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Asia » Cambodia » South » Phnom Penh
May 28th 2011
Published: June 27th 2011
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An early start today. Or at least it felt early. Getting to the Riverside area by 10am I eventually located Nathan's studio. The studio itself is pretty impressive. He has a massive white 'infinity wall' (I think thats what it was called) along one side that is used for photo shoots etc. So for two hours, Nathan took me through a introductory lesson about how to compose better photos, things like light and how it works, colours, frames and diagonal lines. We looked at bunch of photos he's taken in the past and talked about the various elements that made them good or average shots. I actually found this class really helpful and would totally recommend it for anyone else who has high hopes of taking awesome photos but isn't necessarily too artistically minded. It was practical and with enough examples for me to get the point! Especially the bit about lighting which I had thought might be a bit too complicated. Check out Nathan's website, nathanhortonphotography.com

With some clear pointers now about how to improve the photos I'm taking now without having to upgrade my camera at all, I was all set for a field trip. Daniel joined us and after a quick lunch we set out for 'Silk Island' via a temple along the way in the hope of seeing a 'water blessing ceremony'. Disappointingly we actually missed the ceremony, but we did stumble across a group of kids who were very keen to have their photos taken. I must admit, I was wishing I had brought an SLR camera after all - Daniel and Nathan both have quite impressive cameras, leaving my little compact (as cool as I think it is) for dead. Certainly it was less attractive for the photographic subjects, though actually looking at the pictures later I was pretty happy with a couple of the shots.

Leaving the temple and the kids behind, we continued on by tuk tuk to Silk Island, which is actually not too far from Phnom Penh. After some bumpy roads and an interesting river crossing we arrived on a small island. On a previous trip, while stopped to take some pictures of a particularly photogenic Cambodian grandmother and her grandchildren, Nathan noticed that the children's mother was sitting off to the side looking miserable. Going over to find out why se was looking so forlorn, he discovered that she had badly injured her foot in a moto accident. Not having the funds to pay for the hospital, she had been sent home and when he met her she was sitting with her injured covered only by a dirty towel, flesh so torn that the bone was exposed, with no painkillers and with infection beginning to set in - leaving her likely lose her foot at the very least. The German tourists who were with him at the time were so moved by her situation that they gave Nathan $1000 to pay for her medical treatment. When we saw her a few weeks later, she was looking much happier, and the wound was cleanly bandaged and healing well. They were understandably pleased to see Nathan and insisted that we all sit and chat together. The grandmother was very warm and seemed to want to hug me a lot, though neither I nor the Cambodian woman with us who was translating could understand a word she said.

We took a few photos of the family - the grandmother seemed very keen to have the kids all line up nicely for a picture - and then headed further along the road to see more of the island. Our next stop was less scheduled, but we met a lovely family, the mother weaving silk while the young kids helped out in various ways. The kids were very excited by being able to see pictures of themselves on the camera. I caused a bit of laughter when I paused to take a photo of one of the many puppies that were running around (in the overwhelming cuteness of so many puppies I forgot about the rabies avoidance rules!). The little girl seemed so pleased that I thought her puppy was worth taking a photo of, and quickly gathered a number of the other dogs to pose with her. This is actually is one of my favourite photos of the day even though there are others that are more aesthetically stunning appealing. Perhaps because it captures a moment of connection across cultural and language barriers.

Walking through the tiny villages we met more people, had lots of fun interactions with the local kids and of course took plenty of photos. We also had the opportunity to try our hand at silk weaving. Suffice to say, this is not a career that I will be taking up. Actually both Daniel and I made a bit of a mess of it, dropping the thread and so forth. It is certainly far harder than the women make it look. It's not very well paid work either, the going rate appears to be about $15 for each finished piece - which takes about 7 days of work for a practiced weaver. For someone like myself, I think it would take months, possibly longer!

As the sun began to set, we found ourselves back at the river crossing, exhaused but with memory cards full of photos to enjoy later. Some of mine are here. Check out Daniel's blog at cambodia.danielheitz.de for some truly impressive shots he took on the same day. Looking at these really inspires me to go back to Nathan for that post-processing lesson!

***Scroll down for more photos!***


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29th June 2011

Michelle your photos look great. I love how you've named all of them. Freedom, Vying for a Photo, Death of a Temple and Outlook are my favourites. I can't wait to read about the wedding.
1st July 2011

Great photos Michelle!

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