Those images are not for release yet, but here’s a few behind the scenes moments from our days on the road around this amazing country.

While preparing this week for my return, I dug up a few of the many 100s of photos I’m still sorting through from my March 2010 trip. While there were many visual elements to my discovery of Africa – wildlife, flora, vistas – by far the people were the most fascinating. Which is saying something considering how generally enthralling everything in Africa can be for a newcomer.

In this set are some of the people I encountered on a trip round the country, including a village of ‘pygmy’ people, more correctly known as the Twa, a boy washing by Lake Kivu in the west of the country, and some schoolchildren we encountered along the road in Gisenyi, the well-known city on the Congolese border.

Enjoy!

The photo below shows a boy with a severe cleft lip and palate standing in an empty OR, for an Operation Smile fund-raising campaign to demonstrate what is required to equip a mission successfully. I have to admit when I consider the millions of dollars that may be raised through the use of my photos in these campaigns, it gives me a huge sense of professional satisfaction that is hard to find in other areas of work.

For further info on Operation Smile, check out www.operationsmile.org or contact me. Ok, back to work now!

I’m covering more and more weddings these days, and finding I’m really getting into the whole experience. It’s more than just a job – it’s being invited to be an integral part of a couple’s most important moments, helping to create for them memories that will capture the essence of their big day, but also leave them with mementos that will only grow more special with time.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=217810&id=755641398

I hope you enjoy looking through these…

293 highlights from around Bangkok, including:

Wat Phra Kaew, or Temple of the Emerald Buddha

The State Tower, and its restaurants and bars

And loads of shopping, food and entertainment.

See slideshow here:
Bangkok & surrounds, Thailand - Images by Peter Stuckings

There’s either a slideshow below, or please click on the link to see.

Rwanda – Gorilla trek & Warrior Dancers – Images by Peter Stuckings

Today we were shown new developments in the capital, and views across the hills of the neighbourhooods that stretch across the slopes here. Then suddenly we stumbled into a Catholic church meet, where the choir was warming up outside the entrance. Within minutes we’d stumbled onto another congregation, a Pentecostal one this time. These guys and girls really know how to party! Drumming, singing, hands in the air, waving their bibles and babies about. We all ended up getting into the beats too!

Then a quick lap round the local fruit and veg market. I’ve learnt something today – people in SE Asia are so much easier to photograph! For whatever reason, there you have it. People here watch me warily, then put up a hand and say ‘no photo’ or ask for money upfront. It takes a long time to flatter the ladies into letting me get a photo of them. But I got away with it a few times. A lot harder work than in Asia

We finished up with a sobering and moving visit to the genocide museum in Kigali. Please take some time to read up on how these events came about. I’d prefer not to delve into it here. Too much to say in order to deal with the topic fully.

This afternoon we hit the road for Ruhengeri, the base for trekking to visit the famed Silverback Gorillas. Which I should have photos of by tomorrow night!

To be continued…
Visit slideshow here:
Rwanda road-trip – Images by Peter Stuckings

And what a way to begin! Flying in over Kenya and spotting Mt Kilimanjaro, the Masai Mara AND Lake Victoria from the plane, all within an hour.

Kigali itself is a very pleasant city wrapped around lush green hills and valleys. I read a lot before coming here about the genocide of the past few decades, especially the most well-known instance in 1994. So I can’t help picturing those scenes as I cruise through the city’s green and leafy suburban streets on the back of a motorbike taxi. But the early impression is of a country that has worked hard to move on from the bad old days and is enjoying a new era of prosperity and stability, partly thanks to the huge amounts of assistance poured in here since the mid-90s (i.e. guilt money from those countries that failed Rwanda tragically in 1994). But mostly due to the policies and efforts of the rather enlightened government under President Paul Kagame (check him out here on Facebook).

The mission kicked off on Saturday morning at the main university hospital downtown. Over 400 patients and their families were gathered together from all over the country, and bussed in courtesy of UNICEF. They’ve been housed in dormitories courtesy of the Red Cross, and are being tended to by volunteers from a range of NGOs including the US Peace Corps. So it’s a big and complicated operation.

For my part, I’m working alongside a video team who are filming a promotional documentary, following several of the children through the mission and surgical processes. Once the video campaign is ready for release, a print campaign will run in parallel. And since thankfully video doesn’t yield enough pixels for hi-resolution printing, photographers are still needed to capture images that match the video story. So video hasn’t killed the photography star yet!

There’s so much to explain and reveal about things here, and about working on this kind of project. But I’m exhausted and want to just share some photos and take a break. Be sure to contact me or take a look at www.operationsmile.org if you have any questions.

Operation Smile in Rwanda 2010 - Images by Peter Stuckings

And that’s where the topic would lie, if it were not for the fact that visiting the temple is such a blast! The complex itself has loads of architecture to thrill the temple enthusiasts, as well as scenery from the clifftops to knock the socks off all the other visitors.

(Likely lads: Nathan, Peter, Chris)

What’s more, for the adventure and movie fans, there’s half an army up there armed to the teeth – which you see plenty of, since they smile at you a lot . As a tourist, you’re absolutely welcome to wander among the bunkers, artillery guns, and chat to the soldiers. And if you’re really lucky, they might let you pose for a photo with their AK47.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, the motorbike journey there (cars and buses are for wooses! ) was one of the most spectacular days of riding I’ve done anywhere in Asia. 215km each way, mostly on newly sealed roads, but also on hard-packed dirt roads, the journey took us through heavily wooded villages in the dawnlight, with buffaloes frolicking in the paddies, alongside farmers with red scarves wrapped round their bodies casting nets into ponds, while the womenfolk stoked the fires and kids played among the houses. An unforgettable ride for sure!

The upshot of such a long and arduous journey was the lack of time for enjoying the temple and its surrounds, so the photos were all shot in a matter of minutes before hitting the trail again to return to Siem Reap by nightfall.

Let me know if you need any details on the journey. Truly a stunner!

The assignment was to give a fresh new look to the photos for their upcoming 2010 books. It’s interesting how quickly some photos age. Even if you’re not into the technicalities of what to look for, we all have a highly tuned sense about it. The colours, the things in the background that look out of date, even the perspective, angle, the way it was shot. If the photo was made more than a few years ago, it’s highly likely it was shot with film, and this shows in the slavery to colour temperature and balance, and take-it-or-leave-it graininess that colour film used to lock us into. Take a look at the make of vehicles and the shop signs in the shot, and think about how long ago it was that things looked like that. 5, 10, 15 years ago?

I think travel media producers do a disservice to a rapidly changing country when they keep re-hashing all the old imagery in a desperate attempt to keep selling tickets and tours to places that don’t exist anymore except in the imagination (I saw a travel website the other day use a photo of the Bagan temples in Burma to represent holidays to ‘Indochina’ – talk about mixing your memories!) Times, people, cultures move on, and so should the travel media. One good example is the cover of the previous Vietnam Lonely Planet book – the girl at the train window. Beautiful photo, but it’s been about 15 years since they put grills on all the windows, making it impossible to lean out like that. Then there’s the girl’s hairstyle and dress. And finally, why would a supposedly progressive company like LP put such an old photo on the cover of their supposedly up-to-date book?!? Nostalgia for things long gone, anyone? (Incidentally, that same photo had been used as a double-pager in Insight Guides’ books for years before LP put it on their cover.) But let’s move on…

I’d spent very little time in Thailand before the assignment so it was a big learning experience. Pluses would be the fun and friendly people, the great weather, the fact that most things work and actually get done in the same century – unlike some other places I shouldn’t name , motorbiking all over the hills, the diversity of things to do and see all over the country, and it’s extremely affordable! Minuses would be way too much Pad Thai , and not enough time to really get to know the country and make more friends.

These photos are just a brief sampling, and soon there will be a lot more photos from Bangkok and northern Thailand for purchase on my online image library at www.IndoChinaImages.com

Look out for the new Bangkok and Thailand books, due out in 2010. Thanks for viewing!


Thailand highlights - Images by Peter Stuckings