Adventure Travel Photography: Tourists to the rescue…& another Deja Vu at Tham Theung Caves, Laos
The endless Journey Continues…
Working with what you've got…even Tourists come in
handy sometimes, the story behind the photos.
During our recent GD Photo Workshop in Laos we visited the Pak Ou caves overlooking the Mekong River some 25 km from Luang Prabang in Laos; it is here where the mouth of the River Ou meets the mighty Mekong.
A group of caves on the left side of the Mekong river, about two hours boat ride upstream from Luang Prabang.
I had visited the lower cave called Tham Ting (lower cave) some 20 years ago and with the exception of more tourists swarming around and more Buddha statues were deposited, little had changed over the years.
Hundreds of Buddha statues and relics in all shape and sizes have been brought here over many years by loyal Buddhist devotees.
Mind you 20 years ago I was the only visitor to this cave and actually could crawl around more easily, but that is not possible anymore.
20 years ago Pak Ou Caves Tham Ting (lower cave)
Kodachrome Pro 200 ASA - Copyright all Rights reserved. Mandatory
credit with image use: © Gunther Deichmann - www.deichmann-photo.com
It is a difficult task to shoot or create interesting Images when so many Tourist get in the way…
but I guess they also have the right to be there.
Oh my… I am so glad I visited this place 20 years ago…
hmmm sounds a bit selfish.
Pak Ou Caves Tham Ting (lower cave) Sept. 2011
Copyright all Rights reserved. Mandatory credit with image use:
© Gunther Deichmann - www.deichmann-photo.com
After about 45 minutes our Group decided to move on to the upper cave Tham Theung in the hope for better shooting conditions. I had never been to this cave before and someone told us it is some 150 steps up…ha, ha, it felt more like 300 steps.
After some puffing and sweating we made it… only to find out, there is zero light insight. Oh boy…did I sweat and puff for nothing?
With no Tripod and only the little pop up flash on my Nikon D300s (left my D700 in the boat and was in no mood to climb the stairs again) I thought this is going to be a tough one, besides this cave was big.
Upper Cave Tham Theung - Sept. 2011
Copyright all Rights reserved. Mandatory credit with image use:
© Gunther Deichmann - www.deichmann-photo.com
But luck was on our side, at the entrance of the cave a local woman selling flashlights for hire to Tourists. Upon entering the cave I realized that even with these flashlights there is no way of getting any decent images…
I almost gave up, when all of a sudden a large group of Italian Tourist appeared, all equipped with the for hire flashlights; and for sure a good business day for the local lady at the entrance, ha, ha.
Upper Cave Tham Theung - Sept. 2011
Copyright all Rights reserved. Mandatory credit with image use:
© Gunther Deichmann - www.deichmann-photo.com
The only thing left for me to do… finding a suitable “Tripod” a crack, a ledge, anything on the cave wall facing the right direction.
I got it… jammed the camera into a crack, pushed hard and holding on (you might end up with a few scratches on your Camera but other then that, it works, besides holding your breath) now I instructed my assistant Arj to shine his torch towards the temple area.
There was also Mojan left behind from our Group, who at the time of the exposure was still wondering around and exploring the cave; of course this added a bit of extra light too.
Upper Cave Tham Theung - Sept. 2011
Copyright all Rights reserved. Mandatory credit with image use:
© Gunther Deichmann - www.deichmann-photo.com
But I still did not get enough light for a good and usable shot… then the Italian Tourists entered the cave and came to my rescue… shining their flashlights in all direction…wow and thank you.
I left the shutter open for about 4 seconds and let the Tourists paint the cave for me with their flashlights.
I might mention that my ISO setting was not very high either, I try to avoid using super high ISO setting whenever possible.
My setting for most of these shots: Focal Lengths 18mm, 640 ISO f/5.6 and varying the exposure between 4 and 6 sec. bracketing my exposure as much as possible and NO flash.
So there you have it, sometimes Tourist’s do come in very handy and in this case they added also scale to the image.
On the other hand how could I have done these shots 20 years ago? There were no Tourists and the upper cave was off limits...
GD
Laos-Cambodia-Myanmar, the first post after a long Journey with the Travel Adventure GD Photo Workshops.
For todays post only a collage but soon I upload all the separate photos from "Behind The Scene" & also the "Students Work."
Ouch…it has been more then 6 weeks since my last Blog post but the last Journey was a long one, traveling in areas with non-or poor Internet connection.
Then I got home and had to shake of a bad cold for a week. But to be honest, I survived without the net nicely and had more time on the road creating images and looking after my Photo Workshop participants in Laos-Cambodia and Myanmar.
Before I go into more details let me first thank all of the participants who joined my last Journey Through Color and Time.
Thanks to: Ladies first… Christina and Vi. Now the Boys: Bob, Tony, David, Bebet, Mojan, Rod, Mojan, Loy and Richard and Arj my trusted assistant. (Thanks for your tireless help in Laos and Cambodia unfortunately you could not make it with us to Myanmar)
It was a wonderful group and most of them joined all three destinations covering Laos-Cambodia and Myanmar by road and air. It was an adventure for sure, with very rough roads in Laos and Myanmar, monsoon rain drenched us or the scorching sun hit us in Myanmar.
All in search for the ultimate image, but everybody hang in there. Well, I might add we had some veteran amongst us who travelled and participated in previous workshops with me, e.g..
Like the never tiring Tony, David or the energetic Loy…but even the new comers did extremely well, in particular Mojan who constantly was on the move even during our stop over in Bangkok prior departure for Yangon.
But I also like to thank all the great people, we photographed (without them no images) and of course my gratitude to our Guides and Drivers through out the Journey who made our travel so much easier and pleasant.
My special thanks also to Alexia and all the staff from Exotissimo who have done a superb job, the staff and management from the Satri House in Luang Prabang, Laos (what an amazing place) and of course to the Heritage Suites Hotel and Heritage Adventures in Siem Reap Cambodia.
Left: The cool Telephones in our rooms at the Satri House, Luang Prabang, Laos, they still work real good believe me.
Right: The super tasty Cake at the Heritage Suites Hotel, thanks again and to Rod who took that shot, somehow Arj was missing in action at that very moment.
I might mention, this year was very special in many ways; for 20 years I have been traveling to Cambodia and 5 Years of the GD Photo Workshops with the Heritage Suites Hotel in Siem Reap (they surprised me with a super cool “Birthday Cake” on our last night) yummy… I can still taste it…and Mojan could not help himself and had three slices, mind you it was a real big Cake.
Buddhist blessing ceremony for our Group at the Heritage Suites Hotel poolside.Thanks Arj for taken these shots.
Then there was the fantastic and real Buddhist blessing Ceremony at the Poolside at the Heritage that really made our last day, thank you so much for everything.
2011 was also my return to Laos after 20 years and Myanmar after 12 years, a very special meaning for me, detailed articles will follow with impressions and changes after so many years.
Well, almost an UN gathering with participants from Spain, Germany, Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong and the USA. This was particular evident in the evenings during our critic and assessment of the daily assignments.
I am preparing now the photos from “Behind the Scene” (some very funny ones again) and of course “The Students Work”, a selection from each and everyone’s favorite take.
You might take also note that we have moved the “Behind the Scene” and “The Students Work” now to the GD Photo Workshop pages and removed it from my Blog.
Everything is under one roof now and we leave also the previous workshop pages active, which would not have been possible on my Blog.
Check the LINKS above; the latest ones will be up soon as mention above.
We also managed to update my Home Page on my main website with new photos and the SE Asia 4 Gallery has now been completed with some of the latest images.
A complete selection of recent images from all three destinations are also available on PhotoShelter within the next week or so, I keep you posted.
Of course it goes without saying Aperture 3 performed fantastic and non of my images have been processed using PS…all the way Aperture.
Plus stay tuned for some interesting articles on my Blog, which I try to post soon, starting with Laos. Ha, ha I am connected again running a good speed Internet connection…
As a reminder we’re finalizing right now our next Workshops for Sri Lanka – Central India and Bhutan and have only few more spots available.
We have scheduled also an additional very special Workshop for Myanmar for the end of June 2012; full details will be announced shortly.
Until very soon…and no more six week breaks for a while.
GD
