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!

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

Here’s a slideshow of highlights from the first few days on the road. They include Sunshine Coast surfing, beaches, a shipwreck, and the hinterland, where only minutes from the coast you can see misty mountain scenes and villages. Then there’s Brisbane, with all its colonial architecture, bridges, war memorials (Aussies have done more than their fair share of pitching in where help is needed), spectacular twilights, and gardens. I have to admit – after years of leaving this city behind, it’s surprising to find how liveable and enjoyable it’s become.


Queensland highlights - Images by Peter Stuckings

So enough about work – how about a few quick tips on travel photography in case you’re into getting the best shots of the destinations you visit when you’re traveling?

1. Preparation: is there anything that doesn’t benefit from being prepared? In travel photo terms, this means online research (such as Google images, to see what things look like, and what’s worth your time), figuring out where the sun will be throughout the day (check out iPhone app ‘Focalware’ – brilliantly handy for predicting sunrise/set and moonrise/set anywhere in the world), scoping out the locations if you have time, getting permission if necessary (the more advanced the country, the more permissions needed, usually), and of course all the usual preparations like packing your gear the night before, ensuring batteries are charged, cards are cleared, and you get a good night’s sleep. Which leads to the most important bit…

2. Up early: I’m not a morning person, so I totally sympathise with anyone who has trouble with this part. Here’s a trick: when that alarm goes off in the pre-dawn darkness, promise yourself a catch-up nap at lunchtime. It works for me . But seriously, when photographers talk about the quality of the light, there’s nothing quite like the first light of the morning and the last light of the afternoon. So what exactly do we mean about quality of light? I’m guessing there’s as many answers to that as there are photographers. But to me, it has a lot to do with the angle and the colour temperature. A low-light angle means the facades of buildings are fully lit, less obscuring shadows, and at the right angle, the light skims across facades and features, giving more depth and definition. Put simply, the light just kind of gets in under and around things. Once the sun has risen to mid-morning, through to mid-afternoon, the angle is too high and the landscape begins to look ‘flat’ and hazy. Also, building facades and people’s faces become shrouded in shadows. Then there’s the colour temperature. Depending on your location, dawn and sunset light can be warm and orangey, whereas in other locations, dawn can be cool and blue-ish. Then noontime sunlight tends to become colourless and featureless. If this doesn’t make sense, shoot some RAW files and then play with the colour temperature settings in your RAW converter. And if you’re still unsure, email me!

3. Gear: the eternal question for budding photogs is ‘What’s the best camera/lens/kit/bag/tripod/etc?’ There is no easy answer and the more you discuss it, the less likely you are to find an answer, but I find the best attitude is ‘Whatever you’ve got on you.’ It’s easy when starting out to gather so much gear that you’ve got more than you can carry or use at any given time. I’ve found that photography gear usage becomes a bell-curve over time. You start simple, but then the lens-envy and gear-obsession sets in. But if you really discover what’s best for your photography outcomes, you start to leave certain things at home, until eventually you’re going out with only one body and, at most, 2-3 lenses, maybe even downscaling to a couple of prime lenses to keep it as pure and simple as possible. Hell, you don’t even need a flash or tripod 95% of the time so why drag all that stuff around?! And in the end, your results are so much better for being light and mobile. And having less things to fiddle with and agonise over, you tend to respond more to what’s happening around you than treating it all like a theory exercise. So my advice is, take your most versatile 2-3 lenses in the most compact method (belt pouches seem to work best), put away your lens cap, and leave the camera switched on all the time in the most responsive mode you know. Then see what happens!

4. Make a plan, then throw it away: As odd as it sounds, this always works for me. Put simply, travel photography shouldn’t be overly structured. To really capture the visual essence of a place, its history, its people and its daily life, you need to wander, respond, and take some chances. But on the other hand, when you have a whole city / province / region to photograph in a matter of days, you can’t just wander aimlessly. So you need a plan. But just don’t follow it too closely or you might miss that astounding ‘unguarded moment’ (to borrow the title of Steve McCurry’s 2009 book and the Church’s 1981 classic song), which afterwards is what really makes the trip worthwhile.

Ok, best of luck with your photos. Email me anytime if you have any questions, or start a discussion with the Comments below. I’m off to photograph weekend markets, an art gallery, and maybe Koalas, if I can find them. Avagreatweekend!