This story was originally published on Nikon Asia's Learn & Explore blog.

A story of tradition and legacy sparking modern day success, 'Taking Aim' was shot exclusively on the D4S by Nikon ambassadors Scott Woodward and Michael Rogers. The story follows a young Bhutanese girl, travelling the roads of her ancestors to deliver traditional yak butter tea to her father.

When Nikon first contacted Scott about test-driving the new D4S, he recounts knowing instantly where he wanted to take it.  Coining his style as “Choose Your Own Adventure Photography”, he knew Bhutan’s rolling hills are a mecca of inspiration, begging to be tapped into.

Bhutanese culture has long celebrated the sport of archery, with communities gathering to observe, sing, dance and drink as men dress in traditional ghos send arrows flying. This inspired Scott and his team instantly – “We thought that there was nice synergy between them through the legacy of archery in Bhutan.  We wanted to create a story that took inspiration from both the history of traditional archery while including Bhutan’s contemporary female athletes.”

Traversing the vast landscapes of the Himalayas is challenging in itself, being rich in vast mountain planes and a lively Bhutanese culture.  It’s not a journey for fainthearted, considering the 4,000 meter trek, with the added task of transporting production equipment onto location.  With the help of Ian Mangiardi, a trekking specialist, the team was left in good hands.  Battling the heat, cold and unfamiliar grounds they began their journey into the Himalayas.

Using the latest features of the D4S, they were able to capture luminescent lighting in dark interiors, all without losing the brilliant colours adorning people and places. Much of the cast in the narrative film were locals from the countryside eager to join in.  “People watching our crew work were very supportive and kind.  We had some serious production equipment, like a 35-foot jib that was pretty unusual to see out in the Bhutanese countryside, so that certainly caused some head scratching and curiosity amongst our observers.”

The short film shares the importance of home, the people that make it your sanctuary, the traditions we uphold and our duty to keep it alive.  Mixed in with sweeping scenes of Bhutan, you get the sense of Bhutanese lifestyle existing in

harmony with nature.  The journey takes us from the country side, riverbeds and bustling market stalls, before we see the metaphorical passing of the torch and sharing of legacy.

Affection for Bhutan and the Bhutanese heritage is not only alive in the 'Taking Aim' story, but was ever present in the people they underwent the journey with.  One of the oldest Bhutanese guides that they lovingly referred to as “Yak Man” was quick in forming a friendship with Scott and the crew, showing them his herding techniques whilst sporting traditional Yak hair sunglasses -- a patch of hair wrapped around the eyes of the wearer.

“Additionally, our Production Assistant and Fixer in Bhutan, Sonam Tshering (ST), is also Bhutan’s national mountain biking champion.  He tutors young riders on the weekends and we required four young boys for our bridge scene in ‘Taking Aim’; they are ST’s mountain biking protégés.”

These are the people that inspired a story of love and culture, old and new adventures.  We can only hope to see more of what makes Bhutan such a captivating place.

See more of our film and photography from Bhutan here.

As a Nikon Ambassador, I have worked closely with my friends at Nikon Asia since 2004.  From shooting new product advertising campaigns to hosting photography workshops and seminars to judging sponsored reality television shows, Nikon and I have partnered on a wide variety of creative collaborations over the past decade.

This past January, I was asked to a meeting at the Nikon offices in Singapore.  Although I was not informed of the specific agenda, I was more than happy to see my friends from the Regional Marketing team for a discussion about upcoming projects and partnership opportunities in the year ahead.  I had no idea Nikon would request I work with them on the launch of the brand new Nikon D4S.

Creatively, I and my team -- consisting of my long-time partners Mike Rogers, Meghan Shea and Annette Fausboll -- was given a very long leash.  The only thing Nikon insisted was that we take the D4S on an extreme adventure.

We knew immediately where we wanted to go: the enigmatic Kingdom of Bhutan.

We decided to bring the D4S on a trek in Bhutan's Himalayan Mountains.  We had only one small problem: none of us had any experience with this type of adventure. So we reached out to Ian Mangiardi, the high altitude

trekking specialist from The King's Challenge.  With Ian's help, we planned a route that would take our team beyond 4,000m (nearly 14,000 feet), pushing the limits of both the camera and ourselves.

Working within the broad creative framework of "I Am Perfected By Pros", Nikon gave our team three specific content deliverables: a Camera Test demonstrating the camera's new features and innovative technology; a Behind the Scenes video giving viewers a glimpse into the shoot production and logistics; and a short, scripted Narrative film shot entirely on the D4S.

In a word, our Camera Test and Behind the Scenes shoots were epic.  A team of 10 Bhutanese guides led our crew of eight people, while their 21 pack horses carried all of our supplies and gear (and there was A LOT of gear) on an unforgettable adventure.  With the local insight and assistance, we were privileged to witness and document the rugged beauty and friendly people of Bhutan: filming an early morning archery competition at sunrise, visiting a monastery on a mountain with a single monk living inside, experiencing an unexpected overnight storm that dumped more than a foot of snow on our campsite, singing traditional Bhutanese songs by campfire with an elderly yak herder and sharing breathtaking views of Jomolhari, Bhutan’s highest mountain.

Immediately following the trek, our team jumped straight into shooting our Narrative movie about a young Bhutanese girl's journeys across the countryside.  Led by Director-and-Writer team Mike and Meghan, making this film was a unique opportunity for me to wear a different creative hat and gain experience assisting them in producing and shooting a short scripted movie.

As I say in "A Journey To Perfection", never in my career have I taken a camera straight out of the box and onto assignment.  But having taken the D4S above 4,000m and through more than 5,000 frames, I can confidently say...
I Am Impressed.

See previous multimedia content created by our team for Nikon Asia for the launch of the Nikon 1 V1 camera.

Credits

Client: Nikon Asia

Executive Producer: Annette Fausboll

Director / DoP: Mike Rogers

Writers & Producers: Meghan Shea & Elizabeth Jensen

Editors: David Flood & Mark Chua

Assistant Cameras: Sangay, Rinchen & David Flood

Trekking Specialist: Ian Mangiardi

Production Assistant / Fixer: Sonam Tshering

For the past few years my creative partners, Mike Rogers and Meghan Shea, and I have worked closely with the Sala Bai Hotel & Restaurant School in Siem Reap, Cambodia to document the positive work they are doing for the nation's disadvantaged youth.  We have made photographic reportage and documentary films about this tuition-free hospitality training school and how they provide students with the skills and experience necessary to secure gainful employment in one of the city's numerous hotels, guesthouses or restaurants.  These skills, and the resulting economic independence, not only improve the students' quality of life, but that of their families as well.

Our close friend, Sam McGoun, has made a lifelong commitment to supporting Sala Bai in their effort to help stop human trafficking before it starts by providing young Cambodians -- teenage women, in particular -- with an education at Sala Bai.  Sam explained, “My purpose is helping others -- giving more in this world than I could possibly ever take.  My passion is Sala Bai, and more specifically, giving young Cambodian women access to education and employment in the hospitality industry.  My true happiness, therefore, is the result of helping others, and in particular, the students of Sala Bai.”

Inspired by the challenges overcome by the students of Sala Bai, in April 2012 Sam decided to run, cycle and swim more than 670km across Cambodia to raise funds for Sala Bai

and to increase awareness of the dangers of human trafficking.  As the documentary photography- and film-making team tasked with chronicling Sam’s odyssey, we did our best to keep pace with him as he traversed muddy lakes and rivers, ran through small villages and pedaled across the craggy countryside of rural Cambodia.

Sam’s route across the Kingdom of Wonder followed the metaphorical journey traveled by more than one thousand (and counting) Sala Bai students -- from a small floating village in Mechrey on Tonlé Sap Lake, to Sala Bai where they study in Siem Reap, to a sandy beachfront overlooking the Gulf of Thailand in Sihanoukville where the students’ graduation celebration is held annually.

For 10 days this past November, Sam and our small documentary team descended upon Siem Reap for a second cross-Cambodia fund-raising adventure.  This time Sam ran, cycled and swam more than 701km across the country, honoring his commitment to raise money to help the students of Sala Bai and to fight human trafficking in Cambodia.  Once again, Mike, Meghan and I were tasked with following Sam up hills, into mud, across lakes, through rivers, onto floating villages and into pagodas to tell the story of his epic journey.

A few months before Sam's odyssey began, I was speaking with my friends at SanDisk in California.  They had seen the

short behind-the-scenes video that Mike and I created following Sam's first cross-Cambodia triathlon and there was interest in us making some similar photo and video content during Sam's upcoming second adventure for the #SanDiskStories campaign.  We were excited for this opportunity and, along with our editor, David Flood, the team agreed to make two short films for SanDisk.

The first video, 'Extreme Cambodian Triathlon', is a short film that introduces Sam to viewers as he explains his inspiration and personal challenge.  It also takes people behind-the-scenes with me as I document Sam's cross-Cambodia adventure.

The second film, 'The Challenge', is a short video about the personal challenge I gave myself during the documentation of Sam’s journey: to make 10 photographs in rapid succession, every hour on the hour, from sunrise until sunset, each day of the adventure.  It includes me explaining the nature of my photographic experiment and shows viewers both the process and results of my creative challenge.

These films are complemented by a series of blog posts that the team created for the SanDisk Stories site.

Click here to see more of my work as a member of the SanDisk Extreme Team.

For more than five years I’ve been collaborating closely with Annette Fausboll at Ugly Duckling Projects and Mike Rogers at Persistent Productions on the creation of a variety of commercial advertising campaigns and documentary films across Asia and around the world.

During the past 18 months, our creative partnership has extended into producing branded multimedia content for a variety of commercial clients, including Nikon and Google, as well as philanthropic organizations like Touch Sala Bai and The Chain Reaction Project.

This past year I also worked with The HISTORY Channel in the dual role of Host and Photographer on Around The World With Voyager, a five-part broadcast television series sponsored by Diageo that featured me traveling around Asia and capturing the Johnnie Walker brand and product story in both imagery and voice.

This combination of presenting/hosting and collaborative photography and video production recently led to Mike, Annette and me partnering with Arcade and their client, Unilever, on the creation of three Clear Shampoo online beauty videos offering tips for women on how to look flawless in headshots: in groups, in a mirror and the increasingly popular self-portrait (or #selfie).

Conceptualized by Arcade, the 360-degree 'Nothing To Hide' campaign also includes a customizable photo app (available for download in both the Apple App Store and on Google Play) that is designed to help users make, upload and share their own "flawless headshots".

Filmed in different locations across Singapore this past May, the making of this campaign -- which was produced by Annette, directed and filmed by Mike and hosted by me -- was a true team effort and great fun to create together.

Clear's 'Nothing To Hide' recently launched in Thailand and will continue to roll-out in markets across Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere around the world throughout 2014.

Credits

Client: Unilever Asia / Clear Shampoo

Agency: Arcade

Executive Creative Directors: Matt Cullen & Mark Taylor

Executive Producer (Arcade): Rebecca Soh

Account Service: Dorothy Yew, Saufi Salleh & Chin-Han Yu

Production: Ugly Duckling Projects (UDP)

Executive Producer (UDP): Annette Fausboll

Producer: Andre Chen

Production Assistant: Quinny Vu

Director / DoP: Mike Rogers, Persistent Productions

Assistant Camera: Shahril

Main Model: Thaís Garavello

Supporting Model 1: Sara A.

Supporting Model 2: Monalika

Styling: Furqan Saini

Hair & Make-up: Andrea Claire

Photographer's Assistants: Zam & Halid (Stills Network)

D.I. Artist: Agnes Teo

As described on this blog many times, for the past few years my creative partners at Persistent Productions and I have worked closely with our friend, Sam McGoun and the Sala Bai Hotel & Restaurant School in Siem Reap, Cambodia to document the positive work they are doing for some of the country's most disadvantaged youth.

Together Mike Rogers, Meghan Shea and I have created volumes of photographic reportage and documentary film about Sala Bai, a tuition-free hospitality training school, illustrating how they provide students with the education, capabilities and experience necessary to secure gainful employment in one of Siem Reap's countless hotels, guesthouses and restaurants.

Our most recent project with Sala Bai was last year when we followed Sam as he swam, cycled and ran more than 670km across Cambodia to raise funds for Sala Bai and increase awareness about the dangers of human trafficking.

Inspired by the challenges overcome by the students of Sala Bai, Sam’s route across the Kingdom of Wonder followed the actual journey traveled by a former student named Khatna: from her floating village in Mechrey on Tonle Sap Lake, to Sala Bai where she studied in Siem Reap, to her graduation celebration on the sandy beachfront overlooking the Gulf of Thailand in Sihanoukville.

As the photography- and film-making team tasked with chronicling Sam’s odyssey, we documented his every step as he traversed snake-infested lakes and muddy rivers, ran through small dusty villages and pedaled across the glorious countryside of rural Cambodia on his way to raising more than USD$30,000 for Sala Bai.

At the conclusion of each leg we posted on this blog a daily journal and photo essay titled "Reports from the Road". And just recently Mike, Meghan and their extremely talented editor, David Flood, created this short film titled "A Step Between" which provides a candid, intimate look at Sam's cross-Cambodian adventure.

Sam has made a lifelong commitment to fight human trafficking and, in line with his promise, he will once again undertake a cross-Cambodia adventure in November. Mike, Meghan and I will be there to document and encourage Sam every step of the way.

Click here to watch our documentary team turn the cameras on ourselves in a short behind-the-scenes video.

As explained in an earlier blog post, over two years ago a couple of my friends -- Canadian artist Billy Ma and Brazilian model Paula -- and I worked together on a personal photography project we called "Raw".  Part of this creative undertaking involved shooting a large collection of artistic nude portraits, many of which were never used in our project.  These photographs were filed away on a hard drive and forgotten about, until I stumbled across them once again last year.  I was immediately taken by the simplicity and beauty of the images and felt inspired to "do something" with these portraits.

Recalling British artist Nikki Farquharson's strikingly beautiful mixed media work -- where she integrates photographers' imagery into her own hand-inked custom pop art -- I felt inspired to take a chance and send her a message enquiring about an cross-continental creative collaboration.  Remarkably, Nikki wrote me back almost immediately.  And, since that day nearly 18 months ago, Nikki and I have been partnering on creating "Gaia", a four image series that takes my nude photography of Paula, and wraps her in Nikki's delightful abstract interpretation of the classical Greek elements of Air, Fire, Earth and Water.

Nikki has been wonderful at documenting her work and using her Instagram account to keep me updated on her

painstaking and delicate manual progress.  Today Nikki sent me a link to her blog that shows her work-to-date, along with a short message informing me that she had completed inking the elements and was now ready to move onto incorporating my photographs into her colourful custom artwork.

Nikki's art is simply stunning, and there aren't words for me to express how excited and proud I am to be collaborating with such a talented and dedicated artist.  I cannot wait to share our finished "Gaia" series with everyone soon.

A couple of years ago, Canadian artist Billy Ma and I worked together on a personal photography project with our Brazilian model friend Paula.

Conceptually, our creative idea was to use Paula as a canvas for herself.  To achieve this, I photographed Paula in the nude in a variety of poses and Billy printed a selection of these images onto plastic transparencies.  Then, using a decades-old analog overhead projector, Billy projected these pictures of Paula back onto her bare skin while I photographed her again. Collectively, we wanted this series of images to show sensuality, yet vulnerability; we desired the photographs to be honest and uninhibited, like only someone very close to the subject could have made them. The result was a series we called "Raw".

Once our project was complete, my original photographs of Paula were archived and forgotten about.  At least until last year, when I stumbled upon this collection of nudes on a hard drive at work.  I perused the series of photographs and was struck by their simplicity and beauty.  I felt inspired to "do something" with these images, but at the time I didn't know exactly what that should be.

I then recalled having been introduced to British artist Nikki Farquharson's fantastic "Mixed Media Girls" series on The Cool Hunter a couple of years earlier.  I remembered how

beautiful and inspired I found Nikki's art, so I decided to visit her website and blog.

It was here that I read that she is "always interested in new work and collaborations, especially with photographers". This gave me the courage to send Nikki a message.

I wrote to her immediately, introducing myself and my photography.  I asked if she would be interested in a creative collaboration with me, merging some of my photographs of Paula together with her original ink pop art illustrations.

I was extremely excited to receive a reply from Nikki -- the very next day -- expressing her interest in working together on this project with me.  And so our online friendship and intercontinental partnership was born...

For the next couple of weeks, we got to know one another a little better via email, sharing our ideas and our individual visions for this endeavour.

Over the course of these conversations, the theme of Gaia (or Mother Earth) came to dominate our collective consciousness.  And from there, the concept of wrapping Paula in the classical Greek elements of earth, air, fire and water began to take shape.

One of the most interesting things about this creative collaboration with Nikki is that she and I have never once spoken on the telephone.  All of our communication, ideation and sharing has taken place using only modern technology and social media: email, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  This wasn't a conscious decision that we made together, but over the months it seems to have become an unspoken agreement between us.  When this project is complete, it will certainly be a partnership for a brave new world.

The photographs here show some of Nikki's work-in-progress on each of the pieces.  To me, this is a wonderful document of -- and glimpse inside -- her vision, dedication and commitment to her craft.

One of my great pleasures as a photographer is the privilege of being able to collaborate with other artists across diverse disciplines.  This project with Nikki has only further demonstrated to me how much joy and reward can be found in sharing your ideas and your work with others.  I can't wait to share our finished product with the world soon.

In 2006, I met portrait photographer Tan Ngiap Heng at a week end photo workshop being conducted in Singapore. Ngiap Heng and I stayed in touch afterwards, and shortly following the workshop he asked whether I would sit for a portrait session at his studio one day.

When I agreed, Ngiap Heng asked me to bring a few JPEG's of my own photography to the shoot -- some of my favourite personal work -- and although I wasn't exactly sure why, I obliged.

I soon learned that Ngiap Heng was experimenting with using a digital projector to cast images against a backdrop, and then having his subjects pose within the projected image while he photographed his portrait.  I had never seen this before, and was intrigued when he projected one of my own photographs on me and then made my portrait.

It is five years later, and I still remember my portrait session with Ngiap Heng.  So, when model Paula asked me if I'd be interested in doing a personal test shoot with her, I was inspired to borrow from my projection experience with Ngiap Heng, but take it a little further...

I came up with the idea of shooting Paula once, and then projecting those images of her back onto her own skin while photographing her again; I wanted to use Paula as a canvas for herself.

I met with an artist friend and frequent collaborator of mine, fellow Canadian Billy Ma, and together we wrestled with exactly how to execute this idea, and what style and tone the photography should take.  We wanted the series of images to show sensuality, yet vulnerability; we wanted the photographs to be raw and honest, like only someone very close to the subject (a lover?) could have made them.

With Billy art directing, and wonderful hair and make-up artist Dewi Mahoney assisting us, I lit and photographed Paula in a variety of poses in my Chinatown studio.  Billy took these images away, printed them on plastic transparencies, and then we came back together again with Paula a week later for the second part of the project.

Billy owns a decades-old analog overhead projector, complete with dirt and scratches, that was perfect for the job.  Together with the help of another hair and make-up artist Winnie Chow, Billy projected images of Paula back

onto her body while I photographed this series; these are the results.

This was an exciting and rewarding project to undertake with my creative friends, and we are all proud of the results.  However, like many collaborations, this shoot was not without its frustrations -- we encountered technical and creative challenges along the way -- but we persevered, and in the end we got where we wanted to be, together.

I don't believe the creative process is supposed to be easy: for me , it's about push and pull, give and take, partnership and compromise.  I am glad that I have a group of friends and colleagues who believe this too.

See more of my fashion and portrait photography on my website.