Saigon Punk Chronicles : Enter the Year of the Dragon

Another year end party and this one was a banger. I didn’t catch all the bands, school night ya know, but it was one of the funnest shows I’ve been to in ages. By the time Desolated went on, kids were hanging from the rafters and the stage was invisible under the sing along pile ons. Fucking amazing. When I first moved to Saigon, shows felt very different than they do now in the best possible way. It feels like a proper hardcore scene, though with some marked differences from the scene I grew up in. First, none of that stupid scene elitism. Everyone here, at least in my experience, is so down to earth, approachable, and welcoming. Secondly, the representation of women is far more than when I grew up. It’s so good to see.

The line up consisted of Desolated from the UK, Moneybag 1327 out of Kuala Lumpur, District 105, Diarsia, Elbow Drop, and Pizza Dua. I caught Diarsia, District 105, Moneybag 1327 and Desolated, so my apologies to the other bands!

Desolated

Moneybag 1327

District 105

Diarsia

Stage Dives and High Fives!

Travel Diary - Sri Lanka Part 3: Black and White Edition

As previously mentioned, I got a bit enthusiastic with my penchant for hitting the shutter and ended up with a mountain of images to go through. Normally, I try to cull down the numbers to have one of these posts, but it didn’t work out that way this time around. I generally don’t like mixing black and white images with colour images when I post, so here’s my take on Sri Lanka in black and white.

Travel Diary - Sri Lanka Part 2 : Southern Beaches and Galle

Making my way south from Columbo, I hopped on a train without a reserved seat. Needless to say it was an experience in standing less than 2 millimeters from every person on the train. Get in where you fit in is the name of the game. After getting off the train, I finally exhaled fully after basically holding my breath for 3 hours and the first inhale I felt that ocean breeze fill my lungs. Perfect. Midigama, Weligama and the old Dutch fort of Galle were on the docket for the next part of the trip. The hustle and bustle of Columbo gone, it was time to enjoy a much slower pace and unplug for the holiday.

Travel Diary - Sri Lanka Part 1 : Columbo

I got a little shutter happy this past trip to Sri Lanka and ended up with far more images that I cared to sift through, but with that, I had the fun problem of trying to pare down the mountains of images into something that would be not akin to drinking out of a firehose. So, here we are. This first batch of images are all from Columbo and it’s not hard to understand how I got a bit overzealous and snapped away if you get to travel here. While most people hop in and out of Columbo, I absolutely love shooting here. The Columbo Fort station, Pettah Market, it’s a street photographer’s dream. Keep checking back for parts 2 and 3 where we head down to the beaches and to the old Dutch fort of Galle. On that note, we’ve extended our Sri Lanka photography tour next year and so sign up over here and join us!

Travel Diary: Siem Reap, Cambodia

Recently, a last minute opportunity came up and I jumped at the chance to have a sneaky weekend in Siem Reap. Home to the temples of Angkor Wat, the last time I got a chance to visit Siem Reap was this past February on a similar last minute decision. I mentioned a slick shiny airport in the last blog post and, as I walked off the plane, I was greeted by a bigger, newer, shinier, airport. By bigger, l mean massive. Towering ceilings, seemingly endless gates, around a 10 minute walk from gate to immigration, it dwarfs the Saigon Airport. Just for a bit of context, Siem Reap, with its population of 250,000 people had 2 million people travel through their previous airport last year while Saigon, with its population of 10 million, accommodates nearly 40 million folks each year. I hope the size of the new airport doesn’t indicate the projected growth in visitors to this little corner of Cambodia. The thought of that many people swarming Angkor Wat makes my head explode.

As I hopped in my transport to the city, I asked the driver how long it would be as I had to hop on afternoon call, and the response of “around an hour” was a bit jaw dropping given the small size of Siem Reap. It’s not like you need to drive across a sprawling metropolis to get to land that would accommodate an airport. In any event, after I spent the hour commute trying to wrap my head around this new airport, I remembered how much I love coming here. Life slows waaaaaaaay down, the countryside is gorgeous, and all that red dirt reminds me of my Georgia roots. Pair that instant slowdown with the awe-inspiring temples of Angkor and I’m a happy man. I only ventured out to the temples for an afternoon, but it paid off in spades. Incredible light completely complemented a nearly perfect backdrop and provided just the cure for the hustle and bustle of everyday life in Saigon.

I’ll be posting more of these images over on Instagram so go give that a follow if you’re digging these.

Travel Diary : Komodo and Nusa Penida, Indonesia

It’s been crazy busy lately, so I’ve had a backlog of images from some travel earlier this year and I’m just now able to get to these. Over the summer, Komodo was calling and I definitely answered. The small town of Labuan Bajo was a dusty little town the last time I was there and while its still a small town, it’s definitely not dusty anymore. Looks like a substantial investment in infrastructure has led to a boom in development. Nicer roads, a massive increase in food offerings and considerably more tourists. It felt like a different place. It doesn’t look like its spiraled out of control, so I’m hoping it retains its laid back vibes for a bit longer.

Following Komodo, I popped back to Nusa Penida to see some friends and have a pitstop before heading back to Saigon. It’s always such a good look to not worry about going to see much and just slowing down to hang with friends. Only there for a couple nights, I didn’t get to shoot much, but the light was incredible and I couldn’t help but including a few frames in this post.

For the photographers, I travelled light and fast so I shot all of these on my little Fuji x100s.

Recent Work: Furniture Photography for Totem Road

Totem Road, based out of Sydney, recently tapped us to create some fresh images for the upcoming release of their new line of furniture. Totem Road’s aesthetic is bright, airy and coastal, so we wanted to create some super clean images that reflected that beachy, cruisy vibe. In the past, their visuals were shot in a natural light studio, but I had other ideas. For consistency and not having to rely on ol’ Mother Nature, we opted to use artificial light to recreate these moods so we could shoot for a prolonged period of time, focus on details, and not have to worry about our earth’s rotation around the sun. We built a set and our aim was to create spaces that were minimal yet looked inviting. peaceful, and coastal. The collaborative process in preproduction made our shoot a breeze and it all goes to show that proper planning and being able to bounce ideas around before hand always results in better work. Endless thanks to the team at Totem Road for all the hard work in minding the details and being such a crucial part in how these turned out.

Go have a look at their new lines here and here and you can pick up one of these beautiful pieces for your house.

For the lighting folks, these were all shot with Elinchrom lights. We had a few 1000 watt monolights and a few packs and heads depending on where we positioned the lights. For the room scenes, it was a 3 light setup - 1 light in a big octabank camera right through the window to recreate that soft morning glow, 1 light to camera left in a v flat to ensure we were filling in any light fall off, and 1 light through a 10” reflector through the window to create the light patterns on the floor and walls. I used the curtains as flags to dial in the exact shaping of the light.

Travel Diary: Coron, Philippines

It’s been over 8 years since I’ve been to Coron and I’d heard things had changed drastically since then, so as I headed back to the land of WW2 shipwrecks and incredible scenery, I wondered how this sleepy town of my memory had changed. While there’s actually a pub that serves craft beer, and there’s a bit more traffic, it still had much the same vibe as I remembered. Super friendly people, incredible diving, and a laid back air that seemingly only island life can have. While most of my time was spent underwater exploring the Japanese wrecks from WW2, I made use of the surface time to wander around and take some street shots here and there. Of course, I tried (key word “tried”) to capture the jaw dropping vistas of the surrounding islands, but I’m well aware of what ticks the boxes as far as what I love shooting. Either way it was such a nice return to Palawan with new eyes!

For the photographers, these were all shot on my trusty little Fuji x100s. I love (and my back as well) having such a little camera for these types of trips.

If you like these types of images, head on over to my Instagram and give it a follow!