Welcome to the March 2024 newsletter.
It’s been several months since I’ve been able to put out a newsletter. Extensive travel and a huge workload of image editing have seen me put my newsletter on the back burner. Not ideal, but sometimes other things take priority
During the several months since the last newsletter, I’ve been to Vietnam three times, Scotland, Uzbekistan, Argentina, Chile and Japan. So that’s a fair few miles that have been racked up across the world. And as always, there are tales to tell and imagery to go along with them.
So let’s get up to speed with trip reports in date order, as well as future photography workshops and tour dates for those of you who are interested.
At the end of September, I made my way over to this mesmerising Central Asian country. I had a photo tour to run, but before I did so, I wanted to reacquaint myself with the country again to ensure that things could run as smoothly as they could.
The Uzbekistan photo tour was to start in Samarkand and end in Tashkent. It would criss-cross the country, taking in the big places such as the two former cities as well as Khiva and Bukhara, plus an as-yet-unvisited castle in the desert.
Although a ground agent was to be taking care of the trip from the guides to the driver and accommodation, I wanted to see if I could come up with some places within the cities that would give the clients that little something extra.
One of those places was the Ak Saray. I found it during a lunch break when I was scanning across Google Maps. Given its proximity to a more well-known monument, I wondered if someone has, as is often the case, mis-tagged it and was somewhere else.
Walking the couple of meters from my lunch stop, I found the building tucked away behind the more famous landmark. At first, I thought that my initial thoughts were likely correct. That it had been mis-tagged and I was in the wrong place.
From the outside, the Ak Saray doesn’t really look like it would hold anything special. But I thought, I’m here, so let’s see just in case.
Initially, the door was locked, but just as I turned around, the guardian came running up and let me know. What greeted me was jaw-droppingly beautiful. A ceiling that could match anything that was inside the other famous buildings that are around Samarkand.
After spending a day and night in Samarkand, I headed over to Bukhara on the train. An easy affair, but I was glad of my travel agent buying me my ticket in order to do the journey. It’s not easy at all to find anyone at the train station who speaks English, so without my guide, I likely would have ended up elsewhere.
Bukhara is a small but beautiful city that was on the famous Silk Road. It has a number of UNESCO-protected monuments, and a quick wander around the old quarter will give you a good idea of why.
When I first discovered Bukhara back in 2021, it was practically empty. Tourism was sluggish because the pandemic was still in full swing.
But fast forward to September 2023, and the old town was bustling with tourists from all over the world. A nice healthy sign that travel was back on the up.
After having checked into my hotel, I set about my next scouting mission. Could I find places for my group that were off-grid and give them something just that little bit different?
The first place I found was very lucky. Having bought a local SIM card, I was able to use Google Translate to ask if I could go up on a balcony in what turned out to be a building site.
I couldn’t believe my luck as being on my own without help from the local tourism board, I thought that they would say a big NO!
From street level, I had spotted a balcony which afforded me an elevated view over the famous Poi Kalyon Square with its two mosques and tower.
Another hidden gem was found in a hotel. Near the central square, it afforded a view over the rooftops of the city. In itself, these were beautiful, and I always love getting up high above a city. But tucked away in a corner was a nice framed shot of the Kalyon Minar tower.
After three nights, it was back to Samarkand on the train and one more night on my own before meeting the clients off the early morning flight from Istanbul into Samarkand.
During the time I was on my own in Samarkand, I had wanted to do a model shoot. Having seen images of the beautiful long traditional dresses, I knew what I wanted, but was unsure about getting someone.
As it turns out, one of the staff members from the ground agent’s office had always wanted to be photographed by a professional. She was initially a little reluctant at first but this had more to do with conservative parents rather than anything else.
So early in the morning, we met up on Registan Square to see what we could do.
Initially, things were tricky. Security wasn’t going to let us do everything that we wanted to do. But then, by chance, I got introduced to the manager of the square, who let us go to the places that we wanted to. I wanted us basically out of the way of tourists wandering into the frame. There’s nothing worse than trying to do a shoot and people rubbernecking at what’s going on.
So what did we come up with? And yes, a definite WE as my newfound model also helped with posing, as she had been practising extensively in the mirror. Here’s a taster.
The next day, the clients arrived and our journey across the magical country that is Uzbekistan began.
Now it has to be said that not everything went to plan. Photography tourism in Uzbekistan is still something that needs to be fine-tuned with ground agents and guides, but it’s nearly there.
Although you may arrange for something to happen, it only takes someone sleeping in after a wedding (this happened to us) or other miscommunication and things can go wrong.
That’s not to say you should be put off by these things, but more embrace what is going on and quickly get other plans in place should something go awry.
So, without going into a long story of the Uzbekistan photo tour, here are some highlights of what we did.
Japan. A dream destination for some people, and for me, I had been dreaming of going back here for a long time.
In mid-2023, an opportunity arose for a magazine commission in Wakayama, which lies south of Osaka and Kyoto. The opportunity was to be around November, which was perfect as I was looking to go back to Japan and get to know it again for my Japan photography tour here.
Then, in September, a client and friend of mine messaged me and asked if I was interested in doing a private tour of Japan for him. So the stars were now aligned, and I had two reasons to be back!
For a while, I have been wanting to take people to Japan. It is simply mind-blowing as the culture is so different to that in the western hemisphere.
You will often hear about the culture shock that you’ll experience in the country. For me, the big one is that if you go to places such as Osaka then you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who speaks English.
Before my client arrived I had a few days to myself in the country. I planned to go to Nikko national park to see if it was somewhere that I should to my photo tour itinerary.
Although the national park is very beautiful I came away with the impression that taking people on a photo tour here may not be the best idea. I felt there wasn’t quite enough and it was a little out of the way from other things. Don’t get me wrong, there is stuff to do but I wasn’t sure just how strong it was.
After my jaunt into Nikko, I headed back to Tokyo. I had a couple of days before my friend arrived, so it gave me an opportunity to take a look around again as well as discover some new places.
One of those places was a famous restaurant which sits on the western outskirts of the city. It’s become one of those Insta-famous places, so I thought I’d check it out and see how crowded with photographers it was.
Luckily for me, when I got there, it was just me and a young lad from China. And that was it, which made for a pleasant experience as neither of us was fighting for space.
One of the benefits of my friend asking for a private tour is that I could check out places for my fully-fledged Japan photography tour on which takes place during the autumn in November. Would things that I had planned work with a group of people, or would it, as in some cases, be suitable for just one or two?
Here’s a great example of the latter situation. A torii gate in the middle of Tokyo in amongst the high buildings. This particular place is fine if it’s just two of you, but add in a tour leader and five others, and you’ll be rammed into a corner trying to get the best angle on this.
The location itself had taken me a while to track down. As with a lot of locations these days, you have to put in some effort to do your research before arriving on site.
What I want to do during the Tokyo part of the Japan photo tour is give people both the old and new architecture of the city. Thankfully, it’s there in abundance.
Just to underline that. Back in January, a couple at a camera club talk asked me how many days they needed to do Tokyo. I replied, “I think you should think more in terms of years rather than days.” Yes, folks, Tokyo is THAT big and would need a lifetime to really do it justice.
After our three days in Tokyo, we started heading west. A car had been hired, which gave us much more freedom than relying on public transport.
When I initially planned a Japan photo tour, I had thought about relying on public transport. That’s fine for Tokyo, but doing that in Kyoto, etc, turned out to be extremely frustrating. Although it is good over there, trying to herd around 5 people on crowded buses simply isn’t going to work.
The first part of our journey westwards was to Mount Fuji. To get here, you really do need a car if you’re a photographer. If you don’t, then you’re likely to get frustrated very quickly as you try and get to places that public transport is likely to be extremely intermittent or a long walk away from.
As a photographer, the thing you’re likely to want to do is to capture Mount Fuji along with Chureito Pagoda at sunrise or sunset. We lucked out getting a decent sunrise at all during our time which was frustrating. But you can’t win them all.
This was the best of what we got in terms of light.
After two nights in the Mount Fuji area, we headed westwards again. This time we had a long journey over to the coastline of Mie to capture the Wedded Rocks.
During the drive, I had planned on stopping in at a couple of choice spots that I had found. Sadly, torrential rain put paid to that. Now, I know people say you can shoot in the rain, but not what we had. It was extremely difficult driving conditions, and my primary concern is that we are all safe at all times.
Now speaking of safe, the Wedded Rocks at Mie are an interesting little subject for sunrise. They sit right by a walkway, and the sea swells up and around them.
The morning that we went to shoot them, the sea was churning around with the aftereffects of the storm. Because of this, you had to be careful getting your shot because at times a rogue wave would come crashing over the wall and, if you weren’t careful, your camera!
Next up was Kyoto. And it was here that my mind got made up with regards to how to ferry people around.
Kyoto is a beautiful city, but with that beauty comes tourists…and lots of them! So much so that they have recently banned tourists from particular parts of the city due to their innocuous behaviour.
Speaking of such behaviour, one place that has now become so bad I have decided not to take any groups I am leading there is the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest.
When my friend and I arrived, it was pitch black. But not only was it pitch black, a group of photographers were blocking the road (it’s a public highway) and they had a geisha in tow. It was madness. There was simply no light at all.
The taxi driver who took us up there forced his way through them after he dropped us off, then the same again when he went back.
I commented how insane the situation was to my friend, which got picked up on by the group’s leader. From there, he started to try and exert his authority, and it went downhill from there.
A week or so later, I received an extremely nasty email from the guy telling me how I need to respect Japanese culture, etc. Well, folks, I do respect the culture as I do in every country I visit. But when you start claiming that you are free to block a public highway and not let anyone else take photos, as you were there first, then there’s a problem somewhere.
To give you an idea of the chaos, this was what you would have faced.
So after the “fun” of Kyoto, my friend and I parted ways. He went back to the States, and I headed off to Wakayama to see what the tourism board had in mind for me.
Wakayama is a rural area of Japan that has a lot going for it. The big thing, though, is getting around. You really must have a car here, otherwise it will get very tricky, very quickly.
Starting off in Mount Koya, my guide Kanae started to show me some of the wondrous places that you can visit here. Things such as the Okunoin cemetery or Konpon Daito Pagoda are stunners, and it’s surprising the low level of footfall that you’ll find here.
After a stay overnight in a traditional Japanese temple, we headed over the mountains towards the coastline.
The main objective of our route was to discover not only the natural beauty of Wakayama but also the pilgrimage side of it.
Wakayama is on one of the main pilgrimage routes in Japan. The Kumano Kodo is walked by thousands of people a year. They work their way across the countryside and mountains, discovering the wonders that are to be found.
For example, the morning that we left Mount Koyasan, we drove up a mountain road. Out of the corner of my eye, it looked like a huge body of water was behind the trees. But it was an illusion, as it was in fact a stunning cloud inversion.
I’d love to have been there at sunrise, as I suspect it would have been just incredible to see the dawn light illuminating the clouds.
The commission that I was there for was to concentrate on the natural beauty as well as the historical sites. This was a blessing for me as it meant a wide range of subjects could be covered. It meant that I could indulge my passion for architecture as well as the world’s natural beauty.
Here, for example, is the entrance to Kumano Hongu Taisha Shinto shrine. A stunning place of worship for the pilgrims who are on route across the Kumano Kodo trail.
In the city, we came across a combination of nature and architecture. High above the city, and only accessible by a climb of 500 stairs, is the Kamikura Shrine.
To get the shot, I had to use my 100-400mm zoom plus a 1.4x extender to get the shot.
The second-to-last day of the commission took me to a place that I had been wanting to visit for a number of years. The stunning Nachi Falls and Seiganto-ji temple.
I remember that when I first came across photos of it, I immediately put it on my list of must-visit places in Japan. But upon looking into where it was and how to get there, it was the proverbial pain.
You could get a slow train to a coastal town, but then you had to take a bus to get to the temple. Or you could drive. But if you drive, it did seem a little out of the way, and what else was around that was actually worth doing?
Thankfully, the commission has given me the answers to that as I got to drive the coastline from east to south to up the west coast.
But back to Nachi Falls and Seiganto-ji temple. Nachi Falls is Japan’s largest vertical drop waterfall, and it just happens to have the beautiful Seiganto-ji temple in front of it. An absolute bonus.
When we arrived, the clouds were covering the sky. No real frustration but the best was to come as when my guide and I were talking, the mist started to rise up from in front of the falls and behind the temple.
I just looked at her and thanked her profusely for making a dream come true. She was happy too, as she said she had never seen it like we were watching.
