Jaspal Jandu Photography

India Calling

I’m currently in India – a place rich with childhood memories.  However, the most apparent feature which confronts me as an adult is the widening disparity between rich and poor.  Witnessing the incredible pockets of wealth alongside the abject poverty of the numerous slums is an issue which simply cannot be ignored.

I’ve often thought of taking to the entire country and exploring such issues with my lens. However, capturing a populous of over a billion spread over such a wide geography and culture would take a fair few years to complete.

For the first time in a while, I've not felt the desire to photograph the epic landscapes which I’m normally associated with.  Maybe the sub-conscious feeling of injustice has led me to explore pictures with a human angle.  I’m just not sure.

Whatever the reason, I’ve been on the hunt for pictures of hope; pictures that tell a story of this brave new world. 

There’ll be more pictures when I’ve had a chance to download. I’ve also starting jotting down notes for that epic project so watch this space…

Scotland Revisited

In an earlier post, I noted the value of re-visiting a scene over time.  In that particular case from New Zealand the view had change dramatically for the worse upon re-inspection!

After travelling to Scotland this weekend I could not resist the chance to re-visit the ever-impressive Buachaille Etive Mòr in Glen Coe.  My last trip there had lead to a Limited Edition Print which captured the wild light and autumnal colours at their best.

During this trip a snow storm had swept through the area and deposited around 6 inches of fresh snow on every corner of the park. Bliss!  Although I couldn’t remember exactly where I had taken the first LEP print, I wasn’t that far off as I re-composed my viewfinder.

A great demonstration of the rewards on offer in even familiar places.

Work, Rest and Play

After a last-minute skiing vacation to Chamonix, France popped up on the internet, I must admit that it was difficult leaving some of the heavy-duty camera gear at home.

One of the best ways to combine ‘down-time’ with photography ‘up-time’ is to shoot during the un-social hours of the day (very early and very late) and then devote the rest of the day to the vacation.  Not only does this provide you with the required shooting fix for the day but (more importantly) it keeps a semblance of balance with your companions!

The shot above is case-in-point.  It was taken unfeasibly early one morning with the mercury hovering around -10c.  I was up at 5am and somehow managed to get back for a late breakfast after the gentle morning light had faded.  The rest of the day involved sliding around on the snow gaining new bruises in places I never knew existed.  Bliss, in a very weird way…

Emerald Green

A quick trip to Ireland has provided a welcome respite from the riot of Autumn colour in the UK.  The aptly-named Emerald Isle is so wet and verdant that green just pops out to you from virtually every corner.

More print from Ireland can be found in the Limited Edition Gallery….

Colours of The New Forest

It's Autumn in the Northern hemisphere and the foliage is beginning its annual transformation into the sublime.  Such is the beauty of this event that that my little black book of places to revisit at their best is almost completely full of entries to be captured right about now!

One place which has been in the book for many years is the New Forest in Hampshire, England.  Although a few days are barely enough to cover a fraction of its 145 square mile area, I did manage to while away a complete afternoon at a delightful stream near Brockenhurst.  Concentrating on just the small details, I could have easily filled an entire book with a kaleidoscope of yellows, reds and golds.

A true lesson that we can find an immense wealth of detail if we just look hard enough.

Global Warming - A First Hand Experience

One of the highlights of the recent trip to the US was a dedicated helicopter shoot over Glacier National Park in Montana.

As I have written about the trials and tribulations of aerial shooting in a previous article, I will save all the technical talk for now.  Instead, the most noticeable aspect of taking to the skies was the view of receding glaciers in virtually every corner of the park.

One of the insidious aspects of global warming is the fact that most of us ‘city dwellers’ have yet to feel the first-hand effects of our actions.  If proof were needed that we are on a collision course with Mother Nature then one need only venture to the skies for a view of the damage which is already being inflicted.

Although temperature oscillations have always occurred in the region, it is staggering to think that by 2030 there will no glaciers left in the park at all.  That thought alone deserves some serious reflection.

In fact, our eco-system is in a delicate balance and although the impact of glacier retreat on the park's ecosystems is not fully known, cold water dependent plant and animal species could suffer massively due to a loss of habitat.

Glacier National Park has a highly regarded global climate change research program. The US Geological Survey has performed specific climate change studies since 1992 and I believe that this is a cause and an institution which we should be supporting with all our vigour.

Autumnal Moods

A set of recently processed prints from Wyoming and Montana.  The Autumnal shades are just at peak and are forming a wonderfully restrained - yet enticing - colour palette on overcast days.

More to follow...

Grand Teton and Yellowstone Wonder

To witness the majestic wilderness of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks is a joy to behold.  Snow covered peaks with a perfect autumnal tundra on the ground – it’s a place you never really want to leave!

Although I haven’t had time to process all the scenes, I wanted to share some wonderful abstract shots with you in this post.  The wealth of detail - on both large and small scales – in these two parks alone is more than words can describe.

Our collective hats should go off to visionaries like Ferdinand Hayden (geologist), William Henry Jackson (photographer) and Thomas Moran (painter) whose concerted efforts lead to Yellowstone becoming the world's first national park on March 1, 1872.  Bravo.

On the road again...

Bizarrely, one of the downsides of digital photography is that it can lead to less time behind a camera.  The constant processing, developing and archiving of digital images can easily chew up an alarming amount of time (and money) if left unchecked.

Whilst film is intrinsically easier in terms of the ‘image-meets-eye’ process, one should not forget the similar amounts of time involved in the labelling, filing and storing of physical images in the medium.

Ultimately, after recently spending a considerable amount of resources in building a robust digital workflow, I need a break.  I know its not every person’s definition of ‘break’ but a quick surf of the web pulled up the opportunity to fly out to Wyoming and Montana at short notice and it was easy to embrace this with open arms.

Hopefully, being back on the road should lead to a few more frequent postings so stay tuned for some stories behind the camera...

Cambodian Warmth

Travelling through Cambodia can lead to a serious diversion from the core brief of landscape photography. The reason behind this is the depth and wealth of humanity which pervades this wonderful country.  From ancient civilisations to the appalling reality of the Khmer Rouge, it’s easy to drop-out of the landscape and tune-in to one of the most fascinating cultures on the planet.

A number of early civilisations once dominated this land.  This reached an apogee with the mighty Khmer empire of the 9th-15th century A.D.  The sublime temples of Angkor are a lasting testimony to the Khmer and you would be hard-pressed to find a more impressive set of structures anywhere else in the world.

Although I frequently use two cameras in the field – the film-based Linhof 617 and the digital Canon 1Ds mkII – I find it almost impossible to resist the temptation to use the former over the latter; the clarity and definition of the large-format film being a joy to behold.  However, this detail comes at the expense of methodical operation and a cumbersome set-up procedure.

Attempting to photograph children playing, for example, quickly becomes frenetic endeavour.  Fast shutter speeds and film emulsions (I often change over from ISO50 to ISO400 film) are required to ‘freeze’ the movement of, say, faces.  Opening up the aperture (the light gathering iris of the lens) also helps but this comes at the expense of depth of field.  You can imagine cycling through the various permutations in the heat of events...

One can only hope that recent wounds will slowly heal because this unique country has changed my complete remit – one simply cannot attempt to document Cambodia without a reference to its wonderful people.