It was inevitable, really.  Everyone's doing it.  The Year in Review, the Top 10 of 2010, the Best of This and the Best of That.  So why not jump on the bandwagon, I thought, and briefly look back at the year that was my own?

2010 was probably the most challenging year I've ever had as a professional photographer.  Ironically, in hindsight, it was also probably my most rewarding.

Slow business at the onset of 2010 encouraged me to take stock of my marketing communications strategy, which resulted in the launch of a completely redesigned website and this brand new blog, two of the best decisions I made all year.  I was also humbled by some amazing accolades, such as Luerzer Archive's nomination as one of "200 Best Advertising Photographers Worldwide" (2010/11).  And having my photography grace the virtual pages of Adobe's Photoshop.com website and the glossy pages of the Chinese edition of National Geographic Magazine count among my greatest personal achievements of the past year.

But there were many more smaller successes and exciting adventures that I was fortunate enough to experience during 2010 for which I am extremely grateful...

January - I was the best man in one of my closest friends' wedding in London, which gave me the added pleasure of visiting with other dear friends who called the UK home and shooting a personal body of work as part of my ongoing Diana Experiment.

February - I photographed the cover fashion feature for Solitaire, a Singapore luxury jewelry magazine, at the very stylish and inspirational Klapsons Hotel.  My father also came to visit me from Canada and we embarked on an amazing 5-day, 1,700km motorcycle journey throughout Malaysia together.  It was an epic adventure and a wonderful father-son experience.

March - I photographed the cover fashion feature for Inspire, a Singapore luxury travel and lifestyle magazine, aboard a beautiful yacht at the ONE°15 marina club.

April - An assignment for SilkAir's Silkwinds magazine took me to Cambodia for a week-long commission to shoot charitable organizations that specialize in helping homeless street children in the capital of Phnom Penh.  I also had the added fortune of visiting Siem Reap and the magnificent temples of Angkor while I was in Cambodia.  It was my third time touring the ancient city complex, but it only seems to grow more and more impressive to me.

May - My dear friends and frequent creative collaborators, Mike Rogers and Meghan Shea, returned to Singapore for a few months.  It is always a joy to partner with them, both personally and professionally. During their time in Singapore we worked on a personal project about the city-state's bird singing community, an esoteric and fading tradition in Singapore's heartlands.

June - This was my busiest travel month of the entire year.  I visited Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Canada and Timor-Leste in the course of 30 days, but the highlight was undoubtedly my time spent in Dili mid-month with Mike and the rest of The Chain Reaction Project.

July - My trip to Canada stretched from late-June into early-July.  It is always a pleasure to return home to my family in Ontario, and among the best moments of those visits are the times I get to spend playing with my young nieces, Paige and Brooke.

August - My close friend Peter owns a ridiculously beautiful Aston Martin DB9 in Australia.  And when he invited me to join him in Australia for a road trip from Sydney to Melbourne and then along the legendary Great Ocean Road and back to Sydney again, saying no was not an option.  Yet another great motoring adventure in 2010.

September - Way back in January I was fortunate enough to spend a couple of hours meeting and making portraits of Hollywood icon Oliver Stone.  Directing and photographing Mr. Stone was the most nervous and intimidated I've ever been during an assignment. Ironically, I shouldn't have felt either nervous or intimidated: he was among the most gracious and patient subjects with whom I've ever had the pleasure to work.  I had to keep the photos under wraps for nine long months until the commissioning magazine, The Rake, published them in September to coincide with the release of Stone's film, Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps.

October - In October my commercial work started to grow, and I shot campaigns for GlaxoSmithKline and Meritus Mandarin Hotels, as well as went into pre-production for a Unilever campaign.  In late October we took a much-deserved long weekend to the UNESCO World Heritage city of Penang, Malaysia where we wined and dined at some of the city's most popular hawker stalls and best restaurants.

November - American Express Centurion Magazine published "A Tale of Two Cities", a feature I shot in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam a couple of months earlier. Having lived in Saigon in 1998/99, it was so

enjoyable to return and see old friends and how much the city had grown and developed in the past dozen years.

December - I write this retrospective from a lounge chair by the pool at the beautiful Rachamankha boutique hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand where we have come to celebrate New Year's Eve and enjoy a short holiday at the end of a long year.

Happy New Year, everyone, wherever you are on this last day of 2010.

Today Magnum Photos posted the following message on their Twitter feed: "From now till 200k followers we want to see your photos. Tweet us a link, each day we'll RT a few selections. Use hashtag #magnum200k".

In the 60+ years since it's inception, Magnum Photos has grown into one of the most renowned cooperatives of photojournalists in the world.  According to founding member Henri Cartier-Bresson, "Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually."

Magnum's tweet got me thinking: if I had the opportunity to share only a single photograph from the past year with anyone -- particularly a community of Magnum's reknown -- which photograph would I choose?

I scoured my archives of photographs I made in 2010 and shortlisted a handful of images that I felt might resonate with Magnum and their audience.  Then I carefully considered each photograph based on it's originality, relevance and technical merit.

This is my selection.

I made this photograph in Dili, Timor-Leste in June of this year.  During Timor's dry season, the riverbed on the outskirts of Dili is quarried for stone and gravel to be used in the many construction projects in and around the capital city.

It is quite a sight to behold: dozens upon dozens of men shoveling and sifting and throwing dirt and rock from sunrise to sunset.

From where I took this picture, high on the bridge above the riverbed, the scene unfolding below reminded me of armies of ants tirelessly toiling away on their ant hills.

Truth be told, going through the photographs I created over the past 12 months was a great exercise for me today (irrespective of the Magnum challenge).  Being critical of one's own imagery is among the most difficult aspects of being a photographer, and forcing yourself to look closely at your own body of work is an excellent way to improve your craft.

What is your best photograph of 2010?

**UPDATE** Excitingly, yesterday Magnum Photos retweeted this post as part of their #magnum200k Twitter initiative.  If you are here via @magnumphotos, thank you very much for visiting.

With the year winding down, and lots of fun and exciting work to share from the past few months -- National Geographic Magazine (China), GEOspecial, American Express Centurion and Adobe Photoshop.com -- we figured it was time to roll-out Issue #3 of the the SCOTT eNewsletter, our final installment of 2010.

Inspired by magazine covers, but with added hyperlink functionality to my photography online, this electronic direct marketing tool has been among the best things I added to my communications strategy this year.

This regular eNewsletter has been an excellent way for me to stay in touch with my large network of editors and creatives around the world, and a fantastic tool for sharing with them every few months my recent photographic endeavours and my most creative collaborations.

Issue #1 and Issue #2 are still live.  And if you would like to be added to our database and receive my eNewsletter in the future, then please subscribe to my mailing list.

I am extremely excited to be profiled in the 'Portfolio' section of this month's National Geographic Magazine (China).

The editor and photo editor at NGM (China) in Beijing and I went back and forth over the course of a few months on this feature -- selecting the portfolio of photographs, conducting the interview via email and then getting it translated from English into Mandarin for publication -- and they have done a wonderful job.

As expected, NGM (China) had some great questions for me, ranging from my thoughts on making engaging portrait photography and my use of backlight as a creative device to the story ideas that most interest me in China, how I view “travel photography" vs. "cultural photography" and my thoughts on photojournalism vs. fine art photography.

My amazing friend Sarah Gulston, who is fluent in Mandarin, translated this entire article back into English for me (so I knew what was written, how it was edited and what was cut from the original interview conducted in English).  Sarah's translation stretched to more than seven pages of single-spaced A4; far more than can fit here. And far more than anyone, except perhaps my mother, would care to read.  So here are a few highlights...

For you, what makes a good portrait?

"A few years ago, I received an invaluable piece of advice from a photo editor at the international edition of National Geographic Magazine in Washington, D.C.  At the time, she told me that my portraiture was too confrontational and posed -- that it needed to be more observational and candid.  I took this constructive criticism on-board, began adopting it into my photographic style and will always carry it with me.

"For me, what makes a portrait truly memorable is an intangible factor: the ability to create an intimacy between my subject and me. Ironically, this often means giving the subject permission to ignore me, to act naturally and go about his business without worrying about where my camera is.  When my subject forgets that my lens is pointed at him, he is free to be himself, and then the most natural and engaging portraits are made.

"I like think of myself a visual storyteller, and people feature prominently across much of my work.  But in many of my portraits you will notice that my subject is not even looking at my lens.  Learning from that NGM photo editor, the key for me has been shooting the moment that happens between the moments; capturing my subjects’ subtle expressions, throwaway glances, and real laughter.

"This is when a subject’s true personality shines through, and these are the instances that I seek when photographing beautiful, natural portraiture."

It is evident from looking at your portfolio that you like shooting into the sun and using backlight as a photographic technique.  Can you talk about this?

"Shooting into the sun, and using backlight as a visual effect, is a compositional and lighting technique that I have been experimenting with for the past couple of years.  It goes against one of the most fundamental “rules” of photography -- to always have the sun behind/beside the photographer -- but I love the softness of the subject created by the sun's flare.  It's this ethereal, nostalgic effect that moves me to keep practicing and working with this photographic style.

"Although I pride myself on making many different types of photography, I also recognize that I need to take my individual style and consistently sharpen and improve it, establishing a unique photographic voice for myself.  This is one of my ongoing goals, as my eye is always maturing and my inspirations are ever changing.  Creating a portfolio of images that uses backlight as a creative device is an attempt to develop a simple, yet memorable, personal photographic signature for myself."

What do you think the differences are between 'travel photographers' and 'cultural photographers'?

"By their very nature, both travel photographers and cultural photographers share much in common.  Both need an innate curiosity about others. They both must demonstrate deference for foreign cultures.  They both must be sensitive to the interconnectedness of the world, and how their presence and actions impact the foreign culture they are documenting.  And they both require the intellect and willingness to challenge their own cultural assumptions and stereotypes about what’s 'normal'.

"However, a cultural photographer is first and foremost a visual storyteller, able to weave together a series of still images into a captivating narrative.  To do this effectively, he must be able to demonstrate other, more advanced, cross-cultural acumen that a travel photographer won’t necessarily always possess.

"First and foremost, I feel that a cultural photographer should have an awareness of, and experience documenting, his own culture.  Many travel photographers rarely take their cameras out while in their own environs, never showing an intellectual curiosity for their own culture or a willingness to explore it deeply photographically or otherwise.  To me, one doesn’t need

to travel abroad to create cultural photography; there are fascinating stories and engaging characters everywhere, even in a photographer’s own backyard.  And until one truly understands and respects his own culture, I feel it will be difficult for him to understand and respect someone else’s.

"A cultural photographer should be more interested in the 'why' than he is with the 'what' when capturing a scene.  He should have a deeper understanding of the cultural significance of a place or person or event, and the corresponding historical, social and emotional importance attached to it.  This will doubtless help him make deeper and more meaningful imagery."

The full article is printed in the December 2010 edition published in China this month.  It is truly honour to be associated with anything National Geographic produces, and I am humbled to have my photography and my words published in the pages of the Chinese edition of their magazine.

Running my own photography business has taught me so much.  I have learned about entrepreneurship.  I have learned that passion is a strong motivator, as is the fear of failure.  I have learned how to open myself up to people and to take chances on ideas.  And I have learned about the power of partnership and creative collaboration.

Three years ago I had a chance encounter with documentary filmmaker Mike Rogers.  During that first meeting we talked about our respective businesses and experiences, and we quickly learned that we shared a lot in common, both creatively and philosophically.  We became fast friends, and shortly thereafter Mike invited me to accompany him on a documentary film shoot to Bhutan.

For as long as I can remember, I’d fantasized about visiting the remote and enigmatic Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.  It was certain to be a dream photographic adventure for me.  There was a catch though: it was a small, independent documentary production with only minimal funding, so there would be no money to pay me; if I wanted to go to Bhutan, I’d have to agree to work for free.

I decided to just go for it, clear my calendar and join Mike on what I imagined would be the shoot of a lifetime.

Accompanied by our small Bhutanese crew, my role was to shoot still photography to appear in, and advertise, the film, as well as provide a visual record of the creation of the documentary for Mike's production company.

Exploring and shooting Bhutan was indeed my dream assignment come true, and the result was the most amazing travel and photography experience of my life.

Ironically, the photography I made in Bhutan “for free” has also been the most commercially successful collection of imagery I have ever created.

Photography from the Bhutan shoot has appeared in National Geographic Magazine, The New York Times and Adobe’s Photoshop.com website.  In 2009 I was awarded an honourable mention for "Excellence in Feature Photography" by the Society of Publishers in Asia for my Bhutan imagery published by Reader’s Digest (Asia).  And earlier this year the prestigious Luerzer’s Archive selected me as one of the “200 Best Advertising Photographers Worldwide” (2010/11) for the photography I made in Bhutan to promote Mike’s documentary film.

This month, some of my Bhutan photography will also

appear in the "Himalayan" issue of Germany's GEOspecial, a bi-monthly monothematic travel magazine in Germany.

My image of the joyous novice monks careening down the hill at their monastic school will feature on the cover of the December 2010 / January 2011 GEOspecial, as well as across a double-page spread inside, while one of my Tiger's Nest photographs will run across another (nearly) double-page spread.

Mike’s film, Shooting For Democracy: The Emerging Lens Initiative, was completed earlier this year and has been screened at a number of independent film festivals across the United States.

It’s amazing to imagine where I would be if I’d not met Mike or taken the chance on our friendship or the offer of adventure in Bhutan.

My father has a great expression: You never know if you never go.

Well, I went.  And I am so glad I did.

I was recently invited to give the opening address at the 27th Annual Interscholastic Association of Southeast Asian Schools (IASAS) Model United Nations Convention at Singapore American School (SAS).

There were nearly 200 students and teachers present at the conference from more than a dozen school across Asia.  It was a true privilege for me to speak to an auditorium filled with intelligent, creative and articulate young people.

The central theme of my presentation was You never know if you never go.  I try to live by this philosophy, and I highlighted many touchstones in my life where I took a leap of faith and chose my own adventure: my decision to travel to Asia, to accept an offer to work for Coca-Cola in Singapore, to leave the corporate world to pursue my photography passion and, laterally, the choices I made to work with both Mike Rogers in Bhutan and The Chain Reaction Project in Timor-Leste.

I explained a bit about what The Chain Reaction Project is all about, and how these women have made a difference in the world.  I then showed the audience the slideshow I created for The Chain Reaction Project on their most recent philanthropic endeavour in Dili.

I wrapped-up by explaining that, for me, my work with both Mike and women of The Chain Reaction Project has been a wonderful by-product of choosing my own adventure: meeting and working with inspiring people, having the ability and means to explore the corners of the world, and being given the creative freedom to make photographs that I am truly passionate about.

I suggested that just by being in the auditorium, each of those students had already chosen their own adventure, and I encouraged them to take the Model UN experience to meet others and share themselves and their passions -- whatever they may be -- with as many of their peers as possible, and to keep doing this as they continued to pursue their dreams in high school, in college, in their careers, and beyond.  If they did this, and if they opened themselves up to opportunity, I promised that the serendipity of life would take them amazing places.  But, they'll never know if they never go.

When the opening ceremony ended, I answered a few questions and then proceeded back to my studio in the city and a regular day at work.  With the exception of harping on a few technical difficulties that occurred during my presentation, I honestly gave my Model UN address very little further thought.

That was until a couple of nights ago, when there was a knock at the door to my home.

It was Mimi Molchan, the SAS teacher who organized, and invited me to speak at, the Model UN event.

I was very surprised to see Mimi standing there.

But I was even more surprised by what she had for me: in her hand was a bag, an envelope and a note, addressed to The Chain Reaction Project, which read:

Hi Ladies,

On Thursday, November 11th Mr. Scott Woodward came to Singapore American School and gave the opening address to 160 delegates and 33 advisors for the 27th Annual IASAS Model United Nations Convention.  Scott was very engaging and did an absolutely fantastic job.  He had everyone in the palm of his hand as he spoke about the importance of finding a cause and then giving to that cause.  He inspired everyone and I know everyone took something away with them from his message.

I appreciate very much the time, effort and care Scott put into his presentation.  It truly set a very positive, reflective

tone for the convention that continued on for the next three days.

In the bag you will find change that the International School of Manila [ISM] and International School of Bangkok [ISB] students handed me as they got on the bus heading to the airport on Sunday, November 14th.  I was talking to one of their advisors explaining we were thinking of making a donation to The Chain Reaction Project.  One of the kids heard us talking and they asked the rest of the kids to give me all their change as they got on the bus.

The ISM kids told the ISB kids, and then the ISB kids gave me all their change.  I had nothing to put it in, so I took the bottom of my t-shirt and held it out and the kids filled my shirt with their coins.  We collected S$96.71 in a matter of minutes.  That was cool.

In the envelope you will [also] find a contribution [of S$650.00] from IASAS that you may use in any way you feel is beneficial.  You are making a difference in this world.

Thank you.

Mimi Molchan

I am so touched by the students' and Mimi's caring, thoughtfulness and generousity; their kindness was so unexpected.

I met Ting and Alex, two of the founders of The Chain Reaction Project, for lunch the very next day.  I could hardly wait to share with them the story and present them with the (nearly) $750 donation for their next philanthropic adventure: competing in the Kiliman Adventure Challenge in Tanzania in February 2011 to benefit the children of Amani Children's Home.

Ting and Alex were as grateful, and as moved, by the gesture as I was.

The IASAS community, too, is making a difference in this world.

In late September I spent a week shooting a commission in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam for the UK edition of American Express' Centurion Magazine.

Although I've recently written a handful of posts about this trip, as well as uploaded a series of images I made during this assignment, the Winter 2010 edition of Centurion Magazine UK is published this week, and I wanted to share the completed feature "A Tale of Two Cities" written by Anthony Dennis and photographed by me.

As Anthony writes in the article, "Hanoi and Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City, as it's officially though not popularly called) are members of the unofficial club of the world's great rival metropolises.

"Hanoi, the capital in the north, is a city of tree-fringed lakes, wide boulevardsand petite, Paris-style parks tucked away in neighbourhoods full of faded, mustard-coloured French-style mansions and elegant Belle Epoque public buildings which have somehow survived Vietnam’s turbulent times.

"While not without some Gallic flavour, Saigon...more reflects the American era, with an aggressive capitalist spirit still less evident in Hanoi.  Paradoxically, it’s the

nation’s turbulent history...that renders Vietnam such an alluring destination, particularly as seen through the prism of its two principal cities."

Although I am pretty certain which of the cities is my favourite, as Anthony notes, "experiencing Hanoi and Saigon, and deciding upon which one you favour, remains one of the joys of a trip to Vietnam.  It is a country, after all, where, when it comes to cities, it takes two to tango."

Visit my website to see a larger collection of photographs I made while in Vietnam, including imagery that doesn't appear in the Centurion Magazine feature.

Last week, a client and I got into a friendly debate about Vietnam's best city: Is it Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi?  My answer was unequivocally HCMC.

True, it is (just barely) controlled chaos on the streets of Saigon.  But it has a pulse, an energy that is infectious. Besides, having lived in HCMC in the late-1990s, it clearly holds a special place in my heart.

My client disagreed with me, bestowing the virtues of Hanoi: the climate, the greenery, the slower pace of life in Vietnam's capital city.

Personally, I think it's like comparing Canberra to Sydney, Ottawa to Toronto, Washington D.C. to New York City. Although all these capital cities are undoubtedly nice, to me there's just no comparing them to the economic and cultural hubs of their respective nations.

We agreed to disagree on Vietnam's best city.  But the conversation got me thinking about Hanoi.

Indeed, there are many great things about Hanoi; one of the best is Hoan Kiem Lake.

The heart of Hanoi, Hoan Kiem Lake is steeped in legend. The name Hoan Kiem, literally translated as "returned sword", is derived from a 15th century myth in which the gods bestowed upon the emperor a magical sword, which he used to defeat the invading Chinese.  Vietnamese folklore says that one day, while boating on Hoan Kiem Lake, a giant turtle appeared and snatched the sword from the king's hands, returning it to the gods, and giving the lake it's monicker.  Giant tortoises are said to still inhabit Hoan Kiem Lake.

A popular spot for lovers to cuddle, a fashionable backdrop for wedding photos, a favoured location for people of all ages to stroll and, each morning at sunrise, a wonderful place to watch local Vietnamese practice the ancient art of Tai Chi, Hoan Kiem Lake lures both residents of, and visitors to, Hanoi with it's history, beauty and charm.

See more imagery from my recent shoot in Vietnam here: Take It To The Streets, Cyclo and Saigon Baby Gone.

"I have a camera.  Sometimes, I use it to make phone calls." - Marty Yawnick, Life in LoFi: iPhoneography

There's something about shooting with my iPhone that has really captivated me of late.  Maybe it's the constantly growing collection of exciting and powerful photography apps available for download on iTunes.  Or perhaps it's the ever-increasing popularity of #iPhoneography that I see everyday on Twitter that keeps inspiring me to be more creative.  Either way, for someone who spends most of his time peering out from behind the lens of clunky DSLR or medium format cameras, the freedom and flexibility of making photographs my iPhone is a welcome change of pace for me.

From lights gleaming off the hood of an Audi prototype electric car to the rooftop of Marina Bay Sands casino, from a clients' statue of Mao Zedong to a portrait of a friends' sleeping infant, from a snapshot of Vampire Weekend performing live on stage to the view of the wall across the road from my favourite little coffee shop, this is how Singapore has looked through the 3 megapixel lens of my iPhone the past few weeks.

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

A couple of months ago I did a short Q&A for British online adventure portal WideWorld Magazine where we talked briefly about travel, music, sports, books and, of course, photography.

I was recently approached again by WideWorld Magazine, this time to contribute "10 Tips for Better Adventure Photos".  Although I don't necessarily consider myself an "adventure photographer", per se -- at least not in the conventional sense, or the same realm as true action or sports photographers --  I suppose that what I do, and the places I go to do it, is adventurous.

Therefore, I tried to provide a collection of tips that aren't simply applicable to adventure-related photography, but can be applied across all photographic disciplines, such as having a shoot plan, not over-packing, introducing a human element to images, understanding and using your camera's aperture and ISO settings, and getting creative with light.

I am not sure what WideWorld Magazine will suggest we do together next, but I am already looking forward to it.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I have been partnering with Adobe in the U.S. over the past couple of months. They were initially interested in licencing some of my photographs for use on their Photoshop.com website, which I was more than happy to agree to.

Then, while we were finalizing the details and licencing agreements, I had an opportunity to speak a few times with an employee in Adobe's Digital Imaging group.  One day we talked at length about Adobe's suite of imaging software and how, specifically, Lightroom is such an integral part of my digital workflow.

A short time later, Adobe asked if I'd be interested in being a profiled photographer on the "Spotlight" section of Photoshop.com.  I had a few telephone calls with Adobe's PR agency in San Francisco so they could learn more about me and my business, the type of photography I make, and how I integrate Lightroom into both my editorial and commercial photography workflow.  The agency then drafted a profile and I prepared a small portfolio of work to be uploaded online.

The result is the "Choosing a New Adventure" spotlight that went live on Photoshop.com this morning. I am extremely proud of this association with Adobe, and look forward to sharing more of my work as it appears on Photoshop.com in the future.

My recent assignment to Vietnam afforded me the wonderful opportunity to spend a week walking the streets and observing and capturing daily life in the nation's two major cities, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and Hanoi.

Defined by Wikipedia as "a type of documentary photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places... [and] often concentrates on a single human moment, caught at a decisive or poignant moment... giving the audience a more visceral experience of walks of life they might only be passingly familiar with", street photography is one of my favourite genres of picture making.

From left, I made this collection of six images at (1) Chua Thien Hau Temple, HCMC, (2) Tao Dan Park, HCMC, (3) Old Quarter, Hanoi, (4) Old Quarter, Hanoi, (5) Cho Thu Thiem, HCMC and (6) Old Quarter, Hanoi.

Like the Choose Your Own Adventure books I used to read in my childhood, I love the unknown element of street photography.  Literally and creatively, I can go one direction and discover a remarkable photographic opportunity; or I can go another direction and find something entirely different.  Either way, I never know what I missed.  It is this adventure that is the beauty of street photography (and, truly, all photography) for me.

I was recently interviewed by a journalist from Asian Photography Magazine for the "Pro-Profile" section of their October 2010 edition.  The magazine is on newsstands now, so I thought I'd share a bit of the article here.

The journalist had some very good questions for me, and it was enjoyable to speak with her about photography.  We covered many topics during the hour we chatted at my studio in September, such as...

How I got my start in photography: "Scott learnt photography from his father when he was very young.  He grew up in a house full of photography.  His dad taught him how to compose [an image] and how to interpret light."

How I began taking photography more seriously in the mid-to-late 1990s: "'[W]hen I came to Asia, I had a film camera with me and this whole new world opened up to me'.  He fell in love with the colours, the foods, the rituals, the religion and everything that was a part of Asia... He started capturing everything on film."

And the catalyst that pushed me from the corporate marketing world to establishing my own creative photography business in 2004/05: "[His] plunge into

photography started in 2004.  'On my [30th] birthday, I was having a kind of mid-life crisis… and I felt like my 20s had just slipped by, I didn’t know where they had gone.  I went to this dinner and there were all these people who I didn’t know and... somebody asked a question... if you had enough money that you never had to get out of bed to go to work, what would you do then?  And my answer was [that I would] travel around the world and take pictures.  And I had never said that out loud.  I had thought of it, but I had never verbalised it.  That was my answer to what I should be doing with my life.'"

The writer goes on to explain more about my transition from working for a multinational company to working for myself: "Scott has no regrets of working in the corporate world for eight years before his photography career hit-off.  He treasures [that] experience... and the relationships that he made.  It gave him an opportunity [to learn] how to build a brand."

She explains how I first started commercializing my photography, and eventually was able to monetize my hobby: "His philosophy when he started off was, no job is too small... and you never know if you'll like doing a certain kind of photography until you try it."  This approach actually ended-up landing me my early

commercial assignments.  As the author explains, when I first started my small business, I used to take a lot of family portraits, to practice photographing people and earn some money. "Shooting families and kids actually got him one of his first advertising jobs, which was for Johnson & Johnson.  He mentions that, 'I had a certain style that they liked; it was a sensitive, intimate approach to that type of work"'.

The author touches briefly on how my style and approach to my work differs depending on my various assignments, from editorial reportage: "Choose your own adventure... just me and my camera".

...to fashion: "Cinematic... what I want to do is tell stories... separately, [they are] beautiful pictures, but if you look at them together, you will find a bit of narrative, a bit of a story".

...to advertising: "Extremely collaborative... [but] the creative process is not meant to be easy.  It is filled with conflict.  It is push 'n' pull.  I like someone pushing me to get better at this".

Finally, the writer wraps-up with some of my advice to aspiring photographers: “Keep practicing, because there

is nothing that is perfect. ‘This keeps me going: the desire to make the perfect photograph.  But you never can.  There is always something when you look back at it, you feel, I wish that was different’.  So he [recommends] practice and to find a genre of photography that you like and create a style [for yourself].  Have a signature.  Try not to get discouraged.  It’s a competitive market.  Look at the works of people you admire and try to emulate [them], and then develop your own personal style.  At the end of the day, you have to be passionate about what you do, because if you don’t have passion for your work, nobody else will.’”

In a word, I guess that's what photography is all about: passion.

It's why I left my comfortable corporate life to chase my dream.

It's why I struggle with the uncertainty and challenges (big and small) of running my own business.

It's why I push myself to be more creative, to try and make better and more compelling imagery.

And it's why I love every minute of it.

A couple of months ago, I received an email from Adobe in California.  They had seen some of my photography in the Luerzer's Archive "200 Best Advertising Photographer" anthology.  After visiting my website to review my portfolio of work, they were interested in licencing some of my photographs to use on Photoshop.com.

As an advocate of Adobe's imaging software products -- Lightroom in particular, which is the single most important piece of software in my digital workflow -- I was (and am) extremely flattered to be asked to provide some of my photography to Adobe.

Adobe licenced three photographs from me.  This portrait, which I made in Singapore a number of years ago, is of family friend, Charlie, and her horse; it is the first to appear on Photoshop.com as a carousel advertisement for Adobe's Photoshop Elements software.

There is more to come on Photoshop.com, and I look forward to sharing it as it rolls-out in the months ahead.

Motivated by the very generous compliment my friend Faz gave me last week over at her blog "The Drama Diaries", I decided to download my iPhone's photos folder to my Mac and see what was hiding in there...

Here's what I found: a small collection of iPhoneographs I made on my recent travels to Bali, Shanghai, Melbourne, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and -- right here in my own backyard -- Singapore.

Some of these images have been processed directly on my iPhone using photography apps like MoreLomo and Format126, while others have been post-processed in Adobe's Lightroom 3, which even features a built-in lens distortion correction tool for the iPhone.  I put (very minor) finishing touches on all these images in Photoshop.

I am thoroughly enjoying having a camera in my pocket all the time, and I am continually inspired to better use it by what I learn from blogs like iPhoneography and Life in LoFi, as well as the creative work I see other photographers making.

See more of my iPhoneography on Flickr.