Back from Borneo…
Posted by Dean Bradshaw | Filed under Travel Photography
Back in Perth.
Borneo was awesome. Shot many, many photos though there was less emphasis on this than there was in exploring the place for myself and doing a bit of reconnaissance for future photographic adventures. Ala my previous post we spent about 2 weeks in Sabah, drifting between the Kinabatangan River, Danum Valley Research Station and Mount Kinabalu. Photos will be emerging in the coming weeks, but in the meantime I’ll leave you with a haphhazardly composed self portrait shot almost at the summit of Mount Kinabalu – the highest peak in Southeast Asia (4000 odd meteres).
Don’t let the smile fool you, it was very cold and I was very, very tired. We had set off that morning at 2:30am (though I would argue that such a time is not well described by the term ‘morning), having slept only a few hours in unheated cabins at 3000 odd metres. We then trudged upwards for 2.5 hours to a summit which obscured by the inky night sky only became distinguishable in the very last few metres. I say ‘we’, but I really mean ‘me’ as I made the summit climb alone. This made it all the more difficult, and aside from the last 100m where I summoned enough energy to strike up a conversation with a pair of Australians, the climb was made in painful silence – intermittently dissected by the howl of the wind.
Having not trained for it, climbing Mount Kinabalu was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. I’m not usually one to climb things for the sake of climbing, but It was an experience I’ll never forget and one does gather some sort of feeling of achievement having been somewhere that the human body was never equipped to ever be in the first place.
Unfortunately I didn’t take as many photos at the summit as I’d have liked. FIrstly I was using NiMH AA batteries in my 5D mkII (My batter charger had gone walkabouts – long story) and they couldn’t deal with the cold. Every 3 or 4 shots the camera would shut down and I’d have to take the tray of batteries out and place them at some warm junction of body and clothing. Secondly, about 15 minutes after arriving at the summit (we got there around 4:50am) – billowing clouds enshrouded the entire vista in mist, meaning all the wonderful landscape images I had envishioned never came to be. Alas.
Believe me, appreciating vistas becomes more difficult at high altitude, let alone photographing them…
…better luck next time I guess.
If you’d like to see some really nice images of what I should have seen, check out ‘Stoncel’s’ flickr photostream.
Back to my roots then to the polar opposite – Borneo to California
Posted by Dean Bradshaw | Filed under Travel Photography, Wildlife Photography
Big change is coming. I’ve once again self diagnosed extreme wanderlust and have made plans to have myself remedied – too long have I been cooped up in the studio.
First stop - Malaysian Borneo – where I will live for two weeks deep in the South East Asian Jungle. Sabah is where I’ll be going, a Malaysian State on the north-eastern part of Borneo, the world’s third largest island and known as arguably the best place in Southeast Asia to observe wildlife. We’ll be spending most of our time in the interior of the region, along the edge of the Kinabatangan River and at a research station in one of Sabah’s largest reserves. The jungles of Sabah contain some of the oldest rainforests in the world and are home to an abundance of animal and plant species. Pygmy elephants, Proboscis Monkeys, Orangutans, pitcher plants, orchids, and the world’s largest flower, the Rafflesia, can be found. Lots of photography will be taking place and I have an interesting and somewhat innovative project to trial while I’m there.
Second Stop – California - where I will be working with a photographer who I greatly admire to help coordinate photo shoots for some of the biggest brands in the world. More news on that when I touch down in early June.
Lots of new photos landing soon…
