousands of others.

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Still reading?  Join in more discussion on my Facebook page.

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Bearpit Karaoke in Mauerpark.. Sundays in Prenzlauer Berg wouldn't be the same without it

… It’s been an incredibly long time since I posted anything on this blog… almost a month to the day in fact.  I won’t bore you with excuses. Needless to say, as those of you who blog will know only too well, sometimes you just keep putting it off and off, and then one day you realise it’s been too long and you try and hash something together in super quick time.

Anyway, after toying for some time now with the idea of spending more time in the incredibly vibrant city of Berlin, today I finally find myself sat at my computer amidst a mountain of packing boxes in a studio on Oderberger Straße at the heart of Berlin’s enthralling and eclectic neighbourhood of Prenzlauer Berg, on the first day of a summer period based over here instead of the UK.

So the time has come to finally update my website. Rather than try and write about something specific, I’ve decided to post a random bunch of pictures from the last month with a little rambling text and maybe a clip… without any consistent thread running throughout other than the fact that they were things that caught my eye over the last four weeks.

BTW, if you’re wondering what’s going on in the picture at the top of the post… that’s something that happens in my neighbourhood every Sunday afternoon in the summer on a site occupying a section of the old ‘death strip’ of the Berlin Wall, now a parkland (which also houses what is IMO the best flea market in Berlin).

Started a few years ago by an Irish fellow who goes by the name of Joe, Bearpit Karaoke has become quite an institution in these parts, regularly drawing a crowd of 2000 and along with it some really inspirational singers… others downright terrible I might add, but all giving it their best shot in front of the huge and welcoming crowd.

If you’re planning a trip to wonderful Berlin this summer, make sure you drop by on a Sunday afternoon and say hello… I’ll be the one perched on the front row nursing a sun burnt nose and cool bag full of Erdinger.

Another item crossed off the bucket list

So, I begin with an image that may be lost on many of you, but for me, represents the culmination of a long-nurtured dream to visit the small town of Buellton in Santa Barbara County, California… inspired by a mild obsession that I have with the film ‘Sideways‘.

If you’re still following me, then you may be interested to know that I can report back that the 06 Highliner,  the Hitching Post’s flagship Pinot is wonderfully smooth and velvety with excellent depth…. (holds fingers to ear and squints) …with a soupçon of asparagus… and… um… a flutter of nutty Edam cheese… sorry, jokes aside… well worth the 10,000 mile round trip.  Equally worth the journey was the chance to stay in the fantastically old school ‘Windmill Motel’ in Buellton (apparently unchanged since Sideways was filmed there over 6 years ago) … complete with outdoor jacuzzi, crappy breakfast buffet et al.  A snip at just 69 bucks a night.

Needless to say, I was in my element.

Other parts of California revealed some wonderful surprises, like these glorious sand dunes at Mesquite Flat in Death Valley, where the setting sun lays an incredible purple hue on the towering Amargosa Range mountains behind.

When you need a little space to think

Hitching on the lost highway

Driving around the desert in California and Nevada was excellent fun…  Incredibly long straight deserted roads.  Remote 1950′s looking service stations with attached brothel (selling UFO paraphernalia at the reception). Scary looking trailer parks with a line of fifty mail boxes at the entrance and incredible panoramas that stretch on forever.

Unfortunately I forgot to bring my ipod with me so those lonely miles were accompanied by the dulcet tones of the intriguing Christian radio stations that appear to be the only thing you can pick up in your car around there… some of the most incredible phone-in shows I’ve ever heard in my life… ever…  eerily good at enhancing the whole desert driving experience.

Unusually for Death Valley, famously the hottest place in the world with recorded temperatures topping 56.6°C, it actually snowed for 20 minutes while I was driving through it.  According to the bar woman in nearby Beatty’s Sour Dough Saloon, it happens every now and then… nothing to write home about actually… ‘might just about warrant a mention in a blog post’.

Route 374. The stuff that road trip dreams are made of

Other things that I did this past month… whilst packing up my office in the UK I discovered an old 512 MB compact flash card that had been lost for over 4 years.  On it were some pictures from the Sisters’ Meal Festival in Southwest China that I had never seen before.  Here’s a few…

Young Miao girls getting ready for the festival

Portrait at home

A tough life for some

Bringing home the groceries

Aspiring cool cats

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I’m always on the look out for a good small camera that I can carry with me everywhere, so before I went to the USA I bought an Olympus PEN EP2 and stuck a Panasonic Lumix 20 mm F/1.7 pancake lens on it.

I must admit I am really quite happy with the results it gave me.  That’s not a bad indictment from someone who’s been using Canon 5D’s since they first came out.  The lens is super fast which lets me shoot in all the dark places I so love to go, and the image size is easily good enough for magazines.

Here’s a shot from Joshua Tree that shows you the kind of results you can get out of it.  I’ve linked the picture to its hi-res file for reference purposes in case any of you are thinking about buying that body-lens combo.

Many thanks to Liz my hitchhiking road trip partner for being in so many of my pics!

Test shot using Olympus EP2 with Panasonic 20mm f1.7 lens - CLICK IMAGE TO SEE FULL SIZE FILE

Liz also had a go at driving too…

Cruising the strip in Vegas... whatever

Finally, one last thing that, like my pilgrimage to Buellton mentioned above, unfortunately may not connect with that many of you either.  As I mentioned in my last post, whilst filming for Human Planet in L.A. a few weeks ago I discovered to my great surprise and delight, that The Dresden, a cool bar in Los Feliz that figures prominently in my favourite bromantic comedy of all time, ‘Swingers‘… is a real place and not just a film set as I might have previously suspected.

Upon discovering this, I knew I had to go there… mainly to seek out the truth about Marty and Elayne, the Dresden’s resident lounge Jazz duo who appear briefly in the movie, but also on the off chance that I might find Nikki sat alone at the bar drinking a Martini.

The Dresden is real! ...and by far the best night out I had in America.

OK, so the Nikki thing was a long shot, but I have to say, I had an awesome night at The Dresden.  Like a kid in a sweet shop I was.  Chatting with Marty and Elayne it turns out that amazingly, they have been playing there 5 nights a week for over 18 years… and they certainly show no signs of stopping IMO. Incredible.

The highlight of the night was a vintage rendition of ‘Staying Alive‘  that they dedicated to yours truly, something that I tried to capture on my EP2 with limited success…  So, for all you Swingers fans out there… here it is…

WARNING! Epic keyboard solo starts at 2:07 … not for the faint hearted.

(Sorry for the terrible focusing… and occasional strange noise interference over some of the clip… that was me using the vertical view finder after a few too many Margaritas… and breathing into the mike!)

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Chateaux Marmont Hotel. West Hollywood's homage to the Loire Valley

… I’ve been in L.A. for the last week doing some press for the launch of Human Planet in the USA tonight on the Discovery Channel.  One of the most enjoyable was a piece we filmed for NBC’s Carson Daly show, a late night magazine programme that appears to be something akin to a less cynical version of the old Channel 4 show ‘The Word’ for those of you Brits that can remember back that far…

Oh… and without anything remotely resembling ‘The Hopefuls’ you’ll be please to know.

Anyway, interestingly the whole programme is shot on Canon digital SLRs, which was an eye opener for me at least… along with the fact that there are snow-capped peaks overlooking Hollywood, something I discovered for the first time whilst we were shooting the sequence on top of the Andaz Hotel in West Hollywood.

That wasn’t the only exciting new thing I discovered here on this trip, and as a result, from now on I vow never to cast my sneering judgemental eye upon any American tourists is see walking aimlessly down West London’s Portobello Road looking for the blue door from ‘Notting Hill’…

psssst!… The Dresden is a real place! … and Marty and Elayne are real people who still work there 5 nights a week!

My mind boggles…  as the eyes of the Los Angeleans amongst you roll back in their sockets…

Anyway, more on that in my next post along with news of the other somewhat sad American pilgrimage that I am about to embark upon… a mission to find Buellton in Santa Barbara County and order a bottle of Highliner in the ‘Hitching Post’.  In the meantime, here’s my bit from Carson Daly.

Sustainable and environmentally friendly architecture

… A few years ago during a bout of backpacking in India I heard about Megahalaya‘s living root bridges from a fellow traveler I had met in Darjeeling.  Although he confessed to never actually going there himself, he said he had heard from another person that the area called the East Khasi Hills was a fascinating and under explored place.  I clearly remember trying to conjure up an image in my mind of what a living root bridge might look like, and to be honest, the best I could muster was something akin to a log across a small brook, a sight I’ve seen many times during various jungle treks the world over.  In fact, when I think about it now, I’m amazed I ever bothered following up the lead on his recommendation, but I am so thankful that the lure of the North East States as a whole was strong enough to eventually get me on a train to Guwahati, which serves as the gateway to this part of India.

At that time there was no mention of this part of Meghalaya in any guide books.   In fact, the Lonely Planet only devoted a few sparse pages to all seven of the North East frontier States due to the ongoing conflicts in the area with a general warning for tourists to stay away.   Of course, a warning not to go somewhere is a very seductive thing to a person like myself.  Experience has taught me that an intelligent and friendly traveller can avoid this type of internal conflict quite easily, since flash points tend to occur as isolated incidences in an otherwise peaceful and welcoming place.

Gawahati train station, Assam, my entry point into the NE States

The East Khasi Hills, site of the many living root bridges constructed by the Khasi tribe have one quite major claim to fame.  The Guinness book of records regularly sites the village of Cherrapunjee as being the rainiest place on earth, an honour which is hotly disputed by neighbouring Mawsynram, about 10 miles to its east.  Regardless of who’s right, it’s fair to say that this part of the world gets a hell of a lot of rain, and if you are intending to travel there yourself you may be advised to take this factor into account when planning your trip, with the monsoon generally happening between the months of May and October.

Nohkalikai Falls, Cherrapunjee in the dry season

In my opinion, apart from the living root bridges, the main reason to come to this part of Meghalaya is to meet the fantastic Khasi people who populate these hills which sit majestically overlooking the plains of Bangladesh.  When I originally came here, I had a tentative plan to stay a week or so, but I ended up staying nearly a month and a half in all, returning on two occasions with friends.

The place I called home during that time was a lovely little village called Mawlynnong which I had heard about from a Canadian guy called James Perry who lived in Meghalaya’s capital Shillong with his Khasi wife and kids.  Back then, before guidebooks existed for the area, all my information came from people I met on the ground and James was a wealth of knowledge on the Khasi tribe, having lived there for quite a while.  As a native speaker, he was well involved in the culture of the area and gave me a list of local festivals and places of interest.  More importantly, he advised me not to travel to the better known areas around Cherrapunjee to see living bridges but instead to base myself in Mawlynnong to its east as a place to explore the hills.

James had recently helped the Khasi get funding to build a community guesthouse in Mawlynnong with the aid of a government grant but admitted that the only visitors they had thus far attracted were Khasi tourists from Shillong who wanted to visit Mawlynnong, known locally as the ’cleanest village in India’… a title the Khasi were very proud of, but one that not much of the rest of India had heard about.

In the Khasi Hills, women rule

My first visit to Mawlynnong was a beautiful eye opener and one that, looking back now with the benefit of hindsight, I can identify as a pivotal cross roads in my life that will live with me forever.  On James’s instruction I located the yellow minibus at Shillong’s Bara Bazaar market which left for Mawlynnong and immediately fell in love with the Khasi way of life as I was packed into the back along with a handful of smiley welcoming folk who immediately took me under their collective wing.

About 4 extremely bumpy hours later (the road was still under construction) and after our midway tea stop at the village of Pynursla, we arrived at what looked to me like an exclusive garden centre from back home in the UK.  This was Mawlynnong, a village who’s inhabitants all chip in a few rupees every month to pay for a village gardener who keeps the place immaculately clean and planted up with fantastic flowers and exotic plants from the surrounding forest.  I was proudly shown to their shiny new guesthouse and taken out onto a veranda at the back that lead to a series of platforms through the forest canopy where I was offered tea.

Me editing photos high in the trees at the community guesthouse

And so began my love affair with the East Khasi Hills.

The Khasi are a matrilineal society (as oposed to a matriarchy), meaning that a family’s lineage is traced through the surname of the wife, with the youngest daughter inheriting all the family’s property.  Clothed in their traditional Dhara, you can really feel the girl power when you spend a little time with the Khasi, something that I really love about their culture.  There was a huge amount of community spirit in all the villages I visited, a fact that no doubt delighted the Welsh missionaries that first came to these hills in the 19th century from the Bangladeshi plains below.

One Sunday, after a painfully dull recited history of Welsh Baptist tradition at Mawlynnong’s one hundred year old church, I decided that I didn’t have the heart to tell them that church attendances in Wales had diminished so much in recent times that many churches had been sold off to private owners for conversion to luxury housing.  Ironically, on a later visit, I discovered that one of the congregation was about to embark on a sponsored trip to Wales to spread the word to the folks back home.

The stone foundations of the King's Way, still very much in use today

All Khasi villages are connected by a network of stone pathways known as the King’s way which traditionally kept the local betel nut trade alive with Shillong.  Throughout this network, hundreds of living root bridges form the bridleways over the myriad of water channels that criss-cross the area.  A few minutes walk from Mawlynnong is what I consider to be the most beautiful of all the bridges in the East Khasi Hills, namely the bridge at Wahthyllong which we featured in Human Planet.

Wahthyllong.. a beautiful sight to behold

When I tell people about this part of India, I can’t help drawing an analogy with the appearance of some of the sets in Lord of the Rings.  For me, the bridge at  Wahthyllong is the antithesis of this analogy.  Uncertain of the age of the bridge, I’m estimating 100-150 years but from talking to the locals, all that I can be certain of is that it wasn’t planted by someone who is still alive today.

One of the most magical places I've ever been to

In the dry season, women come to this place to wash their clothes and a trip here at sunrise is an unforgetable experience.  This is certainly a magical place, augmented by the beautiful nature of the Khasi people.

Organic engineering at its best

The view from above reveals the majesty of this masterpiece.  Over the years, stones and earth have been lodged between the gaps of the banyan tree roots to form the beautiful pathway.

The view from below

… and underneath, the ancient organic mesh work weaves its beauty.

The development and upkeep of bridges is a community affair.  Initially, a length of bamboo is secured across a river divide and a banyan plant, Ficus benghalensis is planted on each bank.  Over the months and years, the roots and branches of the rapidly growing Ficus are trained along the bamboo until they meet in the middle and eventually supersede its support.  At later stages in the evolution of the bridge, stones are inserted into the gaps and eventually become engulfed by the plant forming the beautiful walkways.  Later still, the bridges are improved upon with the addition of hand rails and steps.

Creating a new hand rail

Lesser know than their cousins the living root bridges but equally as fascinating are the Khasi’s living root ladders.

The Khasi villages in this area sit atop a great plateau providing a comfortably cool climate.  However, below them in the plains of Bangladesh exists an environment that is much more suitable for growing oranges.  Consequently, many Khasi farmers have cultivated the land below them which is only accessible by traversing huge cliff faces like the ones you can see in the photo of Nohkalikai waterfall near the top of this page.  Sensationally, even here the versatile banyan tree can weave its brilliance by way of the ladders and suspended walkways that the Khasi have built in order to be able to scale these sheer faces.

A suspended walkway

Believe it or not, the pathway you can see in the photo above has been suspended from roots and branches attached to the cliff face on the left of the image.

At a few places the pathways become ladders…

Ascending the cliff

… some more elaborate than others…

A scene that HR Giger could no doubt relate to

… but carefully fashioned into steps…

A living ladder

A few days trekking around these hills will bring you in contact with some lovely people and beautiful places.  Be sure to take a guide from a village. I can recommend a great young fellow in Mawlynnong called Henry, if he still lives there.

One of the many beautiful waterfalls in the area

I went out hunting and fishing with Henry and his friends on many occasions in this magnificently wild landscape.

Hunting tree squirrels

The catch ready to cook

And the resulting barbecue

A secret fishing spot

Here are a few more pictures from the unforgettable time I spent with the Khasi people in the East Khasi Hills…

Josana brewing tea over her fire in Mawlynnong

Trading vegetables in the centre of Bara Bazaar, Shillong's bustling market

A hand loom shawl worn by Khasi men

Elder in Thiepskai Village with teeth stained from chewing betel nut

A Khasi ceremony around the time of the queen's birthday

A Khasi women weaving textiles with a loom

The community repair a bamboo bridge at Ringer village (not a living bridge)

The furniture stall opposite the bus stop for Mawlynnong

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When I originally went to Mawlynnong, the handful of foreigners who had previously visited were mainly missionaries.  That has definitely changed now.  When the Human Planet film crew turned up a couple of years ago they found the original guestbook that I had given to the guesthouse as a present before I left.  It was completely full and they had nearly filled another one too.

During my first trip there, I was asked by the village council for suggestions on how they could attract tourists to come to their corner of Meghalaya.  Over the weeks I did the best that I could to warn them of the potential pitfalls caused by of an influx of outsiders, but they were extremely adamant that it was what they wanted.  They are a very strong community of people and I had no doubt that they would deal with the inevitable increase of visitors in a responsible and socially acceptable way.  Of course, since I left them, my pictures have appeared in magazines all over the world and last month the bridge near Mawlynnong was seen by millions of people in the Rivers episode of Human Planet as a result of my involvement in the programme, so in a few weeks time I will be travelling back to Mawlynnong to take them a copy of the Human Planet book and find out what changes have occurred since their little village has been in the world’s media spot light.

When I get back I will tell you all about it.

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Resources for the independent traveller

Update 11/7/2011

Well, it appears that 5 years is a long time in NE India, since there have been some interesting developments in the Khasi Hills since I was last there.  Mawlynnong, the once sleepy and undiscovered place has become a little overrun with tourists during the day.  The unexpected thing for me however, is the fact that these tourists are Indian and not foreigners.  It appears that home grown tourism in India has exploded since I was last here, a fact I noticed the moment I arrived back in Shillong to discover all my usual hotels fully booked.

Nongriat on the other hand, the village containing the somewhat more famous ‘double decker’ root bridge has remained relatively unaffected by this boom in indigenous travelling, mainly because there is still no road there and 4 wheels are most certainly the preferred mode of travel for your average Indian vacationer.  Judging by the names in the guestbook of the village’s new ‘rest house’, in the rainy season they get about 2 visitors a week dropping by.

There’s no question that Mawlynnong IMO still has the best looking bridge nearby, but make sure you visit it first thing in the morning or last thing at night if you want to experience it the way I did.  I would advise you to visit Mawlynnong and base yourself there for a few days whilst you explore the forest all around on some treks.  In the evenings it’s as quiet as it ever was as few people stay over night.  After that take a trip to Nongriat, where the bridges aren’t so good, but where you get a more a peaceful experience, more interaction with the locals and better swimming pools in the rivers.

How to get there:

To see the living root bridges you must first get to Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya.  You can fly into Guwahati and get a share taxi all the way to Police Bazaar in Shillong for Rp400 per person.  Alternatively, rent the whole taxi for Rp1600.  If you arrive into Guwahati by train, catch a Sumo (The 11-seater jeeps that are the main form of transport around Meghalaya) from right outside the station. Guwahati to Shillong takes about 3 hours including a food stop.

To get to Mawlynnong, you must find the Khasi Hills Sumo stand at Bara Bazaar market.. it’s the first one you come to on the left going up the hill away from the market.  It looks like a 2 storey car park with a ramp up the left hand side going to the second level.  Look for the Pynursla and Sohra stands which are the first ones on your right at the top of the ramp.  Mawlynnong Sumos aren’t marked but they tend to be parked behind the ones to Pynursla and they leave at 1pm sharp.  The trip takes about 2 and a half hours and costs Rp80 including a 15 minute tea stop at Pynursla, the half way point.  On market days in Pynursla, there is no direct sumo to Mawlynnong from Shillong, so you will have to change in Pynursla which is very easy… there are loads of vehicles going both ways on market day.  There are no Sumos to Mawlynnong on a Sunday.

Mawlynnong now has 2 guesthouses and about 3 home-stay options.  Prices are Rp2000 a night for the tree house, Rp350 for the guesthouse just off the turning circle and whatever you negotiate for a home-stay.

If you need a good guide in Mawlynnong, use Henry or someone he recommends.  The going rate is Rp250 a day. Henry’s mobile is 09615043027.

Getting to Nongriat is a little more complicated.  Look for the Sohra Sumo stand (same as above) and take the first available one to Sohra for Rp50 (Sohra is the Khasi name for Cherrapunjee).  In Sohra you will most probably need to hire a small taxi to get you to Tyrna which is the village where the road ends.  It’ll be about Rp200 and takes about half an hour.  From Tyrna you have to start walking.  The path is quite obvious but get a local to point you in the right direction at first, then descend the 2004 steps (yes, I counted them myself) down to Nong Thymmai and then on to Nongriat over 2 wire suspension bridges and a couple of root bridges.  It should take you about 1 and a half hours.  The guesthouse in Nongriat is just on the other side of the double decker bridge and costs about Rp400 a night.  In the rainy season this is quite a walk and you might be advised to pay a local to carry your largest bag.  The going rate is Rp100 per trip.

The monsoon in Meghalaya is generally between May and October, but it has fluctuated recently.

Click here to read an interview I did about travelling in India’s North East Frontier States

Click here to see a blog written by a guy I met in Nagaland who went to Mawlynnong

Click here to see a clip from Human Planet showing the living bridge near Mawlynnong

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Interested in more stories from India? Click HERE TASEARCHINDIA

Want to get my latest updates?  Come and find me on my new Facebook Page.

A quick snap from a trip I made to the bank this morning

… From a dusty old hotel room in Southern Pakistan, I would just like to say many, many thanks to those of you who have been sending me incredibly kind messages since BBC News ran an audio slide show of some of my photographs from Human Planet a couple of days ago. I really appreciate all your comments… they really do make it all worth while, so thank you for taking the time to spread the love.

Amongst all the emails there have also been a few recurring questions, so I’ve summarised my answers here for future reference.

1.  Is there a book of these images?

Yes.. Amazon appear to be selling it at the best price… Click HERE

2.  Do you sell prints?

Sorry, currently I don’t sell prints of my work.

3.  I want to quit my job and do what you do, any words of advice?

Speaking from experience… Do it!  I quit my job at a British Newspaper a few years ago and bought a one way ticket to Delhi.  Just me, a Canon 5D, a few prime lenses and a huge smile.  My biggest concern at the time was my mortgage.  So, I sold my house and cut my overheads down to the bearest minimum.  A year and a half later I returned home with some great pictures and a revitalised passion for both life and my photography.  Meanwhile, whilst researching story ideas for the series, a fledging Human Planet team stumbled across my images from NE India on the web and the rest is history.

There are two important points to acknowledge here.  Firstly, trying to predict the future is futile.  However, as human beings we are all blessed with an inbuilt mechanism that tells us when we are moving in the right direction in life.  It’s called enthusiasm, and in my opinion it forms the necessary essence of any fulfilling, creative lifestyle… in whatever line of work that might be.  Enthusiasm is the gift that allows us to live in the moment without worrying about what lies ahead, so if you’ve got that niggling feeling in the pit of your stomach and you’re looking for a change in life then why not trust the feeling and let something that really enthuses you guide you in a new direction?

Second point…  Whilst I was in India having the time of my life, I was spending a fraction of the money that I would have been parting with had I have remained in my well paid job back home.  Relatively speaking, I was far better off.  More importantly, I had the luxury of time again… something that gave my passion the space to naturally unfold once more. The space that I literally couldn’t afford back home.

If you are lucky enough to be reading this on your own personal computer then I am guessing that you also have access to sufficient funds to make the kind of trip I am talking about.  You don’t need a state of the art camera.  If you shop around a bit, a second hand mark 1 Canon 5D will set you back as little as 400 quid these days, and you can get hold of a used 50mm f1.8 for about 50 quid.  Both these pieces of kit were my work horses on that trip along with the great value for money Canon 85mm f1.8.

The moral of this story…  Without sounding too corny… follow your heart.  And for those of you that think that a statement like that is too wishy-washy, then I’ll rephrase it to… persue the vocation in life that you feel most enthusiastic about.  You know… the one that you’d do regardless of how much it pays you.   In my experience, if you live this way then no matter what transpires, you will be walking in the right direction in life.

The likelihood is that nothing will turn out the way you expect, so I would recommend not bothering with any expectations of the future.  Just concern yourself with enjoying what you are doing in the moment.  That’s the place where all the magic happens.

… and if you have discovered that photography is your passion then think yourself very lucky.  Many people go through life never knowing such a feeling.  Don’t waste it.

Get out there and meet your world

BTW.  The photos in the BBC News slideshow were not chosen by me.  For those of you interested in my own personal selection of favourite images from Human Planet, please click HERE

I have written a little more on the subject of becoming a photographer in my FAQs HERE

You can watch the audio slideshow HERE

The sun and stars

… I’ve been trying to find a spare moment to write a new post for a couple of weeks now.  Two episodes of Human Planet have been and gone whilst I have been away in Africa with Comic Relief, and whilst I was actually using a satellite to send images back home daily, our work days were so long over there that there wasn’t any time to devote to blogging… something I will endeavour to rectify over the next few days here in Pakistan, in particular by writing about the Grasslands and Rivers episodes which both contain stories very close to my heart.  However, for the time being, since the trip to Kenya is still fresh in my mind, I’ll cover that first.

Currently I am sat in an enchanting hotel room in a place called Sukkur.  I’m over here shooting for Oxfam, my second such trip serving to highlight the continuing need for international help in this region of Pakistan which was devastated by last years terrible flooding.

Unusual 1970′s hotel room decor aside, I am nevertheless blessed with a table, chair, local mobile dongle for my laptop and a few hours to spare, so here’s a random selection of behind the scenes snaps from the 100km charity trek across Kenya’s Kaisut desert that I undertook last week with a group of British TV personalities.

The gang attempt a last minute re-pack

In the queue for life changing eye surgery

The British charity Sight Savers are a Comic Relief partner and as such, their work in Kenya was highlighted on this trip.  In particular the incredibly simple but totally life changing cataract surgery that costs only 16 quid per eye.

Olly watches a cataract operation

The operation takes about 15 minutes

The view from our camping spot on the first night

Dermot and Kara enjoy a brew on day 1

The Samburu tribe were our guides and provided our camel porters

Dermot helps Peter up a hill

Blind from birth, Radio 4′s Peter White completed the 100km trek with the help of each member of the team.

Kara and Olly around the camp fire

The beautiful Kaisut Desert

Lorraine gets her morning pedicure

Out of everybody who undertook the trek, Lorraine Kelly suffered the most physical pain in my opinion.  The intense 47 degree heat and horrific foot blisters nearly got the better of her on day 3, but she battled through to complete the walk with everyone else in the end.

Come Monday morning, only 2 days after the trek had finished and nursing 2 incredibly painful feet of my own, I watched her breakfast show from underneath a lovely warm duvet in the comfort of my own bed at home.  Respect must go to Lorraine for going straight back to work, and double respect for reporting on the Oscars live in her slippers because her regular shoes were hurting too much!

Dermot O'Weary

The striking Samburu people

The glamourous faces of live radio

Throughout the trek, the team were broadcasting live to Radio 1 via Scott Mills using a BGAN to connect to a satellite link.

Kara and Olly take a break

The traveling en-suite

Sunset on the penultimate day

Dermot gets his blisters syringed

Trichiasis surgery in the desert

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Interested in more stories from Kenya? Click HERE

For more information on the trek click HERE

For more information on Sight Savers click HERE

TASEARCHKENYA

16 year old Kazakh eagle hunter, Berik

… Tonight’s episode of Human Planet will take you high up into the mountains as it serves up its weekly offering of incredible tales from around the globe.  Picking my favourite sequence from this episode has been extremely difficult since two of the stories really touched my heart.  Consequently, I present you both in this post.  In each one, the main characters are teenage boys, straddling that tricky transition from boy to manhood, something that I, like all men on our planet can easily relate to, no matter which culture or tradition we hail from.

12 year old Ethiopian mountain farmer, Dereje

Living on different continents, seven thousand kilometres apart, these two young men will never meet each other.  Someday soon, however, they will at least know of each other.  As I speak, a copy of the Human Planet book is winging its way to the Altai Mountains of Western Mongolia, a journey that will take over a month before it reaches its destination.  Getting a copy to Dereje at his remote farm in Ethiopia’s Simien Mountains is a much trickier proposition, and one that I must confess that I haven’t quite figured out yet, but if any of you adventurous types reading this are heading out that way in the not-too-distant future, then please do drop me a line if you think you could act as a courier… I have the GPS co ordinates of their farm, accessible only by foot, but well worth the journey I promise you.

Boy and nature

Both Dereje (pronounced Dare-a-jay) and Berik have extremely close relationships with magnificent animals.

Six months before I first met Berik, a film crew had already shot him climbing down a cliff face in search of the eagle chick that was to become the majestic bird that now graces the front cover of the Human Planet book.  In stark contrast, Dereje’s relationship with the incredibly formidable Gelada Baboon is somewhat less of a mutually beneficial affair.

Gelada Baboons.. the bane of Dereje's existence

As the family’s crops nears harvesting, it rests upon the shoulders of Dereje and his younger sister Maaza to defend their fields from the feisty crop-raiding baboons, a duty that regularly requires them to sleep in caves away from home in order to stop these early rising primates before they strike.

Seeing off the unwelcome visitors

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Here is a quick mixed-up selection of my favourite Images from these two very different adventures…

Mongolia: Silau, Berik's father with his own beautiful eagle

Ethiopia: On our way to Dereje's village we stumbled across a Christening Ceremony

Ethiopia: Dereje and his sisters herd the family's cattle to a sleeping cave at sunset

Mongolia: Riding through the Altai Mountains looking for foxes

Ethiopia: Easter celebrations in the Simien Mountains

Ethiopia: Dereje's family is forced to grow their crops on incredibly steep slopes

Mongolia: Berik's eagle's first hunt

Ethiopia: The kids warm themselves around a fire during a night at a cave

Mongolia: Epic eagle hunter is epic! Silau flies his bird

Mongolia: Berik's friend who also hunts with eagles

Ethiopia: Dereje slingshots a troupe of baboons

Ethiopia: One of the many houses at which we stopped for tea on the walk to Dereje's

Mongolia: Berik pets his eagle Balapan

Ethiopia: Maaza, Berik's sister at her lookout post

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Thank you and much respect to the two young men who inspired these fantastic stories.  May you live long and prosperous lives!

Berik

Dereje

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Want to see more stories from Mongolia?  Click HERE

More stories from Ethiopia?  Click HERE

Click HERE to see a clip of Berik hunting with his eagle

Click HERE to see a clip of Dereje defending his crops from Gelada monkeys TASEARCHMONGOLIA TASEARCHETHIOPIA

Jungles: Life in the Trees

… If, like me, you write a blog, then I would hazard a guess that, like me, you too are fascinated by the Site Stats that are presented to you every time you log on to make a post.  Mine appear as a graph with ‘time’ along the bottom and ‘hits’ up the vertical axis and I am well used to so called ‘spikes’ in the graph which generally occur when one of my posts is picked up by Reddit, Stumbleupon or such like and receives a short lived but unusually high number of hits.

Since Human Planet began airing on British TV a few weeks ago, I have become well accustomed to my weekly spike on Thursday night and Friday morning, the result of people watching the program and then turning to their computers to research one or other of the stories from the show in a bit more depth.  This week, after the Jungles programme, the spike was quite big… a veritable Matterhorn on my stats graph in fact.  I was expecting that the Bayaka honey gatherers story would be the thing capturing the public’s attention, but to my surprise, after a little investigation it turned out that of the top 20 most searched phrases in Google last night that directed people to this blog, all but two of them contained the words ‘Rachael’ and “Kinley’.

It appears that our Rachael’s antics ‘going native’ in a Korowai tree house on last night’s Behind the Lens section of the show have made her somewhat of an attraction to a certain section of the internet’s browsers.

So, for all you new Rachael Kinley fans out there, here is nice homely photo of her singing to a young Bayaka baby in the Central African Republic, just to remind you all what a lovely young lady she is.

It normally falls in the hands of the researchers to keep the talent happy.

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OK.  That’s my public service over for the day.  Let’s get back to the story about the Bayaka honey gatherers from last night’s show… stay with me folks, this is the educational bit.

Our Bayaka village in the jungle of the Congo basin

The Bayaka are a lovely bunch.  I reckon that if you took a survey of a thousand random people and asked them to describe a typical jungle tribe, you’d probably end up with a vision not that dissimilar to the Bayaka’s.  They are a forest people in the truest sense of the word.  Totally at home in their jungle.  Hunting with spears, adept at climbing trees, they can build an overnight shelter from scratch in less than half an hour.  They have an incredible culture of song and drumming rhythms and a fascinating tradition of forest spirituality that involves enthralling dances and a mythology of glow-in-the-dark forest spirits created from a luminescent jungle fungus.  The resulting Willo the Wisp-esque deities regularly graced us with their presence during the many long nights of song and dance we experienced during our 2 weeks with the Bayaka.  The list goes on. In fact the BBC could have easily made a whole program just on them… Now I think about it, they probably have.

Anyway, we came here to film the incredible spectacle of honey gathering, something that is practiced by a number of the men in the tribe, the two most notable of which, Tete and Mongonje (pronounced Tetay and Mongonjay) we managed to shadow for a couple of weeks.

Tete and Mongonje size up a hive

Mongonje starts a smokey fire at the base of the tree to pacify the bees...

... and Tete begins his 40 metre climb

Photographing this story took quite a bit of organising.  Apart from the fact that the only way in to this part of C.A.R. at the time was to hire a private plane, the main problem was working out a way to get ourselves and all our kit 40 meters up into the canopy with these guys.  Which is where Tim Fogg, our rope access specialist came in.

Working in film, there's quite a bit of hanging around between takes.

Its always a pleasure to work with Tim.  He’s been in the business of rigging for over 20 years which is a reassuring qualification in a line of work that demands your complete trust in its experts.

I’m scared of heights and that is something that doesn’t appear to be changing as I get older.  In fact the opposite is true.  Six months before we began shooting Human Planet, the BBC sent us all on a week long rope access training course at Westonbirt Arboretum near Bristol to get acclimatised with the equipment we’d be using on the Jungles and Mountains episodes.

Ben making it look easy up an oak tree on our training course

During that course, I asked climbing expert Ben, one of our instructors, whether he got nervous high in the trees and to my surprise he said that he did.  Especially if he hadn’t been climbing for a little while.  So, I think that a fear of heights is healthy and normal, except if you’re a Bayaka of course.

Rigging the tree was the easy part (For me at least.  I just stood there watching along with everyone else).  For large trees like these, Tim fires a small weight attached to a thin line using a giant sling shot, securing the line over the crown of the tree.  A climbing rope is then attached to this line and pulled up over the crown, becoming the rope that we ascend using a belay system.

Tim helps cameraman johnny film Tete climbing

In contrast to our incredibly stringent BBC health and safety regulations.  Tete and Mongonje climb their trees the old skool way.

Creating foot holds

Staying attached

A piece of liana is cut and used as a makeshift harness.  This and the series of foot holds cut from the tree’s trunk with an axe are the only things stopping a honey gatherer from falling to his death.  Let’s zoom in a little on that makeshift harness..

Health and safety officers look away now

Yes.. It’s started to fray from the friction caused by climbing.  Needless to say, I have incredible respect for these guys.  As do the rest of their community.

Young climbers in the making

My favourite shot from this sequence in the TV program is the rising shot of Tete climbing the monster tree that you can see at the beginning of this clip…

To get this shot, the crew used a contraption called a dolly.

Tim and Tom transport the dolly to our tree

Tim rigged the tree with a vertical line running up to a branch in the canopy about 3 metres out from the trunk.  The camera was then attached to the bottom of the dolly and a slightly heavier counter weight to the other end of the rope which was fed through the pulley system of the dolly.   As the counter weight fell, the camera was pulled up vertically to achieved the shot. Furthermore, the dolly has a remote controlled head, so that it was possible to pan the camera downwards as it passed Tete on the tree.

A fantastic shot I think you’ll agree.

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Oh look. There's another picture of Rachael

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Interested in more stories from the Central African Republic? Click HERE TASEARCHCAR

For my latest updates and to join in with our discussions, join my new Facebook page.

… I’ll be giving a talk at 3pm this Sunday at the Destinations Show in London.  If any of you would like free tickets to come to the event, drop me a line with your address via THIS link, and I’ll send you a weekend ticket that admits two.  Limited availability!  Details of the event can be found HERE.  FYI, I’ll be around all day on Sunday if you fancy a chat about anything.  You will most likely find me drinking tea in a ger at the Panoramic Journeys stand (Stand R33, near the eating area), or after the talk. (Update: Many thanks to everyone who came, and apologies to those of you who couldn’t get in or didn’t manage to get hold of a book after they ran out.  Watch this blog for other talks in the future)

Also, this week I received a freebie Lexar Professional 400x 8GB compact flash card that I will post out to someone who really wants it.  Drop me a line HERE with your convincing reason. (Update:  Congratulations Matt from Southampton – A worthy BA student of photography. Sorry to everyone else, but stay subscribed… I often get sent free stuff)

Finally, for anyone in the Bristol area this Thursday night at 7pm.  Me and Dale Templar, the series producer of Human Planet will be giving a talk at Stanfords Bookstore.  Details can be found HERE. (Update: Thanks to everyone who came to this sell-out night.  We both had a great time meeting you all)

The Arctic.. got to be seen to be believed

… Prior to traveling to Greenland with Human Planet, I had never been to the Arctic before.  I don’t know exactly what I was expecting.  Cold? Yes of course, but I don’t think anything can quite prepare you for the astonishing panoramas that hide quietly around every frozen corner.

A winter north of the Arctic circle is no place for sun worshippers.  Daily life is lived amidst a magical pink twilight that leaves you feeling like each day never really starts.  For a photographer like myself it’s a dream.  I mean, you get to see colours you never knew existed in the natural world and you only have to work a 3 hour day.  The only draw back is the cold.  Like having to gulp down your morning cup of tea before it freezes in your mug, or watching in horror as your camera shuts down as vital pieces of rubber freeze and snap in half.  Both happened to me on this shoot. But hey, who cares? You’re in the Arctic surrounded by huskies and blue icebergs!  It’s a small price to pay.

The moon hovers over Ilulisat, Greenland.

When we went on this trip to Greenland, it was January.  We headed to Ilulissat, its most westerly point in search of the first sunrise of the year, an event which ends the mid winter darkness that falls upon this town for over a month each year.  Traditionally, townsfolk walk or sledge to a point overlooking the sea from which the golden rays can be seen and felt by all.  There they briefly sing songs and generally socialise before dashing back to the warmth of their homes.

In search of the sun

The viewpoint

During our time in Ilulissat we were guests of local fisherman Niels Gundel who welcomed us in to all aspects of his family’s life.

Note to self... must remind the kids not to leave their bikes outside unattended

Out of town, dog sleds still remain the most reliable mode of transport in winter

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Working in the darkness of daytime

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Being out on Niels’s fishing boat in mid winter was one of the eeriest things I did on Human Planet.  I love raw, desolate places… something the arctic possesses in shed loads.

People who live in the higher latitudes have a certain aura about them.  They tend to be quiet, pensive people in my experience, often quite closely connected with their environment resulting in an emotional landscape that reflects its changing seasons.  The down side of this intimate relationship with mother nature is a tendency for melancholic dips in the dark winter months, something that I have had a life long fascination and affinity with, reflected, as it is in the art, literature and music of Europe’s northerly nations. (Try browsing some paintings by Edvard Munch, reading ‘Hunger’ by Knut Hamsun or listening to music by Icelandic band Sigur Rós for a start).

An environment that touches everyone who visits

Scrabble has never really taken off in Greenland

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On a lighter note, spending some time in an extremely cold winter did give me the opportunity to test out the authenticity of a particular urban myth that I had often heard.  As it goes, at a certain low enough temperature, if you throw boiling water into the air it will freeze before it hits the ground.

On this particular day at Kangerlussuaq airport it was minus 35.  Myself, director Nick and producer Willow popped outside to test the theory.  Here’s what happened…

Please ignore my slightly deranged laughter.  It was very cold and I was tired!

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