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..

Travel Diary : Alor Archipelago, Indonesia

It’s hard to really convey into words about how special some places in the world are. That said, if there was a list, Alor is currently sitting at the top. These images have been waiting to get published for around a month. During that time, I’ve been staring at the screen trying to figure out how to say how incredible this place is and I don’t think it’s possible to really convey with words, my photos, or even the mix of the two. These images are from the small time I spent above water in between diving and seeing all the incredible creatures of the ocean. Time seems to stand still. I know I’ve spoken about how time seems to slow down in some places, but somehow in Alor it feels like the world just stops and you’re in that place you’re supposed to be. At least it is for me. I can’t get enough of it.

Every morning before heading out on the dive boat, I tried to catch sunrise and meander around the small town near the dive shop. Only after one day, I was recognised by half the people I came in contact with. I guess the western dude wandering around aimlessly is a bit noticeable. That being said, the people of Alor are so wonderfully friendly. I was greeted by handshakes, hugs, high fives and smiles. This was my second time to Alor and you can check out the photos from that trip here. I was pretty much convinced it was perfect on my first visit….until I came back and realised it just keeps getting better and has me counting down the days until I go back. I think I’ll make this a yearly trip, and I’d love to spend some real time here and setting in to a routine to really soak it all in. Hopefully some of these images will do this place justice.

As far as diving goes, I can’t say enough about the folks at Air Dive Alor. It feels like going to see old friends rather than just going diving. I feel lucky I’m able to call them friends now, and I can’t wait to get back for more epic hangs.

The Week in Photos: Volume 5

We’ve wrapped up a few commercial projects and had a few days before preproduction started on a couple of others, so I wanted to go out and shoot some images for myself a few days this week. Technically some of these are from the week before, so this is the week(ish) in photos. I’ll get better about the scheduling of this whole thing, but it’s been hectic lately so this will have to do until I get it together on the schedule.

Looking at what I’ve shot recently, I’ve noticed how I’ve gradually been shooting more and more at night. I think this probably has to do with a smaller camera that I can take with me on social outings and snap some images along the way, but also I think I’ve just become more and more intrigued with how pools of light and their contrasting shadow makes for such dramatic moody images. If you’ve been to Saigon, you’ll know how frenetic it is and how there’s never any shortage of energy when you’re walking around the city. Similarly, its easy to have very busy compositions and I’m a minimalist at heart. Using shadows to hide distractions and isolate my subjects is always going to be my first approach. So here’s the last week and a half in photos.

Travel Diary: Osaka Part 2

Maybe I’ve not been selective enough with my cull of images, but I couldn’t get enough of shooting the streets of Osaka. And this is a blog, not my portfolio, so I’m a bit looser in my picks for better or for worse. Not every image needs to be the show stopper…..Which kind of leads me to a point on how I shoot these days. Often times in travel photography, it’s waiting for that ONE moment. And don’t get me wrong, I do that quite a bit, but the little times in between are just as meaningful in my travel experiences. Showing ONLY the iconic shots is kind of doing the whole experience a disservice. I’ve talked about finding beauty in the mundane and slowing down and how I’ve kind starting shooting differently now with this smaller set up in the Fuji system, so I wanted the images to reflect a more documentary feel. This is personal work and I want to show my experiences for what they were, not just the best shots from the most well known locations… It’s more than that. In any event, here’s part 2 of the Osaka series.

Travel Diary: Osaka Part 1

On a whim, I found a cheap ticket to Osaka for a sneaky weekend and hopped on the redeye from Saigon and woke up at 8:30 am in Osaka. Gotta love time travel. I’m absolutely smitten with Japan and the opportunity to spend a few days in Osaka was too good to resist. With the yen at a 35 year low, there’s no better time to take advantage. With no real agenda aside from going to Universal Studios for some rollercoasters and Mario goodness (stay tuned for those images) I just wandered, rode trains, ate all the food, and took pictures of every nook and cranny of this incredible city. I only took my Fuji x100v and the ease of shooting definitely reflected in the mountain of images I had to sift through when I got home. Maybe I need to temper that itchy trigger finger so I can limit these posts to just one part? Maybe not. This will be part one of three so stay tuned for more later in the week!

Travel Diary: Amed, Indonesia

Right off the heels of my Hanoi trip for work and what has seemed like a whirlwind since the Tet break, I headed back to Amed on the northern coast of Bali for a bit of a disconnect and some diving. If you’re in the area, check out Dream Divers Bali, they’re tops. I haven’t yet taken up underwater photography - diving, for me at least, is about completely not thinking about anything but whats in front of me. I’m afraid if I take a camera underwater, it’s going to start turning into work. With the thousands of dollars that I’d likely spend on strobes, housings, ports, etc etc, I think there would be a nagging feeling in the back of my head that I need to recoup those costs. And I really don’t want diving to turn into work. It’s my zen place…. but maybe I should just let go of the idea that I need to get a return on investment….I’m not there quite yet, so no underwater photography shenanigans.

Anyway, between dives, I had my new toy, the Fuji x100v. I wandered through the small paths and streets around the dive shop snapping away like a tourist. I think I’m confident in now saying I’m happy never taking anything other than a fixed lens camera on my personal travel trips if it’s as capable as the little Fuji is. I didn’t miss my usual kit at all. The smaller camera allows me to have it on me all the time and it’s just so fun to shoot with. Normally, I’d never take the camera out in the airport, but I had some nice light and my camera was actually in my pocket, so grabbing it and taking a few shots was a breeze. Not to mention the in-camera multiple exposure feature which has me a bit excited. That said, I have zero clue what I’m doing in that whole regard, so down the rabbit hole of trying to figure it out I go. Scroll down to the last image to see the first little experiment in that whole kettle of fish. These are just some of the images from the short few days I had in one of my favourite places. For more of these types of images, head on over to IG and give it a follow!