For as long as I can remember I’ve always wanted to go to Madagascar. I must have learnt of its existence sometime in my long-forgotten childhood. I don’t know whether it was in a book, a story someone told me, or maybe a postage stamp from one of those packets of assorted foreign stamps that you used to be able to buy in Woolworths. Whatever the reason it was somewhere that I had to go.

Madagascar Trip September 2007

Here are a few of the photographs I took in Madagascar on what was primarily a wildlife holiday (‘wildlife’ as in birds and lemurs not clubbing!).

Needless to say I couldn’t resist photographing some of the delightful people we met along the way. As I don’t speak Malagasy I cannot claim to have coached any of my subjects. I did however need to get them to smile (not always successfully). Our guide told us that “smile please” in Malagasy was “Be cheeky” (I’m sure that’s not how you spell it).

It struck me immediately that “Be cheeky” is just what I should be telling my subjects in English when I want them to come alive for the camera. You never stop learning….

This highly individual lady was selling pineapples from a rural roadside stall.

Here is a classical example of a picture that had to be taken even though the light was appalling and I did not have my best camera with me. This cheerful chap was working in an aluminium foundry. He’s standing on the top of the mold while his colleagues are pouring molten metal into it within inches of his bare feet.

Wherever we stopped, youngsters would appear as if from nowhere. They weren’t begging, just curious. They were amazingly happy and always willing to be photographed.

This colourful party were walking to a wedding or christening at a neighbouring village. The people here think nothing of walking many miles to market, to family celebrations or just to fetch water.

On one of our early morning trips in search of waterfowl we came across these women collecting water from the river. They carry the water back in buckets with a layer of weed on the top to prevent it slopping out along the way.

Madagascar is a fantastic country with amazing scenery and unique flora and fauna. But for me the colourful happy people were the stars of the show. I only regret that I did not spend more time photographing them.