When we create a photographic print a little bit of magic happens. An image that was a visual collection of zero and one's, of pixels and colours, suddenly becomes tangible and real.
After 20 years of global travel and viewing our images on a small laptop perched on our laps, hunched over, inside a flapping tent, it's exciting to see and hold our printed images in the real world. We're evermore excited to be able to share those images with you via our new exhibition.
Thank you for giving us your time to drop in. Below you'll find some of the info and the story behind the images. We'll be updating this page regularly, so please check back.
Please enjoy and leave a comment if you can. We'd love to hear from you.
Landscapes
Title: Golden Sunrise
Location: Harmandir Sahib, Amritsar, Punjab, India.
Photographer: Simon Thomas
In northwest India, we came up with an ambitious plan. To photograph "The Golden Temple" as the sunrise lit the centre sanctum of this incredible temple.
Covered in over 750 kilos of real gold leaf, the light and colour were as breathtaking as the serenity that surrounds the temple. In the sub-zero air of the early morning, we set up this shot with only seconds to spare, having struggled to get permission to use a tripod inside the temple walls. We're especially proud of this shot.
Title: Sunrise Over Bromo
Location: Bromo Tengger Semeru
-National Park in West Java.
Photographer: Simon Thomas
How often does a motorcyclist get to ride into the crater of one of the world's biggest Super Volcano’s? We crawled out of our sleeping bags
at 3:30 am to make the hike up the mountainside in order to capture,
what was to become one of our favourite images from our time in Indonesia. After all the years of travelling this was a landscape that stunned and inspired us to travel further.
Title: Beauty and The Beast
Location: Annapurna, Massif of the Himalayas.
Photographer: Simon Thomas
We were camped north of Pokhara and had almost given up seeing this view because of storms. On our penultimate day, this was our view. After fifteen spell-bound minutes, we closed our mouths and finally remembered to grab the tripod and cameras.
The Annapurna mountain is known to be one of the most treacherous mountains to climb.
This photo is actually a panorama of twelve separate images stitched together- it's massive!
Title: Shimmering Pinnacles
Location: Petronas Twin Towers,Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Photographer: Simon Thomas
We struggled to find a location in Central Kuala Lumpur to capture the angle we
need to create this shot. That was until local friends told us of a sky-bar with a
window. The bar had a “NO TRIPOD” policy, so this shot was challenging but turned out great.
Title: Nature At Its Best
Location: Tad Lo Waterfall, Bolaven Plateau, Laos.
Photographer: Simon Thomas
As photographers, waterfalls offer incredible opportunities but it’s always nice when the universe conspires for you and puts the setting sun in a great spot. We’d found a tiny bamboo hotel with six basic rooms a short walk from the falls which gave us an opportunity to take our time and hopefully capture something really worth sharing.
Title: Island Mountain
Location: Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Australia.
Photographer: Simon Thomas
We were riding a 3,000-mile desert route from the tip of northeast Australia, diagonally across the entire continent to its southwest, taking in five deserts en route through the Outback. No visit to Oz is complete with a gigantic detour to Uluru or Ayers Rock as it was once known. We had no idea that the moon rise was going to coincide with our timing but we’re grateful for it.
Title: The Ghats
Location: The Ghats, Varanasi, Northern India.
Photographer: Simon Thomas
This huge panorama is five images stitched together and was the only way we could capture the scale of the sunrise over the Ganges as India wakes and welcomes a new day. Birth, life and even death all happen on these vast river-side steps, which daily receive tens of thousands of worshipers.
Title: Light of the Silvery Moon
Location: Plaza de Armas, Cusco, Peru.
Photographer: Simon Thomas
On our way up to Machu Picchu, we stopped for a couple of nights in Cusco
in the Peruvian Andes. After a night of Pisco sours and dancing, we headed
back outside into the Plaza de Armas and a spectacular moon had risen and was just balancing over the cross atop the beautiful Cusco Cathedral, ‘Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Virgin’. Talk about perfect timing!
Title: The Singing Dunes
Location: Khongoryn Els, Gobi Desert, Mongolia.
Photographer: Simon Thomas
There was a sense of awe and achievement when we reached the edge of these spectacular dunes. We took our time in order to experience the true majesty of this stunning landscape.
In some places, these dunes are 300 metres high and 12km wide and stretch over 100km
Title: Tropical Summer Spray
Location: Beach, Isla Mujeres, Mexico.
Photographer: Simon Thomas
In 2018 we headed out from Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and onto the nearby
island, Isla Mujeres. As we waited to embark upon the seas for our journey over to Cuba we spent a night enjoying the island where the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea meet. Sunset was at its most spectacular as we sat upon a beach waiting for our 4-masted sailing ship to dock.
Title: New York, New York!
Location: The Brooklyn Bridge, New York, USA.
Photographer: Simon Thomas
It's not often that we stay in cities but the opportunity arose to spend a few days being typical tourists here in New York.
Simon actually got into trouble with the local cops when taking this shot as he scaled the barrier to get ‘that perfect shot’.
Title: The Sand Place
Location: The Registan, Samarkand, Uzbekistan
Photographer: Simon Thomas
The Registan was the heart of the ancient city of Samarkand of the Timurid Empire. ,
We arrived in Uzbekistan directly from Tajikistan and managed to spend time exploring this ancient location on the Silk Road. What works for us is the simple geometry of the shot.
Title: The Nose
Location: El Capitan (AKA The Nose), Yosemite National Park, California, USA
Photographer: Simon Thomas
Yosemite is still one of my (Simon) favourite locations on the planet.
Lisa’s parents, Trish and Alan had flown out to see us as we rode across
the USA. After a heavy snowfall, they waited patiently for two hours as
I shot this famous view. As it turned out this image was to become the
first image I (Simon) ever sold.
Thank you for dropping by. We'll be adding info and background to this age over the next few weeks so please check it out again and get a proper look at the story of each of the images.
Good luck and have fun with whatever you're up to.
Please leave a comment or a like if you found this article useful.
Professional photographer based in Wales, United Kingdom, and founder of LIVING LENS PHOTOGRAPHY. His editorial work has been featured in publications all over the world, and his commercial clients include brands such as Nike, BMW Motorrad, Adobe and SENA.