As we come to the end of a very busy and exciting year, it’s time to look back over some favorite photos and photography moments from the past twelve months. Throughout 2011 I shot somewhere around 25 000 images, logged 8 flights, 3 magazine covers, a couple of award mentions, fulfilled a dream or two and met a bunch of great people. All in all, I can say that it was a great year.

Before I get into things, I’ll quickly take this opportunity to remind you about the recently announced China workshop I’ll be leading with John Batdorff, in Guiln next May.

The year kicked off with a visit to the Greenpeace flagship boat, Rainbow Warrior. I had had a couple of meetings with Greenpeace, Taiwan in late 2010 to discuss doing some work for them and the first opportunity proved to be the arrival of the boat. We headed down to Keelung Harbor to see it arrive, then were invited on board for a tour by the captain. I also had the opportunity to make a short video interview with him.

Almost straight after that I headed off for a week on assignment for Monocle magazine shooting part of a travel feature on Taiwan for an upcoming supplement. From rural, coastal scenes in Eastern Taiwan to a couple of days shooting in high-end luxury resorts, it was a whirlwind week of interviews, food and travel. Along the way I was able to photograph a traditional Chinese cultural dance in Taipei’s Confucius Temple. Due to the 100th birthday of Taiwan they were staging some special early morning performances of the ritual that is usually only seen once a year.

Taiwan had one of its longest, coldest and wettest winters on record and most of the first couple of months featured gray, rainy days. Not exactly inspiring weather so I didn’t do a lot shooting outdoors. Spent some time in the studio which is not really my favorite type of photography. Just before the sakura (cherry blossom) season kicked off, we did get a rare blue sky day and Selina and I headed up to the Tian Yuan temple to see if there were any early blossoms about. If the weather is good, this is one of the most colorful times of year but the season started late this year and there wasn’t much to see. I did manage to find one decent angle that allowed me to capture the flowers, temple and sky in the same shot.

One of the highlights of March was discovering the location of another pod-style abandoned resort development. I’ve long had an interest in this kind of abandoned structure photography and it appears that many others do too – my most licensed / sold photographs are from a now-demolished development, so finding a new site was exciting. It’s not as atmospheric as the San-zhr pods were yet still offers up some photographic treats.

April was mostly assignment work photographing and writing an article on surfing in Taiwan, covering an anti-nuclear demonstration and shooting the initial images for a story on yoga that ultimately didn’t end up running. During times between the work-related images I was able to experiment a bit with some artistic long exposure photography that was captured with the intention of being worked over in post-processing. I ended up with a couple of images that I was happy with, especially in that they represented a change from what I normally shoot.

As the weather warmed up I found myself shooting editorial work on traditional puppetry, taking a trip out to a village known for its pottery, making my first visit to one of Northern Taiwan’s tourist hot spots, shooting a series for a local gym and testing new flash triggers for the team at Phottix. In order to put the triggers through their paces, I set up a shoot featuring a model clad in a traditional Chinese qipao and we headed to a couple of Taipei’s older temples to get some portraits and see how the triggers worked in a real world situation. The answer to that was flawlessly. Here’s a photograph from the session.

One of my favorite local festivals took place in June, the Taipei City God festival. This kicks off with a week or so of performances of traditional Taiwanese and Chinese opera which is always a joy to photograph although some people may want to wear earplugs for it. Quiet it ain’t. I started off with a few backstage images but spent most of the 4 days I was there concentrating on the performance itself as well as the audience. However it was the backstage work that resonated the most, with the image below being selected as an editors pick in the National Geographic Traveler photo contest.

Often as a working photographer you find yourself on location with nothing to do but wait until whatever or whoever it is you’re assigned to shoot is ready. Such was the case with my chosen favorite of this month. I was out shooting two assignments and had a few hours in between them. I found myself in one of the older areas of Taipei so decided to venture into the Longshan temple partly to get a few photos and partly to escape the rain.

August in Taiwan means Ghost Month, when the spirits come out to play for four weeks. It features lots of ritual, burning of offerings, parades and sacrifice, and is a joy for a travel and cultural photographer. Suffice to say, most of the month was spent engaged in photography related to the festival although I also took the time to visit the annual tattoo festival which is always a fun experience, especially for someone like me who has no tattoos.

This year September brought what was probably the best weather of the year for photography. Clear blue skies, gorgeous sunsets and comfortable temperatures. I was able to spend a few evenings out shooting from some new locations which is always nice, especially after you hike uphill and find yourself with a great viewpoint.

The good weather didn’t last however, and the annual Scott Kelby Photowalk that I led took place in absolutely atrocious weather. As leader, I had to head out to the location in case anyone turned up but most people wisely decided to stay home. Two did turn up though, and as the rain eased off for a short time, we decided to make the most of it and got in 30 minutes or so of photography. The funny thing was that I shot what may be my favorite shot of the year during this. I’d had an intention to photograph something specific during this years photowalk and the weather actually may have made it slightly easier to do so. I was very happy to see that Scott Kelby later selected it for mention in his leader’s gallery.

October also saw me off to Nepal for a couple of weeks for a mixture of NGO assignments, personal work and vacation. At this stage, I’m still sitting on most of the photographs from that trip, although you can see a few highlights scattered throughout this blog and in my winter 2011 newsletter. Of the personal work I have processed, the photograph below is one of my favorites.

November and December have seen me shoot a lot of corporate work. I’m not sure why as it’s not something I usually concentrate on but I had 4 different assignments in a very short space of time. For each of them I did know the people involved beforehand so that may have had something to do with why I got offered the jobs. In addition to this, a lot of planning and research has been going into the 2012 China workshop as well as pre-production for a promo shoot that’s scheduled for early January. I did manage to get in a little bit of beach photography before the weather changed – the last 2 months have been rainy almost every day.

So that just about wraps up my year. Happy Holidays everyone.

Taiwan Beyond Taipei for Cebu Smile

If you’re flying on Cebu Pacific Air this month be sure to check out a recent feature they commissioned from me for their inflight magazine, Smile. It’s on a favorite Taiwan location of mine, the historic town of Lugang. In it, I explore the alleys, markets and temples of this quaint town in a 5 page long article that features text written by me as well as 12 photographs.

Cebu Smile

Cebu Smile

Cebu Smile

Just another day in Nepal. September 1997

Heading off to Nepal tomorrow for an assignment for an NGO mixed with some vacation time for my wife and I as well as some personal shooting. This will be my 3rd trip to Nepal but my first time since I started shooting digital. I was last there exactly 10 years ago on either side of a Tibet trip, and I’m really looking forward to being able to shoot without the constraints of a film budget. I will have at least one post that I’ll schedule in advance here next week, and possibly a few preview photos or things shot on my Android phone while in Nepal, so there should still be a bit of action here..

Below you can see the gear list of all the stuff I’m taking. There are a couple of possibly unusual inclusions in it that are for an experimental idea I have. After I return, I’ll blog on what worked and what didn’t.

Cameras

• Canon 5D Mark II with grip
• Canon 5D
• Canon 40D

Three bodies may seem like overkill but I’m throwing an old APS-C body in just in case I’m after a bit of extra reach for some mountain shots.

Lenses

• Canon 17-40mm f4L
• Canon 24-70mm f2.8L
• Canon 70-200mm f4L
• Canon 50mm f1.8

Lighting

• Canon 580EX II
• Canon 550EX
• Phottix Odin ETTL triggers
• Phottix Strato II triggers
• Phottix collapsible umbrella
• Phottix external battery pack
• Phottix bouce card and snoot
• Standard gels

I may add a reflector at the last minute but am undecided at the moment.

Accessories

• Black Rapid RS-5 strap (x2)
• Black Rapid RS-Sport strap
• Dicapac WP-S10 waterproof housing
• Canon TC80n3 timer remote
• Triopo G268 carbon fiber tripod with Manfrotto 486RC2 ballhead
• B+W 110 10stop ND filter
• 3 stop soft GND filter
• Variable ND filter
• Polarizing filter

Man and bell. October 2001

Electronics

As nothing is too time-sensitive, I’m not planning on doing any editing on the road. This is preferable because it will mean my nights won’t be taken up with work, and I’ll be able to save all the processing for my desktop computer rather than using a laptop. That said, I do need to store image files so a computer is necessary.

• Macbook
• 500GB external hard drives (x2)
• Sandisk USB card reader
• iPod
• Zoom H1 audio recorder
• HTC Desire running Oxygen ROM

Bags

I picked up 2 new bags for this trip, partly because I have a little too much gear to fit easily into my Lowepro Computrekker, and partly so that I have something small and portable for casual use. My carry on is a Jenova backpack. The particular model (TW007L) seems to be named only for the Taiwan market so I’m not too sure what they are called elsewhere. I believe Jenova is an Italian company. A friend of mine has been using this particular backpack for a couple of years and recommends it. I was able to pick it up on sale for about half the price of equivalent bags from the better known manufacturers. I’m also taking a messenger bag by Jenova that easily fits one body and a couple of lenses for around town use.

Dreams of Future Past

Today marks the official launch of my fine art photography book, Dreams of Future Past, that explores some abandoned structures throughout Taiwan. In many ways, Taiwan is any urban explorers dream destination and I focus on three specific sites. Included within are images from the San-zhr pod village, the Taiwan futuro village and the Katoli’s World Amusement park. Of the three sites, only the futuro village is still standing so there will be no more opportunities to see work from San-zhr or Katoli’s World.

San-zhr pod village, Katoli's world, Futuro village

Dreams of Future Past is a 56 page photo book that is now available for purchase. There are three different options for the book – softcover at $36.95, hardcover (jacket) at $46.95 or harcover (image wrap) for $49.95. Click on any of the pictures above to go directly to the bookstore. Below you can preview the book.

Dreams of Future Past by Craig Ferguson | Make Your Own Book

The book has been entered in the Blurb Photography Book Now where it’s in the running for People’s Choice Award. If you feel like casting a vote for it as well, that’d be appreciated. Order your copy of Dreams of Future Past today.

Entrance gate to the Danshui Martyr's Shrine.

The Martyr’s Shrine in Danshui, Taiwan is one of the historic attractions that is found quite close to where I live. It always pays to explore your local area, especially the lesser known sites, as they can often reward you with great locations and excellent photo opportunities. The Martyr’s Shrine is one such place. I recently visited here as a bit of a sidetrack to a bike ride I went for one morning. I rarely take a camera with me when I ride (other than the one on my phone) but for some reason I decided to on this occasion, and I was glad I did.

A Martyr’s Shrine is basically a war memorial but they are a little different in this part of the world to the ones that people may be more familiar with in the west. I don’t know if that’s because of the differences in beliefs on death between Chinese and Western cultures or what reason, but these shrines are usually tucked away somewhere almost hidden and rarely get any visitors despite appearing prominently in the local government’s tourism literature. The one exception is the National Martyr’s Shrine in Taipei, which has bus loads of tourists arrive daily to watch the elaborate changing of the guard ceremony.

The inner gate of the Danshui Martyr's Shrine

The site for the Danshui Martyr’s Shrine dates back to 1936. During this time, Taiwan was under the control of Japan. In 1895, the first Sino-Japanese War between China and Japan ended with the ceding of Taiwan to the Japanese. This colonial era lasted until October 1945 when sovereignty was handed over to the Republic of China. During the Japanese era, numerous Shinto shrines were constructed around the island and this marked the first use of what is now the Danshui Martyr’s Shrine. The Danshui Shinto Shrine was consecrated in 1939 and stood until 1974 when it was razed to make way for the Martyr’s Shrine. The stone steps and the foundation of the Shinto shrine were kept and used in the construction of the Martyr’s Shrine.

Memorial Hall, Danshui Martyr's Shrine.

The shrine is located in a leafy, quiet area just up the hill from the main road and riverside. Getting there is easy as there are road signs showing motorists and cyclists where to turn, and a bus stop can be found 200m down the road. The shrine is next to the historic Huwei Fort (more on that in a future post) and just before you come to the entrance to the Danshui Golf Club. The address is Lane 6, Section 1 Zhongzheng Rd.

Western wall of the Danshui Martyr's Shrine

Over the next few weeks I’m going to be introducing a number of other sites from the Danshui area seeing as it’s where I call home. Sites that will be feature cover the gamut from travel and culture to history and nature and many more. Here are a last couple of photos from the Danshui Martyr’s Shrine.

Looking from the hall towards the entrance of Danshui Martyr's Shrine

Panorama of Danshui Martyr's Shrine garden.

Song Jiang Zhen battle array martial arts troupe. Dating back to the early Qing Dynasty in Taiwan, they historically numbered 108 members but nowadays 36 is more common. (Craig Ferguson)

Song Jiang Zhen battle array is a martial or military arts troupe. Dating back to the early Qing Dynasty in Taiwan, they historically numbered 108 members but nowadays 36 is more common. While they do have a reputation of being fierce fighters, particularly in various uprisings during the Japanese colonial era of Taiwan (1895-1945), today they exist as ceremonial and performance troupe only. They can regularly be seen participating in important religious events, and every year there is a major competition for the various troupes held in Neimen, Kaohsiung.

A lot of the weapons used by the troupe were originally modifications of agricultural implements and farming tools. Even today, they still use actual tools in the performances, and injuries can and do happen from time to time.

Danshui Harbor, Taiwan (Craig Ferguson)

The time to update and refresh my online travel and cultural photography portfolios rolled around, and I decided to take a bit of an experimental approach. Using the tools offered to me by Photoshelter and the power of social media, I was able to take a novel approach to making the selections for the web portfolios. One of the beauties of Photoshelter is the multiple options you have for sharing your images with people; whether you want to share it all publicly with everyone or keep it private among a select group of people, the tools are available for you to use however you desire. For this I decided to use publicly viewable and searchable photos but grouped together in such a way that the grouping was only available to a few people. To do so, I took advantage of the ability to create and share a lightbox.

I choose approximately 90 photographs and created a lightbox for them on Photoshelter. Next, I put a call out over Twitter and Facebook asking for volunteers to help me cull the selected photographs down to a more suitable length. When people responded, I told them that I wanted to end up with two galleries, one representing travel photographs and the other culture photographs. I mentioned 25 as the total number I was after and requested my helpers to either rate their top 25, or to rate more and I’d select their top ones. To do this, I gave them the permission to be able to rate using the star system within the Photoshelter lightbox. The screenshot below shows a partial view of the ratings matrix. Of the three columns where there are no ratings at all, the red boxed one is reserved for ratings I personally assign, and the other two empty columns are people who got the invite but didn’t (or haven’t yet) participated.

The ratings matrix of my lightbox. The red boxed stars are for my ratings and the rest of ratings of the people I invited. When I took this screen shot, two of my invitees had yet to rate.

Once I’d gathered all the ratings, I simply went through and copied all the highest rated photographs into a temporary gallery that was unpublished and viewable only by me. That left me with 39 images total, about evenly spread between travel and culture photographs. There were a few similars in there and I chose the one I thought strongest and discarded the rest. The brought me down to 35 photographs, of which 17 fit into the culture category and 18 into travel. I generally try to base portfolio galleries on 12-15 images but this time I decided to include the extra couple and leave it at that. As it had been as much an exercise in crowd sourcing the selections, I didn’t want to favor one image while dropping another.

Of the people who helped me making the selections, there was one professional photographer, one semi-professional, one hobbyist, one who likes looking at photos but isn’t a photographer, and one old high school classmate who I recently met on Facebook 20 years after high school. I’ve no idea what her experiences with photography are. All in all, it’s a pretty good cross section of people. I’d have liked a photo editor or art buyer but that’s more wishful thinking than anything. The whole selection process doesn’t really substitute for working closely with a portfolio consultant but that’s not in the budget at the moment – one of the downsides of local photography rates in this part of the world is that while they provide a decent quality of life here, they don’t always stretch to allowing investment in consultants in the major markets of the world.

Now you can see for yourself the final selections as chosen via a crowd sourcing experiment.

Beng Mealea temple, Cambodia is an Angkor-era temple dating from the early 12th century CE and built during the reign of Suryavarman II

Few people come away from a trip to Cambodia’s famed Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples without some kind of Indiana Jones / Lara Croft fantasy. Even if it’s just a passing thought, as you finds yourself with a quiet moment of solitude amongst the ruins, it’s easy to imagine being the first explorer to stumble upon the place. Despite the almost one million tourists annually that visit the UNESCO World Heritage listed site, there are still opportunities to escape the crowds and revel in those fantasies. For travel photographers, the Angkor region never fails to delight while there. You may be standing shoulder to shoulder with 100 other photographers all trying to capture the same sunset but you do it anyway because it is such a spectacular scene. The majority of tourists who visit Angkor do so on a three day pass, rushing around from site to site until they begin to blur together, and in the bars and restaurants in the nearby town, you can often hear people stating that they are “templed out”. In a seeming contradiction, travelers who take advantage of a seven day pass don’t seem to become so overwhelmed by everything. Having the ability to take things at a more relaxed pace, to break up the trip with a side journey to the floating villages on the lake or the bird sanctuary, allows for a more thorough enjoyment of the ruins without them blurring into one another. For those who really want an adventure though, taking a trip to one of the more remote temples is a must. At a site such as Beng Mealea, you can really believe that you are an intrepid explorer, and you will return with photographs, stories and memories that suggest as much.

Located approximately 60km north east of Siem Reap, Beng Mealea is the place to go if you want a real jungle experience. Unrestored and largely covered in dense vegeatation, if you approach the ruins from the western entrance you’ll truly get a sense of discovery as you get a first glimpse of the West Tower rising in front of you. Head over a collapsed section of terrace and into the enclosure, taking where you step, especially if it has been raining as it gets extremely slippery. This is not for the faint-hearted. If you after something a little easier and safer, make use of the main southern entrance. Inside the enclosure itself, the increasing popularity over the past few years has led to wooden walkways being constructed but there are still places that most don’t venture into.

Beng Mealea itself was constructed in the early 12th century CE by Suryavarman II (1112-52). Although a little smaller than Angkor Wat, it features the same basic floor plan, although you would never know it to look at it, such is the state of ruin. It literally appears to be a huge pile of rubble hidden amongst the trees and therein lies its charm. Unlike all of the other temples in the Angkor region, at Beng Mealea it is possible to walk along the tops of walls and on the rooftop. Whether this is desirable is a point of debate. To some, it’s an essential part of the experience but to others it is just hastening the damage that is being done to the structure. Most information about the temple has been lost to history. What is known is that it is constructed primarily of sandstone and is dedicated to the Hindu God, Vishnu, although Buddhist motifs can also be seen in places.

A trip to Beng Mealea is a must for those who desire a little extra adventure and wish for a sense of discovery. Dave Perks and the team at Peace Of Angkor were some of the first to arrange trips there and are my recommended choice, particularly for photographers as the company is run by a photographer.

I’ll leave you with a slideshow featuring additional images. All are available for licensing, as is a longer written article that can be supplied for editorial usage upon request.

A generic Thai temple shot. Images like this are a dime a dozen these days. To be a successful travel photographer, you must do something special.

Travel photography is dead. It’s been said many times over the past few years, what with the rise of microstock, the economic crisis forcing magazines to close, editorial rates decreasing and the stunning growth of photo sharing sites where talented hobbyists with DSLR’s often let their photographs be published for photo credit, that the genre of travel photography is dead and buried. All I can say is if it is dead, then that can only be a good thing.

Before we get into it, I want to remind you about Selina Maitreya’s The View From Here. Selina brings 3 decades of portfolio consultancy experience and wisdom to this MP3 series that’s a must-have for anyone either contemplating becoming a working photographer or professionals looking for a little extra inspiration. Normally $199, it’s available at a 50% discount using the code FOSCFI.

Travel photography is dead. It’s a bit like Decca Records infamous rejection of the Beatles saying that “guitar groups are on the way out”. Obviously, the prevailing wisdom at that particular time and place said that they were, despite the fact that there was a growing blues scene happening in England at the time. Describing travel photography as dead in 2010 then is true then, only if you look at it from a narrow perspective much the way that the establishment recording industry did in the early 1960s.

Commercially, there’s probably not much in the way of opportunity for travel photography. The world has pretty much been fully explored numerous times by camera-wielding tourists and travellers and there’s really nothing left to photograph, correct? Or at least nothing left that allows someone to step off a plane, snap a few photos, sell them and move on to the next place.

That’s a good thing. Firstly, for people who are unable to travel to certain places, they have a wealth of imagery that they can view for free online. It’s not as good as being there in person, but if you’re stuck in a cubicle all day, it may be the next best thing. Pretty much anywhere you can think of has been photographed and photographed well by a lot of different people. Plenty of eye candy for the bored office worker.

To my way of thinking though, the best thing about the death of travel photography is that it pushes image makers to take the extra steps and create compelling work that stands out from everything else. It’s not as simple as photographing the tourist trails and well-known cultural festivals. Photographers who take the time to seek out stories and bring those tales to a wider audience, such as Mitchell Kanashkevich has been doing so well with travel documentary work from tribal customs in Vanuatu to sulphur mining in Indonesia, are the ones who will succeed. Or those who incorporate multimedia such as Matt Brandon who has been producing some incredible stories from India to Egypt and more.

The death of travel photography spurs the creative photographer into new directions. This can only be a positive development, bringing more compelling imagery into focus (no pun intended) while at the same time stretching a photographer’s abilities and pushing them to new heights.

Travel photography is dead. Long live travel photography.

That was the 327th 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.

Chishintan Beach at noon, Hualian, Taiwan

As summer approaches in the southern hemisphere, the topic of beach photography arises. One common problem with taking photos while on holiday at the beach is that they are often taken in harsh daylight, with the bright sun high above the white sand causing all sorts of exposure difficulties. Keeping a few simple points in mind is all you need to do to get decent daytime beach shots.

Before we get into it, I want to remind you about Selina Maitreya’s The View From Here. Selina brings 3 decades of portfolio consultancy experience and wisdom to this MP3 series that’s a must-have for anyone either contemplating becoming a working photographer or professionals looking for a little extra inspiration. Normally $199, it’s available at a 50% discount using the code FOSCFI.

On the typical bright summer’s day, the light can play havoc with your cameras internal metering. Modern cameras are sophisticated tools that obey a few basic principles, one of which is that the meter wants to average the exposure for what is known as 18% gray. This is basically a midtone and in normal circumstances when there is a mixture or bright highlights and darker shadows, it does a pretty good job. However, on your stereotypical tropical beach at noon, there often aren’t any shadows at all. Bright, cloudless blue sky, mixed with bright white sand and bright blue water. Not a whole lot of darker shadows at all. The camera’s meter however, wants to average the scene out to a midtone with the following disastrous results.

Exposure as determined by the camera

As you can see above, the photograph is underexposed. This was taken just after noon when the sun was directly above, and although there were some clouds moving in, they didn’t really affect the overall brightness of the day. When my camera’s meter averaged everything out, it gave a dullness to the photo. Compensating for this issue is quite a simple matter and it’s pretty much a set and forget type process. For this, we’re going to use a feature on the camera known as “exposure compensation”. Essentially, exposure compensation tells the camera to add or subtract a certain amount of exposure to the metered average. For the typical beach scene, as we know that the camera will tend to underexpose it at the average, set the exposure compensation to +1 or +2. Thr brighter the day, the more exposure compensation you need. The photo below has approximately +1 stop of exposure compensation added. You can see in the histogram view that the graph is further across to the right.

+1 Exposure compensation to take into account the brightness of the day.

The keen eyed amongst you will note by the shutter speed below the two histograms that it is in fact 2 stops different. I shot them 2 stops apart but then pulled the brighter one back a stop in the RAW process creating a 1 stop difference.

Once you set the exposure compensation, leave it alone for as long as you’re photographing in the same light and the camera will automatically compensate for the light and give you a correct exposure. All that’s left to do is add a bit of vibrance to the image in Lightroom to bring out the color and you’ve got some great beach photos.

That was the 309th 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.