Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Cambodia Photo Tour: My first time to Angkor Wat

Holy cow, it has been almost three weeks since I have posted to the blog. I guess it is just that time of the year when everyone wants family portraits, and all those people I photographed throughout the year are ordering their digital images for holiday cards. All of that and a little time off for me too.

But alas, I am back at the computer to do something other than photo retouching.

In today's blog post, I will take you along with me to Cambodia. You get to see all the sites that we saw, but without the jet lag!

Our photo tour group departed Vietnam and arrived at the Siem Reap airport for our first steps in Cambodia. We were all excited to be so close to the ancient temple of Angkor Wat, with high expectations for the coming days.


I am not an early morning person, but Mike (the owner of M&M Photo Tours, and my partner on most of my trips) set a very early meeting time for our first full day in the country. We were going to leave the hotel at 4am and make our way in darkness to Angkor Wat for sunrise. Even though the tourist numbers were lower than normal (due to the pandemic), we wanted to make sure that we had a clear shot of the temple across the water as the sun rose. That next morning we walked through complete darkness with our flashlights in hand, got to the waters edge, set up our tripods and waited.

At approximately 5:15am we could start to see the shape of the temple, and we started taking photos. I took this photo at 5:40am, before the sun rose above the horizon.  For this shot I was using the Canon R5 with the Canon RF24-105mm lens. The colors were gorgeous, the reflection just right, and the silhouette was iconic. All of us were excited to see what we had captured in our cameras. This was a photo I had dreamed of for many years! 

At 6:30am, we packed up our tripods and waited for the sun to light the surroundings so that we could tour the complex. 


It did not take long for the darkness to change to light, and we all scattered to photograph the largest religious monument in the world.


Being at Angkor Wat towards the end of the pandemic did allow us to get clean photos without throngs of tourists.


I was totally blown away as I walked around and saw endless details in the stone.


It was amazing to see how all of this artwork has survived since the 12th century.



With over 400 acres to survey, the photo opportunities were endless.



This photo was taken in the back of the temple. We had set a meeting time and I arrived at that location a little early so that I could get some photos from this perspective before exiting.


I had some time to walk around the back of the temple, and saw this one flowering plant growing in the grass, and decided to use that to capture a different view of Angkor Wat. I took a couple of photos using the plant as my subject and the temple as a supporting subject, and then noticed a dragonfly that was flying amongst the flowers. It kept coming back to the same flower, so I thought it would make for a nice photo opportunity.


I switched to my other camera which was the Canon R6 which has the Canon RF70-200mm lens, and zoomed all the way to 200mm. I got down low and waited for the dragonfly to stop. I shifted my position so that I would have a good background and got this shot. I loved the way that the colors of the dragonfly were in contrast to the purple flowers. This dragonfly was so predictable that I notified our other guests about this shot, and they all took turns photographing it.


A couple of days later we made another visit to Angkor Wat in the later part of the afternoon. This time our goal was to get photos of the temple with the golden hour light on the front of the buildings. As we approached the complex once again, this time entering in daylight, we saw a couple having their engagement photos taken. I asked if we could take some photos of them as well. 


Their photographers were really nice to let us step in for some photos. As we were shooting, they were checking out (and very jealous of) our newer Canon mirrorless cameras. 


I saw these 4 monks who were walking the property and asked them if they would let us take their photo. Once they agreed, I walked them over to the spot you see here, knowing that this would give us a nice reflection in the water. As soon as I took this photo, I knew that this would be one of my favorites from the trip.


After taking the photo of the monks, I asked this young lady if she would do the same thing for us. This is not a hired model, just a young lady who was there with friends. I love that she helped us capture another favorite photo!

This was my first trip to this amazing country and surely it will not be my last. Mike and I will surely be doing this trip again in 2024. If you are looking to join us in Asia sooner, we are heading to Japan in March and have a couple more spots available.


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Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Cuba, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours. 

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Thursday, December 8, 2022

Vietnam Photo Tour: Cao Dai Temple and the Floating Markets

Towards the end of our visit to Vietnam, we made a visit to the Cao Dai Temple. This building is very colorful and is one of the most visited tourist sites in Vietnam. It is the home of the Cao Dai which is a religion that combines Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism and Confucianism. 

We arrived just before noon, in between two ceremonies. They actually have four ceremonies a day, starting from 6am all the way until midnight.


Since the ceremony had yet to start, we walked around the outside of the building to capture the unique architecture. We had to wait outside until the temple was officially opened for visitors (who are restricted to view from the inner doorways).


Once the ceremony began, we had a great view of the amazing inside of the Cao Dai Temple. I decided to use my Canon R5 and Canon RF24-105mm lens for my wide shots. 


The ceremony lasts for quite a long time, giving us ample time to photograph the people and the details of the architecture. I encouraged our tour guests to not only photograph the people, but to try different photography techniques to show this in unique ways. Here I focused on the nearby column, letting the people go out of focus. I used my Canon R6 and Canon RF70-200mm lens for tighter shots like this. 


I really loved the bright colors and repeating patterns inside the Temple.


All the men and women in attendance wore white, and they were segregated to separate sides of the temple. Also, their sitting positions were determined by their levels of spiritual attainment, lower levels in back and higher levels up front.  The priests wore the bright colors. Each of the colors represents a different religion - yellow for Buddhist, blue for Taoist, and red for Confucian. (Thanks to Susie J - one of our guests - for researching this and allowing me to steal that info to share with you all). 


I used selective focus and a narrow aperture to focus primarily on the priests in the back of the ceremony.


After the service, we all walked around the grounds to get more photos. I looked for interesting details that caught my eye.


I always look for teaching moments, and this photo is an example of that. I had some of our guests walking around with me and saw that the sun was just over the temple. I showed them how to change the aperture of the camera, move so that the sun is barely visible, and get a starburst effect like this.


Nearby the Cao Dai Temple was a huge Buddah. I saw this reflection in the water and encouraged everyone to get a shot like this. So cool!

The next day, we visited one of the floating markets and what a photography bonanza that was!


As you may have seen from my previous blog post, we loved photographing the people of Vietnam. Watching them work on the floating market was another chance to capture the people in their unique environment. For this day, I decided to use my Canon R6 and the Canon RF70-200mm lens. I did not need the high resolution of the Canon R5 (since I figured I would not need to crop much) and I figured that the reach of the 70-200mm would be perfect for this excursion. 


This woman was selling meat from her boat. 


This woman was transporting vegetables in front of a floating store. 


The following images show the people of the floating market. I will let the photos do the talking for me...





For those wondering, this is a uniquely carved pineapple. 






This is the final blog post from our Vietnam tour (even though I have so many more images from this amazing trip). The next blog will share images from our next stop, Cambodia!

I hope you get a chance to see and appreciate my view from different parts of the world. If you would like to join us on a photo tour, you can see the upcoming trips here. We do not have another trip planned to Vietnam and Cambodia yet, but let me know if you want to join us in the future, as I promise we will be doing this again soon. We do have a couple of spots available for my favorite trip - Tanzania in February!


__________________________________________________________________________

Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!
__________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Cuba, Europe, Asia, India and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours. 

__________________________________________________________________________