I’ll probably be pretty busy drinking aged whiskeys with corporate big-wigs, fending off the advances of young attractive women, talking global politics with world leaders, and solving crimes with local and international law enforcement agencies. But feel free to try to reach me and I’ll see if I can fit you into the schedule.

One of my last assignments for last year was a fashion shoot with Sula Clothing, out of the UK. It was for their winter collection, so we decided to head to the mountains of Tam Dao, in northern Vietnam. We were looking for slate gray skies and hazy mornings. We used a friend’s house for its epic views and stone and wood walkways. We hoped for mist and prayed that the sun wouldn’t shine. We lit fires and shot through dirty windows. We turned the roof into an outdoor studio. We experimented a bit, and I think it paid off. Here are some pictures. Many thanks to Alison Taylor and Pham Thu Trang and everyone else who helped out.

I spent quite a bit of time last month traveling the length of the Red River in Vietnam for an editorial story in The Word magazine. We went by train, bike, and car. The sky was slate gray the entire trip. It rained that misty, incessant kind of rain for days on end. We braced ourselves against boring rural towns and gusts of wind off the Gulf of Tonkin. We thawed our hands in small cafes against even smaller heaters. We complained about the weather. A lot. We met interesting and interested people along the way. We were invited to tea. We were shown into people’s homes. We were told their stories.

The complaining was just habit. It’s what we’ve come to do when we forget how great it is to travel and meet people and see the country from a perspective that most foreigners never get to see. The towns we passed through weren’t tourist towns. They were farming towns. Small places with friendly people curious as to why we were even there in the first place. Forgettable in the overall picture maybe, but a bit poignant when you’re right in the middle of it. Anyway. Here are some pictures from the journey. From Lao Cai to Xuan Thuy, from the China border to the river’s delta.

It would take way too long to talk about everything I did last year. Loads of fun assignments. A mess of travel. More photographs than I know what to do with. Here are a few. Way too many, obviously. But end-of-year recaps are supposed to be self indulgent. So whatever. I’m indulging. Stop scrolling whenever you like. These are vaguely chronological. Goodbye 2011.