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…
Desert Rose
Posted by Dean Bradshaw | Filed under Fashion Photography, People Photography, Portfolio, concept photography
New portfolio work shot yesterday evening. This concept is what happens when you’re stuck in suburbia for any length of time and musings of scented Chai tea and bustling markets enter your mind – I think I’m going to self diagnose myself with ‘wanderlust’.
See more in the series after the jump…
Tags: culture, model, portrait, travel
Workplace Hazards!
Posted by Dean Bradshaw | Filed under Wildlife Photography
The Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko) is one of the most commonly encountered reptiles in Southeast Asia (This one is from Thailand, near the Burmese border). They frequent houses and man-made structures, coming out at night to hunt for insects and smaller geckos. They are quite enormous for a gecko, reaching lengths over a foot long!
Hear about and even see what this guy did to my finger, after the jump…. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: assignment, gecko, Lighting, lizard, macro, portrait, reptile, strobist, thailand, travel, Wildlife
More from Khao Sok National Park, Thailand
Posted by Dean Bradshaw | Filed under On Assignment, Travel Photography
Unfortunately we were only able to spend a single night in the amazing Khao Sok National Park. This is my friend Tom, just as we arrived at the floating bungalows, setting up his 6×17 panoramic camera, racing against the fading light to capture the magical ambience of the sheltered lagoon.
See more images and find out more after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: flash, Khao Sok, Landscape, thailand, travel, Travel Photography
Photographing People: How I do it
Posted by Dean Bradshaw | Filed under People Photography, Techniques
Photographing people is one of the most interesting and engaging things you can do in photography – travel photography in particular. Your camera – if you make it – can be your ticket to some of the most amazing and memorable experiences with others you’ll ever have. But, getting over that initial approach anxiety and shyness which arises when photographing strangers, especially when traveling, can be tough.
How I do it, after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: people photography, portrait, technique, travel, Travel Photography
Khao Sok National Park – Thailand
Posted by Dean Bradshaw | Filed under On Assignment, People Photography, Photojournalism & Story Telling, Travel Photography
One of the major features we wanted to explore in Thailand were the abundance of national parks spread across the country. Thailand is well known for its well equipped national parks, many of them complete with luxury bungalows and modern conveniences.
Khao Sok National Park is enormous. The whole park covers 645 sq km – the heart of a complex of five contiguous conservation sites that comprise the largest protected forest on the Thai-Malaysian peninsula, covering over 4,000 sq km.
A one hour long boat ride from the National park headquarters is one of the most amazing experiences i had in Thailand. We were lucky enough to experience it just before sunset, as the spectacular limestone outcrops which protude from the lake’s surface (some as tall as 960m!) were set against a dramatic cloudscape.
We spent the night in a series of floating bunglaows, far, far away from the hum of the city.
An experience not to be missed!
Tags: Khao Sok, southeast asia, story, thailand, travel
Muay Thai Photos
Posted by Dean Bradshaw | Filed under On Assignment, People Photography, Photojournalism & Story Telling, Travel Photography
Recently i spent about 6 weeks in Thailand, of which about 2 weeks were spent documenting the Thai Boxing scene in Thailand’s second largest city, Chiang Mai. Located in Thailand’s north, relatively close to Burma (Myanmar) and Laos, Chiang Mai is a a cosmopolitan city, rich in culture and a hub of the Thai Boxing scene in Northern Thailand.
The National sport of Thailand, Thai Boxing (Muay Thai) permeates Thai culture in a similar way that Australian Rules Football does here in Australia. There is one major difference however, and that is that like Western boxing, Thai boxing is viewed as a ‘poor man’s sport’, whereby the Thai bourgeois shuns the seemingly violent and archaic brutality of the sport.
Young boxers live and breath Muay Thai, training 6 hours each day, 6 days a week and after seeing the way these guys work, how they push their bodies to the limit, the tuly must be some of the most athletic people on the planet!
Tags: assignment, boxing, muay thai, photojournalism, thailand, travel
