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
