Bedecked in a jazzy sweater, this young lad bravely takes on the cool morning of the Sapa highlands despite his snotty nose!

For this shot, I chose to use a big aperture setting (f/2) to isolate the little gentleman from a “busy” background.  Lenses with a wide aperture (those with f/2.8 and wider) will enable the photographer to creatively “blur” out a distracting background, as illustrated here.

The shortest distance between two people is a smile.

Always be on the alert for photo opportunities like this. With a great lens in my hands, I was able to capture this shot; effectively blurring out distractions in the background and obtaining a fast shutter speed for hand-held photography.

A carpet of upward sweeping pigeons endorse freedom in Cambodia. A country with a chequered history, it gained its independence on 9 November 1953.

With the “Smiles” theme entrenched in my mind, one of the shots I wanted to clearly depict was freedom. Waiting for the right moment, I used a wide-angle lens to dramatically capture a fleeting moment… freedom of the pigeons symbolising the freedom of a country with such a tumultuous history.