Degema Travel Every Story is a Journey. Every Journey has a Story.

Travel

The Ancient Past and the Dystopian Future

I wasn’t entirely comfortable in Cairo. I didn’t feel actively threatened, as such, but I didn’t feel like I could take a walk down the street without facing a very real risk of injury or death. The extremely casual interpretation of the Highway Code and general Health & Safety precautions was a significant factor in that feeling, but the vibe generally felt…wrong. Maybe that was just me and the paranoia a couple of years without travel had created, but it was still enough for me to decide to move on from Egypt after only a single full day.

Travel

A Camel Named Yorkshire

I left you just as I was talking to the owner of the Bedouin Pyramids Guest House about a tour of the Pyramids. We jumped into his car and drove to the entrance of the Giza Necropolis. I had partially booked this particular hotel because it was only a little over a mile (1.7 km, if you’re being precise) as the crow flies from the Pyramids but, having seen Cairo traffic and its…liberal approach to the Highway Code, I decided that walking was perhaps not the smartest idea.

Travel

Cairo’s Ancient Architecture. Also Pyramids

It’s been a while since I was active on here. Like practically everyone, COVID-19 and the worldwide lockdowns did a bit of a number on me, not least because they prevented me from being able to travel. It wasn’t until I decided it was time for a big adventure at the end of 2022 that I realised just how much I had missed it. In fact, it wasn’t until I got off the plane in Cairo – up to that point, I had been perfectly prepared to intentionally miss the outbound flight and spend two weeks moping in bed instead. I’m certainly glad what few scraps of determination I had left at the time got me to my gate.

CategoriesTravel
Songkran 2016: On the Road Again…

Posted on10 April 201614 August 2019
As I write this article, I am on the bus bound for Hua Hin on the first leg of my Songkran travels. It’s a 10-hour journey, so I have plenty of time to get to work on the task of turning this blog back to the travel theme it was intended to have, instead of the photography journal it seems to have become!

By Ben Reeves
CategoriesPhotography
Week 13: Technology

Posted on8 April 201615 August 2019
The shot I am actually using for the Project52 was taken literally just in passing. I was on my way to the main provincial office of the Thai Revenue Department to collect a copy of my tax receipt (yes, I pay tax in Thailand. It is one of the fundamental differences between a tourist and an expat. I’ll go into the experience in more detail in another post). As I was driving there, I passed the recently-opened King Power Mall and remembered that I needed some shots of it for work.

By Ben Reeves
CategoriesPhotography
Week 12: Silhouette

Posted on29 March 201626 May 2019
When it came to Week 12 of my Project52 and the theme (or style) of “Silhouette”, I returned to an idea I’d actually had during Week 4, when the … Read more Week 12: Silhouette

By Ben Reeves
CategoriesExpat Life · Photography
The #Hellvan Chronicles

Posted on17 March 201615 August 2019
For those who don’t know, one of the cheapest forms of long-distance transport around Thailand is the minivan. You can get from Pattaya to Bangkok – a distance of 147km – in supreme discomfort for a mere 150 baht (about £3 or US$4.30) and, what’s more, you can do it surprisingly quickly if you catch the right bus. Why? Because the minivans were famous for being driven by absolute lunatics. That’s why I christened them “Hellvans”.

By Ben Reeves
CategoriesPhotography
Week 11: Texture

Posted on6 March 201614 August 2019
This is the first time where I have the opportunity to combine a Project52 write-up with a model shoot write-up! As it happened, several of the shots I took during the shoot coincided with the theme of the week – Texture – so all I had to do was pick the one I thought said it best. Some would call that laziness and a cop-out. I call it “efficient”.

By Ben Reeves
CategoriesPhotography
Week 9: Black & White

Posted on6 March 201626 May 2019
Most of my favourite black and white shots featured highly-textured surfaces, whether it be wood grain or a wrinkly face. Naturally, therefore, my first choice when it came to picking somewhere to shoot for the Project52 was an abandoned building.

By Ben Reeves
CategoriesOp-Ed
Please Stop Going ‘Missing’!

Posted on2 March 201626 May 2019
Around the end of February, there was a social media frenzy here in Thailand and back in the UK. My Facebook newsfeed was flooded with pictures of a 21-year-old backpacker from Swanage in the UK, along with desperate pleading from her family to spread the picture further and further in the hope of locating the person depicted.

By Ben Reeves
CategoriesPhotography
Week 8: Outtake

Posted on28 February 201615 August 2019
This was a bit of a contrast to what had been going on for a lot of the rest of the shoot, where the black angel had been glaring at the white one with daggers in her eyes, looking vengeful and hateful of the latter’s happiness. I can’t exactly recall how this led to the picture below. I remember us laughing about the apparent conflict between the two polar-natured personifications and me getting off a quick snapshot when Becca pretended to throttle Jasica. I was essentially shooting from the hip, but that is a practice I have a surprising about of experience with. It was more chance than anything else that it actually worked, but I suppose that is the very definition of an outtake.

By Ben Reeves
CategoriesPhotography
Week 7: Love

Posted on24 February 201615 August 2019
We got there just in time and I was able to snap my Project52 picture of a young Thai couple who were clearly very much in love, but who were abiding by the Thai traditions of keeping overt displays of passion to a minimum. It is rather a more modern Thai tradition to take endless selfies, and they were certainly doing plenty of that.

By Ben Reeves
CategoriesPhotography
Week 6: Unbalanced

Posted on23 February 201615 August 2019
How can this be unbalanced? The creature clearly has perfect poise and control over its attitude. Well, the answer is that the picture is not properly white balanced. This is the constant problem with diving photography. I should take something white down with me to use as a reference for each shot, but that is just another thing to carry in what is already quite a complicated and overweighted rig. It is easier just to hope that there is something white in the shot I can use to set the balance, or else I can just try to do it manually by eye.

By Ben Reeves