Cambodia and the Angkor Temples
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In June 2006 I made a trip to Cambodia on vacation with my wife. The trip was going to start in Siam Reap in northern Cambodia before we moved to Phnom Penh and then on to the south coast for a weeks rest. With no direct flights from the UK we had to fly in to Thailand and spent a few days there as well, but that is another story. Here are few images of the Angkor part of our trip.
Angkor Sunset June 2006 - Nikon D200 - 17-35mm f/2.8 AF-S ISO100
Started my visit to Cambodia where must people start, the northern city of Siam Reap. This is the gateway to the temples around the famous and ancient city of Angkor. We spent several days wondering though temples and ruins that are truly stunning, each temple has it’s own unique look and feel .
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Angkor Thom - Nikon D200 17-35mm f2.8 AF-S ISO100
This shot of the towers at Angkor Thom was taken mid morning on a damp misty morning, the light was not good but did manage to get the angle I was looking for. The one thing about these temples you don't see in my images but do in a lot of other photographers are images of children. They may look sweat but they want money as soon as you get there image and are usually sent out by there patents to do this for the money.
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Angkor Wat - Nikon D200 17-35mm f2.8 ISO100
During the time of the Khmer Rouge a large number spent a lot of time held out at Angkor and during that time destroyed a lot of the statues in many of the temples. You will see a lot of these statues in Buda poses with there heads smashed off. They even removed some heads from carvings on walls
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Angkor Wat Corner Tower - Nikon D200 17-35mm f2.8 ISO100
Because I went at the end of the wet season the forest around Angkor was nice and green and not dried and brown as it can be at the end of the dry season. The colours make a large difference to a lot of my images as the stone of the temples is also a light brown colour and would have made the images much plainer. This image was taken out of one of the towers at the Angkor Wat Temple, looking towards the Ta Prom Temple.
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Angkor Thom - Nikon D200 17-35mm f.28 ISO100
The faces are all over the temple at Angkor Thom, all towers have 4 slightly different faces stating out in to the jungle. With Angkor Thom still being close the jungle the moss grows all over the stones. This gives the faces a fantastic look and are superb to take images off. The stone at Angkor Thom also seems to be slightly red’ish than Angkor Wat. This gives a nice Contrast between the red’ish / pink or the stone and the green moss.
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These 2 images were had taken whilst walking between Angkor Wat and Ta Prom. I decided to try a Infra Red Photoshop action on it and I have to say that I am quite happy with it. The images almost have a snow effect on them, this seems strange as I am quite sure Cambodia have not see snow for a long long time…
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Things to keep in mind,
Because you are shooting in very humid conditions you have to have some extra considerations for your kit. It is not just the humidity but also moving between humid environments and cold air conditioned hotel or car. During this time your kit will be moving from hot humid conditions to a cold air conditioned area, this is not to much of an issue as the dry air of a hotel room will help to remove any moisture from any part of the camera. But moving in the other direction (a/c room to outside) you should be aware that a large about or moisture can get created on and in a camera. You should try to keep these movements as low as possible as it could case you issues.
The best thing to do is to remove you kit form your bag and let the air dry it out. Don’t try to wipe the camera as it will only mist up again until it is the right temperature. Once the camera is the right temperature you will be fine to use it.
