Travel Diary: Bangkok - Part 2

After waxing on perhaps excessively in Part 1 on the origins of my photography journey, I’ll keep it a bit more succinct here. Wandering through the streets of Bangkok with a fresh perspective after all those years stirred up feelings of familiarity right next those of utter novelty. That notion of confluence - the brackish waters of old mixing with new, juxtapositions of the traditional colliding with the ultra-modern, familiar scenes intermingling with the altogether novel, the mundane blending with the weird. These places have a gravitational pull, always drawing me in. Transitions and the interplay between two seemingly opposing forces, that dance between the odd couple… It’s where the most interesting things happen. Influences ebb and flow back and forth, reshaping each other into a new voice and aesthetic. A new noise.

For the photographers, these were all shot on the Fuji x100v as per usual for my travel stuff these days. I’m interested in how this confluence influences your work? Does it at all? Where do you find inspiration and the good stuff? Leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts! For more of these types of images, head on over to my socials down below.

Travel Diary: Bangkok - Part 1

In 2007, I boarded a plane to Thailand, about to take my first plunge into living overseas. I was the walking, talking version of a clueless 20-something in search of purpose. After 34 hours in airports and wildly uncomfortable plane seats, I landed in Bangkok around midnight. The city hit me like a ton of bricks— the sounds, the smells, the chaos. Tuk-tuks zipping by, street food at every turn, and the heat. It was sensory overload in the best possible way. It was like a shot of adrenaline, and I felt alive in a way I had never experienced. Over the coming months, I went through every emotion — excitement, confusion, loneliness, wanderlust, the lot. Though after a month, I was convinced I’d never leave despite the absolute mine field of emotions I was going through. I felt like I was on the right path even though I had no idea what that path actually was.

From Bangkok, I made the trek to Phuket where I set up my base. I had picked up a little point-and-shoot camera and starting taking photos of my neighbourhood and everything else, really. After posting some images on the interwebs, I started receiving messages like, “Wow, this is beautiful!” and “Are you a photographer now?” I hadn’t even considered it, but hey, what the hell, why not try and make it happen? Hindsight is 20/20 and looking back, I kind of wonder if my friends were just blowing smoke up my ass… but whatever, it lit a fire, and I started chasing something that ended up being that path I hadn’t had a name for. I reached out to every photographer I could find, maybe someone would take me seriously off my stellar point and shoot portfolio…… Cue crickets. Finally after a couples months or so of persistence, read badgering and repeated emails, I finally got a response and a contact at a local paper. I reached out to The Phuket Gazette and miraculously, they gave me an assignment. I panicked, flew back to Bangkok, and bought a Canon 300D. Now I was a pro, right? Yeah, I had no idea what I was doing, but I dove in headfirst. Naïve much? Totally. But here we are.

As I started shooting events, people started to ask if I could photograph interiors and exteriors. Without a clue about what that entailed, I said yes. So, off to the internet I went. I started reading everything I could and fumbled my way through my first couple of jobs. Spoiler: Photoshop doesn’t make up for inexperience, but somehow I stumbled across the line with work just good enough to where clients were happy. I was getting paid to make pictures despite my serious lack in experience. Having to execute on demand certainly made it necessary to try and learn as fast as I could.  After all, that adage of “don’t write a check your ass can’t cash” was something ingrained in my head from an early age. All that being said, talk about watching a clown show. I spent countless hours trying to reverse engineer every photo I saw, and experienced what seemed like an infinite number of failures trying to replicate them. Basically a trial by fire.

A year and a half later, I thought I had a decent understanding of what I was doing. My time in Phuket was coming to an end and I was moving back to the States. So much for never leaving. I was deadset confident I’d slide right into a full-time photography gig upon touchdown back in Atlanta, and I’m sure you can see what’s coming next. Big reality check— way more competition, more developed market, and I was nowhere near the calibre photographer that what it would take to make it. I ended up taking a job in hospitality to pay the bills and started reaching out to commercial photographers. I obviously needed to level up. For months, I heard back from a grand total of no one despite casting an absurdly wide net. When I was starting to doubt why I moved back and maybe this whole thing was a flash in the pan that could only happen when I was back in Thailand, I got a call back for gig as a second assistant. The second assistant doesn’t touch cameras, have any creative input, or really anything to do with photography. Essentially, I was the guy who carried gear, built sets, did all the grunt work. Ahh.. these were the dues everyone kept talking about that I thought I had dodged. No such luck, but I was going to be damned if I didn’t take this whole thing seriously. Best believe I studied lighting, styling, camera settings…every little detail and realised I knew so very little about my chosen path.

Fast forward 16 years, and I’m a full time photographer. My craft has evolved, and I’ve been fortunate to make a living off it. The journey’s been a wild one - often times uncertain, sometimes incredible, but this is my thing. I don’t know how to live my life wth out it. The act of photography turned into a kind of therapy for me when things were getting a bit hectic. That time with the camera became time where I could be present. The process quickly superseded the end results, so the photos ended up being a reflection of that process and somehow I got better.

So… Why am I rambling about all of this? I hadn’t been back to Thailand since I left 17 years ago. When I moved back to Asia, this time Vietnam, when I had the chance to travel, I wanted to go somewhere new. Over a decade slipped by without ever really considering going back. But recently, I had the chance to swing through Bangkok again before the Sri Lanka workshop. My curiosity got the better of me. I wondered how the city had changed in nearly two decades? How had I changed? Maybe I’m still the kid with a camera, wandering and trying to figure it out, but I’ve got a few more years under my belt now so maybe I’m just an older kid still trying to figure it out.

Gone are the days of Khao San Road. No need to relive those days. I wanted to see what’s new - cocktail bars, dives, interesting places to shoot, and all the food. I still have old friends living in Bangkok, so I reached out and ended up exploring areas of the city I didn’t realise even existed. Old places and new eyes right?. Felt like a completely different city than what I remember. Whether that’s a result of it changing, me changing, likely a combination of both, but damn what a cool city and I can’t wait to get back. 

For my photographers, I kept it light and fast with the Fuji X100V and the two lens adapters, covering 28-50mm. Everything is edited in Capture One though wiith Fuji’s colour science, I didn’t have to do much. It kind of made me want to shoot only jpgs, but not quite ready for that whole rabbit hole. Anyways, enough waxing on. Here’s part one and stay tuned for part two next week. 

Sri Lanka Workshop Recap: Part 1: Central Highlands and the Southern Coast

Travel is a funny thing. Despite due diligence and research, trying to control all the variables is often like carrying water in a sieve - a lesson in futility. This is not to say throw caution completely to the wind, but rather understand going into it that things will inherently be different than any preconceived ideas regardless if you’ve been there before. So, with that being said, this year’s workshop I co-led with Etienne Bossot of Pics of Asia in Sri Lanka was a lesson in laughing at the weather when it should have been far less...moody and often grumpy. Maybe it wasn’t grumpy, but it definitely wasn’t blue skies and gorgeous sunsets. So, when these things happen, a bit of a change in perspective is necessary. It allows us to start thinking in a mindset that’s not really so much about “perfect travel conditions” but rather looking at the conditions and making images that play to the strengths of each situation. So that golden light isn’t there….. so what. Are we going to sulk around and whinge about the shitty weather or do we start looking for pools of light, reflections from the rain, indoor markets, texture, beauty in the mundane and decisive moments? Perhaps we need to start thinking more about how to create compelling images with what’s in front of us rather than what is traditionally seen as beautiful. This is definitely a do as I say, not necessarily as I do type situation because there were more than a couple of occasions that I shook my fist at the sky and groaned at another overcast sky. We’re all human, but it’s not the end of the day if things go differently than we thought. If it was, oh man, I’d have been witness to about a million apocalypses at this point in my life.

We started in Negombo, made our way to the mountains around Kandy and Nuwara Eliya, down to the rice paddies on the way down to the coast again and back along the southern coast through Galle and back up to Colombo. It was a whirlwind! This post will focus on the central highlands and the southern coast to Galle. Colombo and Negombo to follow. With such a varied countryside, it became impossible to narrow it down to just one post. So stay tuned for part 2.

For the photographers, I only took the Fuji x100v on this trip and while it had its ups and downs, I recently got the little adapter lenses that give me a 28mm, 35mm, and 50mm equivalent options in a tiny package, so I didn’t miss the bigger system. I did this partly because of the ease and speed of the tiny camera, but additionally to prove a point. Making compelling images doesn’t require a mountain of gear. Yeah yeah, I know everyone has heard its not the gear, and I’m a big supporter of that. But thats’s not the whole picture. It’s more of the recognition that all these magic picture boxes are tools to realise the vision in your head. Picking the right tools for the right job is far more the camp I reside in and the Fuji x100v was more than enough to shoot everything I wanted. I’m not a wildlife photographer, so I don’t need a bazooka lens, I’m not shooting massive print ads on these trips so I don’t need the bajillion megapixels. Sometimes less is more and and these trips are proof positive that you can take a small kit and create something that reflects that crazy person’s vision in your head. Speaking of gear, massive massive thanks to the folks at Think Tank. In addition to our usual program, we ran a friendly little competition for the best series of images/story and, because crows are ubiquitous in Sri Lanka, a cheeky little contest to see who could wrangle the nicest shot of a crow was thrown in last minute. We gave away their incredibly useful cable management bags to the winners.

For transparency, I am a ThinkTank affiliate and any purchase made off the link above I get a small percentage that allows us to keep these types of giveaways possible. I couldn’t speak higher of the folks over there. Not only are their bags incredible, but their customer service is world class. I’ve had nothing but over the top good experiences and only cosign things and companies that I feel are doing it the right way. Supporting them supports photographers and helps us create the images we love.

Travel Diary : Florence and Tuscany and Over-tourism

From Lucerne, I made my way down through northern Italy and ended up in Florence for a few days with a couple little excursions out into the Tuscan countryside. Upon entering the city, it’s pretty clear why it’s such a popular destination- the city is a stunner. Renaissance art, incredible architecture, some of the best food on the planet and a damn good coffee game. What’s not to like?

While absolutely stunning, something in Florence felt ….. off. Walking around the city, I immediately thought “Do people actually live in the central part of this city or is it just a playground for tourists?” Group tours fill the streets, English spoken on every corner, a carbonara with cream and bacon in it?!…something was awry. And I say this while painfully self aware that I am not outside of the problem. This notion of over-tourism is on the forefront of every conversation it seems when it comes to travel these days and I’d feel remiss if I didn’t comment on it. Airbnb, the issue with affordable housing, respect of locals, pricing locals out, and neighbourhoods feeling like open air museums…none of this feels great.. And it certainly doesn’t feel sustainable or conducive to the best part of traveling for me - breaking bread and finding connections with people all over the world. The issue is certainly nuanced, but the more I think about it, the more a common denominator becomes clear - for me at least. There’s a pretty big difference between mass tourism and traveling to experience other cultures. I’m not going sit on a high horse by any means, and any traveling is better than being insular with no world perspective, so take this for what it is - just a slice of my perspective based on a short time here. I’m sure I’m missing key points and I’d love to be schooled on them. That being said, participating, interacting, immersing into a culture is the exact opposite of the petting zoo type scenario you see with mass tourism. It’s like people’s sense of empathy has been replaced with grabbing a photo for the ‘gram or ticking a box on a list of destinations.

I also realise I don’t have the answer to this on a macro level, and I don’t want to be one of those folks that just points out a problem and goes back to exactly what they were doing. I do know I have control over my own actions and can only move in ways that I feel are respectful and empathetic. The more I ponder it, the notion of being a participant in something rather than merely taking up space becomes a differentiation in all of this for me. Certainly, policy level decisions on housing, numbers of tourists, and a myriad of other things need to be addressed, but some personal responsibility on the shoulders of travellers and tourists is definitely in order. A split second of thinking “what if this was my home? Would I act this way if this was my front yard?” If the answer is no, don’t be that guy.

In the images below, it’s not super obvious at the sheer number of people in the city, but I’m a creature of habit, and waking up early to go shoot is pretty normal in Vietnam for me. Putting it lightly, folks don’t rise as early in Florence as they do in Vietnam. Not by a long shot. It made for some quiet, peaceful morning walks and completely confirms my feelings on waking up early and exploring a place while it wakes up is the way to go. Miss the chaos, catch the beautiful light, and watch the world wake up.

For my photography friends, these were all shot on the trusty little fuji x100v. Fast and light.

Travel Diary: Lucerne, Switzerland

From Zurich, I met up with my parents and headed down to the picturesque little city of Lucerne. Sitting on a the eponymous lake, Lucerne exudes that Swiss quaintness we all hear of. Old world charm in a nutshell. Medieval roads, towering old churches, you know, the works. Coupled with a trip down to a couple of Alpine towns, needless to say, charm was oozing. Epic mountain landscapes mixed with picture perfect little towns…what’s not to like? Specifically, Grindelwald is crazy beautiful. I bet snowboarding there would be ridiculous. Break out the apple wine and schnitzel, I’m here for it.

I shot all of these on the Fuji x100v with some of these with the telephoto lens adapter to get me to a 50mm equivalent. I’m posting a few more of these over on instagram as well, so go have a look and if you like what you see, feel free to give me a follow for more shenanigans like this.

Travel Diary: Basel, Switzerland

Home of Art Basel, Basel sits around an hour by train from Zurich, so I figured it would be a nice little jaunt to head over before meeting family back in Zurich in a few days. Not knowing a whole lot about Basel except for the association with Art Basel, the only thing I really expected is maybe seeing some cool art, so off I went and wandered the city for a few days. Decidedly laid back and chill, the vibe of the city mimicked the flow of the Rhine river through the city. Complete with essentially a party every afternoon on the river with scenes reminiscent of beach hangout days I’ve seen in the tropics, folks were sipping drinks, having a swim, playing tunes…living the good life. Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all.

I had heard of a graffiti scene in Basel so after a quick google search, I walked across the city in search of a long stretch of wall near the train station. Tunes in the ears (Digable Planets, Tribe Called Quest, etc) and a bounce in my step, I caught myself dancing down the streets. I only realised I was doing this after catching smiles and laughs from passersby. It’s funny how contagious good energy is. Mundane strolls turn into moments of joy. I’m here for it. Graffiti pieces were scattered over the city, from commissioned to maybe not so commissioned. I’m a sucker for trains, so seeing the stretch of painted walls that stretched for kilometers between Zurich and Basel immediately conjured memories of that first time I saw Wild Style as a kid and fell in love with writing my name all over the place. I haven’t done that in a long time other than scrawling in the margins of my countless notebooks, but I’ll never not pause and check out handstyles, bombs, throw ups and full pieces on walls. Similarly, these days, I’ve grown a liking to finding little pools of light and watching what happens. Everything kind of slows down and the only thing that matters is what’s right in front of me. It’s not therapy per se, but damn is it a good exercise in being present. Chase the light and find out what happens.

For my fellow photographers, everything was shot on the Fuji x100v. I picked up the telephoto adapter back in Osaka, so I had the option between the default 35mm and throwing the little adapter and getting a 50mm frame. Super small, I could still travel light and fast.

Travel Diary: Zurich, Switzerland

I booked a flight to Zurich to meet up with family and did absolutely zero research on really anything. I pretty much outlined the last meet up with the family and this time they had taken care of most of the planning, so I figured I’d let the places just kind reveal themselves to me. My first time to Switzerland, I had only the stereotypes and I was sure there was more to it than visions of cowbells, Alpine chalets and expensive watches. That said, I didn’t expect to find some grittiness in the cities. I should have known there will always be areas where the misfits, the strange, and fringes go. Leave it to me to stumble into these areas without realising it. I basically chose my hotel based on its decent proximity to the train station and it ended up right on the edge of the red light district. Needless to say, it’s a bit of a departure from the quaintness of the old part of the city. Aimlessly wandering, I popped into Old Love Tattoo shop to check it out and ended up hanging out with a few of those guys on the street just watching the endless stream of amusement on Langstrasse. Side note, go check out Bug Nasty aka Marlon Muralles’ work. He’s actually in LA right now for you folks back in the States. Go tell him I said whats up. Anyways, even though it was filled with all kinds of sketchiness, I never felt unsafe. The American in me experienced a bit of cognitive dissonance in that places like this in the States necessitate your head being on a swivel for sketchballs and people trying to jack you. This didn’t feel like that. It’s this juxtaposition that I love seeing anywhere I travel to…The swirling mixture of modernity and tradition, clean and grit, new and old. It’s where all the interesting stuff lives.

For the photographers, I shot all of these on my trusty Fuji X100V. I took along the tele conversion lens to give me a 50mm equivalent, so I guess I cheated the system a bit on the whole fixed lens camera game. This little set up is so light and easy to run and gun with it makes me wonder how I ever traveled with the bigger, heavier set up. Yeah, the files may be better on the other camera and I may have been able to shoot some things that the smaller setup’s limitations prevented, but, you know, who cares. I’m not trying to be a pack mule and lug around a ton of gear and end up looking like Quasimoto hunched over shuffling around. Maybe I’m lazy….maybe I have it figured out. Maybe neither, but here we are, and I’m not mad at the images, so I’m going to keep it going this way. After all, if “F8 and be there” is good enough for Arthur Fellig aka Weegee (if your’e not familiar, it’s time you get acquainted) then its good enough for me.

Travel Diary: Hoi An

This past week, I headed up to Quang Nam to meet up with some photographer homies for a motorbike trip up into the mountains and up the Ho Chi Minh Road for a few days. I expected epic photo ops and to come back with a memory card filled with bangers. Mother nature had other ideas and it was overcast and drizzled off and on the entire time so my camera stayed in my bag more often than not. So, instead of focusing on photography, the same weather that made for pretty forgettable photos was absolutely perfect for riding. That said, when we got back to Hoi An, I was itching to find some light to make some photos. While the light wasn’t the best that afternoon, I headed out on a sunset tour with Etienne. If you’re not familiar with Pics of Asia, it’s time to get acquainted. I’m a little biased in that Etienne is a long time friend, but his tours are incredible. Everywhere from Hoi An to Bangladesh, Pics of Asia runs photography tours based on ethical travel photography and breaking bread with locals. Shameless plug, I’m co-leading a workshop in Sri Lanka this January and we may have one spot left. hint hint.. It’s going to be incredible.

So, off we went into the fields and into the villages on the outskirts of Hoi An. First stop was a little spot making My Quang noodles. My Quang is one of my favourite Vietnamese noodle dishes and is a speciality of Quang Nam. Thus the name. We then headed out into the neighbouring fields as the workers finished up their day and were heading home as the sun quickly dipped towards the horizon. It wasn’t exactly one of those show stopping golden hours, but there was nice drama in the skies and sometimes, thats enough. The drama in those skies turned out to be an absolute downpour around 7pm, so when I met a friend of mine for dinner in the Old Town, it was largely empty after the rain stopped. Right after a rain is one of my favourite times to shoot, so I happily snapped away. Reflections, mood, atmosphere…. love it..