Egypt 2015: Luxor Temple

Some days it just all goes wrong. This was one of them. I'd been working in Chennai on a secondment and was coming to the end of my time there, where I'd have a couple of weeks to myself. This was the first place I visited, and promptly began feeling sick about 10 minutes after arriving. It was a scorching day, and I'd arrived with the sun at it's highest. I dragged myself around the complex for a single lap stopping as many times to throw up as I did to take a photo, before collapsing into the rear seat of the hotel car for the long ride home.

Tartu Cathedral is one of the biggest churches in Estonia and the only medieval church with two spires in the country. Its construction began in the thirteenth century and continued until the early sixteenth century. The final parts completed were its spires. The church was destroyed during the Livonian War and has not functioned as a place of worship since. Today, the University of Tartu Museum operates in the Cathedral.

Another of those places where it felt surreal to walk the pathways of a place I'd seen in everything from Asterix graphic novels as a kid, to movies via many history books. Every footstep, a connection to the past. I visited on a bright but changeable February morning and the queues were still deep. I cannot imagine how busy it must be at the height of summer.

When travelling, there are places you visit not for beauty or culture, but to educate and remind yourself of our capacity for intolerable cruelty to one another - and to reaffirm why it must never be allowed to happen again. Robben Island, home to many political prisoners under the Apartheid government, is one such place.

Traveling through Stellenbosch when driving to Cape Town. We stopped for lunch at this vineyard and winery. Whilst my travel companions sampled the wares, I went for a little wander. I don't know if I was really allowed to poke my nose in the places I did, but it was fascinating to see all the machinery used to produce the wines.

By day the Jemaa el-Fnaa is a bustling market with traders, and entertainers seeing a coin or two from the visitors. By night it transforms into a huge open air food court. Brightly lit against the night, with a myriad of scents from the cooking meats and spices.

A dull but crisp morning walk around Greenwich Market a few days before Christmas. I knew there would be Christmas lights all over so shot with a star filter. I'm still not sure that was the right call, but it's good to try something different occasionally.

Vanalinn, or Tallinn Old Town is a place with bags of character, exemplified by the near ubiquitous red tiles and bricks that give the buildings a unique 'glow'. I tend to gravitate to Black & White, but this city demanded to be shot in colour.

Sometimes you make a mistake, and sometimes that mistake is utterly avoidable. The day before this trip I got the then new iPhone 7 took a couple of shots in nice light and thought, 'this is good'. I'd taken some online comments to heart. Something along the lines of 'only 'cause you've got an expensive camera'. Rather than dismissing it, I thought I'd challenge myself and set off to Amsterdam with only the iPhone. As it turned out, I fell in love with Amsterdam that weekend and wished I'd had my X-T1 with me. The iPhone looked alright in good daylight and on a phone screen, but quality simply fell apart as soon as the light dimmed and seen on a laptop or larger. In December in a city filled with beautiful illuminations the good light fell away quickly and what was left on the sensor did not do the city justice. The next time I went, I did not make the same mistake twice.