Laytongku Village

  As part of my work for Capital Television Group I have a wonderful chance to travel, around the world in years gone by but recently to a hidden away in a jungle location in Northwest Thailand.   Laytongku Village is an extremely remote Karen hill-tribe settlement in Tak Province on the Myanmar border the settlement dates back around 250 years, its accessed by traversing the notorious Death Highway 1090 and then a 20 Km dirt track through the mountains that can only be accessed by 4 wheel drive or endure motorcycles.           The Karen people who live in the area follow a belief called ”Animism” or translated means “breath, spirit & life” Animism is believed to be the oldest belief systems on the planet and aims to live with nature and with respect does not try to control or destroy the environment. Unfortunately about 50 years ago some over enthusiastic so called Christian missionary headed by a Mr Allan Eubank targeted these people for conversion, Christianity has managed to get a foothold on these people through bribery but fortunately the people have been able to hold onto their Animism beliefs and traditions and have not been completely suppressed. The Thai government and NGO’s do a lot of good work here, helping these people with self-sufficiency, education and resources and small discrete scale hydroelectric systems can be seen at the waterfalls around the village. Related links: GT Rider DestinantionThailand.tv Travel Asia and Beyond.tv Tony Hanscomb Photography Wikipedia Umphang District Wikipedia Animism

The perfect wedding

Wedding Photography I am most aware that your wedding day is one of the most important days in you and your partners life. It is a day that will be remembered long into your retirement and your old age, and something to tell your friends and family about. The complex event takes careful planning, and for the memories to be happy ones then preparation is key. Tony Hanscomb Photography takes proper care and attention to detail, I am aware that the photographs will last a lifetime and provide cherished memories for ever. My expertise as a professional wedding photographer will ensure that these memories are captured forever, and your mementos will always be there to give you happiness and comfort. Wedding Info My approach for your big day is to capture all the emotion, spirit and sentiment in a creative and artistic manner. Whilst at the same time capturing those amazing moments that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. Your wedding photographs will remain as a legacy and a testament of your love and devotion, and I am fully aware that the memories should reflect this for both you and your family to come. Professional wedding photography should not only capture the memories and the moment, but also represent an artistic representation of the entire event. With Tony Hanscomb Photography there are no standard poses or pre-set scenarios, I evaluate the situation and capture something that is unique and will last the test of time. By selecting Tony Hanscomb Photography to record your wedding memories, you can rest assured that a professional is by your side every step of the way. Nothing will be left to chance, and you can turn your attention to other wedding arrangements that need attending to. I can travel anywhere in Thailand to cover your wedding photography, be it in Pattaya, Bangkok, Phuket or Chang Mai, you only pay for fuel cost plus 1,000 Baht for each travel day time.

Scenic photography

Scenic Photography Scenic photography is any photograph that contains a “scene” or “story” this can include the following: street scenes, gardens, swimming pools, forests, seascapes, beach scenes, and of course “landscape photography”. Landscape photography was popular from as early as the early 1800s photographers were fond of this type of photograph as it took such a long time to expose the film and the scenery did not move, unlike a human subject for instance. The formative exponents of this type of photography followed the same path as such great landscape artists as Constable and Turner and was referred to as pictorial photography They were capturing a moment in time forever, one that would never be the same again. Scenic Photography covers landscape photography also street scenes, gardens, swimming pools, forests, seascapes, beach scenes, I usually try to find a “focus point” or a point of interest in the photograph perhaps in the foreground or middle-ground such an old fishing boat on the beach with ocean behind. I am always on the lookout for interesting colours and try to enhance depth and scale. The weather plays such a big part in scenic photography and as we know, two days are rarely the same from day to day. This does not mean that every time I manage to capture a good scenic photograph I have to go climbing mountains or jumping out of planes. At Tony Hanscomb Photography I am just as adept as spotting the scenic beauty in someone’s backyard, farm, back street, beach or beautiful resort. Our new digital world has also brought new possibilities through retouch and digital manipulation to seamlessly combine, create and change the scene in ways not imagined before.

Victoria Falls

“Boiling Water” in Swahili, is a waterfall on the Zambezi River in south east Africa, This spectacular 1,708 meter wide waterfall is located on the Zambia border.The Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone, was the first European to find the Falls in the year 1855. The Mosi-oa-Tunya national park is near the falls, but the national park and the town on the Zimbabwean shore are both called Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls is not the highest or widest waterfall in the world, but is the largest, because of its combined width of 1,708M. and height of 108M. creating the largest area of falling water in the world. The Victoria Falls is two times the height Niagara Falls. The falls are at a place where the river is wide where the river drops into a deep ravine called the “First Gorge”, is from 80 metres to 108 metres wide and at the lower end there is a road bridge called the Knife-Edge Bridge that you can walk along to get a different view of the ravine and falls. You can see how vast the falls are from our dro ne video.There are two islands on the crest of the falls that divide the rush of water and they are named: the “Devil’s Cataract” and the “Eastern Cataract”. We were there during the dry season, but to me the water was spectacular and the spray from the falls was going up about 500 metres in to the air and the spray can be seen many kilometres away. We were told it is possible to walk to the bottom of the First Gorge at the Zimbabwean side but unfortunately, we were on a tight schedule and did not have time to go down, but I guess the views would be even better than from the top.    

The Nile Source

Source of the Nile Source of the Nile We (the team & I) Arrived at the area that marks the place from where the River Nile starts its long journey to the Mediterranean sea. The Nile winds its way through Central and Northern Uganda South Sudan, Sudan & Egypt. The Nile is said to be the longest river in the world but recently the Amazon River has been found to be a tiny bit longer. There are two major tributaries – the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The White Nile is considered to be main one, but he Blue Nile, supplies most of the water, We arrived at Lake Victoria in Uganda which is one of the African Great Lakes. The lake was named after Queen Victoria by the explorer John Hanning Speke, he arrived in 1858 while on an expedition with Richard Francis Burton to locate the source of the Nile River and the expedition was paid for by the Royal Geographic Society. The lake has a surface area of approximately 59,947 km2 and is Africa’s largest lake, the world’s largest tropical lake. And is about 80 Meters deep with some islands which are about 4% of its length, the lake spans three countries: Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. I noticed many tropical birds and managed to photograph some of them but we were in a tiny boat and I dint have the opportunity to use a very long lens, a 1,000mm lens would have been ideal. Lake Victoria is about 400,000 years young. It formed when westward-flowing rivers were dammed by an upthrown crustal block. Lake Victoria receives 70 to 80% of its water from rainfall and receives water from rivers, and many small streams, when we went out into the lake there seemed to be a lot of water rushing up underneath us, presumably from a massive underground spring.

Tony Hanscomb Biography

This is my story. I was born in Beckenham, Kent, England in 1951. At 11 years old I attended Quernmore School for Boys, Bromley, Kent and learned army discipline! Quernmore School was originally called Plaistow Lodge, the House was built about 1777 by Peter Thelusson who died in 1797.It consists of a centre and 2 wings. The centre had 5 storeys and 5 windows on the west or entrance front. The ground floor is of rusticated ashlar with recessed round-headed windows having panels of balustrading below and keystones above. My father decided to move (without consent) the entire family to Durham in the North East when I was 14 years old. I hated the new move at first, mainly because I couldn’t understand a word anyone was saying! and I was ridiculed for my “posh accent” (much more posh than it is now), It took me a while to get used to the place.I got out of school as quickly as I could at the age of 15, by then my sister had run away back to London to live with our very kind Aunty Muriel who was working at the BBC at the time. Ducati Elite SS 200 I worked on a local farm as a tractor driver for a year (I just loved driving farm vehicle’s, so it wasn’t for the money!) then I moved on to get a job as an apprentice electrician, riding my Ducati Elite Supersport to work every day, a round trip of 100 miles, in all conditions through ice snow and rain and some beautiful weather too. I had a go at racing the Ducati at Croft Racing Circuit but saw a friend get killed at the croft track so to my mum’s great delight I gave up the bike and my mum bought me my first car when I passed my driving test on the morning of my 17th birthday. Then I got a job at Turners Photography as a lab technician, they sponsored me to go to Newcastle College of arts where I got my degree in Photography. I worked at Turners for a while as a photographer but Mr Jacobson the owner was a real scrooge who refused to pay me a decent sallery, so one day I decided to walk out! At that time I was very interested in engineering so I went to School again in 1972 and studied G1 & G2 engineering and after graduating went to work at Clan Motor Company in Washington, I was working on the production cars and was able to work on some of the race and rally cars in the competitions department, sadly after only 2 years the the company folded. After that I ran my own driving school for a while (Framwellgate School of Motoring) after that I worked for the UK governments “Department of Transport & Environment“, all the time still not forgetting my love of photography and getting freelance work and helping my sister create her own studio – http://christinehanscomb.co.uk Outside of work my passion was rallying and after building several rally cars and rebuilding a lotus 7 for a friend I became quite well known for building very competitive cars and race engines I eventually won my class in the ANECCC rally championship in my Ford Escort MkII using a Lotus/Cosworth engine I built and developed.After selling my rally car to one of my sponsors I went into small time property development starting with 2,000 pounds and after 4 years had saved 20,000 pounds (not a lot in today’s money). So I then decided to move to Thailand and started Tony & Nok Studio Ltd Part which developed into First Frame Productions Ltd, in Suriwongse Road in Bangkok the company employed 15 staff and won many major photography campaigns with major advertising agencies.At that time I was friends with Tan Mui (Prince Chatrichalerm Yukol) and worked with him as technical & lighting director on movies such as The Elephant Keeper (Khon Liang Chang) (1987) This was a great adventure for me as with his royal connections I was honored to attend several private events where I was able to meet the late king Bhumibol Adulyadej and and his queen consort HRH Sirikit and on one occasion sat chatting with her Majesty over cakes and tea! Since then I have worked with many Advertising agencies, and Hotels and resorts where I was able to continue with another of my life long loves “food photography” and interior & exteriors photography.I am very skilled with Image processing & Photoshop, illustrator and Adobe Premier Pro video editing, Having worked at Capital Television Group Co., Ltd, Bangkok, Thailand from 1993 to August 2008.I founded and managed the animation & graphic arts department for them creating 3-D animations, flying logos, openings, credits, commercials and special effects for international and domestic television programming documentry videos. I worked on weekly programs run on STAR TV Asia (the Rupert Murdock-owned Fox satellite network) and UBC Thailand Cable Network (now True Visions) I helped produce corporate videos for major corporations including Sheraton Hotels Pan Pacific Group, Hard Rock Hotels, Tourism Authority of Thailand, and many others. I moved to Pattaya to be Capital TV’s Eastern Seaboard Regional GM and Creative Director.In 2008 I visited England for a year and work for “Master School Portrait“, An Australian company branch based in Woking, Surrey, UK as a school photographer, travelling the country brought back fond memories of the UK & the English country side. But I missed Thailand’s opportunities, so I returned back to work as a Creative Director for Cartoon Network Amazone Water Client list (abridged) AAR InternationalAdvertising Agency RegisterAida Advertising AgencyArtistree Siam Acme Advertising CoBangkok Airways Co. LtdBatey AddsBritish PetroliumBravado GraphicsButler Pad, Butler TechBizz PayeBarter CardBSB ThailandBSB Thailand Backer Spielvogel Bates LtdCapital Television Group Co., Ltd.Century Advertising Co., LtdCentral Hotels & ResortsChain Karnchang & AdvertisingCollingbourne Auction HouseClassic AdvertisingCVT & Bercia AdvertisingD & H Marketing & Service CoDiana GroupDiscover Tour Company BangladeshDusit Thani Hotel “Pattaya” & “Bangkok”Euro Star