November 2020

SOCIAL MANIA – ORWELL - CYCLING ACROSS LAOS – SMART RANGERS – FILM PHOTOGRAPHY IN 2020?

 Social media

I’m still struggling with my determination not to be dictated to by social media. The reality though, is that sharing my stories, images and thoughts with you all is a big part of why I do the things I do, and what gives meaning to my photography. There is no point to documenting my life, only to lock the book away in a box under my bed.

 I am a storyteller, we are all storytellers, we cannot not communicate. Even my attempts at not communicating on social media, is an attempt at communicating that fact …. on social media! Actually, its really not at all the communication that’s the problem for me, it’s the knowledge that every line we write, item we click, photo we post, page we view is been collected and sold to the highest bidder, a bidder whose motives, values and purpose is largely unknown to us, except for one sure thing, the exploitation of who we are and what we think. 

 So I decide to print out a book instead, there, that’s content definitely off the grid right?..... except for my 360 revolving online subscription of Photoshop, Lightroom, and InDesign, a trail of YouTube how to tutorials, a series of email exchanges to the printer followed by an online transfer of files via my Dropbox account and an online payment transaction, followed by a thank you post to me from the printers, on their Facebook page!   

 Ok so how about I get off Facebook and Instagram for a while and focus rather on a website, that’s it! That will keep me off the mainstream social media, so I redesign my website to accommodate more regular and varied content and create a subscribe button which I share with you all on Facebook, subjecting everyone I know to have to decide if what you really need in your life is yet another request to click, like or subscribe, and the boomerang of hypocrisy once again fly’s around the corner only to hit me squarely on the back of the head. 

 Aggghhh, can’t live with it, can’t live without it. In my book review of George Orwells novel; Keep the Aspidistra Flying this month, I see the harsh reality of fighting against something that mainstream society has openly embraced. Of course you can do it, and many do, but few can avoid the loneliness that comes from being the only person in the room who is “right”. 

 There must be way, a path down the center, or to the left a little, then to the right, but until then, we

 Like, 

Comment, 

Click,

Subscribe, 

and let the algorithm report that, at the very least, we’re still alive.

 Cycle trip across Lao

My cycle across Lao continued on through much of this month ending near the Cambodia Lao border 18 days after starting at the China Lao border in October. Covering a distance of a little over 1,700 km in 16 days of actual cycling, it was wonderful to be out of the city, the office and the routine of everyday life. Reduced to a single purpose, one backpack and a bike, life can be very uncomplicated indeed.

Riding across the country in such a short time frame really highlighted the uniqueness of the various regions, mostly sampled through my interactions with the locals, especially the kids along the route. The outcome of COVID travel restrictions imposed around the world were evident across the country with most of the guest houses closed up and needing to be opened specially for me. 

 Southern Cross, my custom bike built for me by David Mercer proved herself perfect for a trip of this nature. By the time I reached Hiem town after a few days riding, I had reduced my kit to only the bare essentials, making my kit light enough to just enjoy the actual cycling. 

 I need to put my thoughts down and go through all my photos of the trip, sorting through 1,000’s of mostly bike selfies! Although I have riden in a few countries now, this is only my second actual crossing of a country by bike, but what counties! Bhutan and Laos! Can hardly wait for the next…….. 

 Ranger training 

The remainder of the month was taken up with forest ranger training in Thakhet, a town I had just cycled through on my bike trip across Laos. The Rangers and management team are responsible for managing Khounxe Nongma Provincial Protected Area in the central Annamite range of mountains separating Vietnam from Laos, an area of high biodiversity in the region.

Training involved field navigation using maps and GPS, recording patrol tacks and observations and collecting information of incidents encountered while on patrol. This information is then all downloaded into a software program called SMART, where the PA management team can analyze the data, and generate patrol reports and maps depicting the location and distribution of these key observations. Its an incredibly useful tool as it immediately highlights the; what, where, when of snares, hunting camps, people arrested, ranger patrol efforts, both spatially and graphically. 

I love this kind of work, always so inspiring to work with rangers in Lao. While their capacity may be low, they are hungry for knowledge and quick to learn, and as a result, any positive input results in immediate improvement in terms of protection of these areas.

 Photography

Life on the street - Thaket Laos (Ilford HP5 - Canon EOS 1N)

Coming back from my cycle trip across Laos, I sent in a batch of film shot during the past month to be developed by our local “garage” film developers, young Lao hipsters who have developed a passion for film.  So great to have these guys operating here in Lao, otherwise I would have to stop shooting till after COVID has come under control and I can once again travel regularly to Bangkok.

 Every time I see the results of one of my rolls of developed film for the first time, I experience a sense of disappointment and even frustration at why I am bothering with film at all. Visible grain, strange color profiles, artifacts, scratches and dust on the image, and more than a handful of frames out of focus thanks to poor technique on my part. But then after a second look and some reflection, a handful of images start to grow on me, and by the end of the process, I am in love with them. I load another roll of ILFORD HP5, KODAK POTRA 160 or KODAK EKTAR 100 into one of my 20+ year-old film cameras, closing the film door with a satisfying clunk. 

 “This roll will be different” I tell myself, “Better, for sure!”.

Low Tech?

Some thoughts and feedback on the "low tech" aspects of my 2015 Year end cycle - Paksan to Oudomxay.

View fullsize

CAMERA V PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT

I only took my Olympus OM-EM1 mirrorless camera and a single fixed focus 34mm (full frame equivalent) lens. I really struggled with this decision, and was expecting to be often frustrated at not having a wider range. Normally, I would take a 24 – 90 zoom, as well as a 35mm, 50mm and maybe the 90mm primes.

I was so wrong.

I can only think of three occasions during the trip (video and stills) when I wished that I had a longer lens, that’s 8 days of traveling and shooting landscape, street, portrait, video, all the time. The freedom I discovered at NOT having a choice was as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders and my entire attitude towards filming and shooting along the route was light and uncomplicated. I never realised just how much pressure “choice” can actually exert on creativity, for me anyway.

I’ll still lug around all my cameras and lens with me when weight and space is not an issue, but in certain circumstances, where the journey or the moment is the most important focus, less is certainly a LOT more fun.

I shot 6 hours of awesome GOPRO action video at a useless 12fps because I didn’t check the settings before I left.

Smack!

View fullsize

SMART PHONE V STUPID PHONE 

Before this trip, I bought the cheapest phone I could find and a new sim card to go with it, no camera, internet, Facebook, WhatsApp ….. oh it had a game loaded but I couldn’t figure out how it worked.

For the first day, I kept unlocking the screen to check for…..mm…..for…..well, that’s the thing, there was nothing to check? It felt quite quaint to use the “phone” function, something that had got lost and buried under whatsApp, WeChat, skype, facebook messenger, etc, etc, …….and SMS! Remember that?

Did I miss it at all?

Actually yes, I missed a lot of things, I missed having my music to listen to during the difficult times on the road, I missed having my photos to show and share with local people I met who were interested in my family and work, I missed checking my route on google maps A LOT, I missed the little bits of contact or sharing a trip photo with friends and family, I missed been able to ask people I know or Google for advice about the area, guest houses, best restaurants, symptoms of chest pain directly related to massive cardiac failure.

Was it a bad thing?

I don’t actually think so. I found out again that I have the same iTunes playlist of songs inside my head, but with superior earphones and that it’s also set to random, playing songs that I love one moment, and songs that I really am totally going to delete when I get the time, on the other.  I had to describe people and places more than show, which made me think a bit more about the people I care about and focus more on the people doing the asking. I actually looked at my paper map and wrote down the names of the towns I would be passing through. I had to take my chances on whether or not the towns I passed through would have food, accommodation or shops and got surprised by some and disappointed by others.

But the major difference was that I wrote, actual real pen and paper writing. I wrote during coffee at breakfast and during a beer in the evening and before I went to sleep and once in the middle of the night. I wrote slowly and thoughtfully and at times and wildly and passionately sometimes near the end of a beer or two. I wrote on a plane, in a bus, on a tuk tuk, on a chair in a bed with a really sore head. You get the point.

After 8 days, without charging, the cell phone had only lost 25% of its charge……. now that is hilarious!

Facebook V Inside my own head?

Concerning Facebook, and here’s the thing, I realised again during the trip that only one half of the joy and fun and challenge that these trips or experiences bring me are for my own personal benefit, the other 50% is in sharing that experience with all of you. In some ways, it’s as if I have an obligation to scrounge through the garbage of reality to find the small precious or semi-precious stones that are always lurking there somewhere within every situation, usually under the wet fish, which is my attitude and then share them with you. So I probably will continue to share photos on Facebook and make out as if I am a hero, but maybe I need to add more whotos (word photos), wordscapes and pentraits along with the images…..but would anyone even bother to read beyond line 3? I usually stop reading after I see “click for more” 

View fullsize

E-READER V BOOK

This is the one bit of technology I don’t mind defending. As many books as you like, crammed into a space the same size as an old square “Archie” comic, but lighter, with the ability to crank up the font size to granny mode without anyone even been aware of it and to top it all, a battery life that will outlast “The cruel sea”. 

Win, win and win again.