Join me and Etienne Bossot for a 3-day photography tour and workshop around Hoi AnVietnam on 28,29,30th April 2017. This is a fantastic opportunity to discover Central Vietnam, improve your photography skills and come back home with great pictures. During these three days, we will focus on landscape and people photography with three sunrises scheduled. Besides Hoi An, other locations include Lango Co bay and Tam Giang lagoon.
A night photography session in the colorful city of Hoi An is also part of this 3-day workshop with some sessions to review your pictures.
This workshop, limited to 10 people, is priced at the competitive rate of 385 US dollars with the following included: accommodation / transportation / all meals/ tips to the locals.
To get to Hoi An, the fastest way is to fly to Da Nang airport which has as direct flights from Siem Reap, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. Please send an e-mail to info(at)picsofasia(dot)com for any inquiries and bookings.
To get a better idea of the photographic opportunities during this tour, please have a look at the pictures taken by Etienne Bossot in the slideshow below:
Photography Holidays
If you do a photo tour with us in Angkor, you are entitled to a 10 % discount for a photo tour in Hoi An in Central Vietnam. Just mention the reference “sent by Angkor!” during your online booking at Hoi An photo tours
I recently upgraded my smartphone to a Huawei P9 lite and took it with me in the temples of Angkor during my photography tours along with a 5D Mark II.
The P9 lite, released in April 2016, packs a 13M-Pixel (4160X3120pixels) CMOS Image Sensor (Sony IMX 214, 1.12µm pixels) with a f:2.0 front camera. It lacks the dual Leica lens system and raw capture from his counterpart the Huawei P9 plus. Focal length has a 35 mm equivalent focal length of a 27 mm.
Camera operation
The camera has a quick access and when in standby it is very quick to start. By sweeping left one can access the menu to switch to pro photo. In this mode, shutter speed, ISO and white balance can be changed. When shutter speed is determined by the camera, exposure can be adjusted with the exposure compensation slide (-4 to +4 eV). Three focus mode are available: AF-S (spot), AF-C (continuous) and MF (manual focus). White balance can be changed to the usual values from tungsten to cloudy. Like in many DSLR, 3 metering modes are available: spot, center-weighted and evaluative. ISO can be set between 100 and 1600 ISO. In auto, the camera can set it as low as 50 ISO.
HDR mode
HDR can be useful to get more details in the shadow. The HDR mode of the P9 quite good , however there is no option to chose the strengh of the processing. It works particularly well with textures like on this 9th century temple strangled by a tree in the lost city of Koh Ker in Cambodia.
Macro
The P9 do not have a dedicated function for macro but the focusing distance of about 3 cm make up for it. The amount of details picked up by the camera is quite impressive. This macro shot of a praying mantis was shot in a very bright light and the details are in the same levels than a DSLR (the DSLR shot being slightly out of focus). For comparison you can see below a cropped version of the P9 and a Canon 750D side by side:
Panorama mode
Panorama mode is accessed from the camera by sweeping up the screen from the left. From there is an option to do either horizontal or vertical panorama.
Generally the stitching is quite good although errors can happen at low ambient light. One of the main drawback I have found is that it is not possible to lock the exposure before taking a panorama so it high contrasted scenes are difficult to capture.
Night Photography
Light painting on a pagoda. Pro photo mode 8 s pose, ISO 100
Swiping up the screen from the left let you choose two modes: night shot and light painting. In night shot mode, ISO can be set up between 100 and 1600 ISO and shutter speed up to 32 seconds. Using the 2-second timer (by swiping up screen from the right) helps to avoid blurry pictures.
The second mode available is Light painting and has 3 presets: Tail lights, Light graffiti,Silky water and Star track. They differentiate themselves by the ISO settings: Tail lights, Light graffiti: 64 ISO / Silky water: auto ISO / Star track: 800 ISO. All presets allow very long exposure time, the camera stays open until the shutter button is pressed again. Pro mode can be used for night photography but exposure time is limited to 8 seconds.
The Light graffiti preset was designed to write letters or paint shapes in the dark with a LED light but it can be used in more creative ways to create abstract backgrounds like this backlit laptop keyboard below.
Laptop keyboard backlit. Graffiti mode 7.2 seconds, ISO 64
Slow Motion
The Huawei P9 can record slow motion at 120 fps but be aware that the resolution is quite low at only 640X480 pixels (VGA). You can see on the video below of a lotus flower opening, both normal and slow motion sequences (4 times slower).
Conclusion
The Huawei P9 lite is the ideal companion for any travel photographer and has a good image quality. Of course it cannot be compared to a DSLR but in some situations it can the best camera as it can fit in your pocket. The different modes available allow you to produce some really creative images.
From time to time, we have requests about capturing the Milky Way or star trails in the temples of Angkor. Unfortunately due to the archaeological park’s opening hours (most temples are only open between 7.30 am and 5.30 pm), night photography in the temples is quite difficult.
January and February are the most favorable months to take pictures of the temples under the stars. Angkor Wat temple opens at 5 am therefore it is possible to capture long exposure of the night sky. Of course you will not be able to do very long star trails and only several minutes long exposures. Like for any astrophotography, you have to be aware of the phase of the moon as a full moon will disrupt your plan to get a starry sky. Here are few night pictures below we capture in the temples of Angkor, we will update this gallery from time to time with new shots.
Phnom Bakheng temple under a full moon
Phnom Bakheng temple is a 10th century hilltop temple, very popular as it drawn thousands of visitors everyday for sunset. Going there at sunrise is a unique photography experience even with a full moon.
Phnom Bakheng tower under the stars illuminated by a full moon
Phnom Bakheng shrines under the full moon
Angkor Wat under the stars
Angkor Wat under the stars is a challenging capture as your camera will facing east. Also, because the temple opens at 5 am, it is, for many months of the year, already too late to capture the stars. Another challenge is coming for the light pollution from the numerous LED torch used by the earliest visitor to navigate in the park at night. In the two pictures below you can see three of the five towers of Angkor Wat illuminated by those LED’s. Despite all that, it is still possible to see stars above Angkor Wat temple just before the astronomical sunrise.
Angkor Wat under thousand of stars
Angkor Wat temple before sunrise under starry sky
Angkor Wat temple before sunrise under starry sky
Angkor Wat library under the stars
Bakong temple after sunset
In the picture below, the beautiful three-tiered Bakong temple mountain, built during the 10th century is in the company of Jupiter and Venus in this rare planetary conjunction taken in October 2015.
Bakong temple after sunset with Venus and Jupiter
Bayon temple under the moon full
Bayon temple lit up by full moon
If you are looking for a photographic challenge and want to capture Angkor under the stars we will be happy to assist you, please have a look at the many photography tours we have at www.angkorphotographytours.com.
