From my recent tour to Bolivia. Magical view of the Salar during Sunset. Once sunset had finished I recorded this short video during twilight on my DJI OSMO. I love making short videos as memories of my trips and the OSMO is very small and uber convenient.
I’m just home now. Time to decompress after six weeks away. Film procesing next, and two months worth of book keeping and admin to catch up on.
Yesterday we visited the Uyuni train graveyard. I’ve come here many times but never made any photos. Yesterday it was a lot of fun to take some very quick images over 30 minutes or so with my little Leica M240, which after one month has already developed a fault - the LCD stopped working :-)
There’s something to be said about working very quickly. There’s a fluidity to it. Rather than every step being overly considered, I find myself being able to be more free with decisions.
Anyway, these little travel vignettes are perhaps just turning out to be a travel blog of sorts. It’s good to create these kinds of images in-between my ‘landscape’ work, as I find my photographic eye is kept engaged throughout the day. Particularly during the times when the light isn’t so great for working on my landscape images.
180º to the sun is where you will find the strongest sunset and sunrise colours. It is where you will experience the earth shadow at its strongest. Earth shadow is the blue (twilight) region in the sky, as can be seen in this image shot on my iPhone tonight on the Salar de Uyuni.
As the sun drops further below the horizon so the earth shadow heightens, until the entire sky is in twilight. In my iPhone image below, the earth shadow has just begun.
I’m in the Bolivian town of Tahua today. This morning’s shoot was at a salt mine, and then we went for lunch. I am bringing my little Leica camera with me when we go out for lunch as I find some of the restaurants very interesting.
Today’s restaurant was on the top floor, and there was a lot of light streaming in the windows, lighting up the pale blue floor.
There is a simple charm to the Bolivian interiors. It’s a poor country, but people put a lot of pride into the little they have. I enjoyed very much making these shots of our lunch area.
I’m enjoying using a little rangefinder Leica again. It’s a simple machine, quite old, but relatively speaking a new camera for me, as all my Hasselblad film cameras are mid 80’s.
Some of the interiors of the buildings in Bolivia remind me of the stylistic design of Wes Anderson’s movies. Perhaps he should come to Bolivia someday.
The interior shots were made at my lunch. Shot over ten minutes or so, there was just so much on offer to digest. I loved the colour scheme that was present throughout the entire lunch area, and also its beautiful, dated charm.
I’ve been mentioning folks now for over five years on a one to one basis, and I have some thoughts on what mentoring should be, and what anyone who is wishing to be mentored should consider before working with a photographer who’s work they like.
I think first and foremost, if one is going to look for a mentor, they should really try to answer the question as to why they want to be mentored, and what they are perhaps hoping to get out of the experience. And also - why that particular photographer?
There are a few things I think anyone who wishes to be mentored should consider before approaching someone for mentoring:
You should choose a photographer because you think there is something about their work that you can learn from. Or because you think they may be a good teacher. Some photographers may be better teachers than they are photographers. While others may be great photographers but not so good at teaching. Do your research. Watch interviews, or read interviews, study their work, and philosophy. See if it resonates.
Best to get an idea of what the expectations are before you begin. Having a clear idea of what you are expected to provide, and what the teacher will provide is key.
As a student, you will be expected to put effort into the sessions, and provide images that meet exercises your teacher will set you. The only way to improve, is by doing the work yourself.
The mentoring might not be what you expected. In fact, it probably won’t be anything close to what you anticipated. Going into mentoring with a photographer, I would advise you to keep your mind open, and go with wherever they wish to go with you.
Try to leave your ego outside the sessions. As tough as it will be, your work will be up for review, always with the aim of trying to encourage you to broaden your skillset. This can only happen if you’re receptive to feedback. If you have a good teacher, you should come away from the sessions feeling encouraged, and with “buy in”. In other words, you should feel a belief and commitment to do the work you’ve been set.
Best not to go into it, hoping that the teacher will love your work. They are not there to validate you. They are there, irrespective of how accomplished your work is, to give value and find some things to help broaden your skills. No matter how accomplished the work is, as a teacher it is my job to always offer something. In these circumstances I always make it clear that what I am offering is not a criticism of the work, but just different ways to consider the work. The aim is always to expand the students skills in either seeing or interpreting the work.
Mentoring is a relationship, and as such requires honesty and accountability on both sides. You have to be ready to be vulnerable. As a teacher, i’m more interested in what you need to improve on, than what you do well already. To admit where you had difficulty or struggle is helpful for me in finding the areas we need to work on.
Lastly, but perhaps the most important: try to submit work that is your own. This sounds harsh but what I really mean by this is you should submit work that is the least influenced by the photographer you want to be taught by.
In my own case, I have no interest in repeating the same compositional devices or editing techiques that I did with a certain landscape, with a student’s similar imagery. Yet it is not uncommon to be sent submissions that are of the same locations or similar compositions as my own.
I would urge you to try to find images that you know are your own work, and do not “borrow” too heavily from the teacher you are hoping to work with. This will have several benefits;
a) it will be more interesting for the teacher to work on things they are unfamiliar with
b) it will allow your teacher to remove themselves from your work
c) you and your teacher will be in a more neutral place for the mentoring to begin
—
Ok, so there is a lot to think about above. But important points to consider.
I would say however, that it’s ok to pursue mentoring, even if you can’t answer some of the questions I’ve put forward for you to consider. I merely wish to put them forward as food for thought.
I’m in the Puna highlands of northern Argentina today. Exploring more of the Puna region. Went out this morning in -10ºC temperatures to shoot some beautiful landscapes. All shot on Fuji Velvia 50 with my Hasselblad film camera.
The rest of the day is sitting around in the dryness of the desert with not much to do. So I played around with some more images I shot on my little Leica M240 camera from the surrounding towns in the highlands here. More wall art and interiors.
I’ve been feeling I should be documenting my travels more. Not just focus on the landscape photography side of it. Perhaps it’s the realisation that I am approaching 60 next year, and it’s making me think that I should have been documenting my travels in the past. I’ve been a photographer for 17 years now (full time), and I had always made a distinction between my landscape work and any other kind of imagery. Always feeling that anything outside of my landscape work would be irrelevant, or throw away nonsense, but I’m curious if I can make some nice documentary images as well of the environments etc while I am sitting around between the landscape shoots.
I'm Enjoying very much playing with an old Leica M240 and some Light Lens Lab lenses. These images were shot yesterday afternoon in the northern Argentina town of Purmamarca.
I love the colours and of course the inventive art work. I like how the camera’s colours respond to editing as well.
I’m also enjoying making images of the periphery visuals around my landscape work, while I am travelling.
I would so like to make more street images and just images of the events that happen around my sessions outside of the landscape work I do.
Image courtesy Geofrey van Baylen, May 2026
