Author: travel67

Prasat Kravan Temple, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Published by

Prasat Kravan is the exception to the rule. Angkor Wat and nearly the all the other famous temples in the region are carved from sandstone, with foundations of laterite. The builders of Prasat Kravan (allegedly following the advice of a pig) built their temple of brick. The interiors of the five brick prasats (towers) have wonderful detailed carvings. Several local kids were using the temple grounds as a meeting place, and luckily for me they were more than happy to have their photos taken.

A monk and a lawyer

Published by

The title of this post sounds like the start of a joke. A monk and a lawyer walk into a bar… It’s almost a given that the joke will be based around the godliness of the monk, and the parasitic or predatory nature of lawyers. This hostility to lawyers isn’t even a recent phenomenon, in Shakespeare’s Henry the Sixth, Dick the butcher says “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” One day, while at Angkor Wat, I see a Buddhist monk in traditional orange robes taking a photo of his son. Great moment so I also take a pic. A few minutes later we bump into each other inside the temple and begin chatting. His name is Nheam, and the boy is his adopted son. He has been a monk for many years, and the boy was an orphan and needed a parent. As you might have guessed, he’s a lovely, lovely man. I ask what he does everyday, and he says he’s studying at the local university to be a lawyer. Being …

Kobudo Master Yukio Kuniyoshi – Under cloudy skies

Published by

After shooting in the studio we asked Kuniyoshi sensei if I could take a few shots outside the dojo. I used powerful battery powered Profoto B1 light for illumination and asked Kuniyoshi to stand on a table to set him against the sky. In the first three shots the sun is behind the clouds just right of the image. The B1 was at full power (500w/s) or approximately eight regular speedlights. This allowed me to shoot at around f16 and darken down the sky to show detail in the clouds. The following shot with the sun shining directly towards the lens has a definite epic feel to it. Normally I don’t want sections of the image to be completely blown out, but in this case, I think it works.

Ta Prohm Temple – Siem Reap, Cambodia

Published by

Ta Prohm, aka The Tomb Raider Temple, is a fantastic group of ruins hidden in the jungle not far from Siem Reap. Root systems creep across crumbling walls, collapsing some structures, and keeping others standing. The sandstone carvings have not been cleaned (restored) to the same extent as Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom which makes the place seem more of a discovery. However, if you’re hoping to feel like Laura Croft or Indiana Jones then you need to get here at dawn before the bus loads of tourists arrive. You can’t actually walk through the doorway below as it’s fenced off. In the first Tomb Raider film, as soon as Angelina Jolie passes the threshold the ground collapses and she finds herself in an underground tomb. In reality, this was just a set at London’s Pinewood studios, but the doorway is impressive nonetheless.

Kobudo Master Yukio Kuniyoshi

Published by

Yukio Kuniyoshi, the latest subject in the Karate Masters Portrait Project. A master of kobudo he is highly proficient in a wide range of traditional weapons. The following shot really shows the advantage of using a powerful studio flash with a rapid flash duration for this project. The Profoto 7a gives me a flash duration of up to 1/12,000 second. This allows me to stop the suruchin ball and chain as it whizzes around Kuniyoshi sensei’s body.

The Okinawan Priestess

Published by

I’m no expert on Okinawan religion, and the facts seem to vary a lot depending on who you ask, but here’s a brief explanation of a ceremony I photographed last week on Kouri Island. Okinawa’s native religion is ancestor worship, and the most important spiritual leaders are women. They are called either noro, yuta, or the more general term kaminchu. Ayako Toguchi is a spiritual leader on Kouri Island, I met her once before at the Unjami Festival. A friend pointed out on this visit that the mural in the shrine office of a woman flying through the air with a dragon is actually a portrait of Toguchi-san. April 3rd, is the third day of the third month in the Okinawan calendar, and a special ceremony was held at Sururu Gama (Sururu Cave) on Kouri Island. The cave is only accessible at low tide, after a scramble down to a hidden beach. Even at low tide the entrance must be cleared of rocks and sand before you can enter the cave. After entering the cave, offerings …

Cambodia Landmine Museum

Published by

After the horrific years under the Pol Pot regime, Cambodia was no longer at war, but huge swathes of the country were (and still are) covered in landmines. During peace time, landmines continue to kill. They kill  farmers trying to work the fields, they kill children who see something shiny in the grass. They maim, wound, and cripple indiscriminately. Aki Ra,  was forced to spend his childhood in the jungle with an AK-47. After the war he  began to disarm mines by himself, using his bare feet and a stick to discover them, and then a screwdriver to render them safe. Years later he set up a museum to show others some of the items he had found. If you’d like to learn more or make a donation visit the website Cambodia Landmine Museum. I met several Cambodians who’d lost limbs to landmines, some during war, some during peacetime. Any country that has produced landmines (or even worse continues to manufacture them) needs to deal with the long term consequences of their actions.