All done – my last shoot for the year (preview below) of Vanuatu’s premier resort, The Havannah.

The brief here: Luxury, elegance and serenity.

The talent has just arrived and we start shooting in ernest tomorrow but I thought I’d post this one (below) of the staff which brings a smile to my face and the promise of an enjoyable shoot ahead.

I say adventure, because it ranged from laying in a bed of fire ants (my own stupid fault for not checking), trekking up volcanos, paddling across volcanic lakes in the driving rain, pounding through three metre swells in a banana boat and plunging a coral tooth deep into my foot (to which, I might add, I was very brave right up until Sarah went for the razor to cut it out).

With three assignments already booked, I’ve just begun my promotional cycle for the year ahead – offering a special Pre-Season Package to clients who book an assignment for 2016 prior to mid-December.

The package offers a range of incentives for clients to book early at a time most likely to suit them. It represents the best value for money for my services and is only extended once a year.

So, as I prepare to launch my Pre-Season promotion to schedule assignments for the year ahead, I thought I’d post a short selection of some of my favourite images from 2015.

For any tourist destination, its indigenous culture can be what defines and differentiates it from its competition. Think where Kenya would be without the imagery of its Masai warriors. Or more locally, where Papua New Guinea would be without the imagery of its Huli wigmen, where Vanuatu would be without the pictures of its Land Divers, where Australia would be without reference to its traditional Aborigines.

After all, a desire to experience a different culture first-hand is (hopefully) one of the main reasons people look to travel abroad.

As a professional tourism photographer looking to help authorities market their destinations in a competitive international environment, I’m particulalry keen to photograph a country’s traditional and contemporary culture in ways that make their destination both distinctive and appealing. To this end, I look to shoot culture from two different angles – to capture the romantic notion of its traditional past (this tends to be in a documentary style as well as a more friendly version of the same thing because so many documentary images look way too serious), and to project its contemporary culture as being welcoming and accessible.