Photography Thailand Forum

[mahonyWeb]

Anna - nice photos :)

Jeff - quite the opposite. As with everything in life, I just stumble through, hoping for some good fortune

[bkkdave]

What lenses did the members who visited Angkor Wat find the most useful?

[mahonyWeb]

For me, my Canon 17-40L and 24-70L shot on full frame.

In retrospect I wish I'd have had the use of a wide tilt/shift lens. Canon's 17 and 24mm T/S lenses would have been great.

[bkkdave]

Thanks Mahony!

[Khun Hans]

What lenses did the members who visited Angkor Wat find the most useful?

Was there last month. Used the 17-40, 24-70 and a couple of times the 70-200. Shot around 900 pics by getting probably 10% useful according to my standard.
Lots the where bracket shots for blending or using HDR.

[bkkdave]

Hans, Thanks for the reply and a beautiful shot of Angkor too! I sold the 24-70 but will bring the 16-35 and the 24-105. I wont take the 70-200 f/2.8 though as I just don't enjoy carrying that heavy stuff; it wears me out. Were your brackets +2 and -2?

[Khun Hans]

Jim, it differs. When I see (or guess) that the dynamic range between the darkest and lightest part of the picture is to extensive, I bracket 3shots to +2/-2 in order to HDR them later . Usually +/- 1/3 to 1.1/3 stop using 2 shots for BLENDING in PS.
Actually I later use only 1 picture out of 10 for HDR or blending. All others are practically a waist of shots but taking them for 'Just in case'.
As I'm using for these shots (i.e. Angkor Wat) my tripod @ 99% I use 2 different custom settings on the 'Mode Dial' knob on top of my camera 5D MII:
C1: f11, ISO 200, Bracket +/0/- 1.1/3, One shot, 2sec selftimer
C2: Same setting except: ISO Auto and 'continuous shooting' (stops after 3 shots bracketing)
Starting with these setting I can easily adjust whatever I want in a blink of an eye.
Some more info about Angkor Wat. There are guides available everywhere. They know everything about the history of these places. And there are PHOTO guides for hire. Beside the history they know exactly at what time of the day you should shoot at what location because they have an incredible knowledge of 'whre's the right light'. And of course they bring you to these places.
In case you need good photo guide I can recommend one, speaking very good English.
Under this web page: www.peaceofangkor.com/ you can check a guest house run by the owner, David from England. David is a brilliant photographer with lots of pictures of Angkor Wat all over his place.
As I understand he's no more available for a simple trip to the Angkor sites. He send me with one of his guides (Freelancer) to all places and charged me USD88 for2 days incl. Tuk Tuk and driver.
As I like David very much and enjoined talking to him about photography, his guest house was not really my 'cup of tea'
That's why I recommend this guide only and he will charge you only 25USD a day what I see as a more then well spend investment.
Beside that he is more than happy to carry all your gear or only parts of all day. So, do not hesitate to take your 70-200 as well.
Sure you was there before and have your own travel schedule I just want to inform you about my own experience from April 2011.
Don't hesitate to contact me for any more information.
Take care
Hans

[mahonyWeb]

Re: the photo guides. I used a guide as recommended by David at Peace of Angkor ( I stayed at his guesthouse when I visited Angkor), and they are excellent and will take you to the most photogenic points at each of the temples at a time of day when the light is attractive etc, but you end up with exactly the same photos as everybody else.

We did a 3 day tour using a guide on each of the days, but in retrospect I wish we'd have had at least one day on our own to explore the temples at our own pace.

As stated above, David's guest house is nice, but I'd probably try elsewhere in the future.

[Marc Schultz]

When I went there over 10 years ago the roads in Seam Reap where still dirt roads. The only place one could get a decent meal there was a place called the Pink Piano, guest house and restaurant. Not sure if it still exists  It was quite a long time ago

[bkkdave]

Thanks again for all the good advice and shooting tips!
Jim

[celinedaly]

I just got back from Angkor Wat and can also recommend a day out with Dave Perkes of Peace of Agoda tours. He's a resident photographer who will help get you to amazing sites at exactly the right time of day for good lighting and to avoid the crowds. Or for less money, you can go out with his guides who get you to the same places, just without the photographic advice. Just FYI, he doesn't run the guest house any longer. I'll be posting a couple of photos soon...

[bkkdave]

Thanks celinedaly!

[fbea]

Angkor Wat is one of the greater places to visit if you are up for a lot of photo walks.

The thing with it is that you are opened to the culture right from the get go which gives for a lot of options for shooting.  main city is filled with a lot of possibilities for photojournalism-esque types of shoot.

It is really up to you where you want to visit as there are just a lot of options.