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27 February 2017

Its a daily tradition for all buddhist monks to seek food from the surrounding population in order to support their vow of poverty. I also have a photo of a monk receiving some food from a little boy in Bangkok. In Luang Prabang, Laos, this is done at dawn and “enmasse”. The sight of columns of monks walking the streets in procession is a beautiful moving experience and because of its rarity has become a bit of a tourist attraction. Hence I was there as part the paparazzi who gather every morning. Contrary to all the other tourists I did keep my distance and did not shove cameras,cell phones or tablets directly in the monks faces and then have the flash go. I saw one tourist stand directly in fronf of the procession and ask the monk to stop for a photograph. These Asian tourists…….

As you can see from the photos the Tak Bat started at dawn and it was still very dark. There was limited street lighting so I had to rely on the shop front lights to illuminate the monks. My D3s is my back up camera when travelling and because of its weight tends to be in the Hotel safe. However in extreme low ligh situations it is the weapon of choice.

The weight helps prevent camera shake. VR anti shake reduction on the lens is also important. And a full frame low pixel sensor enables shooting at high isos giving limited noise and adequate colour information. This has all been discussed in a previous blog (12 Dec 2016).

Tak Bat