Enlightened
This photo was taken in one of the temples of the ancient grounds of Bagan. Shot at around sunset, the light diffused through the window, giving enough illumina...
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This photo was taken in one of the temples of the ancient grounds of Bagan. Shot at around sunset, the light diffused through the window, giving enough illumination to take a photo of this novice monk.
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Mar, 2019Views
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Awards
Contest Finalist in The Neil Dankoff Photography Competition
Zenith Award
Spring 21 Award
Legendary Award
Celebrity Award
Contest Finalist in Natural Light Portraits Photo Contest
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Outstanding Creativity
Magnificent Capture
Superior Skill
All Star
Virtuoso
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken during a photo trek with my camera club friends last February 2019, in the ancient temple grounds of Bagan, Myanmar. The setting is an old and relatively small temple, which had this special wall, through which the sunset glow "passes through".Time
Time of shoot was around the golden hour /sunset, which rendered the "warm" temperature to the vintage location.Lighting
This was a planned shoot - the location and time were determined ahead. A check on the weather condition for the day was also done to ensure we had our "sunny" sunset. The novice (boy) monk is a model, recruited by our photographer guide from a nearby buddhist school. We had a bit of help from a couple of tools to achieve the "dramatic" lighting - a reflector (to bounce off light) and a smoke-making machine outside (to help "channel" the sunlight through the wall's openings).Equipment
I shot this hand-held with my Fujifilm system - an XT2 mirrorless camera with a Fujinon 8-16mm lens. No flash was used. Someone held a reflector to bounce off the available light towards the subject. The strong sunlight outside provided more than sufficient lighting to the subject; I had to set my exposure compensation value to -1 to control the highlights, used a faster shutter speed, and small aperture to manage the exposure.Inspiration
At the time I took this photo, this was already my second trip to this favorite country. On my first time in Bagan, we followed around a group of monks as they went about their morning ritual of alms-seeking. The religious life and rituals, in all my trips around Asia - Cambodia, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, is a source of fascination and admiration. This shot is not my original concept though; I had seen similar images online. Our photographer-guide made the preparations for this photoshoot. I also shot this with several others in our group. But we took varying positions in that small space and I suppose, used different camera settings, and all waited for our own "perfect timings". The small nuances made by our model - his hand movements, his eyes & head, his expressions, the intensity of the smoke that channeled the light... all these told different stories. At the time this shot was made, what made it so exciting and inspiring for me was the idea of shooting with the "rays of light" and having the right subject in a perfect setting. The only aspect of this image that I can claim as my own is the way I chose to make my camera settings and post-processed this image.Editing
Yes, I post processed this with Adobe Camera raw and Photoshop. As I had submitted this to a camera club competition, which only allows global adjustments, then my process was really also basic . I did crop, dodge & burn, shadows & highlights control, white balance correction, desaturation, vignetting, and sharpening. As a travel photographer, I try to stay true to the the visual story, as seen/experienced, by NOT adding/removing elements to my images. The color rendering is my subjective choice to give the image a vintage vibe.In my camera bag
I've been a Fujifilm mirrorless system user since 2015. For my travel photography trips, I usually carry three camera bodies (1.6x crop facor), with specific assigned lenses for particular types of shooting: Fuji XT2 + Fujinon 10-24mm lens, for landscapes/architectural and "big scenery" shooting / Fuji XT3 + telefoto/long (50-140mm) or medium (16-55 mm or 16-80mm), for shooting distant subjects / Fuji X100F with a fixed 23mm lens for street photography / An extra lens - a 35mm for street photography / For BTS shots or quick vlogging, I use a mobile phone camera, attached to a selfie stick / A set of filters (CPL, NDs, for landscape photography) / A lightweight tripod.Feedback
In my pursuit of improving as a travel photographer-writer, I always try to shoot with a story in mind. I look for stories in scenes and moments and apply the shooting/post-processing techniques that best depict my vision. My advise for others who want to shoot something similar is to find your own story in whatever/wherever you shoot, especially when you are shooting with a group. Shoot what moves you when the moment hits you. Master ahead your gear so you can focus on "creating" your vision.
