The annual Tattoo Festival (Wai Khru) in Thailand attracts many hundreds of devotees. Tattoos are applied by hand with long needles, the tattoo ink is rumoured to be blended with snake venom, amongst other things. Tattoos are believed to have magical properties which protect the wearer from harm. At the festival, hundreds gather in the grounds of Wat Bang Phra, a temple about an hour outside Bangkok. Some enter a trance-like state, channeling the spirits of animals until, mimicking the animals which possess them, they crawl or sprint towards the temple’s main shrine.

This year was the third that I have photographed the Tattoo Festival and it was fascinating to spend the night before the main festival in the temple grounds. Tattooing takes place throughout the night. In contrast to the noise and chaos of the following morning, the night is peaceful with small groups gathered in rooms and halls around the temple, waiting for their turn to have a new tattoo and to have tattoos from previous years re-blessed, the magical power being replenished.

A selection of images from the Masai Mara in Kenya. I’m not a wildlife photographer but after a magical few days, I can see the appeal. The Masai Mara is quite extraordinary and I could have happily stayed a lot longer.

It was quite extraordinary to see the animals at such close quarters and with a glorious sunrise each morning and an even more impressive sunset every evening, it seemed almost like another world.

A selection of images from an editorial assignment about Thai street food, shot in the Chinatown and Sukhumvit areas of Bangkok

I’m working on a story about Cambodia’s “Bamboo Train” this week. The Bamboo Train is a result of Khmer ingenuity. When the original train line, constructed during Cambodia’s colonial past, fell into disrepair, the local people constructed their own bamboo platforms, rested them on salvaged train bogeys and stuck an engine through the middle.

The resulting contraption is functional, fast and fun. Not necessarily in that order With only one set of rails, meeting another bamboo train travelling in the opposite direction requires a hasty dismantling to allow the oncoming train to pass. The speed of the train is controlled by a simple lever, moving the engine back and forth to provide more or less torque on the axle.

My guide/translator/fixer, Mr. Thean enjoys “surfing” the Bamboo Train – I’m thinking of putting a sequence together with a Beach Boys soundtrack. The Bamboo Train is a sight to see and a unique experience. However, it’s the stories of the lives of the communities alongside the train track that really appeal to me and so I’ve been concentrating on getting “behind-the-scenes” of the Bamboo Railway and have been enjoying getting to know the people who make their homes in the villages along the railway track.

If you’re interested, I’m hoping to run a workshop in Cambodia in late July and the Bamboo train will feature as one of our visual story exercises. Watch this space.

…and then there are days where even the rain can’t dampen your enthusiasm for a plan. Those days where an idea has thundered down the hillside towards you and you’ve had the presence of mind to reach out for it and the tenacity to grip it tightly enough to claim it before it continues down the hill in search of somebody more receptive.

Such days, in my experience, frequently include one or more of the following: the company of a treasured friend, a few contemplative moments of quiet reflection, introductions to new friends who quietly and unknowingly offer inspiration, a glimpse of something the colour of which defies comparison, the sight of a landscape bathed in light so golden that it literally makes you gasp and – in my case – the unexpected appearance of a solitary rainbow-coloured umbrella.

Today brought all of these and more.

Which was nice.

I’m in Umbria, enjoying the best hospitality and soaking up the landscape (and the occasional glass of vino rosso in the name of research), making plans for a new type of workshop. I’m moving away from the traditional photographic workshop towards something that I hope will prove to be of interest to creative souls working in any medium. I hope to announce the dates, itinerary, content and prices for a “Creativity Workshop”, currently scheduled for the first week in September. More details will follow in the coming weeks but if you are interested in joining me and some of my most inspiring friends in the rolling hills of northern Italy then make a note in your diary and drop me an e-mail asking to be put at the top of the invitation list.

In the meantime, here are three images found on a short stroll through Castiglione-del-Lago this morning, in-between coffee, meetings, lunch, coffee, site visits, research, more coffee, dinner and wine. It’s a tough life

Chapters include Data Management and Data Risk Analysis, Working in the Field, Colour Calibration, Naming files and Folders, Configuring Adobe Lightroom 4, Importing Images, Image Processing and more.

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I have compiled the Photographer’s Workflow in response to questions asked by many students and fellow photographers. Whilst we enjoy the benefits of digital capture, knowing how to manage our digital photograph archive can be confusing and there’s no clearly defined way to deal with all those images.

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Devotees offer the krathong to the ebb and flow of the river, sending it off with a prayer and a wish. The festival is an opportunity to cast away sinful acts and to ask for wishes to be fulfilled.

This year I photographed at Wat Yannawa, a large temple beside the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok. These are a few of the images.

Monks holding a Krathong, ready to float on the river.

A novice monk at Wat Yannawa.

Students from Satrisi Suriyothai school prepare their Krathong.

Preparing to lift the Krathong into the Chao Phraya river on the end of a pole.

A young boy holding the Krathong before placing it on the river.

A Buddhist monk beside the floating candles.

A girl and her father look at the floating Krathong candles.

A monk collecting donations made to the temple.

Releasing a lantern into the night sky.

A solitary lantern rises into the night sky above Bangkok.

Wat Khun Samut has become known as the “Temple in the sea”.

Thousands of miles away, melting Himalayan glaciers are reportedly causing sea levels to rise and combined with land erosion, parts of the coast of southern Thailand are disappearing. As a recent WWF report on climate change suggests, “The human impact of climate change is devastating and the region’s poorest people are disproportionately affected“.

The report continues “The impacts of climate change are already causing migration and displacement of people, the scope and scale of which could vastly exceed anything that has occurred before.“. One doesn’t have to travel far from Bangkok (which is apparently sinking by 5-10mm each year and will be under 50-100 cm of water in 12 years) to find evidence of the human impact of global warming.

The most striking example can be seen at the temple of Wat Khun Samet. Once the heart of the local village, the temple is now regularly flooded and even the construction of a protective sea wall fails to keep the water out. The surrounding village has now retreated further inland, leaving the temple isolated, but the monks remain, intent on creating a tourist attraction from the “Temple in the sea”.

In an effort to protect Wat Khun Samet, a protective sea wall has been built and a temporary floor built, several feet above the original.

The Greater Mekong region is at greater risk from the effects of sea level changes than most coastal areas because many of the deltas lie at or only just above sea level. It obviously doesn’t take much of an increase in sea levels to create havoc on a large scale.

The only evidence that a village once existed here are the partially submerged telegraph poles, extending towards the horizon.

Local residents have been forced to retreat further inland as the sea claims their homes and schools. Some of the older residents have moved six or seven times. Local fisherman Khun Shao Phakfeng explained how he has moved home six times and now spends a great deal of his time helping with the construction of dams and elevated walkways. “The weather has changed too”, he said, “It should be colder at this time of year but it’s still really hot”.

Khun Shao Phakfeng sits at the door of his current home and looks out towards the sea wall, just a few metres away.

Fisherman Khun Shao Phakfeng points out to a featureless seascape, indicating where his previous homes used to be.

Khun Shao Phakfeng’s home is one of just half-a-dozen which remain at the edge of the sea, protected by a low sea wall and optimistically built on stilts, which rise just a few feet above the water level. Opposite his home is the village school. Built on stilts, the school has relocated several times. The teachers and children will no doubt have to relocated once again if the water rises much further and classrooms are already just a few inches above the high-water mark.

The former school at Ban Khun Samut Chin has been abandoned for ten years.

A low sea wall is all that defends the remaining villagers from the sea.

However, despite the seeming inevitability of their plight, the villagers work hard to protect their community and livelihoods. The head of the village has written countless letters to local and national government officials and has even penned a request for assistance to Al Gore. With the assistance of her husband she has built a small museum and information centre, containing copies of photos and correspondence from the last 35 years. Aerial shots of the coastline reveal how far the sea has encroached and show how far the villagers have had to move.

The head of the Ban Khun Samut Chin village shares the story of the many forced relocations with Tun Jaiyen.

Despite what seems like a gloomy outlook, there’s a sense of quiet resilience from the villagers, which is borne out by the fact that it’s now possible for visiting climate change researchers, professors and scientists to find accommodation at the local home-stay on stilts, right above the rising water. Proof that every cloud can have a silver lining?

The home-stay on stilts in Ban Khun Samut Chin.

So, there was a little bit of a storm in Bangkok this evening.

I was working late when the storm arrived overhead but was soon setting up a camera on each of the west-facing and north-facing balconies in my apartment. Such was the storm’s ferocity that the window panes shook and thunder cracked the air like gunshots. At this time of year, I keep a camera mounted on a tripod with a cable-release attached in readiness for storms, which can pass as quickly as they arrive.

The lightning strikes came with such a frequency, fracturing the clouds and followed by echoing thunder, that each of my thirty-second exposures captured a bolt of energy searing the Bangkok night sky.

It was a weekend rich with photo opportunities, from the wonderfully aromatic fish market town of Mahachai to the curious market on a train line at Mae Khlong. We saw fireflies in Amphawa after dark and enjoyed the hospitality of a family who make palm sugar in Tha Kha.

Our group of experienced photographers were challenged to work throughout the weekend as if they were on assignment for a travel or lifestyle magazine. Each had a “commission” from a magazine editor with specific goals, including the requirement to produce images suitable for a double-page spread and also for a front cover, with room for magazine masthead and text. That kind of specific requirement changes the way we photograph, allowing us to concentrate on certain angles and perspectives, dismissing those subjects which will not fit the brief.

Having that sort of focus is enormously valuable in my experience and the feedback from the weekend seems to bear that out. I’ll be running another weekend photo workshop to these engaging locations in the near future. Watch this space for details or subscribe to my newsletter to keep up to date with new workshop announcements.

Registrations for this lively, vibrant, flamboyant, electrifying, mesmerising and enormously photogenic event are now open.

This is a workshop suitable for experienced and enthusiastic amateur and professional photographers who wish to improve their visual storytelling skills. Led by myself and Matt Brandon (recently voted No. 1 and No. 2 “Most Charming Photographers in Asia” by readers of Digital Photo Pro magazine).

You’ll find more details on my Thaipusam Workshop page.

When an 11 year-old with a point-and-shoot camera composes and times a shot like this so beautifully... well, I think I might have to hang up my camera!

Editing is very much a democratic process

During one exercise we went in search of shadows and the children found some great examples

Lesley Fisher and a dozen willing assistants shooting video on the streets of Addis Ababa

Check-out that look of determined concentration

When photographers meet...

I am reaching the end of my time in Ethiopia and have just a few more days to complete the project. We are guiding the children as they shoot, select and edit their work and I am more delighted with the results than I could ever have hoped. I have a Lightroom catalogue bursting to the seams with engaging, evocative images and the children I’ve spent time with have produced a really impressive body of work, showing life through their eyes.

I can’t wait to share the results with you and to bring you more news about the organisations that I’ve been working with. I hope to have helped the children finish the book that they are compiling by the end of the week and will be bringing news about the finished product as soon as possible.