A Year in Pictures: September 2008

“You can’t come to Thailand and not photograph elephants”, somebody told me recently. Quite so. This elephant is employed in Ayutthaya, carrying tourists around the central temple complex. I never quite get over the fact that something as large and powerful as an elephant can seem so apparently friendly and docile. They really are the most improbable and fascinating creatures. The eyes are all-important in portraits of people and it seems the same is true of elephant pictures too.

A Year in Pictures: August 2008

August’s photo comes from Ayutthaya, once Thailand’s capital city. Although the ruined temples and shrines are extremely photogenic, it’s frequently the activity surrounding them that catches my attention. I had planned to get to one of the main temples shortly before sunset and these boys were playing right outside the main entrance. So engrossed in their game they barely noticed me and I was able to take photos for a full twenty minutes before the changing light demanded that I move on.

Free Desktop Wallpaper: October 2008

The free desktop wallpaper for October is a shot I took at the very charming Baan Lotus Guest House in Ayutthaya. As the name suggests, the guest house is situated next to a large pond and the lotus flowers open early in the morning, slowly closing until they have all but disappeared by lunch-time.

I’ve re-introduced the calendar this month. Some of you had asked for wallpapers without a calendar so you could continue to use them after the month had passed but then others starting asking what had happened to the calendar. So, if you’d like a version without the calendar just drop me a line and I’ll set you up.

October 2008 Wallpaper (1024×768)
October 2008 Wallpaper (1280×800)
October 2008 Wallpaper (1280×1024)
October 2008 Wallpaper (1920×1200)

Click the link above for a wallpaper appropriate to your screen resolution.

Return from Ayutthaya

The more observant amongst you will have noticed that I’m alternating between the Lonely Planet spelling of “Ayuthaya” and the more common spelling of “Ayutthaya”.

I usually stick with the Lonely Planet spelling of place names just for consistency but in the case of Ayutthaya the double-t option is more commonly seen. There’s something more pleasing, visually, about the extra “t” I think.

But you didn’t come here to hear about my adventures in the land of Spelling, you came here to see pictures so without further ado…

These kids were playing some kind of complicated hop-scotch game in the mud outside of one of Ayuthaya’s main temples. I sat for a while and tried to work out the rules but it basically boiled down to the kid in the green top losing each time.

So, to set the scene, here are a couple of shots of the Khmer style temple at Wat Chaiwatthanaram. The weather in Ayutthaya did its best to make me feel right at home by pouring with rain for much of my stay. Consequently, getting a shot with any sort of interesting clouds was a challenge as the skies were most often flat and grey.

This Wat has a similar style to the Angkor temples in Cambodia and was built at around the same time. Depending on what you read, this temple was either built by King Prassatthing in order to make merit for his mother or to commemorate his victory over Cambodia.

Ayuthaya boasts dozens of temples scattered around the town. Some are popular tourist destinations whilst others are far from the beaten track and can only be discovered by accident. The picture above comes from Wat Yai Chai-Mongkhol, one of the better ones for photographers as it contains rows of Buddha statues, or Buddharupa, on all four sides of a central quad. Did you know that each Buddharupa is different, the face supposedly based on the sculptor’s own?

I’m afraid I can’t tell you the name of this temple as it’s not shown on any map, doesn’t appear on Google Earth and I haven’t been able to track it down on the web. I hired a motorbike for a few days in order to get out to some of the more far-flung temples. I find that pootling around without any definite plan is often the best way to discover places. And so it was with this place. I almost drove past but a small shrine caught my eye so I turned back and parked the bike under a tree.

I snapped a few shots of the shrine and the Buddharupas and very nearly ignored a decrepit old shed with a rusty tin roof nearby. Sometimes it pays to be a nosy though and my curiosity led me to poke my head around the door where I was greeted by the sight of an enormous reclining Buddha.

It must be over 25 feet tall and perhaps 150 feet long. It’s difficult to say. Judging by the amount of gold leaf on the Bhuddha’s arms and chest it is obviously visited by local people quite regularly but probably not by many tourists. It was a nice find on an otherwise grey day.

This monk was inside the reclining Buddha shed and was struggling to give his dog some medication. Every time he tried to empty a syringe into the dog’s mouth the dog would either skitter off or just let the contents dribble out of the corner of it’s mouth. What was obviously needed was a gullible tourist to run around the shed, catch the dog and hold it steady whilst the medication was administered. Still, I got a few photos out of it.

This face, full of character, belongs to a devotee I met at Phra Mongkonbophit, a more modern temple that contains one of the largest Buddha statues in Thailand.

The devotee carried a walking stick. The head is in the shape of a seven-headed Naga snake.

Climbing into the back of a tuk-tuk one evening after shooting a temple at dusk I still had my camera on a tripod. Placing it on the floor and wedging it against a seat enabled me to get some long-exposure pictures on the way back to my Guest House. This is a 15 second exposure and yet the back of the tuk-tuk is remarkably sharp.

Ayutthaya boasts an Elephant Krall where elephants were once herded. These days, rather than moving trees or fighting in wars, elephants carry tourists along the street through the Historical Park where they pause for pictures in front of Phra Ram temple. I spent a couple of hours in the elephant enclosure and really wanted to get a close-up of an elephant’s eye. If you’ve ever been up close with an elephant you’ll understand what I mean what I mean when I say that they seem to be incredibly placid creatures. However, when something is as big as a house I can’t help being suspicious of it, no matter how gentle it might seem.

Finally, to the Buddha head stuck in the roots of a Bodhi tree. I remembered correctly, it was difficult to photograph in anything other than a straightforward way. There’s no point trying any fancy techniques when you’re photographing it, zooming in, twisting the camera to create blur, it’s all gilding the lily. It’s a unique image and I concluded that that’s sufficient.

You can emphasise the mystical qualities in the post-production and I’ve tried to do that although I’ve yet to export a version that I am one hundred percent happy with.

The rain really helped pull out the texture in the tree roots in the shot above and it was one of the few times when I’ve been thankful for a downpour.

The final frame from Ayuthaya has been desaturated to create a greyscale file although I’ve put back the green channel as I think the leaves add a little bit of subtle colour that works in this context. I still feel like there’s another image of this Bhuddarupa head in the Bodhi tree that I want to get before I’ve got my “definitive” picture but these are close.

What do you think?

Additional pictures from Ayutthaya can be found on my Portfolio page.

Return to Ayuthaya II

Whilst I wouldn’t claim that this is my most creative or unusual interpretation of the Buddha Head in the Bodhi Tree, I thought you might like to see it whilst I’m working on something more “outside the box”.

The Photoshop Merge function is extremely clever. Can you see the joins?

Talking of Photoshop, Check out Rob Galbraith’s site for a link to some CS4 information. I don’t have the link right now but a quick Google will point you in the right direction. The video from Photoshop World is too large for me to download on the snail-paced wifi connection at the restaurant I’m frequenting in Ayuthaya so perhaps if you watch it you can leave details of highlights in the comments box? I thank you.

Return to Ayuthaya

My first visit to Ayuthaya was in 2003 when I photographed this Buddha statue head that, whether by accident or design, has become embedded in the side of a tree.

Thinking back, I remember that it was actually quite a tricky thing to photograph in anything other than a very straightforward way. Although I’ve added a Holga-esque treatment to the file in Photoshop here that’s not something that I would usually do.

I’ve no objection to Photoshopped images, we’re all manipulating pixels to a greater or lesser degree, but it takes enough time and effort for me just to get a relatively straight image most of the time so any further attention is something of a luxury. Heck, it’s taken me five years to find time to play around with this image!

So I’m heading back to Ayuthaya this week and although there are lots of temples to photograph in what used to be Thailand’s capital city it’s this small Buddha head that I’m most looking forward to seeing again. I’ve purposely avoided searching the Internet for other views of the Buddha head and tree so as not to influence the way I see it. It’s a little self-challenge, can I come up with a different perspective? Is there a way of photographing this relatively straightforward scene that’s new and interesting?

It’s good to set yourself a creative challenge now and again. I belong to a handful of real-life and virtual clubs where the main purpose is to set ourselves a photographic theme every month. It’s not terribly precious and apart from some quick-fire feedback the results are not really judged. The purpose is to get the creative juices flowing and to point our artistic thought processes in a new direction.

I recommend it. If you’re struggling to come up with new material then set yourself a challenge. It doesn’t matter what the subject is, indeed that’s the least important bit really. Choose a colour or a shape or an item of clothing or a family member or the cat, the dog, whatever. Then set some time aside and consider how you might like to present that subject in a finished photograph. Before you know it, your lateral thinking muscles will be flexing and you’ll be conjuring up all sorts of fanciful ideas.

Can’t think of a theme? Here are some ideas. Close your eyes and pick one at random.

red soft walking orange shadow stars tight stick bunches close giggling smoker overflow burning shake inky troublesome needle putty clouds afterwards bits-and-bobs swivel triangle dripping ears wind-me-up circular my-fridge heart-shaped cold tea elbow victory make-up sponge pork-pie diagonals shallow runny blurred crackling floating handwriting framed sloping glint gate stripes upside-down reflected street-signs forgotten back-of-my-sofa footprint eggs

Good luck!

One of the other things I remember about Ayuthaya was the teenage schoolchildren who had been sent to lurk around the tourist attractions by what I assume was a teacher in need of some peace and quiet. Armed with a questionnaire each they would approach tourists and ask if they might spend a few minutes answering questions so that the students could practice their English skills. They were invariably charming and already spoke impressively accomplished English and it was pleasant to be able to pause and chat.

So, I’m away from the blog for a few days but will come back armed with my best picture of the Buddha Head from Ayuthaya.