Photographing Prasat Phanom Rung temple in Thailand’s off-the-beaten-track Isaan region is a real joy. Exploring the mountain-top Angkor-era temple complex at dawn, when only the temple dogs are awake, is a sublime experience. When we visited the temple a few months ago there had been overnight rain and the sky was quickly clearing.
We took our time exploring and photographing the Prasat Phanom Rung temple in the off-the-beaten-track Isaan region of Northeast Thailand. We were there alone for more than an hour before any other visitors arrived at the ancient Angkor-era temple complex.
This made for a more relaxing visit than when an archaeological sight is busy and you want those classic photos where it looks like there is only a couple of people – if any – there.
While magazine and guidebook publishers expect me to deliver the ‘money shots’ of the sights we’re covering for stories, such as Prasat Phanom Rung Temple, and the other Khmer Empire temples in Thailand’s lesser-visited Isaan, editors are always keen to get close-up detail photos as well to make up a page where there is, say, four or eight photos.
Once again, I sound like a broken record when I say make sure you get your wide-shots, mid-shots and close-ups. But if you’re doing this work professionally – great coverage is what photo editors and art directors expect.
Great coverage makes the difference between the photographers who get one gig and the photographers that the magazines will use over and over again.
You have to give the art directors and designers as many images to play with as possible when it comes to designing the spreads for stories.
On our way out of the complex, we noticed another small temple structure. The building itself wasn’t of much interest, but the overnight storm had strewn frangipani flowers over the path.
I spent about 20 minutes just photographing the flowers where they lay, largely with coverage in mind. Though I have to confess that it was just as satisfying as photographing Prasat Phanom Rung temple itself.
Various photos from that morning’s shot have been used in magazine stories – proving that it really pays to notice and photograph the fine details.
Camera and lenses used for photographing Prasat Phanom Rung temple:
Nikon D700, 80-200mm F2.8 @145mm @ F4 @ 1/100th second @ ISO320.
