“It comes down to risk, again and again. If you risk coming out, if you risk making pictures that aren’t good, you might discover something in a photograph that is the key. The very doorway to your own interest.”

- Joel Meyerowitz

“Style has no formula, but it has a secret key. It is the extension of your personality. The summation of this indefinable net of your feeling, knowledge and experience. Take colour as a totality of relations within a frame…colour is joy. One does not think joy. One is carried by it.”

-Ernst Haas – Colour Photography

Here’s a really interesting interview between Aidan Sullivan of Getty Images and Ernst Haas’s son, Alex Haas. Well worth a listen…

Hong Kong residents and tourists walk past the famous Hong Kong skyline. 2008

This weekend I head south to the amazing city of Hong Kong! It’s my first serious travel of the year and I’m looking forward to getting away from the bitter cold of Beijing, for the warmer climes of the South China Sea.

I last went to Hong Kong in 2008 and was really blown away by the energy of the city and the mix of east and west. As a former British colony, it still has many British influences, which obviously make me feel at home being a Brit myself.

I shall be speaking at the University of Hong Kong during my time in the city, dropping in to give a presentation to some of the students there. I’ll also be shooting around the city, adding some images to the National Geographic Image Collection hopefully. So, I have a few days to wander around the city and try to capture that energy which captivated me last time. Will try to post updates during my week.

If you have visited Hong Kong before and have some reccomendations of places that MUST be photographed, please do let me know. Happy to hear suggestions!

Asia Society - Giant Pandas

Last week saw a couple of interesting publications online that I wanted to share here. They are quite contrasting but are linked by their ties to environmental issues in China, which as readers of this blog will know, is a subject that I specialise in covering here in Asia.

The first is from the Asia Society who did an interview with me about the current state of Giant Panda populations in the wild in China. I really like collaborating with the Asia Society as they are very much dedicated to covering environmental issues and highlighting under-reported stories in the region. You can also view the 7-part Multimedia series on China’s Wetlands here that I produced with them and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting at the end of 2011.

Foreign Policy Magazine - The Smog That Ate Beijing

The second publication online was with Foreign Policy Magazine who published a series of images on the subject matter of Beijing air pollution, titled The Smog that Ate Beijing. At the end of last week I published a post with some extra images from this shoot and also some thoughts into how I made the images. That post was titled ‘Behind the Smog That Ate Beijing’ and you can view that here.

Happy browsing!

“If you say you really want my job, okay, here’s the deal. There are no more hobbies, no more fun. You can have fun doing the work, but you have to be completely obsessed with it. I think 99% of the people think that professional photography is travel and adventure, and they forget that photography is very, very hard work. You’re “on” all the time. When you go out the door to take pictures, nobody cares about any of the excuses about bad weather or logistics, or how the authorities wouldn’t let you do your job. All that matters is what the photos say, how much money the magazine spent on that time, and whether or not it’s a successful coverage. Most people don’t really want that.”

- Michael Nichols / National Geographic

Check out more from Michael Nichols in this fascinating video how he made his famous tree image for National Geographic…

A view of air pollution over the CCTV building in Beijing, China. Wednesday January 18th 2012

I got a call on Wednesday from Foreign Policy magazine asking me to do a quick 1 day assignment. The brief? To travel around Beijing and capture the dense layer of smog that was sitting on top of the city. Beijingers and visitors will be all too familiar with this ‘fog’ which regularly descends upon the city. The story was published yesterday online and has become one of the most popular stories on the FP site (view here). I thought I would include here on the blog, a few shots that didn’t make the final cut and explain some of the challenges in photographing air pollution.

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For regular readers who have stopped by over the past few weeks, I must apologise for the lack of posts recently. The past couple of months were busier than I expected and blogging kept getting pushed back further and further down my list of things ‘to do’. Needless to say, I am back and will endeavor to post as regularly as possible in the new year. This is a new year’s resolution at the top of my list!

First up is an interview that I did for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting recently, talking about my project from last summer on ‘China’s Fragile Forests’, looking at the current threats to China’s Forests. I hope it gives you some insights into my project and how I approached it. Stay tuned for more updates on this project in the new year!

Participants of Diwali celebrations in Trafalgar Square. London. UK. 2004.

A very quick post to wish all my friends a very happy Diwali, should you be celebrating this amazing ‘festival of lights’ where you are in the world.

The above image was taken in Trafalgar Square, London, during celebrations in 2004. I am sure London will be awash with colours again, as will all those places throughout the world that are marking this very special occasion. Get your cameras out. It’s a great festival to photograph!

During my time speaking at universities and schools across China and in the US, I am often asked how I find stories to work on. I thought it was time I jotted down a few of these ideas here on the blog and incorporate them into my new Learning Zone which will be a hub for more informational posts aimed and helping readers here get a little bit more of an insight into professional photography and journalism.

So, to start with, here are 5 tips for finding great stories from a photography/journalism perspective:

1. Go Local – You don’t need to travel half way across the world to find a great story. Look in your backyard and you will find many great leads and potential subjects. If you are interested in a larger issue, look for one or two people in your local community who represent that issue and tell the story through them. Perhaps the story is health related and you are interested in doing a piece about rising national levels of heart disease. It shouldn’t take you too long to find someone in your community who is affected. Tell the story though individuals on a local level, to represent the bigger picture.

Struggling for Ideas?

2. Read, Read, Read – One of the best things you can do, whether you are working on a story at a local, national, or even international level, is to read. Whether you are consuming your news through the printed press or online, you can immediately gauge what people are talking about by being aware of what if being printed in the news. Keep tabs on story/subject trending and write down/bookmark ideas, or cut out articles to help you remember potential story ideas. Don’t just read the news though. Great stories can be found by breaking out of your comfort zone and consuming new magazine articles, scientific journals and novels.

3. Stay Connected – Your contacts and connections, on a personal and/or professional level, can prove to be an invaluable source of ideas. These connections do not have to be photography/journalism related. Talk to people in the community you are working in and listen to what they have to say. Are there any recent events, activities, incidents etc., that might relate to an interesting story? Are people talking about issues that haven’t appeared in the press recently? You can get many great ideas just from listening to what’s happening on the ground. Be personable. Make friends. Keep connected.

4. Get Inspired – Don’t lock yourself away in the world of photography and journalism. Break out and immerse yourself in the worlds of film, music, art and science. Get out of your comfort zone again and explore and discover new ways of storytelling through watching movies, listening to great music, taking in an art or science exhibit at the local museum or gallery. Search for new ways to be inspired and it will directly filter back into your photography and/or writing.

5. Look in the Mirror – What do I really care about? This is one of the first questions you should ask yourself. Find a subject matter that you are genuinely passionate about, or interested in. Perhaps the subject matter is directly related to your life experiences, or connected to an interest you have outside the world of photography and journalism. Avoid choosing subject matters that you believe others will take you seriously for, should you cover it. The best work comes from working on subject matter that you genuinely care about and you will put in the extra effort for.

What has worked for you? Please feel free to share your story-finding ideas below!

<<Return to the Learning Zone

Is this the most beautiful timelapse ever? Quite possibly. Just watch…