Travel photography tours and holidays to Burma, Cambodia, Marrakech & Venice.

Join me on a photography holiday to awe inspiring locations that I have a great working knowledge of, getting you to the best locations at the best time of day for stunning photographs.

The photographs on this blog are from last years photography holiday guests.

Burma I call photographers gold at the moment, a country that is starting to open up to the outside world after years of isolation. My photography tour to the Golden Land is unique as I have secured permits to travel overland between Mandalay and Lake Inle in the Shan State, a truly memorable experience as we travel through different landscapes on the way and getting to places tourism hasn’t hit.

We also travel by train from Bagan to Myingyan on a classic rail journey full of photo opportunities.

From Myingyan we take the ‘road to Mandalay’, made famous by Kipling.

Between Yangon and Bagan we fly as we also do between Lake Inle and Yangon. There is a full itinerary for the Burma photography tour on the website: http://www.digitalphotographyholidays.com

 

Cambodia is one of my favourite places for photography, a place I have been returning to since 1999, since then I have forged very strong friendships with local people and also NGO’s. This photography holiday is not just about photographing the magical temples it is also very much about the people too.

This photography holiday supports organisations that help street kids, disabled people and the rural poor, enabling them to receive education, training and skilled work.

On the photography holiday we spend a day with the floating village community on Tonle Sap lake, which helps to support their community handicrafts project and also the local nature reserve.

At the time of year we visit the water level is 10 – 12 metres above ground level, exposing only the tree canopy above water.

Last years guests in the tree canopy above the swollen Tonle Sap lake. Photo: P Lawson photography.

Release your Indiana Jones as we explore and photograph the magical temples at the best times of day for the best light, beating the crowds, literally having the temples to ourselves for an hour or more every morning.

Further details and full itinerary can be found on the website: www.digitalphotographyholidays.com

Marrakech & Venice photography city break.

I have had the pleasure of photographing in both Marrakech and Venice many times over the last twenty years, this year for the first time I will be leading photography tours to these destinations. Join me as we explore these great short haul destinations for photography.

Full details can be found at www.digitalphotographyholidays.com

I look forward to welcoming you on one of my Digital Photography Holidays, “may the light be with you”.

International Photography Awards 2013, Burma, Angkor Wat & Iris

The International Photography Awards 2013 have just been announced and I received an Honourable mention in 8 categories, which I am really pleased with as there were over 15,000 entries from around the world.

Some of you might have seen my Myanmar (Burma) photographs when they first appeared on the Manfrotto website.

Travel and Tourism category and Fine Art; Landscapes category “Temples of Bagan”

Having first visited Bagan eight years ago, on my return visit in April of this year I had already pre-visualised a series of black and white images of the temples. There are over 4,000 temples on the plains of Bagan and the whole area has an ethereal, timeless feeling and is one of my favourite places on the planet. For the series I converted my images to black & white, then split toned them in Lightroom. It was important to have the same tone in the series as I wanted them to work together. These 3 photographs were the ones I entered.

Myanmar (Burma) “Temples of Bagan”

Myanmar (Burma) Temples of Bagan

Myanmar (Burma) “Temples of Bagan”

Panoramic category “Temples of Bagan”

For this image I wanted to show a panoramic view from one of my favourite temples, from which you get an idea of what the stupa studded landscape looks like.

Myanmar (Burma) “Temples of Bagan” Panoramic

Culture Category “Stonemasons Burma”

In Mandalay there is an area of the city where images of Buddha are carved from rock. I spent a morning in this area photographing the many processes that are undergone to make the statues. The air was filled with rock dust and it was quite oppressive in the searing heat of April in Mandalay. The boy to the left has to stand there applying water to where the man is drilling. This photograph was just one from a whole series shot that morning.

Stonemasons Burma

Fisherman Inle Lake

Lake Inle in the Shan State of Myanmar covers an area of 45 square miles (116 km²) and is at an altitude of 2900 feet, it is home to the leg rowing fisherman. It was my first visit to the lake and it came as a welcome relief to the heat of Mandalay in April as the air was much cooler. I was really taken by the beauty of the place and chartered a boat to take me out for a few days. On my first dawn outing the boat captain drove past this fisherman who was completely oblivious to us. The sun had just appeared over the hills which made for a great silhouette and some warmth after a chilly start. I often see photographs of the Inle Lake fisherman which are over posed, I liked the natural feeling to this shot.

“Lake Inle fisherman”

Travel & Tourism Category; People of Burma

Mandalay U Bein Bridge

Mandalay Stonemasons

Young Monks Nyaung Shwe

Inle lake, Myanmar (Burma)

Trees Category; “Tree Roots; Ta Prohm Temple, Cambodia”

This shot is one from an ongoing project photographing nature`s strength over humankind at the temples of Angkor Wat. The trees roots of this tree are slowly pulling the temple apart returning the stone back to the Earth and creating a new form of beauty.

Tree Roots; Ta Prohm Temple, Cambodia

Flowers category; Iris

This image of the Iris was taken with my 180mm macro lens which is my favourite lens for close up photography. The Iris was slightly back lit from the sun which showed off its translucent petals.

Iris

I am looking forward to returning to Cambodia and Burma this winter as I host travel photography holidays to my favourite locations www.digitalphotographyholidays.com

You can sign up for my free newsletter on the website and be the first to hear of new locations and dates: www.digitalphotographyholidays.com/newsletter

My Travel, Gardens, Plants, Photography Website is www.stephenstuddphotography.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/DigitalPhotographyHolidays and I can be found tweeting from www.twitter.com/StephenPhotos

Thanks for popping by my blog and “may the light be with you”

Behind the Photo; Bagan Temples Sunrise; Burma (Myanmar)

My travel photography holidays feature in the latest edition of Outdoor Photography magazine. I was asked to supply 2 photographs to be included.

I would like to write about the Black and White image as a number of people have commented and asked about it, as it also appeared on the Manfrotto Imagine More article I wrote about Bagan; http://www.manfrottoimaginemore.com/2013/05/14/amazing-myanmar-temples-of-bagan/

Having first visited the temples of Bagan eight years ago, on my recent photo shoot I had envisioned a series of toned black and white images. Bagan has over 4,000 temples of all shapes and sizes dotting the landscape and at dawn there is usually a mist rising around them. The day prior to this shot I had scouted out the vantage point and with my compass, that has travelled the world with me, I knew it would be a good location for sunrise. The next day I arrived in the darkness and set up my camera on its tripod and waited for the scene to appear through the misty dawn light. Bagan has a very ethereal feeling to the place and I wanted to convey this in a series of black and white images. For the series I converted the colour images to B & W in Lightroom and also split toned the image.

Non-photographers can switch off here!

This image was shot at 100 ISO with a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens (at 250mm); f16 at 1.5sec with a Lee Filters ND .6 soft grad and my trusty Manfrotto tripod.

My photography holidays and tours to Burma can be found at: www.digitalphotographyholidays.com