Giant Buddha Face at Bayon, Cambodia. ©2008 Nick Kembel

Last month I created a blogpost called Evolution of a Photographer – Hampi in which I talked about part of my journey to becoming a Taiwan photographer of travel, culture and environment. In that post I put the call out to other photographers globally who wished to share their stories. One who responded from the community of Taiwan photographers was Nick Kembel. Nick is an English teacher, writer and photographer who has a book coming out mid-2011 entitled “Taiwan – From The Eyes Of A Foreigner”. He was keen to contribute a blog post talking about his journey through photography and decided to concentrate on three trips he’s made to Angkor Wat over the past ten years. What follows is Nick’s guest post. If you’d like to contribute a post of this nature, get in touch with me and we’ll take it from there. Now, over to Nick.

After reading Craig Ferguson’s Evolution of a Photographer – Hampi, I decided to take a look at some of my own photos from the past, and see how they have changed over the years. I chose Angkor Wat as my focal point for analysis. The millennium-old ancient Khmer capital has some of the most impressive and visually stunning ruins in all of Asia. With magnificent sunrises viewed from the summit of the largest religious structure in the world, saffron robed monks strutting about, and giant trees sprouting up from the ancient walls themselves, Angkor Wat is like a dream setting for practicing photographers. I have visited Angkor Wat three times in the past decade, so that my photographs from each visit provide a perfect source for observing my development as a photographer over the years.

My first visit to Angkor Wat was in 2001. I was 19 years old, and had just finished high school. Pol Pot, the Cambodian leader who had committed genocide against his own people, had only just died in 1998, and his Khmer Rouge army had still been active right up until his death. From 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge killed over 2 million people in Cambodia, roughly a fifth of the population at the time. The nation was only considered relatively safe for travel again after Pol Pot died, and when I showed up 3 years later, there was still very little tourist infrastructure.

Monks resting on the ruins. ©2001 Nick Kembel

Crossing the border from Thailand into Cambodia felt like stepping into a previous century. The roads were not paved, beggars lingered about and pulled on my sleeves, and there were no buses available to get in to Siem Reap, access point for the Angkor ruins. I was herded with a sprinkling of random backpackers to a single pick-up truck, where they placed our luggage into the back and then instructed us to sit on top of it. For the next 8 hours red sand blew in our faces as the truck sped across the countryside, and the oppressive sun scorched us from above. In every village we passed, kids with no shoes shrieked and ran alongside the truck, and passing vehicles overloaded with locals erupted with choruses of hellos. Twice we were held up at rivers where the weight of large trucks had collapsed through the poorly constructed bridges, and locals began to construct miniature boats to ferry their motorbikes across. The roads were also full of giant holes from land mines, forcing our driver to detour into rice paddies.

At the time, I was carrying a cheap, mechanical, point and shoot. This was ages before digital cameras were standard, and my recently purchased camera was barely a step up from the archaic hunk of plastic that I had been using since I was a young boy. For this journey, I was on the road for 6 months, and was shooting what seemed like a lot of photos at the time, perhaps a roll of 24 every few days. I would then mail the rolls of film home to my family, who would print them off and send me e-mails saying how beautiful they were. In fact, my parents got their first e-mail account so that they could keep in touch with me on that trip. I did not even see the photographs until I returned home.

Truckload of backpackers that accompanied me from the Thai border to Siem Reap. ©2001 Nick Kembel

When I took photos in those days, I did not really feel that I was ‘creating art’. Rather, I felt that it was a sort of duty of mine to ‘get a picture’ of every single place that I visited, so that I could later show my family and friends, most of whom had not yet left Canada. I paid little attention to composition, direction of light, time of day, or other standard details for taking passable photos. Despite my lack of awareness, poor equipment, and inexperience at the time, I feel that I still had a good eye, and as a result managed to capture a few decent shots. The overwhelming majority were however quire poor, and the fact that my printed photos were also later scanned using an ancient copier renders them even more dated looking, and living on the other side of the world, I no longer have access to the originals.

Attempt at a classic Angkor Wat shot. ©2001 Nick Kembel

My second journey to Angkor Wat was in 2006, and part of an extended journey through Southeast Asia. Things had changed significantly. The road from the capital city, Phnom Penh, to Siem Reap was paved and buses made the journey in an impressive 4 hours, as opposed to the 8-12 hour river ferry journey that was once standard for backpackers. Siem Reap was overflowing with cheap guesthouses, and buses carrying tourists from all over Asia and the world crowded the various temple parking lots at the appropriate viewing times. The locals were still in-your-face friendly, and aggressively persistent in their sales techniques, but no longer so shocked at the sight of white skin.

My camera on this trip was a step up from the one used before, barely. Digital was just beginning to really catch on, and a few of my travel companions dazzled us with their ability to actually see their photos right after they took them. We spent evenings in our guesthouses marveling at their shots over countless ‘Angkor’ beers. I hadn’t yet splurged on the new technology, but was very jealous about my friends’ ability to instantly determine if a shot had worked out or not, and try again. I was still relying mostly on luck.

Young local children who are paid to collect butterflies for the Butterfly Bar, Siem Reap. ©2006 Nick Kembel

At this point I was still years away from even considering myself an ‘amateur’ photographer, but I was beginning to pay a little more attention to what I was doing behind the lens. For this visit to Angkor, I shot in black & white, a technique that seemed to make even the most average photos look pretty cool. I tried squatting low to the ground, climbing walls, or sneaking into places I wasn’t supposed to go, in order to get a more unique angle.

It was on this journey that I think I began to see the world around me in the same way that most photographers do: through the camera lens. All around me I regularly look at beautiful scenes, objects, and people, and imagine how I could put a frame around them, even when I don’t have my camera in my hands. Therefore, I started to take more notice of the elements that I was choosing to include or exclude from my photos. I increased my shooting volume, but also became more selective of what I was shooting. Instead of always focusing on the standard shot of the famous site, such as the main temple of Angkor Wat reflecting in the pond out front, I began to linger in places that I previous would not have even noticed, like the food markets, temple parking lots, and crowded streets. I was no longer shooting to record the famous places I had ‘done’, but rather to capture something aesthetically beautiful in the ordinary; things that others might have glanced over.

Mother and daughters inside a small, family-owned restaurant. ©2006 Nick Kembel

By my third journey to Angkor Wat, in 2008, I had finally graduated to digital but didn’t yet possess a DSLR. For years I had been focused on working hard and saving up money, which I would spend entirely on the journeys themselves. I had already managed to travel to over 30 countries in the process, but for some reason still hadn’t bothered to invest in a decent camera. Part of me arrogantly believed that my pictures would just be good because the places I was going were so beautiful, and friends’ comments on my previous photos had been so positive (though none of those friends were actually photographers). Another part of me actually lacked confidence that my ability was worthy enough to allot a larger portion of my already limited funds to an expensive camera. So, I chose the Canon Powershot S5IS, a super zoom which was just a step below DSLRs, with which I could still manage, on occasion, to pull of semi-professional looking shots. I had also never bothered to get any real training or even do research on how to take professional quality photos. Instead, I just traveled and shot non-stop for several years, developing skills and my own style through practice. However, to this day I still regret having never properly trained myself, even in some of the most basic aspects of photography, at the natural points of my progression as a photographer, when it would have been most useful.

With my sister and her husband to be, Srah Srang Lake, an ancient water reserve for Angkor Wat. ©2008 Nick Kembel

On my final visit to Angkor Wat, the spillover of tourists from Thailand in Cambodia, both more popular than they had ever been before, was huge. I was amazed to find that to this day, they still have not repaired the road from the border of Thailand into Cambodia. There are however plenty of travel options these days, such as buses and share taxis, not to mention the ultra cheap budget airlines flights. I heard once that some of these companies have actually paid off the relevant officials to keep the road in a state of disrepair.

Having been to Angkor twice already, I felt a little more relaxed and free to focus on my pictures instead of just trying to see the entire site. However, the purpose of my journey this time was to meet up with my sister and her future husband, both of whom I hadn’t seen for a long time. Like I always say, pictures always turn out better when you travel alone or with another serious photographer. With other companions, you must always make sacrifices in the amount of time you are going to linger trying to get photos without annoying your friends too much, not to mention the fact that more time simply goes into socializing, partying, and waiting for each other. Nevertheless, during this visit to Angkor, I was beginning to experiment more with depth of field, intentional blurring, and visualizing the photographs I wanted before I actually executed them. I also began to do some very basic editing with my photos, such as cropping out unwanted features and adjusting exposure levels.

Cambodian children hanging out inside Angkor Wat ©2008 Nick Kembel

More years have now passed, and these days I take my photography more seriously and frequently travel with the sole purpose of taking pictures. When I look back at even my most recent set from Angkor Wat, I can’t help but wish I go back and retake all of them. I could even fix up a many of those old shots now with a more advanced editing program, but prefer to keep them as they are, as a record of my own ‘evolution of a photographer’. This is a story that has no end, and that is its greatest appeal. I still have so much more to learn. The work of other photographers continues to inspire me, giving me the push I need to move forward and continue looking at my own work with a critical eye. Putting this article together helped me to look back at my journey as a photographer, see how far I have come, and give me hope that my art will continue to progress in times to come. I would encourage other aspiring photographers to do the same thing!

To see more of my photos, travel blog, or for info on my book, please visit me at www.nickkembel.com.

At the Bayon ©2008 Nick Kembel

If you want to be a guest blogger in this series, send me an email or let me know in the comments below. It’s open to anyone, anywhere not just Taiwan photographers.

Headed over to friend and fellow photographer Dilip Bhoye‘s new D Studio in Taipei the other day. He’s recently moved into a new place and has a good little setup going, with choices of black or white seamless and a set of Bowen’s lights and large range of modifiers. Also joining us was another friend, Josh Ellis. That’s Josh on the left and Dilip on the right in the shot above. We were supposed to be getting together to take some casual studio shots of one of the local expat models but said model was AWOL. After waiting for a couple of hours and being unable to reach him, as well as frantically calling anyone we could think of who might be able to come down on short notice on a cold, rainy Sunday, we ended up just photographing each other until we got bored. Here are a few images from the short session.

Josh poses with camera.

The keen-eyed amongst you will notice the Phottix Strato wireless trigger attached to Josh’s camera. These units are proving very popular amongst photographers in Taiwan.

Deep in thought.

In red.

Dilip, owner of D Studio.

A Canon - Nikon double act.

In the end we gave up, packed up the studio and headed out. Met up with my wife and Josh’s girlfriend and went to the best tasting and most authentic Thai restaurant in Taipei. It also happens to be one of the cheapest.

The end of the meal. Shot with the wonderful Vignette app on my Android phone.

War Photographer - James Nachtwey

You can often learn a lot by watching documentaries about some of the masters of photography and other big names in photography. From the way they approach a subject to the trials they went through to become established, these insights offer inspiration and encouragement to all. Some are made in partnership with, or even by, the photographers themselves, while others are more of a retrospective look back at the work of a particular photographer. These are often the kind of film that you can pull out and rewatch and pick up new insights each time, so if you’ve seen them before, perhaps it’s time to watch again. For those that haven’t seen any, there’s no time like the present to get hold of one. The DVD’s make a great Christmas gift too.

James Nachtwey – War Photographer

Nominated for an Academy Award, this intimate look at one the leading war and documentary photographers of the past few decades is one of my favorite photographer documentaries. Although he is probably best known for his work in conflict situations, Nachtwey’s photography extends beyond that into the humanitarian realm. A neat little aspect of this is that he often has a mini-video camera attached to him so the viewer gets a first-hand look at the confusion and chaos during a conflict.

Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens

From touring with the Rolling Stones on their infamous 1975 US tour to the last photos of John Lennon and numerous Vanity Fair assignments, this documentary gives a great overview of photographer Annie Leibovitz. Directed by her sister Barbara, it traces her life and features her arrival in San Francisco in the 1960s, early work with Rolling Stone magazine, her relationship with Susan Sontag and more.

National Geographic’s The Photographers

Despite it’s age – it was released in 1996 – this National Geographic documentary lets you get up close and personal with photographers working on assignment with the famed magazine. Covering everything from pre-departure details and preparations to difficulties on location, this gives the viewer a glimpse at what life is really like as a traveling assignment photographer.

Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye

Often described as the 20th century’s greatest photographer, whose work covers his decisive moment style, this documentary provides a great overview of the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson.

American Experience: Ansel Adams

A profile of celebrated photographer Ansel Adams that was produced for the PBS American Experience series, this film looks at Adams life and work.

President’s Photographer: National Geographic

This has only just been released so I haven’t seen it yet but it looks to be a priceless look behind the scenes and features interviews with official presidential photographers of the past 50 years. Even though I’m not an American, I look forward to seeing this documentary about photographing the most powerful man in the world.

That was the 348th Daily PhotoTip. If this post was useful to you, why don’t you subscribe to my feed, leave a comment and share it with your friends. You can also get access to exclusive content and special offers by subscribing to my newsletter. Sign up today. Thank you

Sunday can mean only one thing – Shutterbug Sunday. Coming to you this week is Thailand based Australian photographer Thomas Pickard.  Thomas is an image maker who enjoys the wide spectrum of opportunities that photography provides. His photographic vision takes him from aid agency work in the Maldives to weddings in Thailand to photographic expeditions in the Antarctic. After the jump, there’s a question and answer session that Thomas provided me and a few images. Firstly, here are some links to his work.

Thomas Pickard  - www.thomaspickard.com

Thomas Pickard | RELOAD – www.thomaspickard.com/blog

My Wedding Photographer Ltd – www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz

Polar bear mother and two cubs, Svalbard, Norwegian Arctic

1. How long have you been working professionally?

I finished my photographic studies at college in November 2005 while living in Christchurch New Zealand. I began freelancing in December, securing my first assignment with Action Aid (UK) three weeks after arriving in the Maldives for a two-year stay. By the end of 2006 I was a regular contributor to Sri Lankan Airlines Magazine Serendib and things have just gone on from there.

Maldivian boys. Maldives

2. What have been some defining moments for you as a photographer?

While I was still studying photography back in 2005, I sent a submission application off to Aurora Photos (www.auroraphotos.com

)  for stock library representation. Though my application was rejected, I received a page long email from Jose Azel, a National Geographic contributor and founding member of Aurora Photos. Jose Azel told me:

“Our jobs as photographers is to show the world to people in a different way”.

That one line really made me sit up and start thinking more about the type of work I was producing both at that time and even today. I think as a photographer, it is important that you have something to say visually. Sure you will have to do the photography work that pays the bills, but I think it is important to ensure you have time for yourself, so you can just go and shoot what you want, how you want.

Another defining moment was actually going out and photographing a wedding.

One of my tutors at college encouraged me to work for his studio photographing weddings in New Zealand. Though initially reluctant, I decided to give it a go and much to my surprise I actually enjoyed the experience!

A big part of that was realising that I could photograph weddings in a documentary style that wasn’t too different to how I shoot stories editorially.

Lightning strike, Bangkok Thailand.

3. You recently started up a blog (www.thomaspickard.com/blog) , which has a series of posts titled ‘Starting out in photography’. Why a blog and why now?

I used to blog back in 2003. Back then it was more an online diary of adventures and travels. Some time in 2007 I pulled the plug on it as it was taking too much of my time and I didn’t feel like I had a real focus.

A couple of months back I received a long email from a person asking for advice on photography and how to go about getting into the profession. I receive a couple of these emails each year. I have always felt unsure how to answer, in part because every one I know that works in photography all did it a slightly different way. Thinking about this, I realised that while I have only just begun my photographic career, I did in fact have a number of my own experiences to draw on and share with people. One of the best ways to communicate this was through a medium like a blog.

The second reason was to promote more of what I have been doing with my own photography to those people that are interested.

Expats relaxing pool side, Bangkok Thailand

4. What does the future hold?

Right now I am based out of Bangkok Thailand and I am focussing a lot on my wedding business with the approaching wedding season. Though tourism  numbers in Thailand are down compared to last year, I have been receiving a number of wedding inquiries from both expats and couple’s travelling to Thailand.

I am keen to exhibit a body of work from the Maldives while I am living in Bangkok, so that is something I need to look into (if anyone is reading this that knows a good place to exhibit in Bangkok, please email me!).

Other than that, I am looking into a potential surfing trip in and around Indonesia. I’m even thinking about doing it with just a point and shoot camera, as I want to travel as light as possible and get away from my larger SLR’s for a while.

Tourists cruising past an ice berg, Antarctic Peninsula.

So there we have it. I hope you’ve enjoyed this weeks featured photographer. A big thank you to Thomas for being involved and sharing such great images.

Here we are on Friday and here we are at 5. This week we have 5 sites that I regularly check out. Some great photography here, as well as tips, tutorials and critiques. Read on after the jump.

The above photo has nothing to do with the 5 sites that are following. It’s from the Ganges River in India. Think of it as a preview image for an upcoming post that’s in the planning stages. So you don’t miss it, why not subsribe to my RSS feed? Ok, on to this weeks 5, in no particular order.

Zack Arias

Up first is Zack Arias. Zack is an editorial photographer in Atlanta, working mainly with the music industry doing press and publicity photographs. Lately, he’s been running a website critique podcast on his site, where he and his wife, Meg, give honest, constructive feedback on the portfolios of various photographers. I’ve learned a lot from these critiques and hope they keep coming.

Todd Owyoung

Moving from press and publicity photos of the music industry into concert photography itself, the next photographer is Todd Owyoung. Todd is a concert photographer in the US whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Billboard, NY Times, Spin and others. He has regular updates on his site showing live shots of artists such as The Police, Bruce Springsteen, Radiohead, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Nine Inch Nails. He also has a helpful Q&A section where he answers questions and gives tips.

Chris Owyoung

Staying in the genre of concert photography, and indeed within the same family is Todd’s brother Chris Owyoung. Chris is based in New York, has a client list including Village Voice, Billboard, Rolling Stone and Time and has covered artists such as The Prodigy, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Oasis and Tom Jones. Chris also has a photo tips section that contains plenty of helpful advice.

Ron Dubin

Getting away from music and heading into the realm of travel, up next we have Ron Dubin. Ron is an LA and Florida based photographer specialising in landscapes, wildlife and travel. His recent book, Bolivia – A Journey is filled with over 70 excellent images from the landlocked South American country.

Neil Wade

Sticking with travel, this weeks 5 is completed by Neil Wade. Neil is an editorial and corporate photographer based in Taipei who regularly shoots a variety of assignments around the region. Neil’s blog features a variety of pictures, useful tutorials, inspiration and some DIY advice.

Well, that ends another episode of 5. Feel free to share this with your friends and social media networks, and don’t forget to retweet it. Thanks.

This weeks 5 looks at five photographers in this region that have recently been showing some great work. A couple of these are new to me so I’m not familiar with all of their older images. The others are people I’ve been following for a while who have recently been taking their photography to another level. I’m not ranking these in any way – they are simply in the order I discovered them. Read on, after the jump.

The Daily Bubble Tea – Married life must be agreeing with Todd at the Daily Bubble Tea, because he’s been producing some stunning work of late. A really strong sense of composition coupled with the desire to try new things has resulted in beautiful images. His series utilizing reverse macro photography makes a good starting point for anyone not familiar with Todd’s work.

My Several Worlds – I’m not sure if it’s something to do with being a newlywed, but Carrie is another recently married person who’s been producing great work lately. Reinventing her site as a more travel style magazine has been a good move on Carrie’s part, which allows her strong sense of color to shine. Take a look at a graffiti walk in Ximending for starters.

Asian Ramblings – The Stevo is another who’s displaying his work in a web magazine-type format. Regularly updated posts that ranging from single photos to history to travel. Hakka Missile Silo’s is a good example, mixing great photography with bits of history.

Expatriate Games – Michael’s blog is a recent discovery. He exhibits a diverse range of images with some very strong portrait work and excellent use of color. His Top 10 China portraits is a good place to start. Expect some great work in the future from Michael.

Randyland – Randy’s blog is one I discovered a while ago, lost and have only recently rediscovered. Randy’s been mixing it up with color, black and white, HDR and a few experimental shots. His recent trip to Angkor has seen a lot of great pictures posted.  I’m looking forward to more.

So there we have it. Five photographers producing great images. Do you have any favorites? Any other photographers that you think I should know about? Drop me a note and link in the comments and I’ll take a look. Please consider sharing this post with your social media networks.

Welcome to the first entry in the new “5″ category. 5 is short for “Five For Friday” and it will be a new weekly feature. Every Friday, I’ll have five of something in this place. It might be links, it might be photos, it might be tips, it might be anything. As always, if there’s anything you’d like to see, drop me a note in the comments with your suggestion.

Onto to today’s 5. Kicking things off are five sites that should be high on the bookmark list of every photographer. So, grab yourself a coffee, get comfortable and get clicking. Here they are, in alphabetical order.

Chase Jarvis. Chase is a commercial photographer based in Seattle, USA. He’s the youngest photographer (35) to be named both a Hassleblad Master and Nikon Master, and with his blog, he shows you behind the scenes of both his commercial work and his personal projects, embracing all forms of multimedia, still and video.

Joe McNally. Joe McNally is perhaps best known for his Faces of Ground Zero series following 9/11. He has also shot numerous assignments and covers for National Geographic, including their first all-digital issue. With his book, The Moment It Clicks, and his blog, Joe shows people how and why he created some of his most famous shots as well as provided plenty of tips and how-tos.

Lighting Essentials. Lighting Essentials is a site run by Don Gionnatti, a photographer from Phoenix, Arizona. Lighting Essentials features tutorials, online workshops, assignments, fun shoots, and presents lighting information and lighting tools from DIY to the top-of-the-line Pro Gear. There’s a wealth of information here for anyone who wants to learn about light.

Strobist. By now, Strobist should need no introduction. This site is probably the hottest photography site on the internet where everyone from working professionals to beginners go to learn about lighting with small strobes (speedlights) with lots of DIY, and full lighting courses.

Vincent Laforet. Vincent is a Pulitzer Prize winning commercial and editorial photographer from New York. He is a Canon Explorer of Light and has been profiled on CNN. His current work is bridging the gap between still and video images, especially with his short film “Reverie” that was made on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

Well that concludes the first “Five For Friday”. I hope you’ve enjoyed it, and I hope I haven’t breached anyone’s copyright with the embedded videos – if I have, let me know and I’ll remove them.

Time for another installment from the featured photographer series. This time we have Austria’s Michael Geier. Michael is currently based in Taiwan and is the man behind the Discover Formosa website. Michael has a background in multimedia and has been involved in photography since he was a school student. Read on to hear his answers to a few questions and to see some of his work.

1. What is your general background?
That’s a bit complicated actually. Well, I graduated in electrical engineering and then started at Sony DADC, the worlds biggest producer of optical storage media (DVD, CD, etc.). I began there as a technician but as multimedia started to become popular I was transferred to do multimedia design and programming. The transformation started from technician to more creative work.
After that I freelanced for several companies in different fields of Media, PR and marketing from just doing the programming to actually holding a highend camera or doing the light, sound and video for a rock and pop coverband. I even owned a multimedia company for a while back in Austria where I got involved in everything from screen to print and media. I learned a lot through this.
I was even a teacher, the youngest at that time, at the Advertisment Design Academy in Salzburg.
Before I started to do more in photography here (Taiwan) I even worked in QC for an agency for marketing tools which means I go to China and check stuff like caps, t-shirts, etc.
So I guess it’s kind of a strange way I went till now.

2. How long have you been taking photos?
I was shooting around since I was a kid but just with some low end cameras and just for fun. I had a wonderful experience at a school camp where we could decide what to do, so I decided photography and they gave us some old film cameras and a topic and we were running around and tried things out. The great thing was that they gave us black&white films and the cameras even had filters which they explained. We even had a darkroom there and developed the photos ourselves which was great fun.
I restarted now on a digital DSLR 9 months ago, so I guess thats what you could call the real starting point even if it was more just for fun.

3. What equipment do you use? (This includes computer programs and/or darkroom equipment).
I am using a Canon 400D DSLR with various lenses, not yet the expensive ones (18-55mm f/3.5-5.6, 75-300mm f/4-5.6, 50mm f/1.8), a pol filter and a tripod plus external flash for some events. Recently I had some studio shots for a fitness equipment company where I had some rented light and flash equipment but I don’t own anything like that yet.
In the postproduction I usually just use Adobe Lightroom now and sometimes a bit of Photoshop. I just have
the old Version 7 but want to upgrade sooner or later, just to take more advantage of the combination of Lightroom and Photoshop.

4. What’s your preferred photographic subject(s)?
I started with landscape and that was my primary interest for a while, all my equipment was basically set for this and I loved to be out in the nature and find nice spots and show them to the people. But I picked up more interest in other areas through the latest experiences with events and other areas. I guess I am a bit like a kid infront of the Christmas tree with all the presents below and just want to try out everything at the same time now.

5. Do you have a photographic “vision” and what is it?
That’s a really tought question, I just like to show things which others sometimes don’t see, to point out things and capture the right moments. Basically I am happy if my photos somehow entertain people at least a bit, make them smile or wonder for a second or two.

6. Who/What are your photographic influences, if any?
Till now most of my influences where just from the experiences I had, the people I worked with in the different areas and that I met all over the world. I guess I try to always learn a bit from everywhere, no matter what it is or if it is directly related.

7. How would you describe your photographic style, and how has it evolved over the years?
I don’t think I have a real style yet, I am more still on a kind of experimental journey to find it.  I liked to take very contrasting strong captures of live situations but I wouldn’t call that my style yet.

8. What is your system for backing up digital files?
I got more into this problem with the amount of photos I am taking right now, so I had to go off from just having
a small folder somewhere on the local hard disk. I also get more requests for photos now, so I need to find them
again in the original form. I am currently using an external harddrive with 500GB which I regularly backup on DVD-R,
usually on two copies. I guess in the future I will have to start to make backups from the backup DVD’s but that’s
still not yet a problem.

9. What is your general “workflow” like?
I am downloading the files through a card reader and storing them on the harddisk, than I import them into Lightroom,
make a preselection and do some adjustments to the better shots and export them in high-res. Some of these are uploaded
to a stock photography page and some are additonally rendered out in low-res and uploaded on my flickr account or
on my webpage which I just started to build up.

10. Do you prefer to shoot RAW or JPG and why?
I started to shoot everything in RAW a while ago when I also started with Lightroom. It simply gives me more control
over the images and I even can use the same image and create different views, like converting them into b&w or
set different aspects regarding what I want to point out. It is also a must for the commercial projects I started
to do recently.

11. Anything else you want to say.
Right now I am having a lot of fun and the whole photography got it’s own dynamic recently so it became partly a job
out from just a fun hobby. People seem to like my photos and I was kind of forced into the whole thing, not that I
would mind that. It’s fun to see the own photos in newspapers like the Taipei Times or the China Post, have them
published around the world in a newsletter of the Kenwood company or shown on Taiwan Picture of the day and a lot
of different webpages. It is nice to be approached from magazines and even be allowed to give an interview like this,
compared to the other guys you had here I am just a tiny fish in the big pound.
Still,  fun is the main part of it and trying to make people smile or wonder for a moment, entertain them a bit and share something and if it even brings something back too than it’s even better.

So that brings us to the end of the interview. Many thanks Michael for taking part.

If you’ve ever read Modern Photography or Popular Photography, you’ll know the name Herbert Keppler. Keppler, former publisher of Modern and Popular Photography magazines and one of the most respected and influential figures in the history of the camera industry, died Friday night due to heart failure after a brief illness. He was 82.

He was an early and tireless champion of the single-lens reflex camera (SLR), writing an extremely popular series of SLR columns explaining their numerous advantages over the then-dominant 35mm rangefinder cameras, including their upside potential for future development. By the early 1960s, it was clear that Keppler had been right, and the 35mm SLR became the camera type of choice among serious enthusiasts and professionals until the dawn of the digital era.

Keppler was also one of the first to recognize the potential in Japanese manufacturers. Starting in the 1950s, Japanese camera quality improved to the point where SLRs made in Japan eclipsed those made in Germany in both features and sales. Much of this success can be traced to Herbert Keppler. A frequent visitor to Japan, Keppler was sought after by all camera and lens manufacturers for his advice, and many popular cameras produced in the second half of the 20th century incorporated designs and features originally suggested by him. Many of these improvements helped change the perception of Japanese products from shoddy to high quality.

Over the years he was widely hailed as “Mr. Photography” and “The Conscience of the Industry.” He was among only a handful of Americans to receive one of the highest awards to be bestowed upon a foreigner by the Emperor of Japan for his notable contribution to the Japanese photographic industry and its phenomenal success in the U.S. He was also presented with “The Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Rosette” at a splendid conferment ceremony held at the Japanese Consulate in New York on December 9, 2002, by Ambassador Yoshihiro Nishida, Consul General of Japan.

Herbert Keppler is survived by his wife, Louise, and his children, Tom and Kathy.

I’ve finally managed to put up a completely new site for my galleries. The address is still the same www.craigfergusonimages.com but the look is very different.  I hope you’ll take the time to have a look at give me some feedback. You can’t leave any comments on the gallery site itself, so leave them here or send me an email. This blog won’t be changing, it’ll stay the same as it is. Enjoy.