Cambodia – Part One: Phnom Penh City

Posted on June 5, 2013 by benpipe

From Bangkok I flew to Phnom Penh, beginning the second half of an epic 6 week South East Asian sojourn. At the time I didn’t know how long i would stay in the country – with 3 weeks remaining I was torn between exploring Cambodia or fitting in a trip out to Burma (Myanmar).

Portrait of Remork-moto Driver, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Strolling out of the airport with backback and camera bag on my shoulders I was approached by a ‘remork moto’ (tuk tuk) driver offering his services, he had a cool hat so I went with him, where else in the world can you get a taxi into the city centre for $6?!

View from Remork-Moto of traffic, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

View from Remork-Moto of traffic, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

I did his portrait at the end of the journey, I’d been hoping to get a shoot done on this first evening here but the visa process at Phnom Penh airport dragged on.

Out the next morning nice and early, with no place in mind, just seeing what I could find, only a couple of lenses and the camera..

Fruit in Food market, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Fresh fruit and vegetables at Food market, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Fresh fruit and vegetables at Food market, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Butcher at Food market, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Fresh Limes at Food market, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Food market, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Seafood at Food market, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Meat in Food market, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

I stumbled across this morning market, always a great place to get started photographically in a new country.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Throne Hall, Royal Palace, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Royal Palace, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Sometimes its good to include people in the shot – I exposed a frame without this mother and daughter but kind of like the eye contact and expression of the child as they walked away from the Throne Hall.

This was a warm up for the next week in which I would spend photographing mainly temple sites in the Angkor region. This was shot with the Nikon 14-24mm Wideangle and the verticals were corrected in Lightroom.

In the end I was glad I’d spent a couple of nights in Phnom Penh, there was a lot to see and I returned later in the trip for more, many people skip the capital and make straight for Siem Reap for the UNESCO sites of Angkor but they are missing out..

Lotus Pond, Royal Palace, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Ko Samui – Part Two

Posted on May 10, 2013 by benpipe

On a day exploring the island we were lucky enough to stumble across this Chinese New Year festival, near Lamai Beach. On the south you can find palm fringed, unspoilt beaches like this one, with a relaxed tropical atmosphere. Back … Continue reading →

Ko Samui, Thailand

Posted on April 26, 2013 by benpipe

From Bangkok I made the misguided decision to travel to the Island of Ko Samui with Air Asia, this involved an arduous coach and ferry journey because the flight only takes you south, landing on the mainland in Surat Thani … Continue reading →

A few days on the Cornish Coast

Posted on March 28, 2013 by benpipe

Last December I took a friend down to see the rugged beauty of the Cornish coast. As well the chance to show an American this stunning part of the world it was also an opportunity to see how my new … Continue reading →

My Cambodian Office

Posted on March 15, 2013 by benpipe

This is my Cambodian office! For your interest I’m (was) travelling on this 6 week Asian trip with the following equipment:

Nikon D800E (first big trip for this awesome camera, have been astounded by its quality and dynamic range. Upgrading to this has felt like the jump from Nikon D200 to D700) also have a Nikon D700 as spare body,

Nikon 14-24mm F2.8 Wideangle (first big trip with this incredible piece of glass – glad I brought it along),

Nikon 24-70mm F2.8 (this has been the bread and butter lens, its done about 90% of the work I reckon),

Nikon 70-200 F2.8 Telephoto (not used a lot but there have been a few sessions that I couldn’t have done without it),

Nikon 50mm F1.4 (just used for a few portraits – underused),

Nikon TC1.7 Teleconverter,

Nikon SB600 Flashgun

Cable release, Polariser, Neutral Density 3 and 6 stop, and Lee Hard ND Grads 0.6 and 0.9, Cokin 0.6 and 0.9 Soft ND Grads. The vast majority of the trip has been shot handheld, I’ve only got these grads out for a few dawn and dusk shoots in Ko Samui.

Casio Sea Pathfinder Watch (Love this for its in built compass)

Iphone 5 – A great travel tool for its Sat Nav to get me around these Asian cities. Music, to get me through these cramped, endless bus journies and camera to take preview snaps of potential locations which I can look back on later.

Guidebooks – I use Lonely Planet or Rough Guides when I travel, also use Trip Advisor for further info on accommodation and for ideas of what to do in an area.

Macbook Pro Retina 15” 16gb RAM – Dream piece of kit for a photographer on the move, this is my first big trip travelling with it but its hard to imagine life without it. Allows me to review and begin the post production process, keyword and caption work, and generally stay on top of business back home. The display is exceptional for its clarity and viewing angle, I can sit anywhere and still be able to view the photographs on screen. Its also got the required speed to handle the mammoth files that the Nikon D800E produces – 80mb an image!!

1TB Hitachi Portable Hard Drive to back the work up onto.

Not in shot but also with me is a Giottos Carbon Fibre Tripod, courtesy of David Noton.

Luang Prabang, Laos – Part Two

Posted on March 11, 2013 by benpipe

The Morning Market, Luang Prabang, Laos, its 7:20am and I’m crouching inches from this fish aiming a wideangle lens at its lifeless mouth, if only every day could commence in this fashion! Nikon D800E, Nikon 14-24m Lens at 14mm, 1/100th … Continue reading →

Vang Vieng, Laos

Posted on February 27, 2013 by benpipe

You’ve seen the postcards, read the guidebook, seen some nice stuff online and now you imagine you can turn up at this far flung destination and shoot fantastic landscape photographs of it, but its never as easy as that is it?! Finding the locations in the first place is an often under-appreciated part of location photography, you’ve got to give yourself the time in a place to get to know it, and the time to get good light. On a trip I’ll often stay at locations I like for days at a time, its one reason why i don’t like to book my whole trip out in advance – there will be places I want to move on from quickly but others where I find myself staying longer than planned.

I was attracted to Vang Vieng in laos not for the tubing and dismal dining scene but for the beautiful Karst hills in the countryside around this town. Vang Vieng also formed a natural stopping point on our itinerary which began in the capital city of Vientiane and finished in the stunning UNESCO Heritage listed city of Luang Prabang.The Limestone Karst hills are synonymous with Asian landscapes and I’ve shot them previously in Khao Sok National Park, Thailand . However finding a shot to do them justice proved frustrating at first attempts, my natural instinct was to set something up with the river in foreground at the karst hills and sunset colours beyond but none of these shoots yielded what I was hoping for. I had to get to know the area, and to do so took a hot air balloon ride

A boat ride down the river

Woman enjoying boat ride, Nam Song River, Vang Vieng, Laos, Indochina, Asia

bicycles..

Morning Traffic over bridge, Vang Vieng, Laos, Indochina, Asia

Mopeds..

Vang Vieng, Laos, Indochina, Asia

And whilst the town itself was nothing to write home about, it was a pleasure to ride out and explore the countryside around Vang Vieng, I was doing a mix of shooting commercial stock type images (such as the one above) and more personal landscape work.

During the course of our day trips I met this Buddhist monk and asked if I could take his photograph outside his small monastery. I would have liked to have caught his name but he didn’t speak any English and myself no Laos, but still we tried to communicate for a few minutes after the picture! Another of the wonderful smiles I’l remember this country for. I think it was the first portrait I’d shot in Laos so it was good to get off the mark.

Buddhist Monk outside Wat Xieng Thong, Luang Prabang, Laos, Indochina, Asia

Buddhist Monk outside Wat Xieng Thong, Laos, Indochina, Asia

Later that afternoon I was struck by the lighting on this landscape, I could see that the sun was slowly sinking behind the hill, and so by partially obscuring it I would be able to shoot into it without causing too much lens flare. Since getting hold of the Nikon D800E I’ve been amazed by its inherent dynamic range, its now possible to easilly shoot into the brightest light and still recover shadow detail, when I was cutting my teeth on Fuji Velvia 10 years ago this sort of shot was unthinkable and it meant a different way of shooting. This is a single raw file which I’ve exposed for the highlights and subsequently used Adobe lightroom to pull back the shadow areas of the landscape. You’ll see a lot more shots like this from this trip, I think I’m getting a bit obsessed with shooting into the light!

Nam Song River at Dusk, Vang Vieng, Laos, Indochina, Asia

After my extensive explorations i finally got something I was happy with, on the final morning of our stay there, I’d seen these remote farm huts as rode through the countryside and returned before dawn to the area. I’d love to say I’d arrived here previously and used GPS to calculate the suns position the following morning, sunrise time, and been setup with a tripod ready, but that wasn’t the case. This was one of the shoots where I rode out without a specific shot in mind but knew the area was good, saw the sun starting to come up above the horizon and ran into the nearest field, seeing the hut and composing the shot as I moved. It was shot handheld, partly because there wasn’t time to setup but also with these type of shots with the sun moving into a specific part of the frame I usually find it easier handheld. It is always worth heading out early in the morning, even if you don’t know where you’re going or what you’ll shoot, I find it easier when I’m away on a trip because I’ve invested to come to the other side of the world, and when will I be here again? I should get out more when I’m back home in London or Dorset.

Sunrise over countryside near Vang Vieng, Laos, Indochina, Asia

Hope you enjoyed seeing what I go up to earlier this month in laos, it s a first for me to be posting work as I travel but I’ll be making an effort to do more of this in the future, let me know what you think (and if you read this far) in the comments below.

PS If you click on the image you should be able to find the shot information..

Day of the sabbath – Lloyds Building,London

Posted on December 18, 2012 by benpipe

Sunday, the day of the sabbath – the choice = Tottenham vs Swansea or a Shoot, I can’t watch the team white so its a downtown train. With some city shoots I aim to time the shoot to coincide with the rush of people and traffic which I’ll include in the frame. However for this shoot which I’ve had on my mind for awhile, sunday was the perfect day – the lack of traffic / commuters / security guards meant I could have peace to sit on the pavement at the foot of the Lloyds building, in central London.

I picked up the Nikon 14-24mm Lens in New York recently as a little treat, I’ve been looking forward to using this along with my new body (Nikon D800E) to reimagine some of my previous shoots in the city. Being able to zoom out to 14mm which is close to a fisheye perspective allows me to be a few metres from the foot of a building and yet still fit the entirety of the structure in frame.

The Heron Tower, London, England

This is the newly finished Heron Tower (near liverpool st), shot handheld on my way to the primary location. I’ll come back and do more of the amazing building soon.

Looks good on the back of the camera, I always like the reflective nature of glass buildings, now over to the main event. I scope out the location with a slow walk around the building – I know where I want to do the main shot but its not time yet – i want it a little darker, so I’ll set this up to do i the meantime..

Struggling now to do this handheld but its not possible with this tripod set up to angle the camera directly up – I’ve pumped the ISO to 800 and aperture is almost wide at 3.2, usually you’d struggle for sufficient depth of field but at 14mm it almost infinite. I love the industrial look of this building with all the pipes visisible on the outside, reminiscent of The Pompidou Centre in Paris.

Lloyds Building, London, England

This is the one I came for, I’ve got the tripod angled up and I’m crouching on the pavement, lens is zoomed out to 14mm to get as much as possible in, D800E is at F8 (no point stoppng down further and have diffraction softening the image, and I don’t need to slow the shutter speed either) 1 second exposure at ISO200. Only exposed a few frames – its amazing how quickly the light changes at this time of day, after a short while the sky is losing the blue colour and being lit by the light pollution of the city. I move on to one final shot before heading home..