Sri Satchanalai Historical Park, Landscape, People and Thai Cultural Photography

The Sri Satachanalai Historical Park is located only about 60 km from Sukhothai and has its  very own charm. The entire area is a lot wider then the Park in Sukhothai and has a peaceful and quiet atmosphere.

One of the participants, the Japanese man Sugawara Masaki didn't arrive at the airport. So we were only five in the car and had the comfort of more space. The Australian couple, Porter, weren't really interested in photography but wanted to use the opportunity for an enjoyable weekend trip.

The weather was wonderful and usually it's rather isolated in this Park. Today however there were 2 travel groups so we had to coordinate our tour to stay out of their way.

The Thais have their own way of visiting historical sites.

          

The Temple Wat Chang Lom (surrounded by elephants) is one of the most significant. In 1285 King Ram Kamhaeng excavated the holy relics of the Wat Phra Sri Rattana Maha That Temple , which was built under the reign of the Khmer in Chaliang.

After he worshiped them for one month, he buried them 3 km west where the Sri Satchanalai Park is today and build the Wat Chang Lom Temple above them.

Wat Chedi Chet Thaeo, which is directly opposite, was another photographic challenge.

The temple ruins seemed a lot older and less restored compared to the Historic Park in Sukthothai. I think that's what creates this special atmosphere.

After a refreshing lunch in a beergarden directly at the Yom river , we did not want to miss the new excavation site in the Wat Phra Sri Rattana Maha That.

In the evening, after an hour of driving and a break at the Ruean Thai hotel, we went to the fields in front of the Ramkhamhaeng mountain range in Sukhothai.

We hoped for fantastic evening light to capture the beautiful landscape.

Kenneth and I were thrilled when a cold front moved into the sunset. We had almost an entire hour to shoot before it started to rain while the light disappeared and we had to return to the hotel.

On the next morning we had to get up early. We wanted to use the morning sun for landscape shots. This time we didn't have much luck and the lack of light couldn't be created through Photoshop either. The sun was blocked by a thick veil of clouds and left us standing in troubled waters.

We used the opportunity of the diffused light to make some macro shots of the flowers growing on the fields edge.

Here's an example of what modern image editing programs like Photoshop are capable of and how you can put a little more "magic" into the pictures with a little bit of post processing.

We ate breakfast in the field and began searching for encounters with the natives. We met a cowherd , talked to a family whose daughter got married a few days ago, visited a potter and a family which made palm sugar.

We earned a break and were craving for a nice lunch. Before I had to bring Catherine and George to the airport, we had an appointment with the monks in the Wat Pak Khwae Temple.

My son did me the favor to go with us and Kristen made this nice photograph of us with the monk , who patiently stood model for our portrait shots.

Kenneth and Kristen stayed for another day and Kristen booked me for the next day to explore the Historical park in Sukhothai.
In the evening I had an appointment 30 km outside of Sukhothai and invited Kenneth to join me. Originally he was looking for the classic postcard scene: sunset between two palm trees. Instead a storm swept over us and we were unlucky to be on the wrong side of the mountain.

Sometimes that's how it is with landscape photography.

The Historical Park in Sukhothai

Rob came along on the Tour to the Sirkit Dam and since he hadn't seen the Historical Park yet, he wanted to use the opportunity to stay for another day.

At that time the land was very dry and so we focused on taking pictures in monochrome only.
We wanted to shoot in the morning light and spend the midday heat on the computer to work on the photographs.

There were only a few single tourists in the Park. A couple, which was immerged in to a lovely photo session, didn't bother us at all.

The sun rose quickly, so we focused on a few single subjects. It is important to already have a vision of the final photograph when preparing for the composition..

We implemented Rob´s vision consistend in the computer, by using software from Adobe and NIK combined.
Rob's return flight to Bangkok already left at 5 pm. But despite the tight schedule we had a lot of fun.

The Queen Sirikit Dam in Uttaradit

After various interested parties requested that I move my Bhumibol Dam Tour in Tak to the weekend, I drove there a second time to plan the tour offside the weekend tourists.
It wasn't easy to get an appointment where all my customers from my Bangkok clientele could make time. We settled for the weekend on April 6/7th.
2 weeks beforehand I called the hotel on the EGAT (Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand) site to confirm my reservation. The friendly voice on the telephone informed me that the entire site including the streets and hotels would be closed from the 26.03.-08.04. due to the Thai military. Now that's what I call perfect timing!
Some of my clients had already booked their flights and so I had to find an equivalent alternative...

I drove to the Sirikit Dam close to Uttaradit. From the Sukthothai Airport it takes about the same amount of time as it would to get to the Bumibhol Dam.
The hotel offers an even higher standard but it takes another hour to get to the docks at the artificial lake. I made a new reservation and was saved.

On request of my clients, this tour was going to include a lesson on the post processing of the currently created photographs.
One week beforehand my Mac said farewell to his work life by killing the GPU. It seemed like this tour was really packed with complications. I went down town and bought a lottery ticked.

So instead of thoroughly preparing I was busy with configuring a temporary PC, installing the necessary programs and to make my Mac formatted hard drive readable.

Disregarding all problems we sat in a floating restaurant at the Sirikit Dam on a Saturday noon and dined exquisitely. The rented boat corresponded to its horrendous price and our captain was a terrific guy.

The cooler full of drinks we brought along and a nice breeze helped ease the extreme heat of 41°C during our boat tour. The water level was low and exposed islands which usually weren't visible. This year the temperatures in the dry season were extreme and even the Thais groaned. We docked at one of the islands, enjoyed the atmosphere and started taking photographs.

Before the opening of the dam in 1973 and the formation of the around 250 km/2 artificial lake, the area was populated and overgrown. The now dry islands are scattered with various giant roots. The desert like landscape and the hazy weather on the calm lake offered a surreal scenery and an endless grandiose subjects for photographers.

We visited a few more islands where we occupied ourselves by using artful image-building to expertly put roots and landscape into scene and make water dissolve to haze by using ND filters.

In the meantime our captain took out his rod and was happy.

While my guests pleased themselves with a sundowner, I demonstrated how you can create a fantastic atmosphere in the evening light by under exposure in combination with a Fill-in flash.

It was already dark when we stowed our equipment in the car. After an extensive dinner in the restaurant in our hotel, everyone went to sleep rather fast - It had been an exhausting day.
I set up the PC and Monitor and stayed up until 2 a.m.. preparing everything for the lesson on the next day.

The next morning we met in the lobby at 5 a.m. and drove to the lake again to use the morning mood for some more photographs. The rising sun generated a diffusing light and let us capture a special atmosphere.

After we returned to the hotel and had another extensive breakfast, I demonstrated how you can increase the impression and effect of your photography by using a bit of skillful post processing and combined software.

Landscapes and famer in Sukhothai

Paul came with the bus from Bangkok and had originally booked the Bhumibol Dam Tour on Wednesday. He was impressed by my landscape photographs and wanted to do a tour here in Sukhothai first. He particularly was interested to see the locals live.
In addition, he had just bought new ND filters in England and wanted to try them out. Since you don't need filters to compensate the contrast in digital landscape photography any more, they're mainly used to extend the exposure time. Floating water or fast moving clouds are best suited. It is impossible to pull everything off in one day.

I picked him up from his resort at 6:15 a.m. because we wanted to shoot in front of the Khao Luang Mountain Range in the very first light.

It was a cloudless morning and the panorama landscape provided fantastic light from the side. A fresh breeze had clean up the air and gave us a clear view.
It's wonderful to be in the landscape in the morning.

Generally this kind of light will only last for a single subject. Still, we didn't want to leave out this tree which was right "around the corner" and so we hurried to the car.

The sun rose fast and produced a glaring light. When we were on the road, a farmer drove his herd of cattle to the next pasture. While I talked to the farmer and lead him out of the shadows, Paul got the shots he wanted so badly. Sometimes such an assistant would come in handy for myself.

The neighbour came with her motorcycle and joined us. She had a small rubber tree plantation and explained the whole production process to us. She sells the rubber to a middleman, who then passes them to the big factories. She gets 20 Baht for one Kilo of raw rubber.

After we left and got invited to drink Lao Kao (moonshine) in the evening, we met a mother with her son in front of their house. She was sceptical at first, since her husband was working on the field, but with some explaining words everyone gives in. Paul made some portraits of them and we continued on.

Lets find some floating water. At this time of the year the beautiful Sai Lung ( rainbow) waterfall only has water in the upper area. That would be an all day climbing tour, which we didn't have time for.
Another little river lead to a second tiny waterfall. It is only accessable in the dry season. That was our destination. This area is still part of the Ramkhamhaeng National Park.

The start of the trail to the waterfall is located at a small lake which was a nice subject to photograph.

The river course was lined with rock formations which were just inviting us to photograph, but the main point was to try the filters. We arrived at the waterfall where a group of kids were having fun. They jumped from the rocks into the water and competed for the best cannonball. I also took my filter along and so we started shooting long exposure.
Some editing on the computer gave it the impression of reality.

On our way from the waterfall we saw varous families that made vases in plaster molds, which then were burned. It was an elderly couple with their grand children. It was a longer photo session with the striking and friendly husband. Paul took photos and the questions seemed to have no end.

It was time to prepare for the evening landscape session. We drove to the other side of the mountain group. A burned sugar cane farm revealed a tree and the mountains.

When the sun was almost down we scattered fires in the forest to our side. On the wide field it posed no danger to us. With the long lens we  made our last dramatic shots...

It was a tiring day. Usually my tours consisted of about 6 hours but it was a lot of fun and photography. Paul wanted to go to Chiang Mai the day after tomorrow. The improvement of his post-processing skills was more important than the Bhumibol Dam Tour. So on the next day we sat on the computer. Asking Paul for his honest opinion about the tour, he ensure me that it was first class. Without the specific knowledge of the area and my language skills he never would have gotten those shots, he said. With new earned Photoshop skills and a few extra tricks his work will definitely gain more expression.

A few days later Paul send me one of the portraits he made on the tour:

© photographer  Paul Grace 2013

I got a call from Anthony v. Loh from Bangkok. On the weekend he wanted to go to the Bhumibol Dam with 3 of his colleagues. We agreed on the 6./7. April. I talked to Rob on the phone a few minutes later... The tour was full.

But first, on Monday, I will be on my way in to the jungle to the biggest waterfall in Thailand at the Burmese border...

Bhumibol Dam

My american friend Vern used to live in the area of the Bhumibol Dam for a couple of years.
He invited me to explore the dam. 15 years ago I had the chance to see it but did not went out to the islands. Except from the week ends this is not a crowded place to go and we met almost no tourists at all.

They started to built the 450 meter retaining wall between the 2 biggest rocks in the beginning of the 50´s. 1964 the project was finished. The building is combined with a power station which is run by 8 electric generator. In the beginning it has been only 6 with a efficiency of 80,000 kw, 50Hz, 13.8 kV per unit. Later 2 generator with 115,000 and 170,000 kw where added.

The water supply to the dam at ca 7.5 km can be up to 13 billion cubic meter. The large dam is supplied by the river Ping coming from Chiang Mai. Across the dam the river Ping flows in the great Chao Phraya River in Nakhon Sawan. Passing Ayuttaya and Bangkok the Chao Phraya flows in to the Golf of Siam. No water is wasted and the rice farmer are taken care of on the way of the river.

The dam with its lake and the islands surrounded by mountains offers many subjects for photography.We arrived at the pier early and took a boat for the 20 min ride to the first island.

We buckled on the pier of a swimming restaurant and had a delicious fish for lunch. A few steps up the stairway and you are standing at the top of this little island. There i a single monk living on top and the view is magnificent.

I ask the captain if there where more islands to go.Well there is "Valentines island" he replied. Same distance, same price. O.k. lets go.

This island is a paradise for landscape composition. Mountains in the background , rocks in the front and curvy beaches as leading lines are perfect subjects. You just fade out the flower pots and valentine hearts at the main beach. 

The later the day the better the light. The captain looked at his watch and urged to return. More of a family matter I guess. In fact the dam closes at 6 pm. I captured my best shot on the way back to the pier before we found our self at the restaurant at the golf course with a cool beer at the table.