Among many attractions that I had heard/read about in Madagascar before coming here was the Avenue of the Baobabs, often accompanying with its image at sunset. That is what we wanted to see and capture when we made our trip there this week. And this is one of the photographs that I captured, from possibly hundreds (more will surely follow) - but I wanted to upload this first because I took this from my mobile phone and I am pretty pleased with the outcome.

For people who rely primarily on rain-fed paddy here in Madagascar, a good rainy season is vital for their survival. However, it could be a nightmare especially when it rains too much within a short period of time. Good drainage system is virtually non-existent even in urban area, so all the rain that falls flows through the tarred roads and concrete, flooding not just low-lying areas of the city but the flatlands all around. This picture was taken in March 2015 from Ambohimanga hill on my rare day-out here in Antananarivo.

I wonder how many people outside of Madagascar know that it is a hilly country. There are flat lands too, but during my fieldwork most of the landscape I see are the hills, often picturesque rolling hills like these.

The last of our field research sites is also one of the remotest. It took us five days just to get to the site from the capital Tana (Antananarivo for those not familiar). The hilly region is full of fast flowing streams and rivers, and the landscape beautiful. But life of the people there is extremely hard, with few options than hill-rice farming. Extreme poverty was clear to see everywhere. As you arrive at a village outskirts, you know the village is nearby from the strong stench you experience from the open defecation. People have few good clothes to wear, the dwellings are very basic - built from bamboo and twigs, and banana leaves or palm fronds for the roof. Despite the hardship and extreme poverty, people were welcoming and treated us well, even letting us stay in one of the better huts.

Photographing wildlife is never easy, especially the ones that move a lot. Even though these lemurs, brown lemurs, are relatively common in and around Mitsinjo in Andasibe, and would appear in the afternoon just outside the hall where we had our meeting, I hardly managed to get a good shot. From what I had this is the best, not really happy with the result but this will do for now.

On my last field visit to a village called Sahakana, the village headman, whose compound we were staying in, offered me some oil palm fruit. It was the day before our departure date and he asked one of his sons to cut one large bunch of the palm fruit and asked me to photograph it - for he seemed fascinated by digital images that you could see instantly after capture. Once the bunch was lowered down to the ground, he started removing some fruits, which I thought was just to show me, only to realise later that he was preparing to offer me some. He said I could easily extract oil from them. I asked if it was possible to just eat the fruit. He said he would get them roasted, that'’s how they eat the fruit. In all the hurriedness to leave, I never got to taste the roasted oil palm fruit unfortunately.

Fresh new portrait from my last field site. While we were waiting for our interviewee, this young man started talking to me, in English. His first word was Hello, and then he said in a perfectly good English “Sorry I do not know how to talk in English”. First, I was surprised to find someone in the village speaking to me in English, but when he said in perfect English that he doesn'’t speak the language, I just couldn’t stop myself blurting “I’m so glad I just understood your French perfectly” - my colleague starting laughing out loud but this poor young man didn’t get my silly joke so looked even more confused. Just then I asked him if I could take a picture of him, and here is the result.

A honey hunter is all smiles after selling his day'’s harvest to one of my field team members in a village near Moramanga in Madagascar - early in 2014. As is the custom in the area he sipped a little honey directly from the bottle that he was selling to show that it was his honey and not stolen from others - but my friend buying was horrified to see him do that. She probably expected him to pour a bit on his hand or on the lid. This was his laugh in the aftermath of that ‘‘incident’’ that I wanted to capture.

This is one of my favourite shots of the baobabs in the Avenue of the Baobabs. Here, I tried to contrast the dark silhouettes of the baobabs with the colourful horizon immediately after the sunset.

This is one of the very first giant chameleon that I saw in Madagascar during my first trip here in November 2013. It was living on a big mango tree in the village that I was staying in for my fieldwork. I tried to take at least a few photographs every day to get the shot I wanted, and this is one of my favourite.