Some helpful travel tips....plus pics from Cambodia and Thailand (updated)

[nefertiti]

Awesome pics! What kind of camera/lens did you use? Glad to hear you loved it and are back home safe and sound

Nikon D3100....most with a 50mm lens, a handful with a 500mm sigma dg (the two pictures I posted here where I mentioned the long range lens are the only two here...but I have a few more I didn't post that will go on FB).

This trip was the first time I've not left it in auto and done all the work in post processing, but my real time adjustments were limited to ISO and shutter speed (I left it mostly in shutter speed priority mode). Too overwhelming to really grasp more than that at one time. But in a lot of my pictures I've noticed where they could have been a LOT better by adjusting aperture. I'm a semi noob with photography, but obviously I enjoy it from a hobby perspective and I've gotten better over time.

I'm also still in the learning phase with adobe lightroom....I get carried away and turn pictures into unrealistic artsy fartsy things that look cool, but don't remotely represent reality. I may post a few of those here later just for the hell of it.

 

[nefertiti]

Me, thinking I'm artsy with post processing: (some reposts, some unposted edits of cambodia, some from when I was in san fran last year)

Not sure if I think the surreal processing sucks, is totally self indulgent, is kinda cool, or some combo of the three haha.

 

[pdaddyII]

Me, thinking I'm artsy with post processing: (some reposts, some unposted edits of cambodia, some from when I was in san fran last year)

Not sure if I think the surreal processing sucks, is totally self indulgent, is kinda cool, or some combo of the three haha.

Those all belong in frames. I prefer the surreal processing actually but not when it starts looking like CGI garbage or cartoonish. I think you found the perfect balance.

 

[wootoom]

Those all belong in frames. I prefer the surreal processing actually but not when it starts looking like CGI garbage or cartoonish. I think you found the perfect balance.

Cool story, I felt like was in the frame

 

[PICK3]

I prefer the surreal processing

I like taking hydros until everything looks surreal

 

[nefertiti]

Those all belong in frames. I prefer the surreal processing actually but not when it starts looking like CGI garbage or cartoonish. I think you found the perfect balance.

Having it look cartoonish was my fear. I'm honestly really flattered by your comment about them deserving frames. I'm working with good, but not top of the line gear, and mostly self teaching. I feel like I have an eye for stuff, just not always the knowledge on how to deliver it.

Thanks again! I personally love my artsy processed pics. I told a friend recently, of this batch, "that's not the way it looked, but it was the way it felt to me, in the moment." I'll keep getting better the more I do it, and def aperture is my next project to tackle.

 

[-SD-]

These would look great in B/W

 

[nefertiti]

These would look great in B/W

I agree that some of them really would....I'll fiddle with the B/W edits now that I've done the basic. Gotta pick the pictures that will be the most dramatic with B/W.

During the sun storm at angkor wat I REALLY REALLY tried to get a shot of a couple of bright orange robed monks looking out at the rain. Against the gray stone, it would have been a really dramatic shot, especially so in a B/W shot with their robes isolated as a color point. The wiley fucks eluded me just as I changed lenses.

 

[Ffactor]

Wow!!! Thanks so much for sharing.

 

[nefertiti]

NP

It's definitely a pain in the ass to re-size everything before posting here, but the whole reason I love taking pictures is being able to recreate my experiences for other people. Both countries, but Cambodia in particular, were wonderful wonderful places to visit. I found the Cambodian people to be warm, genuine, spirited people with an endurance against strife and a love for the culture that pol pot did his best to wipe out. Where one might look and see only the poverty...I did see that, but I also saw family, community, pride, hospitality, self deprecating humor, wortk ethic and a decided lack of "this person owes me xyz" and "I am entitled to abc." Every person I encountered had a love of country, a joy in their work, and a desire to educate visitors in a way that made that joy and love contagious. Of the pictures I took....the ones I kept and share I do because I want other people to fall in love too. It is a special place, and a special culture.