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Most times, when embroiled in a shoot in a far flung location, one of the only connections to the goings on of the outside world arrives in the form of BBC World News. There’s a certain sense of calm continuity in the presentation that makes a welcome change from the dramatic histrionics of the American news networks.

In recent years, the advent of more portable cameras employing direct satellite upload links from the field has spawned an increase in the amount of jittery, out-of-sync footage that makes it onto our screens. Carefully handled, the immediacy and spontaneity of the delivery outweighs any perceived lack of technical prowess. On the ever growing flat screens in the hotel room though, this lower resolution of these uplinks is magnified and becomes a little jarring before too long.

Most recently, I have noticed several networks pursuing what is obviously the cheapest (and likely most convenient) solution to the expert opinion interview. That is, the use of Skype as a means of direct contact with the subject, without the production hassle of getting them into a studio with actual camera, lights and backgrounds (not to mention stylists). Again, when handled well at both ends, the immediacy of the contact outweighs the technical polish.

When badly handled however, the results can be unsettling.

Mid-CNN broadcast on the large plasma TV, and halfway into yet another Hainan Chicken Rice, I literally recoiled in terror as the screen image flicked from the studio presenter to the field interviewee. In my room, on this huge screen, this guy’s head was almost three feet across!

Rather than this blimp blip becoming the occasional hiccup in any news bulletin, it is if anything, becoming the normal state of things. As screen sizes get larger our attention to detail seems to get correspondingly smaller. Cultivating the ability to discern good composition and good lighting are all but gone as networks rush to embrace the cost saving virtues of new technology.

Surely someone in the production crew cares about the demise of their craft? Though considering this next example, apparently not.

Picture this bursting into your lounge room on a 50+ inch screen.

So as to not be wholly negative, here’s a few possible solutions for the networks to send out with their Skype number.

1. Raise the camera by putting the laptop on some books. Or just lower the desk chair.

2. Turn on some room lights so you’re being lit by more than just the deathly blue light of the screen.

3. Push the laptop away from you.

4. No, further.

5. Think about a career in radio.

“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot” sang the prescient Joni Mitchell in 1970.

Much of the same has been happening in the rapid transformation of Asian cities such as Beijing. What were once smaller clusters of multi-dwelling residential blocks have been razed to make way for exclusive and expensive condominiums.

Until relatively recently, with a few hangers on in residence, this zig-zag design block reminiscent of the 1930’s, sat opposite the sprawling CCTV site in central Beijing. It was demolished during 2008 in the lead up to the Olympic Games.

Any social infrastructure holding the fabric of the community together was dismantled and hauled away, to be replaced by a new vision of paradise.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Xanadu. Life Beyond Imagination.

Or as the locals would no doubt have figured out, Life Beyond Affordability.

The newly opened Terminal B and Concourse at Sacramento International Airport was known as The Big Build, mostly due to the billion dollar price tag. Over the past four years, it has been the single biggest construction project in California. Designed by Fentress Architects in association with Corgan Associates, the new terminal dramatically improves the entire airport experience for travelers

A 56 foot long polygonal rabbit by artist Lawrence Argent leaps through the void towards a giant suitcase on the baggage level below. Though I must admit to conjuring up thoughts of Monty Python and the Holy Grail’s “death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth…” every time we walked by.

Light entering the terminal through the south facade screens casts an ever-moving variety of shadows throughout the day

To hear “We’ve been placed in a holding pattern” usually elicits a collective groan from passengers onboard any San Francisco bound flight. But depending on the day and of course your proximity to a window, this sometimes results in a wonderful display of color and form from below.

After completing the shoot at Jackson Hole Airport, we made some time and headed up into Yellowstone National Park. Having experienced the park mostly through Yogi Bear cartoons and the odd National Geographic special when I was a kid, I was keen to see at least some of it first hand. We’d already used our weekly allocation of good karma with regard to the weather, so this day was definitely a case of dodging the occasional rain bands that passed through the valley.

Almost immediately upon entering the southern end of the park, the scenery changes away from the benign, spacious valleys around Jackson to something more primordial. In between the seemingly normal forests and waterways, earth opens up, venting a pungent, gaseous cocktail of minerals from deep within.

Wooden walkways around the geysers ferry a continuous stream of onlookers. The regular visions of people disappearing in and out of the steamy clouds underlined the tenuous and temporal nature of our existence on the surface of this planet.

When getting in close to these holes in the earth’s crust, seeing the rich color and textures of the natural formations, it wasn’t hard to abstract the shapes and consider them more as aerial views of expansive coastlines.

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Five hours into the fourteen hour flight and I’m still looking out the window at the ever changing landscape 35,000 feet below. There’s always something new to see, or more interestingly, there’s always a new way to see something.

At this altitude, with the right combination of sleep deprivation and a good French red*, you can slip free, if only briefly, from the bonds of earthly responsibility, letting your mind wander unencumbered across expansive new horizons. But there’s no escaping physics and as much as you look at out through the double glazed porthole, part of you is reflected back in the gaze.

Cracks and all.

*Chateau Lynch Bages 2004, Grand Cru Classé Pauillac 5th Growth

While waiting for the requisite permits for our Dubai shoots we took the opportunity to head out of town into the rugged mountains of neighbouring Oman. The rockiness of the harsh terrain was mesmerising. Between the peaks, deep ravines provided passage for the spring run offs, pooling occasionally to create lush, sheltered waterholes that would last through the summer heat.

The journey back to Dubai led us back through a series of big dunes just as the afternoon sun started carving gorgeous shadows through the sea of sand.

When spending most of the day in the Pergamon, a vague sense of familiarity crept in as I moved through the various spaces, as if I had been there before, somehow seen it before. Putting zwei und zwei together , I came up with Thomas Struth, whose images I had seen in a collection of German photography, mostly from the Becher-inspired Dusseldorf school. Using large format film cameras, Struth had undertaken a series of images made within prominent galleries and museums around the world, re-purposing the art itself to serve as a backdrop against which we, the viewer, can question the way in which art is viewed. Or so the supporting text implied.

Walking into the adjacent Alte Museum later that day, it wasn’t hard at all to slip into the same headspace.

At the Tate Modern in London a few days later, I’d about had my fill of Dusseldorf devotees but couldn’t pass on a chance to Struth a Struth. Armed with little more than an iPhone (and these days, who needs more than that to be a bona fide artist?) I took my best shot.

Appropriating the creative work of others in one’s own output seems to be as popular as ever these days, so feeling kind of short on inspiration myself, I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon. I hear some guy named Richard Prince does quite well pursuing this kind of artistic process. Well, at least until a recent legal ruling by a judge deemed this sort of thing more akin to theft. But more on that later….

The highlight of the time in Berlin was definitely the amazing Pergamon Museum. What an extraordinary collection, with every room offering new insights into some of the world’s earliest civilizations. Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian….amazing!. Equally extraordinary was the comprehensive audio tour which related, in sometimes excruciating detail, the fascinating history surrounding the objects on display. Thankfully the pause button offered some respite from the information overload.The scale of some exhibits was overwhelming with complete building facades reconstructed, often from thousands of individual pieces.

This image, taken by Thomas Struth (more on him later) shows the Pergamon Altar. This is the first thing you as you enter the museum and it somewhat sets the tone for the rest of the visit.

For me, one of the most impressive exhibits was a reconstruction of the 6th century BC Ishtar Gate from Babylon.

Taking many years to reassemble, this enormous series of gates and precessional walls holds a rich variety of decorative panels. Apparently there’s an even larger portion of the main gate that cannot be completed because it simply won’t fit in the room.

Es ist kalt.

Those few remaining words of my high school German kept flashing through my brain as I walked through the sub zero streets of Berlin. Granted, we were mostly just hopping between museums but after the warm winter in California, the switch in climates was taking its toll.

The total absence of shadows was perplexing at first but eventually lent a surreal pictorial quality to the impressive streetscapes.

Adjacent to the Brandenburg Gate, the quiet solemnity of Peter Eisenman’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was a moving start to the day. Somehow the softness of the light, the mournful lack of texture on the undulating blocks of stone, played beautifully against the icy details on the distant trees of the Tiergarten. I could have stayed there all day, wandering through the columns of stone, altering my perspective on the world with each new step.

But es ist kalt, es ist sehr, sehr kalt.