Archive for the ‘Travels’ Category

Last night I was sent a copy of a tearsheet (see below) from Planet Muscle magazine from a shoot I did the last time I was in Las Vegas, and this morning I woke to an email from someone asking if I’d be at Olympia this year.

Before today I had my mind focused on shooting in Canada in August & September.  However confirming shoots this year in Canada seems harder than ever.    So I’m seeing it as a sign that Las Vegas is a much better idea, and therefore is much more likely to happen.

My plan is to travel out somewhere around 20th September and stay for 10-14 days.

Let the booking start today!

Also, someone has suggested that I come to New York City to shoot.  I’ve not been there in years, so would welcome an excuse to visit again.  It would have to be after Olympia though.

Over the last few days and weeks I’ve been thinking about my continued participation within The Roof of the World rally.

I’ve come to the difficult decision that I’m no longer going to be joining the team in Baku for the final two weeks of the trip.

I know by walking away now I am going to have egg on my face and I’m not going to be very popular with quite a few people, but I’m going to trust my instincts and do what I believe is the right thing for me at this time.

Ashley has done an amazing job of getting sponsors and money for the charities involved, and I wish him and the team only the very best for the trip.

I would like to thank all of those who have expressed an interest in my participation in the trip, and an even bigger thanks for all of those who have donated.  Needless to say all monies will be donated to the charities.

A short video of Ashley Platen-Mills telling us what the Roof of the World rally is all about.

Although the video doesn’t look anything special, it’s a small step forward for me because it’s the first time I’ve synced video with an external sound source.  Even if I do say so myself, I think I did rather well!

Donate at www.charityroadtrips.org.   It’s for the children damn it!

Today, our team involved with “The Roof of the World” rally spent a couple of hours at Ahmad Tea in Chandlers Ford learning how to make tea.

Apparently turning a teabag in a mug for 10 seconds isn’t exactly the right way of doing things.

The proper way is to put (in a pre-warmed teapot), 1 teaspoon of tea for each cup, and then 1 extra for the pot.  Add boiling water, and leave to stand for 4-5 minutes.

The idea behind going to meet Ahmad is because the team will be serving tea to the locals as we make our way from London to Tajikistan.  Ahmad have given us some mugs, tea cups, saucers and tea pots with tea cosies.  I’m quite looking forward to photographing them, the team and the locals in some obscure places as we serve tea in the oh so British way.

If you’d like to sponsor us, the main charities are Make-a-Wish and Sworde Teppa.  Any donation, however small is very much appreciated.   If you do donate via my blog, please leave a comment saying you came via my website.

Many thanks

The link is – www.charityroadtrips.org

I’ve just seen these set of photographs of the ethnic violence in  Kyrgyzstan on the Boston.com Big Picture page.

www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/ethnic_attacks_in_kyrgyzstan.html

The Big Picture is one of my favourite photo journalism websites.

This time, it’s all a bit close to home.  In less than 4 weeks time I’m due to start a trip across the middle east that was originally going to go through the heart of where all the troubles are at the moment.

I’ll be documenting the last 2 weeks of the Roof of the World rally that ends in Tajikistan.

I’ve even got a visa in my passport for Kyrgyzstan and I think it’s safe to say that I won’t be needing that visa.  The borders with Kyrgyzstan are apparently closed, so we will be forced into changing our route.

I was already a little nervous about the trip, and this isn’t exactly doing much to put my mind at ease.

For more information about the trip, and the charities we’re doing it for please visit www.charityroadtrips.org.

This is the vehicle that’s going to take our team all the way from London to Tajikistan in July.  I’ll be spending the last 2 weeks as we battle across the hardest part of the journey.

It’s all for charity, and all for the children.  For more information read my blog posts on the Roof of the World rally.

To donate – www.justgiving.com/charityroadtrips

Please mention my name if you donate.  Thanks

As regular readers of my blog will know I’m going on the last 2 weeks of the Roof of the World rally which will take me from the country who came in fifth place in Eurovision this year, Azerbaijan across several countries ending in ‘stan’ before finally finishing in Tajikistan.

We’ll be encountering all kinds of wildlife along the way, including, wolfs, bears, wild boars and camels and of course not forgetting the most dangerous of the lot, the wild killer hamsters.

My adventure starts when I fly into Baku and meet the team who have driven all the way from London over the previous 2 weeks.  Our first challenge is then to get across the Caspian Sea, on a boat that may or may not leave when it’s supposed to.

I’ve had to obtain 5 visas for the trip, 1 for each of the country I’m visiting.  It’s the first time I’ve ever needed to obtain a visa before setting off on a trip, and especially as some of the countries are relatively closed to outsiders it was an interesting experience.

Once make it over the Caspian Sea (which is likely to take well over 24 hours) we’ll be travelling across the desert of Turkmenistan heading for the Uzbekistan border and the city of Tashkent.

From here we start to climb into the mountains using loosely described “roads” towards Kyrgyzstan and Sary Tash at 9000 feet above sea level. Due to civil unrest in Kyrgyzstan we may have to make a detour, otherwise we head for the Tajikistan border and the second highest road in the world – The Pamir Highway in the Pamir Mountains.

This area is very remote but has spectacular scenery, so plenty of photographs will be taken, which are available to anyone that donates. We follow the China / Afghanistan border along to Dushanbe and on to the Children’s School at Quergan Teppa run by the Charity Sworde Teppa.

There will be some “dangers” along the way, such as dealing with the high altitudes, maybe having to give a small bribe to border guards and others along the way.

Although to be honest my ‘fears’ about the trip are smaller things, like how we deal with the heat – likely to be around 50c in the deserts; what we eat and drink and the risks of getting sick from it (I’m packing lots of imodium just in case!)

My target for the team is £1000, which is going to help cover some of my costs (including visa applications, injections, and flights).

After we get back I’m hoping to put on an exhibition of some of the photographs, and also to stage a charity auction where you can buy and own some of the more stunning images from our adventure.

I’m a bit behind in my target, so any donations would be much appreciated.  You can donate via the Just Giving website link below.

http://www.justgiving.com/charityroadtrips

Ashley, the man on the far left makes stuff happen.  He makes stuff happen good!  I’ve only known him for a couple of months since he dragged me into his Roof of the World charity project, but the boy is good.

So last night was a charity do dinner thingy at Monkberrys in Bournemouth.  There must have been at least 50 of us in the room, and we pretty much took over Monkberrys.  Most of the guys were sporting their logo’ed up charity shirts.

In the picture above Ashley and David (on the left) are doing the whole trip, from London to Tajikistan.  While Abby (purple dress) is going from London to Azerbaijan.  Kerry (in black) will be joining them in Istanbul and going through to Azerbaijan.  I’ll be picking up the tour in Azerbaijan, and then John (with his hand on my shoulder) will be joining us in Toshkent and we’ll both be going through to the end.

After a very pleasant dinner was the charity raffle and then charity auction.  Ashley had managed to get his hands on a boxing glove signed by Frank Bruno, and rally shirts signed by the Poole Speedway team, and Bournemouth Football club.  There were loads of other donations, but these were the most visual.

With the auction over and lots of money made for Make A Wish and Sworde Teppa Frank Sinatra stepped on stage.  Anthony Adams was Frank for the evening.  While not exactly my choice of music, but he was rather good and the perfect choice to finish the evening with.

Oh, Nick I hope you make a speedy recovery.  Nick fell over a small step and put his shoulder out and had to be taken to hospital.  It shook me up a little because it reminded me of when I fell over a similarly small step twisting my ankle so badly that I also had to be taken to hospital.  Hope you’re feeling better by the time you read this Nick.  I also hope the next time I visit Monkberrys they’ve put some tape on the step to help people see it.  Dark coloured step, dark coloured floor and low lighting means an accident is always likely to happen.

Oh we raised a tad over £2500!  However we want to raise more.  Please visit charityroadtrips.org to donate.

Enough of me, and to some photos from the evening.

While meeting, Ashley, the man behind my involvement in The Roof of the World Rally yesterday I asked him to do a short bit to video explaining exactly what it was we’re doing.

This is what he had to say.

Please donate – www.charityroadtrips.org.

I’m rubbish with paper work, red tape, and all things like that, so I’m very glad we’ve got Ashley to organise all the visa stuff for our charity road trip across the middle east.