An ancient town with a history of some 2000 years sitting at the entrance of the stunning Qutang Gorge on the northern banks of the Yangzte River, China, Fengjie was one of the first to be destroyed to make way for the Three Gorges Dam project.

This series of images was taken in July 2002 mere months before the final relocation of residents to the new town centre and the vaporising of the old town.

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Dragon River Reflections, Yangshuo, China

This is an image from one of my favorite places in the world – Yangshuo!

The limestone karsts and surrounding landscape are carpeted with lush green vegetation and rice fields during the warmer months.   Simply add a light mist and there you are living smack bang in the middle of one of those traditional Chinese paintings.

This particular day though was clear with sparkling blue skies lightly spotted with small puffy clouds.  The river was still enough to provide wonderful reflections with just a few ripples from a very light breeze on the right hand side.

For me the processing, which is on the way to being “infrared”, helps to highlight the features of this stunning landscape.

The Laughing Boatman, Hoi An, Vietnam

This old guy was stretched out on his boat sporting a wide, gold enhanced toothy, or perhaps I should say near toothless smile that beamed from his weather beaten face as he went about his business of eliciting customers for a boat ride along Hoi An’s Thu Bon river in Central Vietnam.

Always a sucker for a face with character he had soon cast us off onto his mate’s boat, fortunately a gentleman who was similarly photogenic.  The next half hour or so was spent gliding up and down this picturesque waterway that was awash with vivid reflections from the old French colonial buildings that line the waterfront of this World Heritage hamlet.