Other World
Sunrise at Bagan, Myanmar, the most beautiful location I have ever found. I had searched the area during the day for a good sunrise lookout, but cycling through...
Read more
Sunrise at Bagan, Myanmar, the most beautiful location I have ever found. I had searched the area during the day for a good sunrise lookout, but cycling through the area, still night, made for a challenge to find it again, so lucky, so happy :) Seems like a fairytale land, and the area is. Although there were 7 balloons out there, I preferred the peacefulness of that single balloon.
Read less
Read less
Feb, 2015Views
292
Likes
Awards
Editor's Choice
Great Shot
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Absolute Masterpiece
Outstanding Creativity
All Star
Magnificent Capture
Genius
Top Ranks
Top 20 rankTop 20 rank week 2Top 20 rank week 1
Top 20 rank
Top 30 rank week 2
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was shot at Bagan, Myanmar. It was when Myanmar had just opened up at 2012. It was my second photography holiday and this was just the perfect location to go to.Time
I scouted the location for a few days, so I knew where to go at sunrise, it's when the balloons are out. There's only a few temples that you're allowed to 'climb' to get a good view. I really liked this location, because you can see so many temples within this frame, shot at 300mm. When I got up at left on my bicycle at dark, driving a different road, I almost couldn't find it. There were 7 balloons up in the sky then, now's there's about 25. I liked just having 1, took me some time waiting for the right moment though! Getting up so early was hard, but incredible worth it. As I drove my bicycle (now everyone goes on motorbikes) through the soft sand, it was incredible to see the light change from pitch black (star filled) to light, really amazing.Lighting
Sunrise and sunset is obviously the best time to shoot landscapes as these, this was shot during sunrise.Equipment
Shot with a Nikon D800 and 28-300mm lens at 300mm on a Sirui tripod. I tried 7 brackets to have multiple exposures, thinking HDR might be a good option for editing. I finally did a series with HDR and a series of single exposure (non HDR) which I liked better. I found that I could still get enough detail out of the shadows out of the best exposure, but was still happy I took the brackets.Inspiration
Bagan is one of the most amazing areas on the planet, a true photographers dream. So when it opened up more to tourists at 2012 the time was right to go there.Editing
The location is great, but that morning the light was absolutely horrible and most shots came out pretty bad looking. The natural look just didn't look nice, all white sky, really boring, no nice colourful clouds. So I had to fiddle around with the white balance and gave it an overly warm ambience, which just seemed to fit real nice.In my camera bag
My favourite lens by far is my Nikon 14-24/f2.8 which is great for landscape photography. The lens I use most though is my 24-70/f2.8, but when I travel I want to have some more zoom as well, so I then pack my Nikon 28-300/f3.5-5.6. I have a D700 as a backup/second camera, but when traveling abroad I only take my D800 with my Sony RX100 as a backup. A backup is essential, with both my D700 and D800 I had my shutter mechanism fail on me during a trip. Once I didn't have a backup with me, a hard lesson learned. Although I hate to drag around a tripod, it is a must have for many different shots, I have a Sirui traveler tripod. I have plenty of other gear, but this is my most used gear, sometimes I also carry a 50mm/1.4 as it comes in handy during low light situations and is ideal for portraits.Feedback
Know your location, scout it so you know where to go at the best time, which is obviously sunrise and sunset due to softer light and more colourful skies. Watching your histogram is important and shooting different exposures can help. I love shooting wide angle for landscapes, but sometimes zoom is better, because you can focus on certain details more, creating a clear subject in your photo.
