Angkor-wat with Apo-lanthar

[Bill_1856]

Nice sense of composition and color. Thanks for posting them.

[debellatio]

i heard that in Angkor Wat if you bring 4x5 you have to pay 300USD a day to make photograph there, how much you paid?

hello eddie and zoneVIII,

That is something I have to tell. I was worried about that because before I went, I heard the rumor of LF forbidden rules in Angkor-wat, too. I asked my friends and my local guide if it's true, they denied.

But I kept worried about it because when I entered the immigration of Cambodia, the officer solicited a bribe from me or he just would not want to let me pass. What a country!

Things went right during the first 3 days, my tachihara only attracted attention from those tourists. I barely saw the securities or policemen inside of the Angkor-wat, nobody came to stop me.

The last day, when I entered a temple, I noticed there were 2 young men sat before the gate, holding mathematics book and staring at me with very weird eyes, I guess they are high school students, and I thought maybe I have to deal with them later. Just as expected, after about 20 min'. the 2 young men come close, showing me there ID cards(maybe the student cards), and stated that they were on behalf of the local Authority, and LF photograph is forbidden here, blablabla, finally they said I have to pay to continue. I replied in anger, "You do not know who I am? Your government invites me to shoot here, I'll call the police if you bother me again". They left immediately without a word.

I'm not lying, I bought ticket to enter the Angkor, so I had the contract with their government, and I have my right to shoot.

And I can tell they are just students, not from authority. Cambodia is still a very poor country, so there must be some people who want to get money from you, especially when you carry a shining LF camera. But they just want few dollars, usually 3-5 USD, and they will be satisfied, after all, they are not bad, they are just poor.

And maybe there used to exist a rule of commercial shoot forbidden long time ago made by Angkor-wat authority, but now the Angkor-wat was managed by a Vietnamese private company for a long term. So there would be no Cambodia authorities inside the Angkor-wat nowadays.

I guess the Angkor-wat LF forbidden rumor should be ceased from now on.

[zoneVIII]

Thanks for quick reply, my friend has to paid 300USD per day at there maybe by the same persons, if i go to Angkor I will try your trick, thanks again

haryanto

[eddie]

great idea with the 2 men.

cheers

eddie

[Jim collum]

I was there in 2003, with an Ebony and Betterlight setup. I only had problems in one of the temples (the main Angkor Wat). There were two young men with id cards who didn't want money.. just said I needed a permit to shoot with that camera. Oh.. they also had rifles.. so I listened to them.

Other than that one instance, the biggest problems were tourists

[debellatio]

I was there in 2003, with an Ebony and Betterlight setup. I only had problems in one of the temples (the main Angkor Wat). There were two young men with id cards who didn't want money.. just said I needed a permit to shoot with that camera. Oh.. they also had rifles.. so I listened to them.

Other than that one instance, the biggest problems were tourists

Thanks to God, I saw no more rifles inside Angkor-wat nowadays, actually, during the last 5 years, the Cambodia has became a peaceful country again. everything changed quickly, and in a good way. inspite of the political problems, the Angkor-wat is just amazing, I'll go back there again... and again.

[robertmgray]

Great photos, I've just found my new wallpaper for my laptop.

[p_markowski]

Very nice images and thank-you for sharing. I look forward to more posts from you. Angkor-wat has been one on my to do list for some time now.

[Jim collum]

Very nice images and thank-you for sharing. I look forward to more posts from you. Angkor-wat has been one on my to do list for some time now.

I would recommend it sooner than later. We hired a guide to help us thru the ruins, and he fears that even though they have survived the last 1000 years, tourism will probably destroy them before his grandkids can fully enjoy them (In 2003 when i was there.. the talk was to put a Disneyland 'tram' system thru the ruins to facilitate more tourists.. hopefully this has fallen by the wayside). Staying in Siem Reap, you can see the huge disparity between the people living there, and the Hotels built for tourists.

That said, the ruins are beyond beautiful and majestic. I could easily spend a decade there shooting, and still not fully captured it

[jon.oman]

Very nice work!

Jon