Tokyo photographing the photographers Nijubashi

Photographing the photographers outside the Imperial Palace in Tokyo

It won’t surprise anyone, even those who haven’t been there, to learn that photography is very, very popular in Japan. The stereotype of Japanese tourists shooting everything they see definitely has a grain of truth in it. This has the pleasant side effect of making photography and photographers much less visible here and throughout eastern Asia, which is something of a relief to those of us who are viewed with suspicion in the west when we point a camera at anything.

Tokyo was not quite the Bladerunner city I imagined it to be in my youth, more a very neat and tidy Birmingham, UK, that stretches for as far as the eye can see. It does look good at night though, when everything is illuminated and the neon signs come on and the police wave glowing light sabres to direct the traffic – very cool.

I stayed at the Capital Hotel in Ginza, the downtown district that’s full of snazzy boutiques and luxury goods stores. Getting around Tokyo is easy on the Metro and the city is so massive you’ll need to master it to see anything of it at all.

Image © fotoVoyager 2010. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 2832 x 4256 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D700, ISO 200, 24-70 f2.8 @ 36mm, 1/500 second, f7.1.

Copenhagen Nyhavn neon lights bicycles boats

Bicycles on the dock at Nyhavn, Copenhagen

Of all the places I’ve been, if had to choose a city to live in, it would be Copenhagen. It’s not a spectacular city, there’s no jaw dropping architecture or iconic skyline, no constant churn of commerce, cranes and construction that make some world cities so exciting. But there is a warmth and liveability to the urban environment, a steady even pace of life that seems to be driven by the relative equality of its citizens. The high taxes and strong social fabric create a place where bicycles are the norm and families enjoy the city at night. No doubt a historical homogeneity contributes and that is slowly changing, making the population more diverse and bringing the benefits of other cultures to the – occasionally – insular Danes. No society is perfect of course, there is crime and prejudice, poverty and injustice, but Denmark can rightly be proud of itself as perhaps the least imperfect nation and a model we should all aspire to.

I stayed at the Copenhagen Strand Hotel, just round the corner from where this image was shot. Great location overlooking the harbour with plenty of space in the lobby to build the construction kits from the Lego shop your children will rightly demand as a souvenir of their visit.

Image © fotoVoyager 2011. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 1810 x 2720 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D700, ISO 200, 24-70 f2.8 @ 24mm, 6 seconds, f8.

Sherpa mountaineers at expedition base camp Annapurna Himalaya Nepal

Sherpa mountaineers relaxing in base camp

This is a group of some of the most experienced Himalayan mountaineers in the world. They’ve probably got nearly twenty Everest summits between them, not to mention innumerable other peaks, some much harder and more technical than the ‘Big E’. They are incredible mountain athletes, moving through this high altitude wilderness with an ease and confidence that makes the expeditions that pay these men to risk their lives a success. It’s impossible to climb in these remote landscapes without them or the porters and cooks that do all the hard, back breaking work for too little recognition.

Here, they’re sat in the rocky high camp en-route to Tharpu Chuli, planning the next day’s logistics and how to get their clients safely through treacherous glaciers, across yawning bergschrunds and up the knife edge snow ridges to the summit. They’ll climb it once themselves the day before to set fixed ropes up the route, carrying hundreds of metres of rope and aluminium snow anchors, then do it again the next, guiding their charges to the summit and, most importantly, back down again in one piece. They are the real mountaineers, we are just tourists.

High behind them soars the snow capped spire of Macchapuchare (6993m), or Fish Tail, famously unclimbed to the very summit and now forbidden, a sacred peak watching out over the Annapurnas and Pokhara, respected and admired from afar.

Image © fotoVoyager 2012. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 5574 x 3720 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D800, ISO 100, 24-70 f2.8 @ 29mm, 1/400 second, f8.

orange seller in Thamel Kathmandu Nepal

Orange seller in Kathmandu

If feels like everyone in downtown Kathmandu is striving to get by. People make, sell, repair, buy, paint, sew, trade, carry, deliver and fetch; a few people beg, but not many. Despite being one of the poorest countries in the world, there is an energy to its capital city that refuses to dissipate. The streets are full of men, women and children scraping a living by offering goods like this guy selling oranges in Thamel. Very tasty they were too. Spending money widely and generously with as many small traders as possible is probably the best thing you can do to contribute as a visitor.

This time I stayed at the Summit Hotel, up on the Kopundol Heights overlooking the centre, but I think if I’m going to experience the cognitive dissonance of enjoying a chlorinated swimming pool in the midst of such poverty I’d choose the Hotel Shanker, a former royal palace in Lamizpat that’s much closer to the action.

Image © fotoVoyager 2012. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 5366 x 3870 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D800, ISO 100, 24-70 f2.8 @ 24mm, 1/125 seconds, f5.6.

caravan trailer glowing in camp site night

Camping trailer illuminated in state park, Oregon

This is my friend Bob’s old trailer, an extremely compact camping caravan called a Casita. It’s perfect for one, or a very close couple, so I had to sleep in the tent outside. We were chasing the annular eclipse visible in Northern California in summer 2012, but it was pretty cloudy and we misjudged how far east you had to be to photograph it on the horizon with some landscape for reference, otherwise it’s just a ring of light in a dark sky. Still very cool to witness though and watch the sun make crescent shadows through the trees. I was rather ‘incapacitated’ when I took this series so only a few were in focus or properly exposed. Shooting night time shots requires a deal of discipline and good technique, especially with high resolution DSLRs which tend to be rather unforgiving to your mistakes.

Never having been on a trailer trip in the USA before, the State Park camp grounds were a revelation. Tucked away in quiet locations these sites, often supervised by volunteer guardians who spend the season parked up in huge recreational vehicles, offer an amazing array of facilities for the motorised camper – water, sewage, electricity and even cable tv can be connected. The pitches are hard standing, sometimes separated from their neighbours by hedges for privacy, with fire pits, picnic benches and a grassy area to erect a pup tent. A far cry from the muddy fields and stand pipe water taps of the European family holidays of my youth.

I am reliably informed that the State Park camp grounds of Oregon like this one at Sunset Bay just down the road from the little town of Coos Bay are the best in America. I suspect my source may be biased.

Image © fotoVoyager 2012. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 2720 x 1810 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D700, ISO 200, 24-70 f2.8 @ 70mm, 20 seconds, f8.

Summer camping in idyllic mountain landscape panorama

Summer sunset wild camping

This is #1 daughter relaxing outside our tent perched high on an idyllic Lake District fell as the sun sets over the green pasture and rocky peaks of the Langdale valley, Cumbria. Like me, this child suffers from obsessive compulsive reading disorder* and has to have text material to hand at all times. Cereal packets, parking tickets, Dan Brown novels – any old piece of written junk will do. That’s why I love Instapaper, the service that strips all the extraneous gumpf from around online articles and pushes it to your phone for offline reading. Absolute genius. If you spend as much time bored out of your tiny mind in airports as I do, it’s a sanity saver. Longform.org is a good place to start for content – it’s a bit US centric, but there’s lots of great writing waiting to fill empty time for you. If you’ve got a Kindle, check out David Smith’s excellent guide to getting your saved Instapaper content pushed to the best reading device after real paper.

*I’m joking of course, there’s no such syndrome. And she certainly doesn’t suffer from obsessive tidying up after yourself disorder.

Image © fotoVoyager 2011. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 10300 x 3000 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D700, ISO 200, 24-70 f2.8 @ 50mm, 1/200 second, f6.3.

zooming night traffic bright lights skyscrapers illuminated Hong Kong China

Zooming night traffic in Hong Kong

For a while now I’ve been searching for the Bladerunner city of our mythical future. I thought it would be Tokyo since that’s the coolest place I could think of when I was a kid, but Tokyo turned out to be a rather grey sort of non-descript town during the day, but does start to look good at night. Shanghai comes a close second, but is surprisingly unchaotic with broad avenues inherited from its colonial past.

So far the winner is Hong Kong. Crazy futuristic skyscrapers crowded onto steep hillsides towering over narrow urban canyons full of markets bustling with fresh produce and red meat side by side with electronic stores selling the latest and greatest techno wonders assembled over the border in Shenzhen. It feels like you can get or buy anything and the HKers look like they’re out to take over the world. No doubt they’ll soon be overshadowed by the numerous mega-cities springing up all over China, but if you want to taste the future now, go see this amazing city. I defy anyone to watch the nightly laser show across Victoria Harbour and not think ‘Wow!’.

I stayed at the Royal Pacific Hotel in Kowloon. It’s worth the extra money to get a room overlooking the bay, there’s an amazing view out of the window.

Image © fotoVoyager 2011. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 2832 x 4256 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D700, ISO 200, 14-24 f2.8 @ 14mm, 8 seconds, f22.

old men of the Tribunal Aguas water court Valencia Spain

Men of the Tribunal Aguas in Valencia

Round the side of Valencia Cathedral, for a thousand years, a gang of old men (not the same ones, that would be much more interesting) sit in a circle and wait for irrigation disputes between farmers to be brought before them. Those arguments are few and far between nowadays but they still troop out every Thursday at midday, sit down, and after a brief call for complainants by the hat wearing official seen in this photograph, shuffle back across the Plaza de la Virgen for some refreshments. History in action, wonderful stuff.

Crowd of people all ages busy city square Valencia Spain

It is a very, very popular event to watch however. In order to get this close, uninterrupted view I had to stake a claim to my spot an hour beforehand and constantly elbow my way to the front. The brevity of the occasion caught me by surprise (that’s what happens when you don’t do your research properly) and I was just warming up with this opening shot when they were off! I turned around to see a huge crowd of locals and tourists densely packing the square, as you can see on the right.

I stayed in an apartment down on Malvarrosa Beach rented through WayToStay.com which worked out really well. The guy who owned the apartment was friendly and helpful, and the beach is well served by Valencia’s modern tram system.

Image © fotoVoyager 2011. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 4256 x 2832 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D700, ISO 400, 14-24 f2.8 @ 24mm, 1/125 second, f7.1.

Geyser erupting sequence Iceland

Geyser erupting sequence Iceland

Although the original ‘Geysir’ doesn’t erupt to a predictable schedule any more, Stokkur, the scalding hot fountain next door gives a pretty good show every few minutes. It’s a very popular tourist attraction in Iceland as it’s easily reached from Reykjavík and is part of the Golden Circle route which includes Þingvellir, the rift valley that marks the boundary of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, and Gullfoss, the thundering waterfalls on the Hvítá river.

The eruption of boiling water happens pretty quickly but if you watch it a few times (and why wouldn’t you after you’ve travelled all that way) you’ll soon get the rhythm of it. I had to press the shutter fairly rapidly to get this sequence, but luckily the wind was behind me so I didn’t get wet. Not so the group of Scouts on an International Jamboree that arrived as I was packing up who rushed into the splash zone, stripped down to their underwear and neckerchiefs and held their hands up in a three fingered Scout salute as the geyser crashed down onto them. I have no idea what badge that was for.

In Reykjavík I stayed in the Downtown Youth Hostel which was excellent value for money, very central and with great facilities. The only thing they don’t tell you about staying in Reykjavík is the sulphurous eggy smell in the showers from the geothermal water supply. Possibly the only time I ever smelt worse after a shower than before.

Image © fotoVoyager 2009. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 9100 x 2284 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D300, ISO 200, 20mm f2.8, 1/640 second, f7.1.

dawn sunlight flaring through idyllic wilderness forest vibrant summer panorama

Sunrise in the wild woods

This picture was taken much closer to home, within walking distance of my front door in fact. In winter the valleys are dark, dripping places where sunlight briefly shines and up here on the hill thick clouds descend to create dense fogs and obscure the views. But in spring and summer time the Forest of Dean is a magical place, the woodland floor covered in a carpet of Bluebells as if the sky has fallen to earth. The ferns grow so tall you can hardly push through them and the world turns a lush, vivid green. Watch out for the wild boar though, if you stumble into a sounder (yes, that’s what a group of them is called) it’s like walking through a gang of surly teenagers outside the chip shop. They won’t back down and stare at you sullenly, waiting for you to back off enough that the males can do a little charge just to show you who’s the boss and you should leave their territory post haste.

I stayed at home sleeping in my nice comfortable bed for once, though I did get up at an unsociable hour to catch the golden dawn light. If you want to visit you could stay at the Speech House Hotel, historic home of the Verderer’s Court but now the poshest accommodation in the Royal Forest of Dean.

Image © fotoVoyager 2011. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 6375 x 2595 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D700, ISO 200, 24-70 f2.8 @ 28mm, 1/125 second, f5.

Dubai stars shining over Burj Khalifa illuminated at night UAE

Stars shining over Burj Khalifa, Dubai

The Burj Khalifa is astonishing. It’s either an incredible architectural feat, a stupendous spire reaching into the desert sky or a white elephant, a gigantic testament to national hubris. Before I saw it for myself I would have said the latter in my arrogant western way. Having stood looking up at it gleaming in the sunlight and glowing under the stars I have to humbly admit the former. It is amazing. Even if China throws up a dozen taller buildings in the next decade, the Burj Khalifa will always be the world’s first megascraper.

Unlike much of the rest of the publicly accessible areas on Sheikh Zayed Road, which is a swirling dustbowl of traffic and noise for pedestrians like me, the Downtown Dubai development has large areas of green space, lakes and fountains. In the evening the pavements bustle with young people and families promenading and socialising. It’s a bit sterile, but then it is a futuristic oasis conjured out of the desert sand in just a few years.

I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express at Safa Park. Standard business class hotel, little in the way of character, but a clean, modern, professional sleeping place. Nowhere nearby of much interest but a couple of hundred metres from a Dubai Metro station that’ll get you anywhere you need to go. Next time I’ll stay at the Four Points by Sheraton which has got a great roof terrace view down the Sheikh Zayed Road.

Image © fotoVoyager 2012. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 3500 x 7009 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D700, ISO 200, 24-70 f2.8 @ 48mm, 10 seconds, f8.

Sweden families enjoying bbq in Stockholm

Families at Skansen, Stockholm

Skansen is a sort of heritage museum combined with a zoo of native Swedish fauna. It’s a great place to spend a spring day with your kids. At lunchtime you can do what these families are doing and buy some sausages on sticks and barbecue them over these open fire pits. Kids. Fire. Sausages. Pointy sticks. What could go wrong? The buildings from pre-industrialised Sweden are fascinating, some with actors inside to tell you the story of the historical occupants. I was briefly lost in a bucolic reverie until I smacked my head on a low wooden beam for the third time and decided I did prefer modern homes after all.

The best part though is the zoo. They’ve got moose, wolves, seals and wild boar but what’s really great are the bears. Their enclosure has glass walls so you can stand millimetres away from a giant hairy eating machine and look him right in the eye. Whilst I was doing this several of them decided to put on a wrestling demonstration. Bears have got very big claws and some massive teeth. I took a very important lesson away from this close encounter. Do. Not. Mess. With. Bears.

Stockholm is compact, walk around city with great public transport. I stayed at the Adlon Hotel which is in a great location for seeing the city, right opposite a Burger King for when you can’t afford to eat in restaurants after the first two days – Scandinavia ain’t cheap.

Image © fotoVoyager 2012. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 4256 x 2832 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D700, ISO 200, 24-70 f2.8 @ 24mm, 1/320 second, f8.

Seattle downtown skyline Space Needle illuminated at night

Space Needle and downtown skyline Seattle

Sometimes you just have to shoot the clichés, the obvious postcard views, the images everybody who visits a place will take. That’s okay, a trip to some locations just wouldn’t be complete with certain pictures. The Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Coliseum in Rome and… the Space Needle in Seattle. If, like me, you imagine you’ve seen each episode of ‘Frasier’ thirty five times then you’ll get that wonderful feeling of déjà vu as you watch the lights come on in the skyscrapers and apartment blocks of downtown and coupled with the iconic spire of the Space Needle towering over the Seattle Center it could only be the view from Frasier’s window. This picture from Kerry Park in the suburban Queen Anne district doesn’t quite match the backdrop to the show, but it’s pretty close.

I stayed at the Ace Hotel in Belltown, which is a great little hipster hotel down the road from Pike Place Market. It’s pretty basic but well designed and it’s easy to walk to all the main downtown attractions from there. I recommend the Big Picture lounge cinema next door for when it’s raining. Which it will do, often.

Image © fotoVoyager 2011. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 4256 x 2832 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D700, ISO 200, 70-200 f2.8 @ 160mm, 4 seconds, f8.

ocean stack sea bird colony St Kilda Western Isles Scotland

Stac Lee sea bird colony St. Kilda, Scotland

Three hours aboard a bouncing boat from Harris in the Outer Hebrides brings you to within a quick RIB ride of the natural harbour of Hirta, the largest island in the St. Kilda archipelago. The human story of the inhabitation of St. Kilda is fascinating but it’s the astonishing geological features of this remote landscape that really draw the eye. Pictured above is Stac Lee, the 172m pinnacle of rock thrusting out of the North Atlantic and home to thousands upon thousands of whirling, swooping, squawking Gannets. You can guess what the white stuff is.

From what feels like a tiny, insignificant boat bobbing on endless ocean it looks absolutely massive and you wonder at the bravery and skill of the men who rowed here, somehow disembarked and then climbed these cliffs barefoot to harvest the bird eggs with ropes made of horsehair. I doubt the avian residents were pleased to see them either.

I travelled to St. Kilda with Kilda Cruises. It’s not a cheap day out but it is a once in a lifetime trip and they were excellent operators. Take some sandwiches, a flask of coffee and seasickness pills.

Image © fotoVoyager 2012. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 2832 x 4256 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D700, ISO 200, 24-70 f2.8 @ 70mm, 1/800 second, f7.1.

Shanghai neon night city aerial photo China

Neon night in Shanghai

The rule of thumb for architects in China seems to be ‘when in doubt, light it up’. They love neon and they know how to use it. I once stayed in a hotel in Inner Mongolia where the bathroom mirror light flashed and rotated like a multi-coloured police car when you pulled the cord. Definitely the way to wake up in the morning, though shaving is difficult. It’s not a policy that’s going to contribute to stopping climate change by saving energy but it does make the city look fantastic and helps me produce wonderfully futuristic urban landscapes like this one of the high rise apartment blocks and office buildings of the Pudong district in Shanghai.

I stayed at the Radisson Blu Shanghai New World in the Huangpu district at the end of the Nanjing Road pedestrianised zone.

Get my guide to photographic locations in Shanghai here.

Image © fotoVoyager 2012. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 3270 x 5574 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D800, ISO 100, 24-70 f2.8 @ 70mm, 8 seconds, f8.

Singapore Merlion Fountain Marina Bay skyscapers neon night

Merlion and Marina Bay skyscrapers, Singapore

This used to be the end of the world for people living on the Malay Peninsula. After this it was the Java Sea until Sumatra and Borneo – Singapore and the General Post Office that’s now the Fullerton Hotel behind these steps was the last outpost of the British Empire until you got to Darwin. The resourceful Singaporeans have not taken their limitations of living on a island to heart. They build out as well as up, reclaiming the sea to build ever more futuristic hotels, high rises and parks. The colonial era buildings of the 19th Century coastline are now pushed back, over towered by progress and the relentless drive for success that defines the character of this energetic city state.

The Merlion on the promenade of Marina Bay was created as an icon for Singapore in the 1960′s, designed to be a souvenir symbol whose likeness is closely protected. The fountain is a popular place to gather and stroll in the relative cool of the evening for tourists and locals alike. There’s plenty of restaurants and coffee shops open late which makes the Central Business District a pleasant place to be outside of office hours, unlike many downtown areas which can be apocalyptically empty at night and the weekends.

I stayed at the Inn at Temple Street, right in the heart of Chinatown. Accommodation is expensive in Singapore and even a fairly basic hotel like this one will make your pockets gasp if you’re used to prices elsewhere in south east Asia. It’s in a good location though, near to a Metro station and Singapore is easy to get around on it.

Image © fotoVoyager 2012. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 6410 x 3240 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D700, ISO 200, 24-70 f2.8 @ 32mm, 2 seconds, f8.

Sherpa woman carrying yak fodder snowy mountain valley

Sherpa woman carrying yak fodder

Life’s tougher in the mountains, no matter where you live. Even more so if you have to scour the Himalayas to gather fodder to keep your yaks in the manner to which they’ve become accustomed. This tough woman had gathered a heavy bunch to take back to her farmhouse, most of which double as teahouses during the climbing season. At the end of this remote, high valley you can see the village of Thame, birthplace of Tenzing Norgay, the famous mountaineer who stood on the summit of Mt. Everest with Edmund Hilary in 1953. The dry stone wall compounds are to keep the yaks and dzos (a yak / cattle hybrid) out of trouble, but they’re pretty big animals and I suspect they choose to stay where the free food is whilst it’s delivered by hard working Sherpa women like this one.

I camped in an Ozark Gear dome tent in Thame, which is a Chinese knock-off of a North Face Mountain 35. The Ozark Gear version is used widely in Nepal by local operators and is a perfectly robust, serviceable high altitude shelter. I’ve been buried in snowfall overnight in one and it held up fine. Just don’t expect me to carry it or find space for it in my rucksack. It’s not light or compact when packed, but that’s what well fed yaks are for.

Image © fotoVoyager 2011. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 2832 x 4256 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D700, ISO 200, 24-70 f2.8 @ 24mm, 1/500 second, f9.

Italy speeding scooter whizzing through street traffic Milan

Scooter speeding through Milan

You have to take an awful lot of motion tracking photos before you get one that comes out. Digital storage is cheap, so don’t be afraid to keep pressing that shutter, you can always delete images that don’t work. I stood on the side of this road in the Navigli district of Milan for an hour shooting slow shutter speed images of the traffic to get a photograph that conveys the crazy chaos of Italian driving. Although this guy has both hands on the handlebars another shot that was a bit too blurry to use shows a man steering his speeding moped through the rush hour gridlock whilst talking on his cell phone and smoking a cigarette. In a three piece suit. ‘Sorprendente!’ as they might say in Lombardy.

I stayed in the Hotel Brunelleschi, easy walking distance from the Duomo, Galleria Emanuele and  La Scala, perfect for wandering around this vibrant, bustling city.

Image © fotoVoyager 2009. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 4288 x 2848 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D300, ISO 200, 20mm f2.8, 1/60 second, f20.

tropical island beach house boats idyllic palm tree lagoon Seychelles

Blue lagoon beach on La Digue, Seychelles

Sometime it’s difficult to persuade others that my job as a travel photographer is tough. Honestly, it is. Most of the time. Take this location for instance – the Indian Ocean island of La Digue in the Seychelles. To get here I had to travel not only by plane, train and automobile but two boat trips and an ox cart. I had to carry my heavy camera equipment around all day on a bicycle (there are few cars on La Digue) in sweltering heat, only taking a swim to briefly refresh myself every couple of hours. There are spiders as big as your hand, fruit bats flying in the trees that I though were sea gulls, giant tortoises littering the road and only fish freshly caught from this lagoon to eat. Persuaded yet? Didn’t think so. Did I mention it was very hot?

I stayed at the surprisingly reasonable Tournesol Guesthouse. Not a luxury resort by any stretch of the imagination: fairly simple cabins in a lush garden with a cook who’ll knock you up a tasty fish supper. Two minutes slow bike ride from this beach. Recommended for anyone who finds the pace of life anywhere else too fast.

Image © fotoVoyager 2010. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 10000 x 4070 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D700, ISO 200, 24-70 f2.8 @ 45mm, 1/250 second, f11.

aerial view over idyllic country village church spire

Aerial view over Painswick Church, Gloucestershire

This picture was shot whilst hanging out of a hot air balloon basket early one summer morning. Since you can’t steer a hot air balloon and the height is pretty slow to adjust I was pretty worried the pilot had misjudged his flight across this idyllic Cotswold village and we were going to get a envelope puncturing close-up of the weather vane on top of the steeple. Since that slender spire has soared over the village and the (reputed) ninety nine Yew trees in the churchyard since the mid-seventeenth century I imagine that the residents might be a little cross if we had damaged it and they had to rescue a photographer and pilot. You don’t get more genteel than Cotswold villages and Painswick might be the most genteel of all, so pitchforks are unlikely – maybe some very loud tutting and really filthy looks.

I flew from Stroud, Gloucestershire, with Ballooning in the Cotswolds. A very good operator that didn’t crash into the Parish Church of St. Mary. He had burnt a hole in the balloon though, but assured me it wouldn’t be a problem. I took his word for it and lived to tell the tale.

Image © fotoVoyager 2012. Contact me for licensing information.

Original image size: 2832 x 4256 pixels.

Technical details: Nikon D700, ISO 200, 24-70 f2.8 @ 24mm, 1/250 second, f8.