14 Feb

Posted at 12:09h in Photography, Travel
[caption id="attachment_4400" align="alignright" width="300"]Travel phootgraphy by Andy Wasley: Sunrise above Clayton Holt in the South Downs National Park The sun rises above Clayton Holt.[/caption] When planning a travel photography job, preparation is important - especially for something as challenging as the Pennine Way, which I'll be tackling in April. I've spent more than enough time in mountains and on long-distance trails like the Annapurna Circuit and West Highland Way to know that nothing can be left to chance. That's especially the case where kit is concerned, and no less so for cameras than for boots, bivvy shelters and backpacks. I've not had much of a chance to get hands-on with my camera - an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mk II - so far this year, so I took the opportunity of a frosty Saturday morning to take it on a traipse through the South Downs National Park. My aim was as much to escape London as it was to re-engage my creativity.

31 Jan

Posted at 12:16h in Photography
[caption id="attachment_4282" align="alignright" width="300"]Travel photography by Andy Wasley: Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar. Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar.[/caption] These last few weeks have been all about pitching my portfolio to potential clients. It's grinding hard work, especially since it leaves me with little free time to make new portraits or travel photography. This leaves me with a conundrum: as a professional photographer I need to make photographs in order to keep my portfolio up to date. What to do when I'm buckled down at my desk? The answer arrived in the form of Olympus's month-long street photography theme on social media (via @olympusuk and MyOlympus - I shoot exclusively with Olympus kit). It got me thinking more critically about some of my older work, and about what street photography means to me. I think street photography is a vibrant art form. Some of my favourite photographers made or make exceptional street photography, much of which hooked in to their commercial or documentary work. There's a lot to be said for those rare pictures that expertly capture a revealing moment between people. It's what hooked me in to street photography while I was living in the Middle East: an excuse to explore the world with a little more attention, and to record something of life's daily dramas along the way.