I am back back in London after an amazing trip around Asia with Steve Davey on his Impressions of Laos & Vietnam photo tour. Whilst I was away I managed to post some images along the way … from Bangkok we travelled north by train to Laos visiting Vientiane, Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang. I have previous posted images from all of these locations.

I must mention an amazing evening we had in Luang Prabang with Adri Berger who is fantastic photographer and videographer – check out this film Portraits from Luang Prabang. Plus the great food at the Big Tree Cafe which is run by Mija Son, his wife. If you ever visit Luang Prabang then you must go there.

From Luang Prabang, we flow to Hanoi which I also posted some images before leaving Vietnam. The images that I have just posted to my “On the Road” gallery are of the landscape and markets around Sa Pa, Can Cau and Bac Ha as well as a few images of border with China at Lao Cai.

The atmosphere in Lang Prabang for Lao New Year was completely amazing … one of the highlights of the Steve Davey photo tour to Laos & Cambodia in April 2011. They celebrate New Year over three days with the main celebrations on the middle day with a religious procession with lot of monks in their colourful orange robes. Along the route of the procession, people sprinkle the monks and others in the procession with water. I believe that this is to wash away the evil spirits.

After the procession, everyone starts to throw water and the town becomes a massive water fight which is impossible to avoid unless you lock yourself inside and don’t answer the door. The cafes and bars are great supply of water and happy to help out … some of the locals even have hoses constantly refilling large drums. Added to this there are lots of cars, trucks, open back vans and small lorries parading along the street following a circular route. These vehicles carry there own supply of water so that they can fight back and soak the participants outside the cafes and bars.

With all this water, I did take some extra precautions to keep my camera moderately dry – thanks to my Storm Jacket. Most of the people were relatively careful to not throw huge amounts of water directly at the camera providing you let them throw water at you … move the camera out of the way rather than trying to use it to protect you – that wouldn’t have worked! The great thing was that everyone had hours of fun with everyone joining in. It is fair to say that I have never been wetter in all my life … my trainers (sneakers) to three days to dry and were binned at the end of the trip.

Please take some time to have a look at my Laos – New Year gallery and let me know what you think.

Following the images of Bangkok and Village Life in Cambodia, I have posted some more of my images from last April when I travelled to Laos & Cambodia on a Steve Davey photo tour. These images are focused on the temples and festival which we stumbled upon at one of the temples.

Angkor Wat at Seim Reap was absolutely stunning and an incredible architectural achievement. However, there are so many other temples around Seim Reap some of which seem to be completely overgrowth with huge trees growing from the reins. It feels like that you could be on a film set and I believe that some of these sites have been used in the movies.

By luck, we managed to stumble on a festival in the surrounds of one of the temples. It is always great to be at a festival because it is a great opportunity to interact with the locals. Some how people and food seem to produce lots of great images.

Please look at my Cambodia – Temples & Festival gallery and let me know what you think.

I have just posted some more images from last April when I travelled to Laos & Cambodia on a Steve Davey photo tour. These images depict village life from a number of different villages in Cambodia. The people were very welcoming and happy to engage with us, sharing a glimpse into their lives.

The stilted village in the middle of a lake was particularly fascinating as was out boat ride to this village which included two boats braking down. In the end, we had to be towed back to our starting point by a third boat. Travelling is often an adventure!

Please look at my Cambodia – Village Life gallery and let me know what you think.

I have just completed changing my website to a new hosting company, Bluehost, as recommended by Matthew Campagna from The Turning Gate. So far I am very impressed and hopefully I have managed to migrate the site without any problems. Please let me know if you get any problems with my site so I can fix them – I don’t think there are any but you can never be completely sure.

After an excellent studio workshop with Gregory Brown and a number of subsequent studio shoots, I have finally got round to selecting a small selection of images for my new studio gallery.

I am continuing to experiment with studio lighting to create different effects and moods using various combinations of lights.  The big difference when shooting in the studio is that the photographer is in complete control of the lighting – both it positioning and strength.  It is so different from travel photography when you have to make the most of whatever light is available.

Currently, I am planning more studio shoots in May and June when I will add more images to this gallery.

I have been taking some images around the City of London for one of our friends to use on their company website which has just been re-launched.  I also took portraits of their staff which isn’t my normal style of photography but was good fun.