A new way to travel...

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It's my last day in Cambodia and last day of my photography tour. This has been an amazing trip - very packed trip - but amazing and really best decision I made.

I'm pretty sure I said this in last post but I'll say it again the tour guide/photography teacher was what made this trip. I think I feel in love with Cambodia becuase I'm seeing it through his eyes. There is the history, culture but most importantly the people. I think we forget about people in our travels to see temples and castles and monuments. The people who built all this beauty we travel to see. The people who struggled to build homes for their families but continue to be happy for what little they have. The people who spin the silk to make the beautiful silk scraps that we then haggle down the price of. I got to see that here in Cambodia and experience it.

The other part of this trip that was wonderful was watching Nathan, the photography tour leader, create shots for us. We went villages where he went to a cotton weaver he knew where the women in the family have been weaving for 3 generation. The grandmother was showing us how she took the cotton they grew and then spun it into cotton threads which were there dyed to be used to create clothing and fabrics. Nathan would charm the ladies into moving their spinning machines a certain way so we had the right light and angles for best pictures. Another instance of a "Nathan staged shot" is when we were taking sunset shots in a village and there is a beautiful pond. Nathan had a young boy he'd photographed before on a bike in the water. When went to create this shot the boy was wearing a flannel shirt. Wanting a more realistic or local shot, Nathan asked the boy to take his shirt off (as he was pictured before). Turns out the shirtop was a new one and the boy didn't want to take it off. Nathan spotted a friend of his hanging around without his shirt off and had him use his friend's bike so we could get the best shot. What seemed like a ridiculous thing to do was the amazing shot I shared in the last post! Something I'd never have visualized as a possibility!

And while many of these shots he's taken before, some he just envisions as we're driving in the van or walking by an area. And then he brings you in and shared what he's seeing and how you can create this image.

One last Nathan vision creation that I'll share is from yesterday, our last full day of photo shooting. We were getting ready to leave one of the temples in Ankor and one of my tour mates spotted some row boats by a lake below a deck area. The lighting was great and so a few of us were taking pictures hereto capture the boats and water etc. We felt fairly proud of ourselves for finding this lovely shot and Nathan agreed!! Super stars we were! Well stars anyway. Nathan said I'm going to find you a model. Then went off chatted up a women selling goods at a stall who was dressed in all pink (including her hat). Then he convinced a police officer on his coffee break to come row her out into the water with a large stick he found to be a paddle. And as we know a police shirt would not have made a good boating photo. Anyone know what happens next? Yup, Nathan got the guy to take off his police shirt and row the pink market stall lady a little way away so we had a good sun angle.
He is the Pied Piper of photography. Seriously how he gets these amazing shots, without the locals bring display grunted and more over looking happy to do it is was amazing to watch.
In case it's not evident, I loved my photography tour of Cambodia! As this is being written while at the airport no photos but I will share some more Cambodia photos in a future post for sure😊

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