Back in Ladakh
India …I have been here in Ladakh for 3 days already but today was the first day I’ve actually managed to get out and do a bit of sight-seeing. This has been due to the inevitable bout of altitude sickness that has inflicted me these past few days like many people who travel here directly […]
Mind the Gap
Papua New Guinea …I’m back in the sweaty forests of Papua New Guinea again, although this time I’m with the Mountains team. It’s true. Strictly speaking we are actually in the jungle, but as it goes, we’re also in the mountains, so for once it looks like rock beats paper on this occasion. The realization […]
A Year on the Road
Singapore …Two weeks into 2010 and I am back from my one month break over the holiday season. As is the tradition for photographers around this time of year, I have put together a small portfolio of previously unseen pictures from 2009… one from each Human Planet shoot last year. Yesterday I left my home […]
Boy and Nature
Mongolia …There are two frequently quoted buzz words in the Human Planet offices… man, and nature. By man, we are of course colloquially referring to the human race and not just the male denomination of our species. By nature, folk here tend to be alluding to animals in the first instance, and then to our environment if the zoological […]
The Big Blue
Philippines …Firstly, apologies for missing a week with my posts to this blog. It was probably a little ambitious of me to expect a decent internet connection from the middle of the South China Sea. That’s not to say that such a thing is impossible, just extremely inconvenient and quite tricky when you’re living on […]
Water World
Sabah …I must admit, I wasn’t expecting to see this sight when I woke up this morning. We’ve been suffering the periphery of typhoon Parma since I arrived here in Sabah, shrouding the Celebes sea in rainy grey clouds and dashing any hopes I’ve had of shooting pictures from our helicopter which has spent the […]
Hunting for Whales
Indonesia …Indonesia is one of my favourite countries in the world. I spent a lot of time here in my twenties, just roaming around, visiting as many as I could of the seventeen odd thousand islands that make up this immense archipelago. Back then, coming to the remote island of Lembata would probably have involved […]
Urban Safari
Kenya …Coming to Kenya with the BBC’s natural history unit you’d be forgiven for assuming that I was here to spend a few weeks on safari. For sure, the BBC’s cameramen and women have had a long and fruitful relationship with Kenya’s amazing wildlife over the years, resulting in some of the most sensational wildlife […]
Tomb Raiders
Cambodia …As part of the Jungles program on Human Planet we have come to Cambodia to investigate a place where nature has reclaimed the site of a former human civilization. That place is the 200 square kilometre area of Angkor in Central Cambodia, former home to, amongst others, the great Khmer empire of King Suryavarman […]
Birds of a Feather
Papua New Guinea …Papua New Guinea’s fantastic cultural heritage has been drawing a steady stream of photographers to its shores for many years now. In fact, I’m pretty sure that my own particular passion for travelling to remote places was substantially inspired by images from this magical island which have been residing quietly in my […]
Jet Lag
Papua New Guinea …Today I can report back categorically that there is definitely no easy way to get to the centre of Papua New Guinea from the UK. At the last count my journey here involved 4 planes and just over 30 hours of flying. Consequently, this week’s post is going to be very […]
Taxidermy
The story behind the image …In terms of my photography, the most common question I am asked is “What is your favourite picture that you’ve taken”. It’s a very easy question to ask, but as those of you who shoot pictures regularly will no doubt understand, it’s an incredibly difficult one to answer. In order […]
Man on Wire
Laos …Allow me to introduce you to Samnieng… that’s him in the middle of the picture on his way to work on a typical Monday morning in August. He lives about a kilometre from this spot on the wrong side of the river from his place of work which lies on a small island amid […]
Backpacking
Thailand …This particular trip to Laos has begun for me in Thailand. The story I will be covering in a few days was filmed by a Human Planet crew a few weeks ago whilst I was in Mongolia, so I have taken this opportunity for independent travel by choosing to make my way to the […]
Hooked on Travelling
Mongolia …I am actually writing you this post from my home in Bristol, UK. I got back from Mongolia two days ago via a rather overdue trip to the tropical diseases clinic in London in order to have a small community of uninvited parasitic squatters exorcised from my backside. The good news for me was […]
City Slickers
Mongolia …Riding a horse in Mongolia has been a secret ambition of mine for a few years now. Well, to be more precise, riding a horse across Mongolia actually, an aspiration that I knew I would never realize on this short trip, but one that has since become a permanent fixture at the top of my […]
No Place Like Home
Mongolia …For some people who were brought up living sedentary lives, the urge to travel is irresistible. I think that I am one of those people. I have long maintained that this desire stems from an undeniable fire within the souls of each and every one of us that compels us to search out new […]
Praying for Rain
Mali …Another day, another awe inspiring location that would sit quite comfortably amidst the pages of Lord of the Rings. We’re guests of the Dogon people this week, camping by a small village at the base of a huge escarpment facing the desert plains of the Sahel. There are strict rules to living here. I’m […]
Extreme Makeover – Mosque Edition
Mali …This week I didn’t expect to be back in Africa, especially not Mali, the country Abbie has been calling home for the last 3 weeks, but thanks to a small political situation caused by a disagreement over the ingredients of this locality’s fabled mud plaster I am currently in the 45 degree desert heat […]
Sisters’ Meal Festival
The story behind the image …A lot of people have been asking me about this image, a cropped version of which appears on the masthead of this blog, so here’s the story of how it came about. I shot this photograph in 2007 whilst on a 2 month tour of south west China. It was […]
Famous for 15 Minutes
Brazil …Arriving at a sleepy southern Brazilian beach 5 days ago, none of our team could have predicted the scenes that would be surrounding us today. Back then, the area around our hotel resembled the opening scene of 28 Days Later due to fact that we have chosen to come here in Brazil’s winter season […]
Bye Bye Bayaka
Central African Republic …It’s the end of our time with the Bayaka and tomorrow we’ll be heading off to Cameroon and then home sweet home to the UK, but before I go I thought I’d leave you with one more picture from our Bayaka jungle home. That’s Mongonjay with his wife and child standing outside […]
Meditation
The story behind the image …I shot this picture a couple of years ago whilst on a 4 week trip through the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Bhutan can be a complicated country in which to travel since, as a visitor you are required to take a guided tour as your means of travel through the […]