Burmese Nightlife: Star Trails Through History

Shooting at night is always a challenge. First off, the low light means long exposures and additional equipment. (tripod, cable release, flashlight etc.) I've always enjoyed shooting in low light, showing motion and in general the technical challenges of creating images in the dark.

In addition to my photography addiction, I also have an "Indiana Jones" complex at times. Those two coupled together led me to Bagan in Myanmar (aka Burma) to photograph the 1100 year-old temples by moonlight. It just sounded like an interesting trip. The complete story of that adventure will come in a future post, but for now I'll share one of the simplest shots from that expedition.

The above shot is a 40 minute exposure of some of the temple ruins just outside the town of Nyaung Oo. Shooting in the dark is always an experiment. In most shooting situations I'm pretty confident in the camera meter's ability to determine a proper exposure. However, in a night scene like this with virtually no light, I'm confident that the camera's meter has no clue. So what do you do? Go manual, guess and take notes.

Borobudur Temple and the Moon

On the island of Java in Indonesia, is one of the largest Buddhist temples in the world. Borobudur Temple is just outside the city of Yogyakarta and a stone's throw from the active volcano of Mt. Merapi. A stone's throw, assuming it was the volcano doing the throwing.

At over 1100 years old, Borobudur is from the same time period as the other Buddhist sites of Angkor in Cambodia and Bagan in Myanmar. It had been one of my goals to visit them all. I had visited Angkor multiple times and spent nearly three weeks at Bagan in the last five years and finally in 2007, I made it to Borobudur.

On top of the world in Bangkok

Bangkok, Thailand is famous for its ubiquitous food stalls. Thai food is world famous and the immense diversity of places to eat in Bangkok is ridiculous. You can spend $1 or $30, but the only real difference is usually the venue in which you choose to eat. The food is always good.

Here is a shot of the rooftop restaurant and bar called Sirocco. It's open air and perched on the 63rd Floor of a the State Tower building. This would be one of the more pricey options...

The shot is actually two shots merged to achieve the panoramic format.

Exposure: unrecorded. If memory serves, it was a 20mm lens, F11, ISO100 and maybe 5-10 second shutter.


As always, click any image for the larger version. TR