Podcast : India's Taj Mahal

I've not even begun to work on my Indian images yet. But along while back, sometime in February when I got home, I started to collate all the usable images from my visits to the Taj Mahal.

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It's quite an incredible landmark and it didn't disappoint me. Photographically however, I was restricted : they won't let you in with a tripod or any recording devices. Still, I did manage to smuggle an audio recorder past the entrance gates. So in this podcast, you can hear ambience from the surrounding gardens. It's hard for me to explain, but it was just so calming to be there, despite the fact that I was there with 1000 other people at 6am in terrible smog.

My throat and lungs ached after spending a couple of hours there. So bad was the pollution.

However, the Taj Mahal is simply one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. It did not disappoint.

I went perhaps three or four times, and the last time was enough for me. Going in the evening is the worst because everyone, and I mean everyone, is there. It was like Disney Land. Terrible. It's also a shame that the gardeners are onto touting the tourists too. After spending weeks being harassed by threatening touts, I thought I was going to get some peace in the gardens. So I was pretty frustrated when I had to tell the gardeners to leave me alone in peace.

I think the Taj Mahal has to be enjoyed in silence, with time to reflect, it's a beautiful special place, more so because it is a reprieve from the madness of India.

Bolivian Altiplano Podcast

I had no idea I was going to be so taken with this landscape.The Bolivian Altiplano brings together a vast expanse of varied geological features under unusual climatic conditions.

For one thing, the altitude of the Altiplano averages around 4000 meters or 12,000 feet. The air is thin here and for no reason I can fathom, this seemed to guarantee stunning light each sunrise and sunset.

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Because of this, I felt that I pushed my tour guide and driver to their limits as we navigated the vast Salar de Uyuni landscape before sunrise and long after dusk. With scarcely defined roads, more a slight suggestion, a faint scar on the desert like landscape, it was hard for me to watch as my driver sped through the darkness with no visible signposts as to where we were, or where we were going.

And we sped on, often to some intangible destination that my driver knew about.

But I was suffering hard. A mixture of slight Altitude symptoms and running around too much, too soon after my ascent onto the altiplano had left me with a thumping headache and slight dizziness - symptoms of mountain sickness.

I felt overawed by the experience. Coupled with my suffering, everything regarding landscape photography seemed inverted. The ground was often brighter than the sky and the sunsets proved to be more impressive than the wondrous sunrises. I was never really just sure how to meter the landscapes for the film I was using.

This is not what I’ve come to expect from most of the landscapes I’ve photographed over the years.

Being so high up, I´d expected to feel cold, yet strangely I didn’t - even though I got caught out. Like a mouth that has gone numb and un-cooperative after a visit to the dentist, so I found my hands unable to operate my camera after being outside for more than half an hour in the dawn light.

As for my most lasting impression, well I must say that I tried one day to walk on the vast salt plain for as long as I could with my eyes completely closed. It didn’t take long for my mind to concoct imaginary obstacles in my path and I had to fight my instincts, which kept screaming at me to open my eyes. When I did, I was greeted with the unchanged, vast emptiness of the Salar and a feeling that I had been tricked. By my own mind of course.

Perhaps this was the Bolivian Altiplanos parting gift to me - a lesson that most limitations in my life come from within rather than from without.

Easter Island

I lost all sense of context whilst on Easter Island. In this podcast, I explain how easy it is to lose your point of reference in a new land. In this case, I found that after a few days on Easter Island, I felt like I'd always been there. Home felt like it had never existed.

I sometimes find I lose all sense of context when I'm somewhere remote, making photographs.

I'm just not sure if that's a good thing or not.

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Patagonian Ice Field

Going to extreme lengths to get a shot of Cerro Torre, I ventured onto the southern Patagonian ice field. In this podcast, I explain why sometimes, I go too far in the pursuit of an image.

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Lost in Norway

Depriving myself of sleep, I spent most evenings 'lost in the moment' above the arctic circle in Norway's Lofoten Islands. In this podcast, I explain why it's possible to go slightly mad in the pursuit of photography.

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Scotland - on landscape photography

What does landscape photography mean to you? Is it a verbatim recording of a scene, captured for posterity, or is it something more? In this podcast, I use a few select images from my Scotland landscapes to illustrate what landscapes mean to me, and why I chose to shoot them the way I did.

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Cambodia's People

Looking for inspiration, I found it in the warmth and friendlyness of the Cambodian people. This Podcast deals with capturing images of people. I use five images from my Cambodian portfolio as examples and dissect them. There is less focus on the gear involved, because quite frankly, it makes very little difference. I try to show you why each photo (for me) works.

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Lost in Iceland

Wandering the Icelandic landscape during the nocturnal hours led me to understand what a wilderness landscape really is. If you want an insight into the thoughts and feelings I had whilst in Iceland making images, then I'm pleased to tell you that i have just completed a new podcast about it.

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My podcast is now being published in iTunes, so if you have an iPod and iTunes, then you can subscribe to my podcast series by going here.

Future Podcasts - what would you like to see?

I'm currently working on some further podcasts. In the pipeline as I type, I have one on my experiences whilst shooting in Iceland. And I'm also putting together one focusing on the aesthetic choices, and thought processes I go through whilst shooting portraiture in Cambodia. But perhaps there's something in particular you'd like me to cover? If so, Let me know.

Torres del Paine NP, Patagonia

A photographic Journey through one of Patagonia's spectacular national parks. I thought it would be a great idea to put a podcast together with my thoughts on photography. I've just completed my first 'episode'. This one is about Patagonia. I should stress that I use the term 'episode' loosely, as I currently have 'tentative' plans to produce some more.

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I just bought a whole pile of audio recording gear - a neat flash recorder, and a couple of microphones. I have a background in post audio production so this is nothing new for me. But what is new, is combining audio and dialog with my photography.

My intention is that when I travel in future, I will record the surrounding places, whether it is the windswept pampas of Patagonia, or people praying in some east Asian temple somewhere. My hope is that I can produce further podcasts about my trips, which should be richer than this podcast as I didn't have any source material to use.

Should you wish to subscribe to the podcast, you can do so via any of these feeds:

My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-c4762b09cb54f070c0e25c0cbdeaa9ac}

My iTunes feed!

I hope you enjoy it, and perhaps I'll get my act together and start to produce some more.