The Visited Planet 2023 calendar supporting Cameras for Asia is on sale and available now.

It contains 12 images from around the world from the Visited Planet archives featuring countries like India, Nepal Israel, Myanmar, Albania, Bhutan, Iceland, Mongolia, Indonesia, Australia, Italy, and Czech Republic. You can travel the world from your armchair!

All funds raised go directly to Cameras For Asia and the continuation of that program. This program organizes photography workshops in several Asian countries, and has also supported those communities through COVID-19 travel problems and the coup in Myanmar.

COST: AUD $20 (plus postage. Usually $5-6 for up to 2 in Australia, but it depends on location). International orders are possible.

TO ORDER: Email [email protected] to order yours now.

Payment to: BSB 014272

Account 389935479

SPECS:

A4 Landscape Wirebound Wall Calendar

Date Format: one month per opening plus cover (13 months)

A3 (420 x 297) per page open

A4 (210 x 297) closed

Stock 300 gsm Gloss Covers

150gsm Gloss Calendar pages

Print Full Colour throughout

Wirebound long edge, one hole drilled for hanging

MORE DETAILS ON THE IMAGES

A friend requested I provide more caption information for those that are interested. I’ll keep adding to this page as I complete the descriptions.

January – Taken from Poon Hill just after sunrise. This viewing point at 3193m is on the Annapurna circuit in Nepal, a popular trekking route in that region, and the sunrise trek is also very popular. If you time it for spring, like in this image, you also get a flood of rhododendrons at the top. There are something like 3000 stairs from the town you stay in Ghorepani. Most get up well before dawn to time their arrival for sunrise. The Annapurna circuit is something like a 2-3 week trek, but there are shortened options that just include Poon Hill. I’ve done most of the circuit, the Annapurna base camp, and variations thereof.

February – This image was taken in Shan State, Myanmar at a tea shop on a trek to Inle Lake, one of the popular multi-day treks in Myanmar. We had stopped in for tea, a very Myanmar custom, and it was one of those staging post type tea stops with people coming and going, trucks filled with passengers passing by, and some sort of repair shop attached to the customer area. This older man was sitting amidst some tyres and general tools, and his turban caught my eye. We got chatting, as we had a guide and one of my friends speaks Burmese, and asked if we could take some images. He smiled and I noted his teeth, and he helpfully pointed to them when I asked him about them.

March – Taken on the Mongolian steppe. I worked in Mongolia in 2007 for about nine months for an NGO. My job was to travel to the different projects we had, then write articles promoting the work for international publications. I loved it but there was a lot of travel. I was barely in Ulaan Baatar for two weeks at a time. During the summer months, all staff took a two-week hiatus. I joined a group that hired an old yellow Russian bus and we headed to one of the northern lakes on the Russian border where reindeer herders live. It was an extraordinary time where we drove all day on the steppe, seeing things on the way, and literally pulled over at night to camp. There are no made roads out here, and you could stop anywhere. We often stayed near nomadic settlements like this one. Hospitality on the steppe is renowned and anyone may step into a ger like this and be given tea and snacks, a bed for the night, etc. We camped near this group of families, and the light was just right.

April – a mosque school, central Java, Indonesia. I used to visit Indonesia a lot, and was often asked to visit projects the IES Church funded/were involved in. They had responded to the earthquake and subsequent eruption of Mt Merapi and we went as a follow up to interview locals to see what needs they still had. This involved bumping around in a jeep to lots of places they’d helped rebuild homes and schools. In many villages, school had ceased for youngsters over some period, but were just restarting when we came through. This group of girls (and there were boys) were having a break and standing outside gawping at us, and us at them. Their parents were rice farmers and some had animals. The land is fertile but obviously in some areas they lost animals from toxic gases, and some fields were destroyed.

May – Skogafoss Waterfall, Iceland. A friend living in Reykjavik took me to this waterfall, one of my first in Iceland (I was to see about 100 more over the next 10 days!) I still think this is one of the most impressive as you get an incredible view from a distance, and it’s a single fall of 60m, but the amount of spray around it is phenomenal. I lost a phone to Iceland’s fine water, and my camera struggled a few times. We also walked up alongside the waterfall to a viewpoint at the top, but there is a trek that continues from here over the highlands beyond. We did part of this. Look closely and you may see tiny people at the base of the falls, and those walking up past it.

June – captioned as Bethlehem, Israel but actually taken in Nazareth (sorry). Nazareth is the birthplace of Jesus, but not really a particularly touristy place. I loved it for this reason as while Jerusalem and other places are incredible, they are also well visited. Nazareth is more of an Arab city and people were so friendly. I was invited to sit for coffee with shop keepers, given tastes of olives (just to try) and met a few local girls that I’m still in touch with (no English spoken but we exchanged Instagram addresses and that was fun). There are some lovely churches, squares, markets and streets here and you could probably see most of it in a day or so. It was very local, as you can see from this market display.

More will follow …