In 2012, I spent three weeks driving around Sicily with my wife in a rental car. One of my most enjoyable photography trips ever, both as an authentic unspoiled travel destination and also as a rustic, idyllic cornucopia of photographic opportunities. The capital city Palermo is a bit rough around the edges and can be intimidating at first so we saved it for the end of the trip when we hoped to be a bit more “seasoned.” We spent several days wandering the fascinating chaotic narrow streets and crumbling gritty neighborhoods.

At the end of our last day there I passed by a dusty open door and out of the corner of my eye glimpsed an antique-looking guitar hanging on a wall. I was tired after a long day and was on my way back to the hotel so continued on by, but then, being a guitar lover myself, couldn't resist going back for just one more look. It turned out to be a tailor shop, and the tailor sat in a chair in the middle of the room hemming a pair of pants by hand. I nodded and smiled, as did he.

The walls of the shop were hung with a wonderful collection of guitars, mandolins, other musical instruments and memorabilia. The scene I stood in was almost too good to be true, reminding me of a Norman Rockwell painting. I asked if I could take a picture. I didn’t speak Italian and the tailor didn’t speak English but it was quickly established that we both loved guitars. Using my widest lens I was able to fill my frame with his unique shop. He continued to hem the pants as I shot. That image is one of the favorites of my trip, and I’m glad that I decided go back for a second look rather than just continuing on to the hotel.

Last year my sister decided to also visit Sicily. I asked her if she would mind trying to look up the tailor shop and take him an 8x10 print of the image. I spent hours on Google Earth at ground level trying to remember where the shop was. I finally found it and gave my sister the address and the print. She did find the shop but unfortunately it was now boarded up and his neighbors said that after decades there he was in failing health so had retired to his village.

Not the ending I had hoped for but definitely one of my top ten favourite travel memories.

In 2022 I did a trip through the Dodecanese islands of Greece. On Nisiros, one of the quieter islands, I was exploring the narrow white-washed, and mostly deserted passageways of the old town when I emerged into this small square. I smiled a greeting to the old woman and her relaxed posse of eight remarkably similar looking cats. The scene was so random and painterly and balanced that it begged a photo. With my eyebrows, I sought her permision to take a photo  and with a smile she nodded her consent. A totally silent but human connection ending with a smile as I moved on.

Again this is an iPhone shot. This same scene taken with my Nikon professional camera would be higher resolution and contain more image data without a doubt. But it would likely also have attracted more attention and the candid nature of the shot could have evaporated. I find sometimes the ability to grab an image inconspicuously lets you fly under the radar and can be a definite advantage of using the iPhone camera. It's another tool and is sometimes more than adequate for the job.

This was one I took in 2014 near a remote village called Mrauk U in Myanmar (Burma) before the country sank back into dictatorship and civil war. I visited the country a couple of times and it was one of my favourite photographic destinations. I liked this location with the three stupa temples behind and returned a couple times in different light each time working the scene waiting as various people crossed the bridge. This image was taken in the later afternoon and I couldn't believe my luck when it all came together with 3 stupas, 3 nice subjects on the bridge plus the boat entered the scene with 3 guys in it. Patience paid off.

This is a technique that I've developed over the years in order to produce images that on the surface look like great timing and luck. There is that, but there is also a way of assembling the compositional elements to get you there. Number one is to find a killer location and vantage point. The chances of that location having perfect light at the same time as you discover the location are pretty slim, but at least you have the location. Number two is determining the time of day when the lighting will be nicest, in this case dusk. So now you have the perfect location and perfect light. Now, the third and final element is to determine where you want your human (or other) subjects to be and shoot the scene as various subjects populate and pass through your scene.

At the end of the day, you will have several images to choose from, all with different subjects in a great location with perfect light. In the image above I got extra lucky with the boat and the combination of threes but my technique of assembling the composition back to front increases the odds dramatically from just hoping you would grab this shot while walking by.

I suspect the same or similar technique was used by Henri Cartier-Bresson to capture many of his "Decisive Moment" images. Enjoy. :-)

Those of you who have visited Vancouver, British Columbia have probably visited Stanley Park, a huge forested peninsula at the edge of downtown Vancouver. It's a spectacular crown jewel of nature with a perimeter seawall walkway, many forested trails and is close to the hearts of Vancouverites and visitors alike. What many may not know is that over the last few years, a serious lack of normal rainfall and an infestation of a type of Hemlock Looper moth has killed almost a third of the evergreen trees in the park.

 The park has been assessed by arborist experts and a huge logging project is currently underway to remove some 30,000 dead trees. It's definitely a shock to see but there is also reforestation planned though that will obviously take decades to grow.

One secret place within the park forest that I discovered several years ago is a carved tree stump known as the Two Spirit tree. It's a guerrilla artwork by an unknown artist and has likely been there for 30 years or more. So far it doesn't seem to have been affected by the logging going on in the park. After a somewhat rare large snowfall  in Vancouver I thought I'd go back and see how it looked in the snow

The image above was taken in the old town of Split on a trip to Croatia in 2010.

 I was taken with the swimsuit model in the billboard connecting across the courtyard and across the centuries with the Roman emperor Diocletian on the house beyond. Diocletian's palace complex was built in the 4th century and evolved into the medieval city of Split, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

I did my return overland trip from Australia to Europe in 1975 back when you could safely travel through Afghanistan before Taliban times. In the village of Bamiyan there were two massive Buddhas carved into the cliff face dating from the 6th century when the area was Buddhist. At 180 and 120 feet tall they were the largest carvings of standing Buddhas in the world. It was possible to climb through passages within the cliff to emerge on the head of one of the statues to take in the view over the valley below. It was an  amazing Indiana Jones travel experience for me.

In 2001, when the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, they decided that the 1500 year old Buddhas were "unislamic" and to the horror of the world, dynamited both statues until they were completely destroyed. The destruction was apparently a difficult job and took several weeks. This image is a scan of an old 4x6 print. To get a sense of the scale of the Buddha note the two tiny people at the bottom left and bottom right.

This image was taken in Rio de Janeiro on a trip to South America in 2015. As many of the favella neighborhoods were a bit sketchy to wander with expensive camera gear, I hired a local guide to show us the city and keep me out of trouble. Though there is some truly amazing street art throughout South America, in many places it is just a mass of grafitti tagging every available surface. This one caught my eye though and I loved the interplay between the reality of the crunched car and the vivid narrative of the wall beyond.  My guide couldn't comprehend why I was taking a photo of this. No accounting for taste I guess. :-)

I understand that the sign says it's prohibited to leave trash here.

There is always a dilemma regarding whether a photo of somebody elses art constitutes a work of art on the photographer's part. I think to be considered so the photographer should bring something else to the composition rather than just being a record shot of the original art. I really enjoy the creative challenge of using all the elements at hand to add a new perspective to what already exists.

I read a great quote once that said "If you can see, you can take photographs. But learning to see can take a long time."  The journey continues.

Though I had previously visited India and the Taj Mahal in 1975, I had only seen it from the front side where most tourists go. I remember getting quite misty-eyed at the time upon my first glimpse of it while coming through the entrance gate. (My memories of the town of Agra, where it is located, are much less magical.)

In the intervening years, my interest in photography grew, as did my desire to return to photograph India, so in 1987 I returned with my wife. I had seen photos of the Taj taken from across the Yamuna river which provided a nice reflection so was determined to get that shot from the far shore as the sun came up. We made our way from our guesthouse to the Taj before sunrise and then around the back to the river bank.

I was hoping to find a boatman who could ferry me across but unfortunately none was to be found. The river level was extremely low due to severe drought conditions that year. As I waited on the muddy river bank, contemplating my next move, I saw an older Indian man wading across the river. It appeared to be slightly less than waist deep. I thought, if he can do it, then so can I.  I suspected that the river was fairly polluted but didn't learn until afterwards that it is still one of the most toxic rivers in India, which is saying a lot.

My wife, who has steadfastly supported me me through all sorts of sketchy adventures was telling me that I was out of my mind as I headed out across the river with my shorts hiked up, camera bag held over my head, and bare feet squishing into the toxic mud while using my tripod as a walking stick. She waited on the river bank with a couple of young Indian girls who had showed up. You can see her on the 2nd image below.

I had seen a small pagoda-shaped structure on the river bank opposite the Taj that I thought might make a nice frame for my intended image. I survived the river crossing still upright and made my way to the pagoda where I found a friendly young Indian guy sitting watching the sunrise. He watched as I pulled out my camera, set up the tripod, and got ready for my shot as the sun rose. We didn't speak each others language but nevertheless got on well as we sat together. I offered him a stick of chewing gum, to which he remarked "Juicy Fruit!"... humorously reminiscent of that scene with Jack Nicholson and the Chief in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".

My shoot completed, I bid goodbye to my new friend and made my way back across the river to my incredibly patient wife and returned to the guesthouse for a decontaminating long hot shower. The shot was done on Kodachrome 64 as this was still in the days of film, and I would have to wait weeks until I returned home to see how it turned out.

 In the end I felt it one of my best images to date and worth the effort I had gone through to get it.  Even better, the toxic Yamuna crossing left no residual health issues.