Mechrey to Kampong Kdey

The team awoke this morning on a floating crocodile farm to the cock-a-doodle-doo's of the resident rooster; and from there, the day got increasingly colorful.

The reason for our aquatic overnight was because Sam began his race at Mechrey, a floating village on the Tonle Sap Lake, and the hometown of Khatna, one of Sala Bai's graduates.

After a ceremonial visit with Khatna and her parents, we said goodbye to her family, and Sam set out to take the first plunge of his cross-Cambodian challenge.

Sam bravely dove into the cloudy snake-filled waters of Tonle Sap and, as the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, he had the tall task of negotiating it's strong currents. Thankfully, there was only one casualty from our nautical morning: Mike’s Nikon AW 100 camera sadly plunged to the bottom of lake during a rogue inflatable kayak incident.

After conquering the swim, and following a quick change on the boat, Sam stepped foot on dry land and began his run for, and to, Sala Bai Hotel & Restaurant School, where more than 50 students lined the street and energetically cheered him on.  After greeting him, the students became a

bicycle entourage and joined Sam for the rest of his run, cycling by his side through the streets of Siem Reap. This lively entourage journeyed from Sala Bai to the Angkor Wat Temples, dotting the dusty roads with their bright orange shirts and even brighter smiles.  It was a striking and emotional scene: Sam running, students cycling, all against the backdrop of some of the world’s most spectacular ancient temples.

For most adventurers this would have been enough action for one day (month, year, etc), but not for Sam.  After the temples, Sam bid adieu to the students, hopped on his bicycle and, battling the sandy back roads of rural Cambodia, pedaled another 70km to Kampong Kdey. Nearly 17 hours after he began, Sam successfully completed the first day of his adventure.

Did you miss yesterday's post?  Read the first installment of Sam's adventure here.

Donate to support Sam, Sala Bai and the fight against human trafficking.

- Meghan Shea

About Sala Bai

For nearly ten years now, Sala Bai Hotel & Restaurant School has been offering tuition-free hospitality training to 100 impoverished young people annually.  Sala Bai's mission is to provide their students with the capabilities and experience necessary -- in one of four disciplines: restaurant service, cooking, front office and housekeeping -- to secure gainful employment in one of Siem Reap's numerous luxury hotels, guesthouses or restaurants. These skills, and the resulting economic independence, not only improves the students' quality of life, but those of their families as well.

About the Adventure

In the early morning hours of Saturday 31 March, Sam McGoun -- a Detroit-area native and current resident of Singapore -- will begin a seven day journey, swimming, running and cycling 625km across Cambodia in an effort to raise awareness for, and help fight against, human trafficking.  Inspired by the challenges overcome by the students of Sala Bai, Sam’s route will follow the actual journey traveled by one recent Sala Bai graduate, Khatna, as she gained an education at the school.  All funds raised by Sam will directly benefit Sala Bai, an organization that stops human trafficking before it starts.

The Adventure Begins: Singapore to Siem Reap

Sam and the team began our cross-Cambodian adventure early Thursday morning, departing from Singapore and bound for Cambodia laden with camera equipment, bicycles, energy bars and flush with excitement for our week ahead.

Soon after landing in Siem Reap, Sam dove headlong into his triathlete responsibilities, playing the role of bike mechanic as he assembled and prepped his rides after their flight.  Thanks to the ever-supportive staff at the Heritage Suites Hotel, Sam's bikes were roadworthy in no time.

Later in the day we touched base with our friends at Sala Bai.  Sam addressed a sea of smiling young students at the morning flagpole ceremony, explaining that his inspiration and motivation for his journey is in fact the students themselves.  Their commitment to creating a better life and future for themselves and their family has clearly left a very deep impression on Sam.  As a physical manifestation of this inspiration, on every day of the adventure Sam will wear a different shirt -- one for each student specialization at Sala Bai -- connecting each of the student groups directly to one segment of his race and showing his solidarity with the students of Sala Bai.

In the final throes of trip preparation, the crew gathered for an epic pre-departure meeting where we got a preview of what to expect on our week-long trek.  We’ll be camping at abandoned temples, waking before dawn to monastic chants, sleeping in pagodas, encouraging Sam and finding showers whenever we can.

As the documentary photography and film team chronicling Sam’s odyssey, we will be doing our best to keep pace with him as he dives into the rivers, runs through the villages and pedals across the countryside of rural Cambodia.  And if Internet gods smile upon us, we will bring you a daily Report From The Road every evening, sharing a few snapshots and the daily headlines from Sam's journey.  We are in for one fantastic adventure...

Donate to support Sam, Sala Bai and the fight against human trafficking.

- Meghan Shea

Not long ago, I received an email from the editor of Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia; he was looking for a photograph to appear on the final page of his March 2012 edition, in a section called "Last Look".

The editor had seen a collection of pictures that I made at Bambu Indah, a small boutique hotel in central Bali, and he was interested in one of them as he felt the imagery would fit the March issue's "style and design" theme.

I subsequently learned that part of "Last Look" includes an interview with the photographer.  My recollection of that morning, which appears underneath my photograph, reads as follows:

I took this photograph at Bambu Indah (which means “beautiful bamboo” in Balinese) in Ubud.  The resort consists of four 150-year-old teak houses -- each, apparently, the former residence of a Javanese nobleman -- relocated to the site on the Sayan Ridge, surrounded by rice paddies that line the edge of the Ayung River.  I shot it just before 8 a.m. as the bright Balinese sun crested the horizon and burst through the palm trees behind Minangkabau (the Minang House), a common area for yoga, dining and celebration, constructed from black bamboo from the forests of Java.  The angle of the sun significantly affects

the warmth, contrast and texture in a photograph, so I am always looking to shoot in the warm ‘golden hours’ of early morning and late afternoon when the sun is low in the sky. In this case, I was waiting for the sun to rise and filter through the swaying palm trees, straight into my camera.  I like the effect of shooting directly into the sun and allowing the light to flare in my lens.

As I mentioned in a post a couple of years ago, I am drawn to the ethereal effect that is created by pointing my lens straight into the sun; it's a technique I employ often, integrating this photographic style into much of my travel and fashion editorial work.

Browse more of my luxury lifestyle photography on my website.

I am often asked what I believe is my best photograph. Without hesitation, I always answer that it is my image of the Bhutanese novice monks joyously careening down a hill at their Thimphu monastic school.  I love the spontaneity, emotion and movement captured in this single frame: a true moment frozen in time, and my favourite picture I've ever taken.

What was originally created nearly four years ago -- as a promotional still image for Persistent Productions' documentary film, Shooting For Democracy -- has become the most popular and commercially successful photo reportage I've ever made.

This image has been printed in the pages of the iconic National Geographic Magazine (USA), as part of a feature profile in National Geographic Magazine (China), and on the cover of GEOspecial Magazine (Germany).  It also appears on Adobe’s Photoshop.com website and was one of three photos from my "Thunder Dragon" collection that was selected by Luerzer’s Archive when I was honoured as one of the “200 Best Advertising Photographers Worldwide” a couple of years ago.

This month, my favourite young monks grace the cover of British Airways' inflight magazine High Life for a cover story on the enigmatic Kingdom of Bhutan.

Visiting Bhutan had long been a dream of mine.  And when that dream finally came true, exploring and documenting the ruggedly beautiful country exceeded even my highest hopes.  Truly, my time spent in Bhutan was the most amazing travel and photography experience of my entire life.  And I find it exciting and rewarding that imagery I created during that remarkable experience also -- and still -- resonates with others.

A fun post script to this photograph: one of the very next frames I snapped after this image was of friend and filmmaker, Mike Rogers, surrounded by the gaggle of young monks who had just run down the hill, as they raptly watched themselves come to life on the screen of Mike's video camera.  This picture actually appeared in The New York Times.  Indeed, the photography gods were smiling down upon us that afternoon.

This past December I was commissioned by The Daily Telegraph to photograph 'Homage to the New Cambodia' , a glimpse at Indochina's newest rising star, for the Spring 2012 edition of Ultratravel magazine.

I joined Johnny Morris, Ultratravel's creative director, at the beautiful Villa Romonea in the seaside town of Kep.  As Johnny describes, "[d]esigned by Lu Ban Happ, a key figure in the Le Corbusier-inspired New Khmer Architecture movement, [Villa Romonea] is one of the few intact private mansions of Kep’s golden era in the 1960s.  Fully renovated by its current owners, it is a shining example of how to mix Sixties interior design and contemporary furnishing within a striking modernist mansion.  Its bold white zigzags and organically curved atrium help make it surprisingly optimistic architecture."

We enjoyed ice cold Kingdom Beers by the villa's saltwater infinity pool as the sun set over the Bay of Kampot and then we ventured into town, accompanied by an American couple also staying at the villa, for cocktails at The Sailing Club by Knai Bang Chatt, followed by fresh crab and green Kampot pepper at Kimly's, "a classic example of the 'keep it local, keep it simple' destination restaurant that we all crave on our travels."

The next day we traveled to Sihanoukville, the jumping-off point for Song Saa, a brand new private luxury island resort

nestled 15 miles off the coast in the Koh Rong Archipelago. Johnny and I lunched overlooking the Gulf of Thailand with the owner, Rory Hunter, and his senior team before being whisked away on a tour of the two beautiful islands and the exclusive all-villa resort.

The final stop on my adventure with Johnny was Cambodia's capital city, Phnom Penh, a few hours’ drive from Sihanoukville.  As Johnny poetically recounts in the article, "Phnom Penh is [a] full-on live show with plenty of swagger and edgy improvisation...[a] million stories and a stream of colour from tuk-tuk and scooter lights."

This December assignment with Johnny and Ultratravel was my third shoot in Cambodia in as many months.  And next week I'll be returning to Phnom Penh to shoot a feature for a German-based magazine, followed shortly thereafter by another assignment that will start in Siem Reap and take me more than 600km around Cambodia in the back of a tuk-tuk.  Indeed, it's a beautiful country whose future looks bright, and I am privileged to be able to witness and document so much of this growth and change.

Read the full 'Homage to the New Cambodia' article online, browse my earlier Ultratravel work, 'Singapore Swings' and see more of my lifestyle and travel photography on my website.

Since 2009 I have worked alongside the inspiring women of The Chain Reaction Project (TCRP), a non-profit philanthropic organization based in Singapore.  United by a passion for adventure and a dedication to helping others, TCRP seeks physical challenges and local organizations that can benefit from their efforts in some of the world's least-developed nations.  TCRP's mission is to be catalysts for change, pushing themselves and inspiring others to tackle a physical or mental challenge for a good cause.

Over the past three years, the women of TCRP have raced in the Tour de Timor, a 5-day, 450-kilometre mountain bike race across Timor-Leste, run the Dili "City of Peace" Marathon and completed the grueling nine day KILI[Man] in Tanzania, summitting the highest peak in Africa over over six days, biking 250km around the mountain over two days and running a full marathon on the final day.  Along their journeys, TCRP has inspired many dozens of other catalysts for change and raised more than USD$100,000 for HIAM-Health, a Dili-based malnutrition rehabilitation and education centre and AmaniKids, a home for Tanzania’s street children and AIDS orphans.

TCRP recently launched their newly-designed website, www.thechainreactionproject.com, and I am very proud that a large selection of the photography I created for them on

their two trips to Timor-Leste is prominently featured there.

This collection of imagery was my personal donation to TCRP: a library of photographs that can be used for their marketing and public relations purposes, and as a way to help garner additional sponsorship and donations for their future philanthropic endeavors.

TCRP's passion, tenacity and dedication to helping others is admirable, and I am honoured to be both their partner and their friend.

See more of my imagery from the ruggedly beautiful nation of Timor-Leste captured on my TCRP documentary shoots in 2009 and 2010.

I have been fortunate enough to visit Cambodia on many occasions in recent years -- three times in the past three months alone -- and I have accumulated a large collection of stock photography while shooting these various assignments.

So, when the photo editor of Condé Nast Traveller (Russia) recently contacted me while searching for imagery to illustrate an upcoming article on the "Kingdom of Wonder", I had a large reserve of photography to share with her.

'АнГкор, еще анГкор!' -- which, literally translated, means 'Angkor, More Angkor!', but I have been told is a play on words in Russian, since it rhymes with the title of a popular film -- is published in the February 2012 issue of CNT (Russia).  Interestingly (and excitingly), this feature contains my landscape and travel photography that I captured on five separate visits to Cambodia.

To see more of my recent CNT work, browse 'Singapore Grows Up', an assignment I photographed for the August/September 2011 issue of Condé Nast Traveller (India).

See more of my lifestyle and travel photography on my website.

For years, I've talked of visiting Sri Lanka.  Although I'd heard only wonderful things from friends who had visited, it was just one of those places that I hadn't made it to. That is, until a few weeks ago, when I spent 10 magnificent days on the island often referred to as the "teardrop of India".

I was immediately smitten with Sri Lanka: it's friendly people, brilliant beaches, beautiful scenery and gorgeous climate.  I wondered why it took me so long to come here.

After spending a few glorious days at Apa Villa Illuketia, a remarkable 200-year-old plantation estate a short distance outside Galle, I headed to Apa Villa Thalpe, their sister property consisting of three villas on the beach overlooking the Indian Ocean, for another week of rest and relaxation.

I managed to pull myself away from the seaside a couple of times during the week, when I headed into the historic town of Galle, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, "one of the best examples of a fortified city built by Europeans in south and southeast Asia...and the largest remaining fortress in Asia built by European occupiers".

I relished wandering the narrow streets and lanes inside the Galle Fort, admiring the interesting blend of colonial Dutch, English, Portuguese and local Sinhalese architecture.

Having enjoyed so much shooting only with my iPhone in Goa, India just a few weeks prior, I set out to create a small body of street iPhoneography from my Galle meanderings.  The result is this small series of street photographs captured and processed using only my iPhone 4S and some of my favourite apps such as Phototreats, PicTools, Luminance and Pixlr-o-matic; I added the white borders using Lightroom 3.

I posted this series of images to Instagram and, about one of the photographs, one of my followers asked me (only half kidding) whether I ever used my DSLR's to shoot anymore.  The truth is, the iPhone is so convenient, unimposing and powerful that I find myself more and more opting to take it on holiday, or out on personal photographic walks with me rather than carry my big, heavy Nikons.

Clearly, my DSLR's will never be replaced by my mobile phone for my editorial reportage and fashion or commercial and advertising work, but for someone who is passionate about making photographs, the ease of having a camera in your pocket and with you always is second to none.

See more of my iPhoneography elsewhere on this blog or on Flickr.

Earlier this month I spent nearly a week on Candolim Beach in Goa for a wedding celebration.  It was a fantastic few days on India's southwest coast, spending time with old friends and making new ones.

I arrived in India, packed to the gills with my Nikon DSLR cameras and lenses, with the goal of making a landscape or reportage photograph of Goa as a gift for the bride and groom.  I also had my brand new iPhone 4S in my pocket. No prizes for guessing which one went with me everywhere that week...

The result was not one photograph of Goa for the bride and groom, but rather a collage of 18 pictures that I made on my iPhone over the course of the week.

I presented this framed collage, created with the help of Adobe Lightroom 3, to the newlyweds last week.

My Nikons never actually left my villa, proving (once again) that the best camera really IS the one that's with you.

See more of my iPhoneography elsewhere on this blog or on Flickr.

I first visited Singapore in 1996, and have called the small island city my home for 14 of the past 15 years.  During this time I've witnessed the city-state grow and mature into a thriving hub of international flare and renown.  In particular, the past five years have seen dramatic changes in Singapore: giant integrated resorts and casinos, international sporting events, a burgeoning arts scene and an exploding financial services and housing market.

Sometimes I find Singapore barely recognizable from the place I first visited a decade and a half ago; apparently I am not the only one.  Recently Singapore has received a remarkable amount of press celebrating it's meteoric rise to become one of "Asia's dazzling metropolises".  This article, "Schlaflos in Singapur" (Sleepless in Singapore), published in the latest issue of American Express Selects magazine in Germany, is no exception.

Much like the other recent Singapore features I've photographed for international magazines -- "Singapore Swings" for The Telegraphs's Ultratravel and "Singapore Grows Up" for Conde Nast Traveller (India) -- this article focused on Singapore's latest and greatest shopping, dining and leisure destinations.  I photographed more than 20 locations for this feature, and enjoyed every moment of exploring and experiencing all the "new Singapore" has to offer visitors and residents alike.

The Winter 2011/12 edition of The Daily Telegraph's Ultratravel magazine was published in the UK this past week end, including "Singapore Swings", an article exposing the new-and-improved city-state and featuring a selection of my photography made at various landmarks around my adopted home of Singapore.

Writer Michael Simkins expounds in detail on all that Singapore has to offer the overseas visitor, from "architectural show-stoppers" Marina Bay Sands Hotel & Casino, the National Library and the Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, to the "larger-than-life" Singapore Flyer, to the predominance of luxury branded retail and Michelin star dining experiences, to the annual Formula 1 Grand Prix night race that speeds through our fair city streets every September.

If you can't experience "sultry, swanky Singapore" in person, then click here, turn to Page 46, and let Ultratravel transport you here.

And if this isn't enough Singapore for you, then click here to see "Singapore Grows Up", a feature I photographed for Conde Nast Traveller (India) a few months ago.

I spent five blissful days last week at the exclusive and luxurious Amankila resort in Bali, Indonesia.  I was staying at Amankila (meaning "peaceful hill") with my wife for a short holiday -- but with such beautiful architecture and breathtaking tropical scenery surrounding us, I couldn't resist making some photographs of the property.

We stayed in a gorgeous private pool suite tucked into the side of the lush jungle hillside, and our days were spent lounging between our villa, the three-tiered main pool high above the ocean, the sea-level Beach Club pool and the privacy of a thatched balé (gazebo) hidden away in a grove of coconut palms at the top of the private black sand beach.  It was paradise.

The only thing more spectacular than the resort property was the guest service offered.  In the 15+ years I have spent living and traveling across Asia, rarely have I experienced the level of attentiveness and personal service that we were afforded at Amankila in Bali.

One evening, my wife felt like eating something that wasn't offered on the dinner menu.  We asked the restaurant manager if it would be possible to make a special meal just for her.  His reply: "At Aman, anything is possible."  Five sweeter words have never been spoken.

Back in January, I was commissioned by Condé Nast Traveller (India) to photograph a feature about "sexy, stylish, sophisticated Singapore" for an upcoming issue. Having never had the privilege of working with Condé Nast Traveller before, I was very excited for this opportunity. Being able to shoot this in my own backyard was a bonus.

The feature's writer, Puja Disha Bharwani, and I spoke on the phone a few times to coordinate everything and then set-out together on a seven-day adventure that took us to 27 different locations across the island.

From the tiny independent boutiques of Haji Lane to the larger-than-life Marina Bay Sands resort and casino, this assignment was an fantastic chance for Puja and me to experience many of Singapore's newest and chicest bars, restaurants and hotels, as well as meet and photograph some of the city's more interesting finance, society, hospitality and culinary personalities.

The fruits of our labour, "Singapore Grows Up", appears across 12 pages in the August/September 2011 issue of Condé Nast Traveller (India), on newsstands now.  As Puja writes in the feature, "Singapore is now becoming a sexy, sophisticated destination."  I couldn't agree more.

See more of my lifestyle and travel photography on my website.

My iPhone is never far from my reach.  I love taking photographs with it, and inspired by the countless amazing photography apps and the addictive photography social network, Instagram, I am becoming even more obsessed with iPhoneography.

Lately, what I've really enjoyed is taking a few moments to capture the same scene with my iPhone that I am shooting with my 'real' 35mm or medium format cameras while photographing editorial assignments and ad campaigns.

This collection of iPhone pictures were shot using the Hipstamatic photography app and Instagram filters during breaks in shooting my recent Ei8ht magazine fashion feature at dusitD2 Barraquda in Pattaya, Thailand.

See more of my iPhoneography elsewhere on my blog or on Flickr.

Shooting fashion photography, for me, occurred organically -- almost accidentally -- over many years.  I never set-out to be a fashion photographer; making candid, reportage-inspired pictures of people was what I was interested in, and how I truly got my start in photography.

However, when I began receiving my first travel magazine assignments years ago, it was required that I shoot a lot of architecture and interior photography: designer homes, boutique hotels, trendy bars and stylish restaurants. Inspired by the glossy pages of renowned luxury lifestyle and travel publications like Conde Nast Traveller and Travel + Leisure, I worked hard to create my own personal style of interior photography.

Merging these two photographic subjects together -- people and places -- and creating narrative-inspired, location-based fashion imagery seemed to me like a logical next step in my photographic career.  And I was fortunate that, more than five years ago, a couple of magazine editors I had been working with on travel and portrait work believed in me and my work enough to offer me opportunities to shoot small editorial fashion features for their respective publications.

Borrowing a little from my individual techniques for photographing both people and places, I learned a lot on those first few editorial fashion commissions.  And over the years I have continued to grow and to be inspired, and I have laboured to fine-tune a personal style for my location-based fashion photography.

No matter how many assignments or commissions I am awarded, it is always gratifying when a client hires me to create photography for them.  So I was extremely excited when, in April, I was asked to shoot a fashion feature for Ei8ht magazine the Dusit Thani Hotels and Resorts' custom lifestyle publication.

Alongside a fantastic creative team, I traveled to Thailand where we spent two days shooting at the Dusit Thani's boutique dusitD2 Baraquda property in Pattaya.  A modern design hotel, the dusitD2 was an extremely stylish location that provided us with constant photographic inspiration. The results of this shoot appear on the cover and across 10 pages of the recently-published Issue #2 of Ei8ht magazine.

See more imagery from the Ei8ht magazine fashion shoot, including unpublished photographs and iPhone outtakes. And see more from my fashion photography portfolio on my website.

Credits

Art Direction: Peter Stephens

Styling: Furqan Saini

Hair: Khanawut Ruangrot

Make-up: Wansuk Bunprasert

Photographer's Assistant: Zam

Model: Julianne Steege / Wilhelmina Models

Retouching: Agnes Teo