The Rock Climber

I'm so scared of heights, just looking up at him made me feel giddy. Okay, exaggerating, but why get up there when I can get a great shot from down here on the beach? I love all kinds of photography, but heights and being underwater freak me out. Staying on the ground is the perfect place for me and my camera gear.

Photographing rock climbers can take endless hours because it's hard to stop watching them. They hold on tightly to their gear and the rocks and crawl into spots that seem impossible to get out of. Any moment they could fall and spiral out of control. And some do suddenly drop, flail about flapping invisible wings, then gracefully fall back to the rock face to try again.

Or smash into the rocks if they are lacking experience.

However they execute their sport moves, I admire their courage and commitment in fearlessly joining nature. It's the only way to survive. Way up there on a rock face they are a part of nature, just another creature feeling the breeze and hugging the cliff like all the others up there from the spiders to the monkeys.

I couldn't find the fearless motivation to get up there, but taking photos of it makes me so happy.

I took this photo of a brave rock climber during a family holiday in Thailand. We travelled from our base in Phuket to find this little paradise of an island near Krabi. Thailand is known for it's natural beauty but this place truly is charming with smooth sandy beaches lined with coconut trees, huge limestone cliffs, dense jungle and a chilled out vibe to match the natural surroundings.

I took the image including a human to show how massive the rock formation was, softly framed by the green leaves and lit by the morning sun rising. I edited the photograph in Lightroom by saturating the colors, bringing out the shadows and adding some contrast.

We found our way to this place with the rock climbers, challenging gravity and luck, by following a path once we arrived by long tail boat to Railay Bay. There is a little village and a bunch of resorts including the luxurious Rayavadee. You can walk along a pathway together with locals, monkeys and tourists for about 10 minutes and arrive at Phra Nang Beach. There you will see several caves including one filled with something very unexpected. You wouldn't even be able to guess the cave would be home to a collection of wooden penises – hand-carved, some painted, big, small, all colors, carefully decorated with ribbon and fabric. A cave full of phallic sculptures is the most wacky find. You never know what you might see, experience or who you might meet when traveling.

Some believe the mystical sea princess called the Phra Nang Princess resides in the cave. Thai fishermen would bring their wishes and prayers to the sea princess before heading out on their fishing trips. She would protect them from danger and give them good luck at sea. Then the fishermen would return to the Phra Nang Princess with an offering.

Offerings would include flowers, jewels, ribbons, candles and often penises. The reason for the big collection of hard wooden penises was that this princess was also important to people suffering from infertility issues. Now you know the penis cave legend.

I exited the cave after taking photographic penis proof. My sons were happy playing around in the sand and exploring. After we spent some time there we went to a local restaurant for a seafood lunch and then hopped back on the long tail boat to the mainland.

We miss those wonderful moments, those precious memories and awesome holidays. What we would give to go back there again. It's impossible to do for now at least so thank goodness we have the photos to take us back.