The Dragon's Father

Labrang Monastery at Heihe, Gansu, China. Missed Opportunity ! I had planned to arrive in time for the Monlam Festival - but mixed up my Gregorian and Tibetan calendars and had missed it by two weeks - doh ! I'll return another time for sure. With that initial excitement, and motivation for visiting the monastery, deflated I decided I just wanted to make the best of it - and Labrang was so much fun and so interesting that not once did I feel depressed with my having missed th

Part of a series on Watertowns near Shanghai and Suzhou. Click on the first image above to go through all of the photographs as a gallery - then read the text below :) I'm in the process of photographing 25 of the larger, and most popular, of these unique ancient water-towns, between Shanghai and Suzhou, for a new book to be published later this year (ca. Summer 2026). Therefore I thought I'd make a series of short blog posts to highlight some of these wonderful places, both

Walking along the creek during the blue hour is nothing short of magical, all along the canal are amazing bridges lit with colourful lights.

Guangfulin : Ancient Relics Site. Introduction The archeological site, where Shanghai's earliest-known residents lived some 4,000 years ago, was discovered in 1959. One of the highlights of the park is the main exhibition hall, featuring three museums partially submerged below water (see above). This enormous archaeological park is built around the ancient relics of Songjiang and covers an area of 40 square kms. I've spent many days here but for day-trippers note that even on

How to successfully take photos taken on the move, from a bus, a train or a car. Add 'missed photos' to your travel blog or story.

Plans It is always the same, I decide it's time to plan a trip and so scour the internet to decide on a where and a when. Recently the...

Lasers & Drones on The Bund and Lujiazui, Shanghai, China Sony A7rii and Tamron 70-180/2.8. Shot at f2.8 / 70mm / ISO 1000 / 1/20s Handheld China just loves it's light shows ! It used to be fireworks, spectacular, ridiculously over the top, firework shows. However the avant-garde nature of modern China, and the futuristic city of Shanghai in particular, means they have been replaced by lasers and drones. Unfortunately on this occasion rain poured on the parade (or at least

Kyrgyzstan : the Boz Uchuk Trek out of Jyrgalan. Hiking to Boz Uchuk lakes. Spectacular views, horses, yurts, lakes.

I had decided on not taking a tent, it would be difficult to pitch and add considerably more weight to my already heavy backpack. So just a

The top of one particularly difficult section looking down - looks worse than it was (err maybe not) :)