Both Helen and I will be attending the fourth London Photo Festival (LPF) held from the 16th until 18th May at The Crypt gallery, London. The theme of May’s photographic festival is Travel.

With our combined experience of travel photography, digital fine art papers and history in the creative sector, the London Photo Festival have kindly asked us to participate in offering portfolio reviews. We are available on the 16th and 17th May 2013 to meet, review and give positive constructive feedback to photographers and their travel related imagery.

You can find out more information about us and make a portfolio review booking with either Helen or David over at the website. We hope to see you there!

Think National Geographic and not National Lampoon’s Vacation! They can be taken anywhere in the world (including the UK), any time period and on any format (i.e. digital or film).

The photo festival gives amateur and semi-professional photographers the opportunity to exhibit their work, gain professional feedback and to join a thriving community of photographers. All the images in the exhibition are for sale with visitors able to meet the photographers behind the works as well as photographer networking and industry suppliers.

London Photo Festival, 16th – 18th May 2013
The Crypt (St George the Martyr Church),
Borough High St,
London SE1 1JA.

Entry is free for the public. The Festival will be open from 10.30am on all three days and will remain open late on the Thursday and Friday, closing at 6pm on Saturday, 18th May.

Today we were invited to be part of the Canson Infinity team at this years Focus On Imaging event at Birmingham’s NEC arena. Along with R.K Burt representatives and fellow photographer Brian Hopper we joined forces with Canson Infinity in order to celebrate their strong selection of Fine Art and Photographic papers.

The heritage of the company is fascinating with a history stemming back over 500 years, and with the latest photographic range launched in 2008 they’re starting to make a big impact on the UK market.

We had two images from our Notworkrelated adventures featured at the exhibition one taken whilst encountering children playing on our epic hike up to Namche Bazaar, Nepal, and the second an insight into the Paralympic Closing Ceremony taken whilst we sat and soaked up the wonders of London 2012. You can see more limited edition prints at our shop.

In conjunction with theprintspace.co.uk we also produced some promotional post cards which we handed out to Canson Infinity stand visitors. Huge thanks to theprintspace.co.uk for helping us out with this. See more images here…

We have a short film to show you which should provide you with a nice little insight into the Canson Infinity display, the crowds of Focus on Imaging and our involvement with the brand.

They’re selling out of Discovery packs like there’s no tomorrow so if you’re at the event over the next few days do stop by to get yours.

Enjoy!

This weekend (3rd March – 6th March 2013) Focus on Imaging 2013 is taking place at the Birmingham NEC. The yearly exhibition and showcase for the camera and photography industry is Europe’s biggest annual imaging show with over 200 exhibitors and product launches.

This year Canson Infinity will be using some of our notworkrelated travel and Paralympic photography on their exhibition stand and on Monday 4th March we will be joining them to meet, chat to and offer advice to the visitors to the Canson Infinity stand. We love the paper stocks they supply and we use two of their papers, Baryta Photographique and Arches Aquarelle Rag, for our photographic prints which we sell in our shop. They are both beautiful stocks.

Huge thanks to Canson for inviting us to join them as well as theprintspace.co.uk for helping us print and produce these limited edition promotional postcards (1 of 54 per design) which we will be handing out at Focus on Monday. Thanks also to S.Wilford Printers for helping with the cutting and trimming.

Pop over and say ‘Hi’ if you are attending this year. Helen and Dave.

We have been rather busy over the past few weeks. After a great time in Liverpool with The Double Negative team we sent out some notworkrelated promotional literature to companies that we would love to work and collaborate with on projects. We are now working closely with two partners.

Firstly we have strengthened our friendship with The Print Space in London and after appearing on their blog and judging their Self Portrait competition, we are working on promotional material for notworkrelated as well as printing all our shop orders through them. We highly recommend their printing skills and great customer service.

Secondly we will be appearing at ‘Focus on Imaging’ 2013 at the Birmingham NEC with Canson Infinity on Monday 4th March from 10am. With 450 years of high quality paper heritage we will be showcasing our travel photography with Canson Infinity and talking to fellow photographers interesting in printing and paper stocks. If you are at the event feel free to come over and say ‘Hi’.

And… hot off the press we have two prints back from The Print Space printed on the lovely Canson Infinity Arches Aquarelle Rag (310gsm). ‘Yosemite National Park, California, USA’ and ‘Decorative Basket, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia’ both look amazing on this matt textured stock.

You can purchase limited edition prints from our shop. All printed on two stocks by Canson Infinity, either the above mentioned Canson Infinity Arches Aquarelle Rag or the Canson Infinity Baryta Photographique.

For your viewing pleasure we have photographed the prints and you can get a good idea as to the texture and quality the Aquarelle Rag has to offer.

Helen recently submitted two photographs from our Notworkrelated travels into the AOP’s winter online exhibition. This year the exhibition is titled ‘Elements’ and will run until the 15th January 2013. The brief was fairly open with the main theme being ‘elements’ interpreting this in whichever way we wanted to. It didn’t matter what time of the year it was taken, it could be a more abstract interpretation or something more literal. 26 photographers have been accepted into the exhibition and there is a really lovely body of work which is also on offer in limited edition print form.

Helen’s submission included two photographs taken whilst we were trekking in Nepal. ‘Rest’ was shot whilst we were on an acclimatisation work from Namche Bazaar to Thame. The weather closed in when we arrived and it was a beautiful site to see the village engulfed with snow. There was so much to draw us in photographically and the impact or The Sunshine Lodge covered in a light dusting of snow had to be documented.

The second image titled ‘Friends’ was taken whilst we were having more acclimatisation time higher up in the Gokyo valley at Dole. This was at around 4000m and there isn’t much to do once you arrive in these villages other than to recover, rest and acclimatise. Our great friends Joshua and Amata traveled with us for most of our trek and this was a very memorable thing that we did; all wrapped up warm in many layers, blankets, hats and gloves before the fire would be lit. We both love this image as it conveys such a lovely message of companionship to us and humour to others.

‘Rest’ has also been selected as the offical AOP Christmas card for 2012 much to our delight and Helen will be attending the exhibition launch and AOP Christmas social on the 18th December. What a lovely end to 2012!

We wish you all a wonderful Christmas, this is our first back on English soil for 2 years! Looking forward to 2013 and what it will offer!

Thanks for following!

You can see more of what we are up to by having a little peak at the following:

Helen’s portfolio
David’s portfolio
Notworkrelated Shop

We decided to head over to Newtown, an area Helen had visited before and is built up to be a more artsy district with vintage clothing and second hand book shops lining the streets along with eateries, café’s and bars. It’s definitely a more eclectic place especially if you’re looking to escape the city vibe. We started our day at The University of Sydney, there was an exhibition taking place there as part of the Sydney Festival 2012 which was free involving the architecture and space of certain buildings and galleries on campus. It was a modernist walk across the campus involving contemporary installations by artist Narelle Jubelin.

The exhibition titled Vision in Motion was inspired by some of the distinctive, modernist buildings including The Chemistry Lecture Theatres, The University Art Gallery and in the windows from Sci-Tech Library. We really enjoyed taking it all in and gave us an alternative take on the space around us. Walking back through Newtown we enjoyed drinks at the popular Café Newtown and a spot of window shopping.

Back in the City we enjoyed a trip into the Sydney MCA which currently under construction only has one floor open to the public but it’s not about quantity. The interactive exhibition ‘Recorders’ by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer was fantastic, full of fun and intrigue. God only knows what happens with those recordings but they now have our thumb prints, eye scans, heart beats, shadows and voices recorded as part of a human documentation, this is more than an art exhibition.

The next morning we sorted out a repair job for our Leica camera which thanks to Foto Riesel was organised and sent to Melbourne for repair. We only had to pay $22 for the postage in the end and the repair was done under warranty so we were pretty relieved about that. I guess there should be some bonuses for being Leica owners! We were told we may even get it back by the end of the week which was way more than we expected AND to top it all off they lent us one of their loan cameras which mean’t we would be able to take at least a few lovely shots from our time in Sydney.

Later on we took the metro to Bondi Junction and a bus to Bondi Beach where with packed and weighted backpacks we walked to Bronte Bay and back. It’s one of those must-do things when people come to Sydney and so we joined all the hundred or so other runners, speed-walkers and general sight seers on this famous coastline. It is a pretty part of Sydney with smooth rock formations, accessible beaches, swimming pools and big, expensive houses to keep us entertained. This was part of our training for our hike, got to get in the walks when we can! When we got back to Kirribilli later on we decided to eat at our local Thai ‘Stir-Crazy’. Lovely food of which there was more than enough for us to take home for the next day and a great atmosphere. This place is packed nearly every night of the week.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

As we had previously booked our north island to south ferry online we were getting short on time and wanted to explore Wellington before leaving. This therefore required a 160km drive to arrive in Wellington at lunch time and find somewhere to park the van which allowed us to sleep inside. Rowena’s lodge offered this and at $15 per person per night was the cheapest offering in the city.

Upon checking in there was a heated argument between the proprietor and a fellow guest which involved a slanging match ending in the guy being kicked out. First impressions are so important. The hostel is a bit rough around the edges, some eclectic staff members and has some very funky smells in the communal areas, but it was cheap enough to get past this and we always had the safety of the van to hide away in.

For most of the day it rained so we opted for a visit to the Te Papa Museum located on the waterfront. Home to the relics and tales of New Zealand’s past Te Papa is a big museum and would require half a day if you were to explore the whole place. We only had 2 hours and some of the exhibits were closed so we made our way from the top back down to the bottom taking in contemporary New Zealand art to 20th Century paintings. This led into more of a museum layout with life-size exhibits of people’s homes during the war, the effect of the Commonwealth and then going way back from Maori living and to the Dinosaurs. It is a pretty comprehensive museum and plays host to the only Gigantic Squid on show in the world.

When we left the museum it was still raining so we had a stroll around the waterfront and back into the city passing by another Occupy event and the City Gallery before meandering around the outdoor shops. We’re getting ideas for our big trekking expedition in Nepal so nearly every outdoor shop draws us in. On our way back to the hostel we stopped off for a drink at a quirky bar next door to a theatre in the artsy district. When we crossed over the road there was an artists exhibition taking place, the opening night was the week before but the artist wanted to conjure more interest by hosting a live installation. As soon as we were in the gallery the artist introduced himself Jon Drypnz and for the next hour or so we stood chatting about travel, art, politics amongst other things whilst enjoying a complimentary beer. He had a nice big space to work with as an artist in residence and used the space to play with the contrasts in liberal v’s conservative. We added our own illustration to the wall art taking place. The wall was very clear at that point so we did feel a little self-conscious but what the hell…Helen did a Fine Art degree and Dave design so we were sure we could contribute something!! ha ha!

Back at the hostel we stayed in and cooked along with the rest of the backpackers before escaping to our van.

We had a morning in Wellington to kill before going to get our ferry at 1.30pm so we went out in search of a few items that we’d been meaning to get for a while. One was to swap our first Jo Nesbo Harry Hole novel, but for some reason this was proving to be difficult! We wanted to swap the first book for the third, but nowhere had any Nesbo’s in stock. Helen was trying to educate the booksellers but to no avail. Eventually we settled on a swap with a ‘Rough Guide to Nepal’ in order to start planning a little for our trip there in Spring, we bartered and managed to get 2 extra dollars off the price! Bargaining in a Western country, it can be done!

We then bought some DVDR’s to catch up on burning our work to disc and we also picked up our Christmas cards to send home from a lovely gift and card shop on one of the main shopping streets. At the top end of Cuba Street we found a cool coffee house that was once an old clothing shop, there were lots of vintage boutiques, and good little places to explore. In terms of the city and what it has to offer we really enjoyed exploring the streets and the coffee really is good!!

So following on from our morning we drove to the Bluebridge Ferry Terminal which is very close to the centre of town and we ended up parking and waiting for over an hour before boarding the ferry. The ferry crossing to start with was choppy and neither of us really felt like moving from our seats, but a few hours into the crossing it did settle down so we explored the outside decks and enjoyed a very good hot chocolate and gingerbread kiwi to settle the sea sickness! It seemed to do the trick!

We got into Picton after a slow pace cruising through the beautiful Malborough Sounds and from there we made our way to Blenheim to meet up with friends Vic and Dave who we know from the UK. It was Vic’s birthday and so we joined in with the celebrations which involved champagne, a family meal cooked by the other Dave, speeches, wine and a birthday cake. Our first taste of a New Zealand home and it was a lovely evening indeed. Thanks to the Gillan’s for making us feel so welcome.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

Today was to be our sightseeing day with a half day stint at the Grand Palace. We took the boat again to Tha Chang stop not far from the Palace area and followed some of the Lonely Planet’s walking tour for the area. We followed the first part of the route to the Bangkok’s Fine Art school which is located opposite the front gate of the palace, what a great place to study art and be inspired! Unfortunately there weren’t any exhibitions on so we sat in the courtyard for a while people watching and photographing the area. We crossed over the road to the Palace and as we passed through the gates were told we would both have to queue for longer length clothes to cover arms and legs all the way to our shoes. Helen thought she would need something but Dave’s passed the knee cropped trousers didn’t make the cut either so we both had to queue for half an hour for an assortment of sweaty shirts and skirts that had been worn by other tourists earlier that day. Nice! The annoying thing was that it was so hot, it was difficult wearing simply shorts and a vest let along trousers, a sarong and a shirt!!

Once dressed we continued onto the ticket office and purchased 2 tickets costing 350 Baht each. It is a very impressive sight indeed starting with pagoda’s, temples and shrines that glisten and sparkle in the sun. Vibrant golds, emeralds an ruby’s dominate the area with intricate gold leaf descriptive paintings along walls. You can’t go into the actual Palace or residence but walking around the grounds and visiting museum rooms, enthroning rooms and various formal occasion temples is pleasant enough if you don’t mind queuing with the many tourists who are also there. We watched the changing of the guards and after about 2 hours we decided to move on. It’s on a similar level to the Grand Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in terms of decadence, architectural design and intricate detailing.

There is a market around the corner from the Palace near to the ferry stop which we wandered through and people watched as they bargained for small collectible amulets. We also explored some back alleys where we got a glimpse of old Bangkok, houses on stilts on the river side and children playing in the narrow streets. After the long queue’s and heat of the day we’d had enough of sightseeing already and decided to head back to the hostel for a few hours as we were planning to make tracks on the sky-train later on to check out the night market and get some food.

We got a taxi to take us to the Ratchathewi sky train stop and from there took the sky train to Nana. This is the stop for the Paptong weekend market, perhaps an area that should be described as Bangkok’s red-light district! Although since 2004 Helen has noticed that things have been toned down a little and although there are many ping pong shows available it’s perhaps not thrown in your face as it used to be. We had a little wander through the streets and then got back on the sky-train for one more stop to Asok where we had planned to find a Tapas restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet. We decided this would be our date night and we would spend over budget for our meal. The Tapas restaurant is located next door to Suk II hostel, a place Helen has stayed at many a time when she has been in Bangkok before. So we had a look around after enjoying a buy 2 get one free deal at the restaurant, it didn’t really soften the final bill but we did enjoy some lovely western food for a change. The main reason we didn’t book to stay at Suk is that they’re prices are now quite high starting at 700 Baht for a double with shared bathroom, we were paying 430 Baht a night at our hostel with our own bathroom.

On our last full day in Bangkok we went off in the direction of Siam, the business and shopping district. We directed our attention onto buying a few items for our camera gear, and purchased a tripod and a small camera bag from the MBK shopping mall. We also bargained for the first series of The Wire as well as experiencing their food hall which is a must-do if you’re having a long day shopping in Bangkok!

We had a few galleries earmarked on the map that we were intending to visit, the main problem being that we couldn’t find 2 of them, one was in between exhibitions and one was housing a small photographic exhibition. So Wooden Postcards at the La Lanta Fine Art Gallery was the only one that was open.

After this slightly disappointing search for off-the wall Fine Art we promptly found a taxi and decided to head back. Our taxi driver had only been driving for 2 weeks in Bangkok and didn’t know where we were heading to, but he was determined to get us there so we gave him a chance, he made a few calls and got on the right tracks. It started raining heavily too so we were happy to be out of the down pour. We couldn’t get dropped off at our hostel as their was a problem with a demonstration taking up the top end of the Phitsanulok Rd. We thought we would walk right through it on our way back and were amazed by the amount of demonstrators there were, it seemed to be a peaceful demonstration taking place outside government buildings and the UN building. We managed to pick up on something to do with the release of Thai Nationals, but we couldn’t get this confirmed. As soon as we stepped out from under cover the rain came down hard and we were drenched by the time we’d walked 100m back to the hostel. The rain halted our plans that night so we stayed at the hostel and caught up on the blog.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

Up early for our last time in Yangshou we were picked up by taxi from Trippers to be dropped off at the coach station for our journey to Nanning. It took around five hours or so to reach Nanning and we jumped on a bus to make our way to the Lotusland hostel. We found it relatively easily and checked into our double room which was small but functional and clean. We headed to the booking office to book our bus journey into Vietnam which cost £15 each. Looking for some food we followed the map provided by the hostel and decided to go to a restaurant with an English menu. The food was pricey and not very good, with Dave having a difficult time eating his food with all the bones in his chicken curry! On the plus side the steamed and fried dumplings with a custard style sauce were the highlight of a disappointing meal.

The following day we ate our own breakfast in the hostel, as they do not provide food, but a microwave and bowls and then washed clothes and hung them out to dry on the roof of the hostel. We walked into town to see what Nanning was like during the day. It’s a typical Chinese city full to the brim of shops and little food places.

There is a free museum called The Guangxi Provincial Museum not far away from the center of town, it took around half an hour to walk there from the hostel. They were showcasing the Nanning Institute of Art and Design degree shows, which were quite impressive with fashion and product design, architecture, 3D and visualisation. It was great to see what the students are completing for their degree levels in China. There are also some permanent exhibitions in the museum featuring ancient drums, jewelery and other artifacts. Afterwards we were feeling hungry and found a Japanese restaurant in a shopping mall which helped quench the hunger pains.

We met up with Jane, who we had met in Dali, at the hostel and decided to go for food. Walking around we found a fast food style Chinese restaurant and had some pretty good food. The food was served in a wooden basket which was interesting, but tasty.

Neon lights and people dancing in the parks were our entertainment for the walk back to the hostel and then an early night as we had a change of Country tomorrow and we were excited to see a new landscape and culture of Vietnam.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

After a little lie-in we got ourselves ready and headed out into the hustle and bustle of Hong-Kong. We wanted to explore the area on foot so we hit the streets and wandered the many little alley ways and roads. Far more Christmas decorations were here than in China and it started to make us feel a little bit seasonal especially around Times Square. The streets are very much alike to those in London with the same traffic lights, double yellow lines on the roadside and even double-decker buses. We headed to Soho as the Lonely Planet had recommend the area for something a little different and more creative. There are hundreds of trendy restaurants and bars situated around Hong-Kong and you have a good choice to pick from, with many all ready very full with patrons.

We found a cool little place at the top of Soho so we sat inside and enjoyed a few drinks. Helen’s pear Halmsted cider (from sweden) was lovely and made for some easy consumption. Just up the road we popped into a small gallery and also found a Canon powered photography exhibition at the former jail in the centre of Hong Kong island. We could feel a lot of history here and quite a few areas were sealed off, we have spotted a fair amount of asbestos in China and we bet this place could have been the same. The exhibition (hkphotofest.org) was ok with a selection of old photographs showing the old Hong-Kong in its Colonial days and also some more modern photographers exhibiting their work. The building for us was the highlight, both wanting to use the space for a photography shoot. We even took our Christmas card photos of each other here, ready to be comped together with our Christmas best wishes.

After purchasing some Santa hats for some festive fun we continued to explore the streets on foot and found a great local restaurant that specialised in Wonton. We had a clear broth, with a free refill, and then started on the noodles. Helen’s wonton was packed with around 5 or 6 prawns and the lemon and honey cold beverage was great. Jumping on the underground network we made our way to Kowloon were on Christmas eve we were informed by the Alison Guest House that there would be fireworks on the Hong-Kong island and looking across the bay was the best way to see them. We asked a local police officer and they told us no fireworks, but there is an event taking place up the road, a street carnival.

People in the Hong-Kong territories really celebrate Christmas Eve more so that the actual day and there were lots of people walking the streets as a lot of the roads were sealed off to traffic. For a few hours we wandered around Tsim Sha Tsui and were absorbed further into chaotic streets and neon, they were getting ready for street parties and around the pier looking across to Hong-Kong Island thousands of people were waiting and photographing the Christmas decorations. It was rammed!

Not wanting to get stuck on the wrong side of the bay once the street procession had passed we headed back to Causeway Bay via the Star Ferry. For 1 HKD it’s a great view of the skyline and an essential part of any Hong-Kong visit. Not far from our accommodation was City Super which is like a food hall at Selfridges in the UK. They had some very nice items to buy so we invested in some Christmas Day luxuries and a really good smoked salmon wrap and a chicken caesar salad.

The streets were packed with people at any time of the day or night, maybe last minute shopping, some carol singers and others just out to feel the Christmas vibe. Once the sun had gone down the streets were even brighter with neon fluorescent and shop interior lights. We felt like we were inside the indent for Channel 4 in the UK which uses neon lights and signs to create a big number four. The inspiration must have come from here.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)