However this weird cacophony was strangely welcoming. It heralded the beginning of one of those memorable days where light, opportunity, location and intent fuse to deliver a rich tapestry of photographic images.

Or at least it did for most of the Karl Grobl’s Vietnam Photo group discovering the hidden pleasures of Northern Vietnam. I on the other hand seemed to be a bit slow to find my groove! The market was so busy that it was difficult to get “clean” shots with out the eponymous blue tarpaulin ruining it!

Karl Grobl – with whom I run the Angkor Photo workshops in Cambodia – had kindly invited me along to join his group for a few days, to shoot some promotional video and still images. For those of you that don’t know Karl I urge you to check out his blog and the highly sought after tours he runs with his business partner, Jim Cline. They are in a class of their own partly because of the detail and planning that makes them work without a hitch, but mainly because of the attention, teaching and mentoring that Karl lavishes on his clients leading to a 70% return rate. So book early!

Anyway, back to Bac Ha. Today was the main weekly market where the Black Hmong and Flower Hmong tribes descend from the local villages to sell their wares, buy supplies and socialize – all of which culminates in a large and chaotic market that is part soup canteen, part meat market, part vegetables market and part an opportunity to chat and gossip. Young women wear their finest clothes because this is also an additional opportunity to meet potential husbands ahead of the annual “Love Market ” that happens around Lunar New Year – or Tet.

The advantage of the pre-dawn awakening quickly became evident. The golden morning light streaming through the huddled stalls, backlighting the steam from giant woks or creating warm portrait light was just stunning, and when mixed with the colorful traditional dress of the Hmong tribes it was so full of opportunity it was almost difficult to concentrate. The other advantage of Ho Chi Minh’ successors acting as our alarm clock, was that we had the place to ourselves before the market became overwhelmed by the crowds of tourists that descend weekly from nearby Sana.

As a contrast to the chaos and clutter of the morning market, we then headed off to the local village of Trung Do – a small farming community framed by a river on one side and every else by the pervasive green rice paddies so typical of this region. A village full of smiling faces, Vietnamese “Nun” (conical hats) and despite the harsh midday light, we discovered the perfect diffused portrait light when we entered their homes. It was too good an opportunity to miss!

As a result, Karl and I led an impromptu portrait master class on the direction and quality of light, catchlights and reflectors using in one instance one of the children’s large art papers and in another case a giant saucepan lid as our reflector – which seemed to entertain the locals far more than we intended. On the left is an image that Karl set up that I took with my 85mm f1.2 lens – an incredibly difficult lens to master due to its very narrow depth of field and more often than not I find that one eye is in focus and the other is not – but absolutely perfect for this type of light an image.

As the outside temperature made conditions a little “sticky”, we boarded long boats for a 30 min ride up the river to a wonderful lunch of rice noodles and the bus back to Lao Cai. In Lao Cai after a much needed shower and rest, we boarded the night train to Hanoi, where with heads full of sun and fresh air, we were asleep before our heads even touched the pillows!

Please check out the full set of images on the Marco Ryan Photography Facebook page (and make sure you click “like”!)

I was invited to Thailand to take the photos at the “British Polo Day – Thailand” event – a celebration of some great British brands mixed with the ritzy and fascinating sport of Polo. The event was held at the Thai Polo and Equestrian Club, and was sponsored by Landrover, Burberrys, Coutts, Barbour and a host of other famous UK brands. With the cream of Thai Society, a Burberry’s fashion shoot, and matches between the Thai Polo Club, Oxford University and The British Army, this was a day with real promise.

Photographically Polo matches are rich tapestries: they are full of dramatic sporting action, beautiful celebrities and high fashion and thus are a perfect place for some candid portraits as well as wonderful and evocative images that capture the exclusivity of the day.

I am not – nor I suspect will I ever be a sports photographer – but I relished the opportunity to try something new, to push my own limitations and see whether I could change from travel reportage to sports event photographer in a day.

With so much going on, so many wonderful opportunities to capture people at play, I had to focus solely on the Polo. Or rather focus mainly on the polo. As you will see some of the distractions were difficult to ignore!

Photographing Polo requires an investment in some serious gear. The action happens quickly and usually on the side of the pitch furthest from where you are standing – which makes it impossible to follow everything. Secondly the ideal lens is a large telephoto – ideally a fast prime lens – to give you the flexibility to capture the moments whenever and wherever they happen.

Nikon Professional Services had very kindly lent me a Nikon D3S and their superb 400mm VR f2.8 lens – without which, to be honest, the players would have look like distant specs. Combined with a monopod this was a wonderful lens to use – it focused at blistering fast speed and when using the Nikon D3s continuous tracking auto-focus mode, produced some tack sharp images.

But working with the Nikon camera for only the second time in my life was a challenge. Learning its different exposure, metering and autofocusing capabilities meant I was learning on the job. Although an easy camera to use, the intuitive familiarity that I have built up with my Canon cameras was missing. A couple of times I had to lift my eye away from the viewfinder to check controls or settings, risking not being ready for a “decisive moment” that was guaranteed to happen in front of me when I was least prepared.

It is a tough sport to shoot. My images I don’t feel really do it justice. It is so fast and furious, with the horses turning on a dime, the action charging from one end of the pitch or from one side to the other in a matter of seconds that although I could move up or down the side of the pitch freely, I found it was better to stay in one spot and then follow the action.

Anticipation is everything and as you become more familiar with the game, the light on the day, the standard of the players and thus the speed at which each of the chukka’s is progressing, so it becomes easier – though never easy – to get a few good shots. This is my second attempt at shooting Polo, and each time I have learned huge amount, that I know when I shoot the next match – because I very lucky to have been invited to do so next year in Singapore, Jodhpur and Bangkok – that I will be able to be more creative as the combination of familiarity with the camera and Polo increases.

Anyway here is a selection of images from the day. Let me know what you think! You can check out the full set on my Facebook page

I was surprised – yet delighted – therefore to be asked to review his latest eBook, because he is someone that I hold in very high regard. Before I share with you that review, it needs to be put in context of the man himself.

Mitchell K to me is probably one of the world’s most talented – and certainly one of the world’s most focused – travel photographers. This isn’t just hyperbole. He is lauded by his peers, by editors and by image libraries and you just have to look at his work to see his talent, his focus and his style – a style that is instantly recognizable and has made him so much in demand.

That style is very much Chiaroscuro – literally LightDark – the technique used by Caravaggio, Rubens, Rembrandt and others that used light to shape the contrast and tone in an image to provide a three dimensional frame for a subject. Mitchell uses this Chiaroscuro effect to provide both a simplicity yet depth to each of his images. In the “Rabari – Encounters with the nomadic tribe” eBook this is immediately apparent. Yet as many great experts can and do, Mitchell always makes this appears effortless – almost simple. TO me this demonstrates true mastery and in this particular case tremendous luck for all of us, because Mitchell has lifte the lid on how he achieved these breathtaking images.

Mitchell has been incredibly generous in recent years in sharing some of that expertise in a series of eBooks and I would encourage you to look at them all. But in particular I would encourage you to look at his latest, “Rabari – Encounters with the nomadic tribe” partly because it was the project that really “launched” his career, but mainly for the detailed technical insights he provides into his style of photography.

The eBook is made up of 10 images from his 4 month documentary of the extraordinary Rabadi tribe. Each image is displayed in full with its exif data. Then over the subsequent pages, Mitchell describes the background story to the image; his objective; the lighting conditions often with small schematics to show you his technique. Furthermore there is then a series of thumbnails showing you the other images in the sequence, which help you understand botht he composition and why he selected the final images for processing.

Mitchell shares with us the insight behind the moment and pose, the challenges he faced and how he overcame them. Lastly, he then talks about how he processed the image and brings it to life. If all of that was not enough, there are some quick tips about how you can apply these learning’s to your own image.

This is a great eBook on so many levels. Not only is it bursting with beautiful images, but the layout and flow of the book makes it highly readable. Mitchell’s accompanying text is both straight forward and unpretentious which only adds to the quality of it.

It is very rare that a photographer of such repute and standing should open himself up and share not only what he was thinking about but the tips and techniques he used to capture the image. It provides a fertile ground for study for all of us whom aspire to be able to shoot such compelling images.

This is treasure trove of insight and tips for anyone that likes to take compelling travel images, so if you are serious about your travel photography then you need to buy this eBook now through Lightstalking.com. In fact even if you are not a travel photographer, you should buy the eBook – the images alone are worth the tiny investment.

We are delighted to announce the dates for our Spring courses which cover everything form getting the most out o your digital camera to advanced post processing techniques using Adobe Lightroom. Click on the links below to find out the detailed information on each of the courses.

Beginners Course – Getting the most out of your Digital SLR

26th Feb 2012

The Beginners’ course serves as a great introduction to photography. We look at the basic principles involved in capturing an image and learn how the camera interprets what it sees. The course has a very practical bias and our aim is to translate the technical aspects of photography into real-life examples, demonstrating how you can take creative control of your camera’s functions. Find out more

Travel Photography Course – Turning snapshots into great shots

5th & 12th Feb 2012

With such an abundance of amazing travel locations just a short hop from Singapore, this course is deigned to help you get the most from your travel in the region. Whether your interest is street photography, portrait photography, cultural photography, story telling or just getting more from your camera when you travel, this course will provide you all of the answers. Find out more

Adobe Lightroom Course – Cataloguing, processing and sharing your images

11th Mar & 8th Apr 2012

Adobe’s Lightroom software has become the post-production software of choice for many amateur and professional photographers. Version 4, continues to innovate and makes Lightroom the one-stop solution for post-production. This introductory course provides a step-by-step guide to archiving, managing and processing your digital images. Find out more

Check-in at the Sofitel's Opera wing of Hotel Metropole, Hanoi Vietnam

Hotels – especially luxury hotels such as the Metropole – differentiate themselves on service because most hotels in this price range have similar facilities. The rooms are luxurious, elegant and fitted with every convenience. There are a couple of restaurants, one often with a famous chef, there is a famous bar or lounge and an elegant Spa. The Metropole has all of these and I can particularly endorse the Spa (ask for Miss Ha).

This all comes at a price of course- one that most of us think is fair otherwise we wouldn’t stay there. But if a hotel charges these premium prices then the service needs to live up to the same exacting standards. Everyone told me that the service at the Metropole was legendary.

Sadly it is not.

It is not that the local staff are not delightful – always smiling, always willing and always very smart in their elegant uniforms. It is just that the standards are not consistent. And at this level – and at this price – they should be. The staff – and of course, the guests – deserve better from the Metropole’s management.

I might be being über-critical but as someone that has spent over 200 nights a year in hotels for the last 10 years, I do understand what good service can mean to the customer experience. More than that, I also do mystery reviews for a leading luxury hotel chain, represented a luxury hotel chain in the middle east, am building a luxury hotel and spa in Italy and my day job at Accenture is all about Improving Customer Experience, so my comments come with some objectivity.

So for me the real differentiator is not how good the service is, but how that service makes you feel. Great Hotels realize this which is why hotel branding and marketing is so much more than a website, a glossy brochure or a fancy room. greta Hotels focus on making the hotel a destination, an experience in itself using their staff, customer service and their amenities as the tools by which we experience that brand.

Done right, it drives the bottom line because a great customer experience creates an emotional connection. We are most passionate, most willing to share when we feel good about somehting. This advocacy is marketing nectar. It cannot be bought and thus the resulting independent reviews, repeat business and that elusive “word of mouth” recommendation start to create the differentiation that the Hotel was seeking in the first place.

So what went wrong at the Metropole because I had received a number of recommendations exotlling the hotel and its service?

Well, the checkout experience was one of the most confusing, poorly explained and burdensome I’ve had in many years. Even getting American Express Centurion Services on the phone didn’t seem to help. The receptionist was flustered, unable to explain the process and even the duty manager was confused. It took nearly 30 minutes.

In the brasserie restaurant you would often have to ask 2-3 times for something and on most occasions there was an error with the order. Nothing major but it was systemic.

On several occasions the turndown service for the room in the evening didn’t happen. Not that I needed it but again it is more an indication that the training and the management are not as good as they should be. In particular the F&B manager and the Head Housekeeper need to review some of their processes and training.

Mistakes happen. People have good days and bad days. We all understand that and make allowances for it. But a hotel is designed to be efficient and to “work” when it is at full occupancy, not just the low season. A brand such as Sofitel – particularly its luxury Legend hotels – cannot afford to get the basics so wrong.

I don’t think the Metropole has it right yet. Overall I loved the building. I loved most of the staff. I loved the Spa and the food was excellent. But the management needs to be less complacent, more focus on driving for perfection, have a greater attention to detail and deliver that rare yet critical and still lacking component…consistency.

I do however just want to share with you a few of the images from todays shoot around the old quarter of Hanoi with Luong Giang and Nguyen Thu Quynh – two charming vietnamese girls that I had met through another photographer and who wanted some pictures of themselves taken in the vietnamese traditional dress of Ao Dai and the Non hat.

It was really a blast. I haven’t laughed so much in ages. I met up with the translator Nic, whose girlfriend was Luong Giang (not his sister…I was right to be suspicious on that one!) and one of her friends, Quynh, to take a few shots of the girls around the Old Quarter of Hanoi. They wanted to practice posing for the camera and I was happy to provide the means.

We just laughed and played about in the freezing temperatures, stopping for occasional “thermal pauses” – a quick 5 minutes in the car with the heating turned on for the girls to defrost – before heading back out to continue the shoot.

Anyway I thought I would share some of the images. As I say, nothing prize winning, but just a really fun day of messing about with some cameras, reflectors and even some off-camera flash.

And who could possibly object to spending the day with two such entertaining and charming young Vietnamese ladies!

The full set of images will be uploaded into the portfolio section over the next few days!

When I usually go out on my own with no specific brief I always do an exercise for a few minutes. Not the bend and touch your toes variety which would surely have looked incongruous but a”dust off the cobwebs” type of exercise. I normally pick a subject – it can be a color or a theme such as children , bicycles, fruit, flowers etc. I then give myself 5 or 10 minutes to shoot only that subject. It makes me focus; to really look for patterns, colors, pattens and shapes. Todays theme was actually a technique. I wedged myself inside the old Southern gate, braving the mad moped riders who seem to think I was a legitimate target and just practiced at panning.

After this I wandered off down a tiny side street when, passing a small temple, I heard chanting, clapping and yelling. I peered around the corner to see a staircase festooned with shoes and, gingerly putting my head through the door at the top, I came across this tiny temple bursting with people. In the corner were three musicians on traditional instruments producing a beautiful melodic chant like sound and in the centre was a young woman, whirling and yelling as the crowd clapped her on. I was immediately invited in and found a place to watch.

To the uninitiated it was a cross between whirling dervishes, an informal exorcism and pass the parcel. this was Hanoi’s way of rewarding me for my perseverance. It transpired that I had found Vietnam’s version of the bridal shower.

The young woman in the centre, dressed in a beautiful ornate traditional gown and headdress was wheeling and turning – throwing out small denomination bank notes to the ever appreciative audience.

I desperately wanted to capture some of this maggie but the light was terrible and even with my ISO at 3200 and a fast lens, I was getting sub 1/15 of a second if I was lucky. Furthermore, The place was so packed that I really could do nothing other than watch as my cameras would definitely have intruded. But again Hanoi surprised me.

A lady – who turned out to be the bride’s cousin – grabbed me by the arm in a vulcan death grip and marched me towards the door. Embarrassed that I had blundered carelessly into some ritual, I was making my apologies when she passed by the door and, shooing the bride’s family to one side, pushed me down to the very front on the left hand side.

Whilst this got me incredibly close it also put me right behind one of the main actors in this elaborate theatre and made it almost impossible to get a clear shot of the bride to be. Over the course of about an hour the bride changed – or rather was helped into – a variety of vibrant traditional costumes. With each new get up she would light joysticks or small wooden candles and then resume her whirling and whooping.

Other times the whirling and whopping would be accompanied by the handout of cash, which got ever more generous as the event went on. Despite my best efforts to try and not be in line for any free donations, and not wishing to offend by returning any that were given to me, I am ashamed to say I actually came out of the whole event $15 the richer!

It was an extraordinary 90 minutes and a tremedous privilege to witness everything at first hand; to be allowed to shoot some videos and some images and to have seen the real Hanoi up close and personal.

Whilst the conditions mean that the images are grainy and focusing was a challenge, for once the images were of secondary importance. I shall remember the joy, music and laughter that Hanoi’s Old quarter surprised me with for many years to come.

I remembered reading a great post by Gavin Gough about “Chasing his mojo” in Hanoi’s old quarter a year or so back and a city that could offer me a chance to re-find mine – to reconnect photographically – was an exciting prospect.

Granted it is winter here and “Tet” and so the city might not proffer some of the photographic treats it has shared with others so readily, but I was very surprised.

Hanoi is no longer a city of bicycles lazily propped up against a fading yellow wall or being ridden by school children wearing the traditional white Ao Dai. Indeed on my walk this morning I counted the bicycles I saw. Four. Hanoi – even its charming old quarter – is a city over-run with new scooters, BMW’s, Range Rover and other luxury cars.

When you do see the charismatic figure of a conical hatted woman shuffling under the weight of their Quang Gang, before you can consider taking a picture, they have stopped, put down their baskets and approached you for $1.

On the first day here I thought that perhaps it was me – that perhaps I had lost my “mojo”. I thought perhaps that I wasn’t slowing down enough or being observant enough. Perhaps I was trying to hard or had too high expectations.

Perhaps. But having now gone out in all weathers (the sun finally broke through after 2 days of cold damp drizzling rain) and all hours, Hanoi’s sold quarter seems all too similar to many other South East Asian cities where the price of advancement has been scarified at the alter of culture.

Has Hanoi’s old quarter lost some of its own Mojo?

Maybe. But scratch the surface a little harder and some of that charm and opportunity can still be found.

Granted it is not as easy as it used to be. Pictures of the wonderful old architecture will have the multiple trailing telephone and electricity hours strung right through the middle of it. But the pople are as charming as ever, the markets as vibrant as ever and the streets as colorful as ever. You just have to watch your backdrop, frame your images more carefully and get in close.

Location

Siem Reap, Cambodia, gateway to the ancient, jungle clad, Khmer temples of Angkor. A bustling vibrant, town, Siem Reap has an energy and vigor that makes it the perfect place for intrepid, photographers to practice and hone their craft. It’s the ideal location for you to be able to concentrate on your photography, and the photographic opportunities of the area are unrivaled. Within close proximity one can explore, temples, markets, lakes, rivers, forests, rice paddies, villages and more.

Instructors

Each of your instructors is in his own right, successful, well known, experienced, photographers who love to teach and share their passion with other photo enthusiasts. They will challenge you and cheer you on. You can check each of them out at:

Activities

Objectives

To enjoy your photography with a group of like-minded individuals, explore, learn, apply and improve. We will help you push the limits of your ability and imagination, and you will leave this workshop a better photographer.

The workshop focus is to push yourself to the limits of your ability and imagination, to have an outstanding and unusual cultural experience and to enjoy and learn from the company of others. Working comfortably in foreign or new locations, particularly in a developing country, can take years of understanding and experience. We hope to jump start you in your environment to enable you to make the most of your location and for you to be able to concentrate on your photography.

Equipment

You’ll need a DSLR, Digital SLR with lenses offering a focal length from wide (24mm or wider) to telephoto (100mm or longer), a laptop or netbook computer running image viewing software such as Breeze Browser, Picasa or Photo Mechanic and an image editing program such as Adobe Photoshop, or a combintation software program such as Lightroom. You will also need a copy of Soundslides software in order to produce your multimedia project (available here www.soundslides.com for $69.95). Additionally we strongly recommend a back-up device such as an external hard drive.

There is detailed information on how to sign up, the itinerary, what to bring at the dedicated Angkor Photo Workshop website

The focus of the exhibition is “Natural Tendencies” – a collection of mediums from sculpture, photography, fine art and silk printing that explore the natural world. There is considerable buzz in the local media about the exhibition and It is great to be included in such a fun and unusual theme.

You can find out about the exhibition, the other artists and information including opening times and directions from their website. Entrance is free and if you are near Henley on Thames do drop in and buy a picture!!