I’m delighted to be the pin-up boy for July, appearing as the featured photographer in this month’s Photobox “Fresh out of the Box” news page.

Welcome to all Photobox users. Please don’t forget to sign-up for my free quarterly newsletter whilst you’re here and you’re just in time to catch July’s free desktop wallpaper too.

Tags: photobox

Bizarre though it may seem, I’ve actually been looking forward to seeing some of the Monsoon weather in Thailand. Holidaymakers generally visit in the dryer, cooler months of December and January. April is the hottest month of all but in June the monsoon season begins.


Most mornings begin bright and clear but some days the clouds build up overhead until they grow grey and then almost black. The wind builds and the air is charged with that pre-storm static that sets dogs across the neighbourhood barking like crazy.

I get a pretty good view of the storms from my apartment balcony and I’ve tried a number of times to catch a shot of a lightning bolt striking the city. Long exposures are required and I’ve mostly been using the Canon G9, which has a handy ND filter built-in. However, after a long exposure, the camera takes a few seconds to write the image to the SD card and it’s invariably during this time that the best strikes occur. However, I managed to catch just one this afternoon before the rain hit my part of town and I had to retreat indoors.

Tags: bangkok

My free desktop wallpaper for July shows a small selection of some of the pictures taken in Bangkok over the last couple of weeks. It’s dedicated to florists everywhere.

Tags: wallpaper

Thankfully, the troublesome elbow is on the mend. Huge thanks for the many supportive e-mails, which I’ve really appreciated. I’m back at the hospital tomorrow for a check-up but I think the medication is working its magic. So, with the ability to type at thirty words per minute rather than three words per minute now restored, I thought I’d answer some of the Skribit suggestions that you’ve been making (see the left-hand panel).

“What photographs do you have on your wall at home?”
Having only just moved into my Bangkok apartment the walls are bare apart from this solitary postcard, which I’ve positioned on the wall just above my desk. It shows a woman called Rowena Cade, who was almost solely responsible for the creation of the wonderful Minack theatre in Cornwall.

The open-air theatre is perched on the cliffs of the Cornish coast and was initially built to provide a venue for a production of The Tempest. Rowena’s story is an inspiring one: she carried sand up from the beach in sacks on her back to make the cement for the theatre seating; she carved intricate patterns into the rocks with the tip of a screwdriver; she was the driving force, creator, financial contributor and Master Builder at the Minack for over fifty years and she read books while seated in upturned wheelbarrows.

If you like your inspiring figures to come in the shape of unstoppable, grey-haired, English eccentrics then Rowena’s your girl. The image of her sitting in a wheelbarrow is a great reminder of how it’s possible to build whatever you can conjur up in your miind, even in the most inhospitable conditions, given sufficient grit and determination. And that’s why Rowena’s my Bangkok pin-up girl.

“Advice to extremely busy people on how to find time to take photographs?”
I was always taught that if you want something done you should give it to a busy person. I think it’s true. It’s often the busiest people who have learned the skills of time-management and who are best equipped to multi-task.

In practical terms, I’d suggest that if you have a busy life and want to find time for photography then you should always carry a camera with you. There are always times during even the busiest day when we have a few seconds to spare and that’s all it takes to compose, set the exposure and fire the shutter. Leave for work one minute early and pull over before you get to the office. 60 seconds is enough to capture something and that’s better than nothing. Photograph at night after the kids are in bed. Turn off the crap on the TV and get your camera out. Spend less time in the shower. Wear slip-on shoes instead of ones with laces or buckles.

Seriously, there are a million ways you can find time if you really want to and if it’s important enough to you then I’m sure you’ll figure it out.

“What is the best way to clean your sensor with your tongue?”
A friend of mine is about to start work on a book which will, I’m sure, address just these sorts of questions. Until it’s published, I suggest that you practice by cleaning your friend’s sensor with your tongue.

“The best way for rolling stones to gather moss?”
Perhaps you haven’t heard but a rolling stone gathers no moss. None.

Keep the suggestions coming. Just add them to the Skribit panel on the left of the page and vote for existing suggestions whilst you’re there.

Tags: skribit

I’ve just sent out my June ’08 Newsletter and if you’re not already a subscriber you can sign up for future editions on the Newsletter page.

There’s news of magazine articles, upcoming features and planned events together with details of my recent relocation.

The newsletter is also available to view in your browser.

Tags: newsletter

I made it to Bangkok’s sprawling Chatuchak market on both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. On Saturday I was picking up some knick-knacks to make my new Bangkok apartment look a little more homely. I took the Canon G9 with me and tried out a few shots, including some panning shots, which seemed to work OK. The G9 has an image stabiliser but this can be set to Panning Mode, which is useful.

I returned to the market on Sunday with just a 1Ds MKII and an 85mm f/1.2 L II lens in order to get a few portraits and to test the lens out. It’s new to me and although I’ve seen some great portraits taken with it I’d heard that the focussing can be slow so wanted to see for myself.

The friendly juice seller (above) was a willing subject and I snapped a few more portraits over the course of the morning. I can’t post a very comprehensive review of the 85mm yet but first impressions are very favourable. It’s a bulky lens to be sure but when sitting on the business end of a 1Ds MKII it does lend a nice, balanced feel to the camera. Although it’s bulky it’s not long so it doesn’t get in the way as much as the 70-200mm f/2.8 that’s been my preferred portrait lens until now.

There’s a more in-depth review here and if you Google “review canon 85mm f/1.2 usm ii” then you’ll find plenty more. I’ll post just three more shots from the market, all shot at f/1.2.







I also took a few images taken outside the Siam Centre on Saturday afternoon, where some sort of festival was taking place. Although there were performers on a main stage, much of the action seemed to be concentrated on various people in fancy dress taking photos of each other. I’m not sure a Rohan shirt and trousers actually qualifies as fancy dress but I joined in anyway.

I haven’t added any additional blurring to these shots, just a small post-crop (where there is a crop) vignette in Lightroom 2 Beta. I think you can see in these shots, even though they’re reduced in size to fit into the blog post dimensions, that there’s a lovely, narrow depth-of-field to them. It really helps focus attention on the eyes and face in a portrait and helps to remove some of the distracting elements in the background.







I think the 85mm f/1.2 promises much and may end up being the ideal lens for me to have on my camera. Much of the work I do involves either relatively unposed portraiture or picking specific elements out of a scene. I’m looking forward to using it over a longer period of time and am excited about the sort of results that I’ll be able to achieve with it.

Whilst I’m wrapping up this post there’s just time to announce another guest post from David duChemin, which I hope will be appearing on Wednesday of this week. So look out for that as David’s never failed to write an inspiring article on his own blog so I’m always chuffed to have him writing on my site.

Tags: bangkok, canon

I’ve been putting the Canon G9 through its paces. I was interested in the time-lapse video function although can’t understand why the only options are to shoot frames either every 1 or every 2 seconds. Surely it wouldn’t have been impossible to have included more choices for the user? Limiting the time-lapse to either 1 or 2 seconds reduces the amount of time that the time lapse can be shot over to just a few hours. If you wanted to shoot a 24 hour sequence, for example, you wouldn’t be able to.

Nevertheless, despite this minor grumble, I like the effect that the time-lapse video produces and think it would be fascinating to set it up at the start of a day in a busy market for instance. Or perhaps at a train station or an airport. However, you can imagine the fun and games you’d have with the local security people if you stuck a tripod up in Departures Lounge at Heathrow.

This short sequence was filmed from my Bangkok apartment balcony and shows the movement of increasingly grey clouds over the skyscrapers in the nearby Financial District of Silom (see the movie called “Cloud formations over Bangkok&rdquo.

I’ve also been testing the camera at the massive Chatuchak Weekend Market on the outskirts of the city and hope to get back there tomorrow with the 1Ds MKII so, time permitting, will post a few pictures from the market by Monday.

Also, I thought you might enjoy some of these.

Tags: g9, time-lapse

I don’t ever remember seeing a whole line of people reading in a bookshop before but browsing in the bookshop seems like a popular Sunday pastime in Bangkok. This is the result of a candid G9 shot processed with a variation of the Holga Photoshop action (click for the big one).

Tags: thailand, holga

It’s been a busy day for me in Bangkok. I started off with a ride on the back of a motorbike taxi into Siam Square, Bangkok’s premier shopping location. I picked up a Canon G9 (not an f/9 for those of you who know about these things) at a bargain price from what must be the city’s best camera store, “Foto File” on the ground floor of the massive MBK shopping centre. I’d been looking forward to trying out the G9, having used a G5 and a Pro1 in the past, both very similar predecessors. It should be ideal for personal projects and for those times when it’s just impractical to carry a full-size SLR. It’s a handy size to use for street photography and fits neatly into one hand.

I’d been looking at the Leica D-Lux 3 too and did try one out but although I did really want to be charmed by the Leica, it was clunky to use and seemed much slower than the G9. Reviews suggest that it’s pretty soft around the edges too and at twice the price for fewer pixels there didn’t seem to be much of a contest. Funny though, that little red Leica dot did almost win me over but I knew that I’d be paying a premium for the name alone and I reminded myself that it’s about the results, not the equipment.

I picked up a Thai sim card that will work with my BlackBerry and, unlike the process in the UK which took days to get the device working properly, the card was activated and I was sending and receiving e-mails within three hours. All the more impressive when you learn that I didn’t hand over any bank details or credit card information. I’m still not very clear how they’ll take my payment but whilst it keeps working...

After enjoying the refreshingly air conditioned atmosphere of the various shopping centres I braved the heat and humidity outside and took a taxi to the river. Well, eventually I took a taxi. The first taxi driver only took me a few hundred yards before pulling over and stopping the car. I’m learning that when Thai taxi drivers don’t want to go somewhere they just feign ignorance. This one understood where I wanted to go perfectly well when I got into the car but had a sudden and unexpected loss of memory when I pointed out that his meter wasn’t running. This is usual when picking up foreigners (farang) and drivers will invariably claim that the meter isn’t working. Usually when I point out that the the clock isn’t running it takes a bit of polite insistence before the meter is switched on and I understand that it’s no more than a friendly game that local drivers play with foreigners. I don’t object to be honest as a taxi ride across town only costs a fraction of what it would at home. However, this particular driver decided that he didn’t want to play the “Meter game” and so stopped driving instead. He shrugged, said he didn’t know the place I wanted to go to and even though I was able to give him very clear directions and show him the route on a map he wasn’t interested. No point arguing, I took another one instead and gave an impressive tip to the next driver as he was the first one I’ve seen switch the meter on without being asked.

After a quick bite to eat (mixed veg and rice, nearly £1) I took another motorbike taxi out towards the river. I think motorbike taxis are a great idea and they’re really the only way to get throught the gridlocked Bangkok traffic at anything resembling a decent pace. In fact, I’ve learned to pray that there will be lots of traffic as the bike drivers tend to take on the spirit of Barry Sheen when there’s a gap of more than a few feet between cars and can reach impressive speeds in short distances.

I took the river taxi up the Chao Phraya river, one of my favourite river journeys, and tested out the G9. I’ve only just downloaded the pictures and they look OK, not so hot at higher ISO settings unfortunately but this isn’t a commercial camera so I’ll get away with it for what I want. The video quality looks a lot better than the Pro1 and the time-lapse video option will be good fun.

I took a couple of photos in a temple at Banglamphu and ran them through a Holga-effect Photoshop action. It softens the image, adds a vignette and some interference, adds a colour cast and a Holga-style border and the photo above will give you an idea of the result (click for larger version - the original is here). I’ve reintroduced a bit of colour in this shot by adding a layer mask to the greyscale layer that the action introduces and then gradually painting the colour back in.

I noticed that one of the trendy gadget stores in Siam Centre has a whole department dedicated to selling Holga and Lomo cameras. It’s obviously the trendy thing to have in one’s camera bag and the effect they produce is an appealing, if somewhat random, one. I’m sorely tempted to pick up a Holga for fun but wonder if it will simply end up being just another thing to carry around. Perhaps I can use my new G9 as a Holga and take advantage of the Photoshop actions? Although it would have been a whole lot cheaper just to buy the Holga to begin with.

I’m looking at more apartments tomorrow. I’m getting a good idea of which are the best areas to live in and already have my eye on one apartment that I think will be fine. It’s all coming together pretty quickly and I’m looking forward to getting settled in and starting to focus my attention on work. I’m giving myself ‘til Tuesday to get moved in somewhere and ‘til the end of the week to get everything sorted. I have another bag arriving from the UK on Thursday and am looking forward to unpacking and putting a few books on a shelf. Nothing makes me feel quite as much at home as putting books on shelf.

Tags: canon, g9, photoshop, holga

In some ways I've been waiting several months to be able to write this particular entry although in others I suspect that it's been coming for many years.

Gavin Gough Photography has moved to South-East Asia.


Sunset over Wat Arun Temple, Bangkok, Thailand - June 5th, 2008
(Canon EOS 1Ds MKII, f/22, 30 secs, ISO160)

Yes, this journal entry comes to you from my new home town: Bangkok, Thailand.

I took the photo above yesterday evening from my hotel balcony, which is situated right next to the fragrant Chao Phraya river. The temple, as you can see, is magnificent and this hotel must surely have a better view of it than any other in Bangkok. There's always something happening on the river and the tug boats chug up and down it all evening, long after the tourist-filled dragon boats have moored up for the night.

It's clearly a location that's rich with photographic potential, especially for the type of photography that I most enjoy. And that, in a nutshell, is what prompted me to sell my house, my car and all my furniture, to put my remaining belongings into a small storage facility and to jet off to Bangkok with little more than a bag full of camera gear and a head full of expectations.

I arrived in Bangkok a couple of days ago and my first job is to find a reasonable apartment that I can use as a base. I initially have a one-year working visa and plan to use Bangkok as the hub from which I can take photographic expeditions to Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. Other destinations will inevitably make their way onto the list too and I already have trips to India, Nepal and Bhutan booked into the diary before the end of the year.

It's been a long time coming but I'm excited to be here and looking forward to making the best of the opportunity. I'm also looking forward to reporting my progress through this blog and to sharing my new images with you.

So, I declare the South East Asia branch of Gavin Gough Photography well and truly open. I hope you'll enjoy sharing the adventure with me.

Tags: thailand, bangkok

Gavin & Ian Furniss standing on Peveril Point overlooking Swanage Bay in Dorset during the Digital Photographer magazine one-to-one workshop. There's also a post about the day on the Digital Photographer blog.

Tags: workshops, dorset

The free desktop wallpaper for June comes from Ayutthaya, Thailand.

Only 300 years ago, Ayutthaya was one of the world's largest cities. It's been overtaken by Bangkok more recently of course but the temples that remain in Ayuttahaya are impressive enough to have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.



There are an estimated 500 million Buddhists in the world and seemingly almost as many variations in Buddha statues. In Japanese Buddhism, the Buddha is often shown as the chubby, laughing figure that Westerners are most familiar with. In Tibetan Buddhist temples he usually appears to be more dignified and solemn. In South-East Asia the Buddha is frequently depicted in a more serene and meditative pose, just like the one shown here.

Often, Buddha statues are shown holding a symbolic object or with their hands in a particular gesture. Each position, or "mudra", represents a different concept or specific point in the Buddha's life.

I expect to be getting one or two more photographs of Buddharupa (statues of the Buddha) in coming months so there may well be another Buddha desktop wallpaper before the end of the year. In the mean time, I hope you enjoy this one.

Tags: wallpaper, thailand

Digital Photographer Magazine is about to launch a series of articles designed to help improve their readers' photographic skills. The articles will see one fortunate reader get a chance to spend the day with a professional and both will be interviewed for the magazine. There's also a rumour that the day will be filmed with the footage being made available on the dphotographer.co.uk web site and also on the magazine's cover disk.

I'm delighted to say that they've asked me to host a Reader's Workshop so if you're interested in spending a day with me, photographing parts of the beautiful Dorset coastline, then you just need to send an e-mail Josie Reavely together with a JPEG of your best landscape image and a few thoughts about what you'd hope to get out of the day.

I look forward to meeting the winning reader in Dorset and can promise you an entertaining, challenging and educational day.

Tags: workshops

Concluding my trio of bluebell-related posts, I returned to the bluebell wood at dawn this morning just in time to see the early-morning sun breaking through the beech trees to illuminate the bluebells. Without the temptation of that lovely, golden light at dawn, my battle to get out of bed before sunrise would be a lost one. It's quite a struggle anyway. However, my bleary eyes opened up pretty quickly when I saw the bluebell wood this morning. With only a few pronking deer for company, it was a magical way to start the day.

I've put together small selection of HDR images in a slideshow and hope you'll enjoy them.

Tags: hampshire, bluebells, hdr, slideshows

My search for the definitive Bluebell Wood image continued this afternoon in the company of some of Winchester's finest photographic talent. It was a wonderful way to end an excellent day and the woods seemed to look even better than they did just 24 hours before.



We chatted as we wandered along the woodland path but once inside the wood we went our separate ways and an almost meditative calm descended (apart from the ever-present drone from cars on the nearby M3 motorway!).



This particular wood is relatively free of the debris of fallen branches that occasionally disrupts a composition and, as you can see, the bluebells stretch over a large enough area to enable a sweeping view of blue to be captured.



I still don't have a definitive bluebell wood image but if there was a definitive image of our outing this afternoon then I guess it would have to be this one.



If you're interested in a guided photo tour of the bluebell woods in the next few days then get in touch. I should have been moving house this week but the move is delayed so I'm kicking my heels and available for hire. My last-minute, half-day rates are very reasonable and as well as a beautiful walk you'll get photo tuition and I'll even include a flask of tea. Subscribers to my Newsletter get discounted rates.

Tags: wps, hampshire, bluebells

My search for the definitive bluebell wood image continues and scouting around Micheldever Woods this afternoon I came across a section of woodland that has escaped the recent Forestry Commission work.


(click for larger version)
The light was pretty harsh in the middle of the day but by using an ND graduated filter over the top section of the frame I managed to control the exposure enough to keep it all within what the digital sensor could record.

It's certainly not the definitive bluebell wood image yet but I'm half-way there, finding the right location is probably the hard part. I plan to return with some friends from WPS tomorrow evening when the light is more sympathetic and we'll see what we can turn up then.

In the mean time, I hope you might enjoy this HDR image taken on today's scouting trip.

Talking of bluebell woods, my mate Nic can knock up a decent photo of a bluebell wood. I haven't mentioned Nic's photo blog for a while but, as the name suggests, his London Daily Nature Photo blog is a daily source of inspiration, providing you have no objections to his occasional unapologetic inclusion of pornography.

Tags: hampshire, hdr, bluebells

The free desktop wallpaper for May comes from a photo taken in Dharamsala, northern India.

Dharamsala has become a refuge for Tibetan exiles and there's arguably more traditional teaching and Tibetan custom in evidence there than in some parts of Tibet itself. Dharmsala is also the home of the Dalai Lama.

This shot was taken at sunrise from my hotel room balcony, looking down the valley towards McLeod Ganj and the Dalai Lama's residence.

The relatively long focal-length has the effect of foreshortening the perspective, making the distant hills seem closer together. The mist across the valley floor was picking up the first, yellowy-orange light of the day whilst the tops of the hills, rising above the mist, retained a blue colour before the light rose high enough to illuminate them.

It was a wonderfully ethereal scene to wake up to and seemed to promise much for the day ahead.

Tags: wallpaper

I'm delighted that my web site is featured in this week's British Mac podcast. Will Green is the Guinness-drinking creator of the British Mac podcast and I'd recommend listening even if you aren't a Mac owner because of the irreverent way he presents it. Will puts a quirky spin on every item so, for example, when it's time to present the weekly Mac widget, the item is introduced to the sound of a thunder clap, ghoulish laughter and Kenneth Williams screeching "Frying tonight". The Mac Widget becomes "Frankenwidget". It's all quite refreshingly silly.

Even if you only listen to one episode, try this week's (No. 66) for the experience of Will's impersonation of Microsoft's Steve Ballmer. If you ever had any doubts about whether English eccentricity was simply a myth, wonder no more, the British Mac podcast is eccentricity personified and we salute it.

Best of all, Will is a long-standing fan of the Square and Compass pub in Worth Matravers. Now officially the "Best Pub in the World", Will used to play piano in the bar in exchange for beer. He must have been good because he once earned so much beer that he fell off the piano stool. Strangely, that really impresses me.

If you're visiting my site for the first time following it's appearance in the British Mac Gallery feature then you are most welcome and I invite you to sign up for my Newsletter. It's about as irregular as British Mac podcasts and I know you'll be comfortable with that kind of publishing schedule!

Tags: mac, podcasting

Sunday started so much brighter than Saturday in Swanage and so I took the opportunity to wander along the front and to stroll up the pier. Did you know that "strolling" is the correct verb to use when referring to walking on a pier? It's 40p to "stroll" on the pier as the sign at the front gate says. I also noticed that local people ask for "Two strollers please" when they pay the man on the gate. So, if you're in Swanage and don't want to seem like a tourist, ask for "One stroller please" when you pay to go on the pier. You don't get this kind of local insight on other blogs.

These two images are HDR (High Dynamic Range) constructions. I find that I'm shooting more bracketed exposures these days. It's not that I'm less certain about the exposures that I'm making, simply that it takes no more time to fire off three frames than one and I'm not using up film so there's no reason not to. I'm usually bracketing about a stop apart and I've been surprised to find that it's sometimes the "Over-exposed" shot from which I'm retrieving the most information (see my earlier post). With those shots that I'm shooting from a tripod, it's also giving me the opportunity to construct HDR images and I'm steadily learning how to get the best out of those compiled files. For some excellent tutorials on HDR constructions, take a look at the Chromasia Photoshop Tutorials.

Tags: hdr

If you visit the evrium web site this month, one of the photos at the top of their home page will look familiar to you. My photograph of Susmita, which currently graces the top of this blog page, was selected as a runner-up in their monthly photo competition. Susmita is the daughter of Finjo, my Nepalese porter and guide and was taken in the kitchen of their home in the Langtang region of Nepal. Congratulations to Steve, Mathias and Anders who were also runners-up and particularly to Nicole Gibson who scooped first prize.

Tags: competitions

I was in Swanage at the weekend. On Saturday it rained. And rained and rained. I wasn't disheartened though because Swanage is a magical place in any weather, as every Freya knows.

The forecast for Sunday was even worse. I was expecting torrential downpours and gusts if wind so strong that one's toupee might have required guy-ropes. I packed my waterproof gear, sturdiest boots and prepared for the worst. So it comes as something of a surprise to be writing this with the tingle of sunburn on my forehead.

I met up with Anne & Zoe, two friends from Winchester Photographic Society, at least one of whom must have been much better in a former life that they are in their current one as they were blessed with the sort of weather that we usually associate with the best that June, July or August can offer.

It was a beautiful, beautiful day and we managed to walk from the Scott Arms in Kingston all the way to Chapman's Pool and back to Swanage along the coastal path, taking an essential detour inland for a beer and a pasty at the Square and Compass, officially now known as the Best Pub in the World.

Beautiful weather, wonderful scenery, stimulating company. If I'd had someone to carry all the wet-weather gear I was lugging around it would have been the very definition of a perfect day.

The photo shows the lighthouse near Durlston and is my contribution to the "Black and White" mini-challenge that we had amongst oursleves.

Tags: workshops

The free desktop wallpaper for April shows a scene in Marrakech, Morocco. Click on the image above to go to the download page and to read a little more about this image.

Tags: wallpaper

The April edition of Digital Photo Pro magazine includes my brief account of a day photographing in Varanasi, northern India. The article is one of a series of "Working Lives" pieces that the magazine carries every month. The full text of the article follows:

"I've never been what you might call a “morning person”. However, I'm much more likely to throw back the covers with enthusiasm when the alarm rings if I'm in a great location and know that the potential for eye-catching photos is just outside the door. In Varanasi, the alarm barely sounds before I'm up and searching around in the darkness for my camera bag. For a Travel Photographer, Varanasi is a real gem and I always get that sense of being a “kid in a sweet shop” when I'm here.

I plan to leave the hotel, which is at the southern edge of the main town, take a small ferryboat up the Ganges to the northern end of town and then to walk back along the river, photographing the many activities that take place on the string of ghats that line the riverbank. It's pitch black as I tiptoe out of the hotel and I need a torch to help me pick my way through the maze of cow pats that dot the narrow alleyways or galis towards the river.

Despite the early hour, the ferrymen who sleep in their small, wooden boats have a sixth sense and know when there's a potential passenger nearby. I quickly accept one of the many called offers for a ride and step aboard a rocking rowing boat. It's a magical time to be on the river. The only sound is the slip-slap of the ferryman's oars in the water and the first, golden band of light is only just starting to bring illumination to the ghats and riverside temples.

I'm shooting stock material for Getty and Lonely Planet Images and whilst Varanasi is rich in potential material, I'm also conscious that I need to look for more than the usual run-of-the-mill images. I have a list of potential shots and ideas and I'll refer to this during the day although, inevitably in a place like Varanasi, the great diversity of subject matter will dictate what I actually photograph as the day progresses.

I usually carry three Canon 'L' lenses with a 1Ds MKII body. The f/2.8 70-200mm IS is a wonderful lens and I'll have this on the camera for much of the day. For stock use, having a camera with higher resolution can make all the difference. Larger images give potential clients more flexibility and with Travel Photography being such a competitive market it makes sense to grab what small advantages one can.

I find lots to photograph as I walk towards Manikarnika Ghat, one of Varanasi's main cremation ghats. Even this early there are log pyres burning but it's not a place to photograph so I move on, knowing that there are some locations that really should remain unseen.

The burning ghats show how people lead their lives very much in the open here. The river soon becomes much busier with people performing their early-morning ablutions, praying, meditating, washing their laundry and even scrubbing their oxen clean. The Chai-sellers have set up shop and are soon serving a queue of eager tea-drinkers. A hot, sweet chai is a perfect way to start the day in Varanasi.

In the course of the next few hours I wander slowly back south along the river, photographing couples getting married, children flying kites, men getting haircuts and women gossiping as they lay out their washing to dry on the steps. All life is here.

Back at the hotel there's just time to download the morning's photos to a laptop and grab a bite to eat before heading back out to do the same route in reverse, ready to catch the evening light. Varanasi is such a delight, I'll probably set the alarm clock even earlier tomorrow."

Tags: interviews, india

Andrew Gibson is a UK photographer who has recently moved to Argentina in order to build up a portfolio of photographs from South America. You have to admire that sort of commitment.

He's kindly asked me to complete one of a series of interviews that he's carrying out with photographers and you can read the full extent of my ramblings on his Magical Places Blog.

The interview did give me an opportunity to have a brief but enthusiastic rant about Don McCullin, who I don't talk about nearly enough on this blog but I hope to rectify that in the near future.

Tags: interviews

Feel like you'd work more productively if you had a calming landscape to look at rather than those boring old spreadsheets? Constantly worried about what day of the week it is and fretting that you can't recall if next Sunday is the 15th or 16th of the month?

Put your worries to one side and enjoy a free wallpaper that combines not only a soothing scene of the lovely Lake District but a handy calendar right there on your desktop. It's OK, no need to thank me. It's my pleasure.

Tags: wallpaper

This panoramic image of Lake Buttermere in the Lake District is constructed from nine separate photos and was stitched together in Photoshop. It shows a 180 degree view from the western shore of the lake.

I've been to the Lake District many times over three decades but I've never known the weather to be anything like as good as the weather I enjoyed last week. Usually, time in the Lake District is spent cocooned in wet weather gear and the expectation is for rainy days and grey skies. However, for five days last week the only cloud I saw was the tiny, wispy one that appeared over the lake in this photo. There were blue skies and mirror-like reflections in the still waters of the lakes, it was a rare and welcome treat.

Clicking on the picture above should open up a larger version of the panorama in a new browser window.

Tags: cumbria, panoramas

Just to round off on yesterday's post, these are the three originals that make up the final image. Just as Masher suggested, they were taken in quick succession, all at f/16 and 1/6, 1/13 & 1/25 of a second respectively. I rarely use a tripod so often prefer to take a single RAW file and then make three versions of it, each at different exposures. I use these to create my HDR images although I know that the result is not strictly showing a High Dynamic Range.

Tags: cumbria, hdr

This photo was taken shortly after sunrise on Kirkstone Pass between Ambleside and Patterdale. It's a narrow, winding and very steep road that's known locally as "The Struggle".

This is another HDR image although rather than using three files constructed from a single RAW image processed at different exposures, this is a combination of three separate images, taken in quick succession with the camera fixed firmly to a tripod and with a remote release cable.

I've been experimenting with the HDR process recently in an effort to produce more natural-looking images. HDR images can look a bit artificial. It's a look that suits some images but I find that they can end up looking very alike. I think this one's reasonable though. It doesn't seem to have that very obvious HDR feel to it and I think I'm beginning to find settings that produce more realistic images.

(Canon 1Ds MKII - 43mm - 1/6, 1/13 & 1/125 at f/16 - ISO100 - No Flash)

Tags: cumbria, hdr

I've been coming to the Lake District for over thirty years and the one thing that I'm always confident of is that it will be raining. Planning a quick trip to Cumbria in February is asking for trouble. It's bound to be raining, bound to be icy and it's quite likely that snow will curtail any plans for walking or photography.

Until now. I've been here since Friday and I've yet to see a single cloud. It's so unusual for me to see the landscape beneath a blue sky that it feels almost surreal. What a rare treat. The only problem is that my expectations of the Lake District weather have been raised so much that future trips might seem disappointing by comparison.

This photo was taken at the Glenridding end of Ullswater. I've used a little fill-in flash to lighten the small, wooden pier but otherwise this image appears just as it was shot. And for those of you who like to see the EXIF data, it's included below.

Canon EOS 1Ds MKII - 24mm lens - 1/30 at f/8 - ISO100 - Flash -1EV

Tags: cumbria

The AOP Portfolio exhibition finally opens at the AOP gallery in EC2 today with the official Private View coming on Thursday evening (let me know if you'd like a ticket).

I already owe Lucy Davies from Flavorpill a beer for this quote:

"Gavin Gough's colourful travel images... convey the vibrancy of Asian and Middle Eastern cultures without cliché or contrivance."

Tags: aop, exhibitions, photography

I needed to get some printing done rather promptly this week and have been lucky to have come across some printing heroes and as really good customer service seems to increasingly be a thing of the past I thought I would bring these exceptions to the rule to your attention.

Spectrum are photographic printers based in Hove. They have a really clear and easy-to-understand web site, their prices are competitive and they got two batches of prints out to me unbelievably quickly. Their staff were helpful and efficient and actually did everything that they promised. Something of a rarity.

Moonshine Framing is a little shop all the way down in Penzance but they offer a mail order service and if you call and speak to the enormously helpful Suzie you are sure to get all the help you need. Through no fault of their own, the first lot of mounts they sent to me arrived damaged and without quibble they had another batch cut and on a courier the same day.

What a pleasant change to deal with companies where the customer is still valued and where "customer service" is not an alien concept.

Tags: printing, marketing, photography

ephotozine announces the forthcoming AOP Portfolio exhibition. The exhibition will run from February 7th to February 28th at the AOP Gallery, 81 Leonard Street, London. EC2A 4QS and I'm hoping to have eight of my photographs exhibited.

Tags: exhibitions, photography

I've wanted to have a go at producing one of these images of a smoky abstract for a while, since first seeing them on the Chromasia web site. They seem so other-worldy and the shapes produced by the smoke particles are often quite beautiful. It's also interesting how we tend to want to find recognisable shapes in the smoky curves. I've seen faces and bodies, words and letters, musical notations and all manner of other things. I quite like this one and if you're interested in my interpretation then I think that the top half resembles one of those political cartoon or Pink Floyd characters by Gerald Scarfe, there's a big "S" that starts about half-way down and the bottom shape is a woman with her bottom on back-to-front. God, I hope there are no psychiatrists reading this.

Getting set up to produce these smoky abstracts isn't that tricky. It's just a case of getting a dark background, I have a piece of black card, positioning the camera about six feet away from it and placing an incense stick half-way between camera and background. As I don't have a remote release for my flash at the moment I just drew the curtains and set the camera for a 1 second exposure at f/22 (ISO 800). I needed a long exposure to give me time to manually fire the flash and to give plenty of depth-of-field. Keeping the smoke sharp is the biggest hassle as movement of just one or two inches backwards or forwards can take it out of focus. Having lit the incense, I took about 200 shots (thank God for digital), of which only about 8 or 9 are both sharp and have interesting shapes.

When I'd settled on a shot that I liked, I altered the white balance to make the smoke look a little bluer. Interestingly, although there was only a single light source the smoke varied in colour so there were various tones to play with. In Photoshop I applied a V-shaped Curve Layer which inverted the colours, changing the black to white and the brown tones to blues. Lastly, I used the "Replace Colour" option to introduce the pink hues although because of the inverting curves layer I had to select a green colour at the opposite end of the spectrum to the pink that I wanted.

Tags: photoshop, photography

The Association of Photographers has a tradition of showcasing the work of new members and presenting their work to the photographic industry.

"The annual 'Portfolio' exhibition has become immensely popular with agents and buyers giving those in the photography industry an opportunity to review work from a new generation of AOP members"

I'm hoping to exhibit a panel of photographs in the 2008 'Portfolio' Exhibition and will provide more details here as they become available. For now though, make a date in your diary:

P O R T F O L I O 5th Feb - 28th Feb, 2008 THE AOP GALLERY 81 LEONARD STREET LONDON EC2A 4QS (map) Admission: Free The image on the right, taken at Angkor in Cambodia, has also been exhibited at the AOP Gallery as a finalist in the AOP Open Competition.

Tags: exhibitions, aop, photography

Tewfic El-Sawy's blog regularly carries news and reviews of the work of inspiring travel photographers. He's beginning a series of occasional interviews with travel and editorial photographers and I'm delighted to be his first interviewee.

Tags: tewfic el-sawy, photography

One thing I wanted to do on the blog was to post my favourite photo of 2007. However, this has proved to be more difficult that it initially seemed it might be. Firstly, what criteria should be applied to select a "favourite"? Should it be the photo that's proved most popular in terms of sales? Well, no, I didn't choose that one although this photo of the Statue of Liberty (below left) has sold a lot recently so has built a certain fondness in my heart (and the heart of my Bank Manager).

What's interesting about this is that for all the photos taken of the Statue of liberty, and there must be millions, this dead straight and, if I'm brutally honest, pretty uninspiring image shot beneath an overcast sky has outsold many others that I took a great deal more time and care over. Having said that, some of my more "creative" shots of the statue (below right) have sold too so they were obviously worth taking as well.

So, if not the best selling shot then which would be my favourite from 2007? It really has been impossible to choose and so I've selected the following five shots based purely on how I was feeling an the moment I took them.

Shooting portraits of people in Morocco is all but impossible so I was pleased to eventually get an opportunity to photograph a local man against a typically "Moroccan" backdrop - although he did scowl when he eventually turned to see me.

The photo of the church was taken in Dinan in France and was just a joy because of the light flooding through the stained glass window. Equally, the final picture of the Danube in Budapest is included simply because of the quality of the light at the time I took it.

I've included the photo of the bridesmaid just because wedding photography is not really my thing so I'm always apprehensive when I take on the responsibility of shooting a couple's wedding photos. But I remember knowing that I probably had this particular wedding day under my belt when I snapped this beautiful and charismatic bridesmaid on the stairs at the bride's house.

Lastly, the photo of the Independence Statue in Budapest is included because it's a statue that I was absolutely enthralled with when I saw it and because it made my pre-dawn journey across Budapest to get to the Citadella for sunrise well worth the effort.

It's far from being a definitive selection and I could easily select another five pictures that I'm equally pleased with. These five do, however, offer a small representation of what was a mostly rewarding year in photographic terms. I've never been one to dwell though so must admit that I'm becoming much more excited about the prospect of my 2008 photos. Let's hope they exceed my expectations.

Tags: photography

I was delighted to see that this year's Lonely Planet e-mail Christmas Card uses one of my photos. It was such a long-held ambition of mine to have photos with Lonely Planet that to see one of my pictures being used in this way is... well, it's just peachy.

So, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you, my regular readers, lurkers, friends and family, a very merry Christmas and my sincere hope that 2008 will bring you all that you would wish for yourself.

Cheers!

Tags: lonely planet, christmas

The winners of the 2007 Travel Photographer of the Year competition have been announced at Cat Vinton is the lucky winner of a £2,500 Bursary and an opportunity to photograph the Dalai Lama. Looking at Cat's winning images, I'm sure she'll do justice to the opportunity and I really look forward to seeing her pictures in the future.

There were entries from 51 countries this year so it must have been a tough competition to judge. Looking through the winners, the standard looks as high as ever and I enjoy seeing so many different styles of travel photography represented.

The "One Place, Many Lives" category is the one that deals with travel portraiture and you'll see a certain UK photographer by the name of Gavin Gough among the finalists. I'm chuffed to bits to be associated with such great images and, although I'm not a winner this year, am delighted to have got so far.

It's no exaggeration for me to say that looking at Tim Allen's and Larry Louie's winning images gives me goose-bumps. Tim's use of colour and his composition is so impressive and Larry's monochrome images have the most delicious light. Gary Wornell's images from Finland are really bold and I'm pleased to see the judges pulling out images like that for recognition. Personally, I think it's good to see a variety of styles.

Finally, Jean-Calude Louis' portraits have bags of character - these are the images probably closest to mine in terms of style, although I wish I'd taken any of his four portfolio images. I love the one of the two kids at the window especially.

If I ever remember what images I submitted (honestly, my memory is shocking) then I'll post them here.

In the mean time, I guess I'd better start thinking of my entries for 2008!

Travel Photographer of the Year 2007 winners
One Place, Many Lives Category

Tags: photography, tpoty