I just spent two days at Madain Saleh, as I wrote earlier, an ancient site where tombs have been carved into massive rock faces. Its a challenging location to photograph with many of the tombs facing in different directions to the sun, extreme lighting for most of the day and a fair bit of ground to cover whether you’re on foot or in a car.

Madain Saleh – a world heritage listed site marking the crossroads of an ancient trade route where tombs have been intricately carved into the towering rock faces.

However, as the minarets fell silent and the afternoon prayer concluded (leaving my own desperate pleas to be heard by any god who was listening), people started arriving and within half an hour there was standing room only. It was the first time I’d stood before a Saudi audience – women covered by their black burkhas and men in their white robes and head scarves – addressing participants through a translator. But photographs have a way of bridging the language divide and, in a short time, I’d jettisoned the speech I’d laboured over and we were all sharing questions and stories about the passion that united us. In fact, two hours passed so quickly, it was only due to the next presenter protesting that we had eaten into his time that we realised it was time to vacate the venue.

His Royal Highness Prince Sultan Bin Salmanazars Al Saud last night opened of the Colors of Saudi Arabia National Photographic Conference (above) at which I will be speaking today.

I’m in Fiji now on my way back to Brisbane after spending a little over a week in The Kingdom of Tonga – three days in Vavau, two in Hapai and the same in Nukulofa. The assignment – which was principally for the SPTO’s regional photo library project – turned out to be a precursor...