Capture Blissful Photos: 2 Ways To Picture People In Myanmar
Blissful photo of two novice monks at a monastery in Myanmar.
This post features two, very special, people based photos I made in Myanmar. Allow me to share these images with you and the stories behind how I went about picturing people in Myanmar in a way that enabled me to capture truly blissful photos.
It’s a fantastic feeling to realize you're able to successfully capture blissful photos. Through the communicative power of photography you can showcase bliss, that deeply experiential state of being that enables us to transcend from a life of sorrow and sadness into a heightened state of great joy.
How I Photographed Novice Monks In Myanmar
Let’s start our journey with this black and white photo of two novice monks in Myanmar.
While their maroon robes were beautiful to behold, I felt that a black and white rendering would better convey the innocence and purity we often associate with younger folk.
I also think the black and white rendering is successful as it adds a definite sense of nostalgia to the image.
And that seems completely appropriate, given many folk from western countries imagine Myanmar existing in somewhat of a time warp.
“Bright, direct light is the death of photography.”
Bright Sunny Days Are Challenging For A Portrait Photographer
The common perception is that bright, sunny days provide the ideal weather for photography. Nothing could be further from the truth, particularly when it comes to portrait photography.
I made the above photo in the grounds of a Buddhist temple, on a hot and extremely bright day.
Bright, direct light reflects off surfaces, taking with it much of the color and texture inherent to the subject.
Imagine an expensive bride’s dress, resplendent with fine detail, rendered as a big white blob in a photo. That wouldn’t be good, but it’s precisely how that dress would photograph outside under direct, bright lighting.
Now take another look at the photo at the top of this post.
Notice how so much of the shape and texture in the novices robes has been retained by moving them out of the bright sunlight.
Being able to successfully control the light under which you photograph is the key to making great photos. In particular I’m referring to the intensity, quality, direction and color of the light. This is what professional photographers are referring to when they say “it’s all about the light.”
Another problem associated with making portraits under bright, direct sunlight is that it produces shinny, specular highlights on the subject’s forehead and, during the middle of the day, deep, black shadows under their eyes.
The best way to overcome these problems is to move your subject into the shade so as to avoid the bright and, quite often, high contrast lighting associated with photographing under midday sun in summer.
When it comes to shade, I’m not suggesting you need to move your subject into really deep shade, where it’s so dark you can struggle to achieve the desired combination of iso, shutter speed and aperture for your photo.
Under such conditions a slow shutter speed or extremely high iso might be needed to allow enough light to reach your camera’s sensor to produce an optimal exposure.
But the compromise associated with that approach might result a blurred image, due to either camera shake or subject movement during the relatively long exposure. Alternatively, a gritty looking image might result from having to make the exposure at an unacceptably high iso with an older DSLR or mirrorless camera.
What you need to do, when photographing under very bright, direct light is to move your subject just out of the sunlight into what’s referred to as open shade. The light is more diffuse in the shade and, as a result, your subject will be illuminated with a much softer, more flattering light.
How To Make Great Candid Portraits
Once I was granted permission to photograph the two young novice monks, I moved them out of direct sunlight and onto a shaded verandah.
I then spent quite some time positioning them to make an interesting composition that allowed the light to feather across their robes and illuminate their faces.
I’m normally very quick photographing people, particularly strangers. But this was a very tricky image to get right and I was lucky to be photographing such patient young boys.
I can’t help but wonder if, even at such a young age, their training in Buddhist philosophy was already on display.
Desiring a somewhat candid look, in addition to a nostalgic feel, I gave very specific instructions for where I wanted the boys to look. This approach proves the point that the best candid images are often made with the subject or subjects depicted completely aware of the fact that they’re being photographed.
You see for an image to look candid, it doesn’t actually have to be made with a long telephoto lens protruding out of the shrubbery.
It’s true that certain types of sport, conflict and celebratory images are often made, from a distance, with the subject being unaware of the photographer.
However, as this image proves, it doesn’t have to be like that and it’s perfectly possible to create a candid looking image through a highly directed and, sometimes, collaborative approach.
Why I Loved Making Photos With A Hasselblad Camera
The original image was made on Kodak Portra 160VC Professional film with the following equipment:
Hasselblad 500CM camera
Hasselblad 150mm f/4 Sonnar lens
While not always easy to work with, I love the unbiased nature of the traditional Hasselblad camera’s square format.
Unlike a camera with a rectangular image ratio, such as a 35 mm film camera or its DSLR equivalent, the Hasselblad imposes no bias upon the image due to the orientation of the camera, whether portrait or landscape.
Instead, it’s the placement of compositional elements within the frame that emphasize notions such as movement, energy, stability and harmony. It’s no coincidence that great square photos are, more often than not, underpinned by excellent composition.
The Hasselblad 150 mm lens, attached to a 2 ¼ inch (i.e., 6 x 6 cm) Hasselblad camera, is roughly equivalent in magnification and perspective to a 100 mm lens on a 35 mm film or full frame DSLR camera. It’s a wonderful focal length for portraits, Here’s why:
It draws the face in a manner that’s flattering to most people, by which I mean it thins the face in a portrait photo.
It foreshortens (i.e., reducers in size) the nose in a portrait photo.
It provides a comfortable camera-to-subject working distance that prevents the photographer from invading the subject’s personal space, while allowing the photographer to remain close enough to be able to direct the subject without having to raise their voice.
To see more great people based photography I’ve done over the years just click here.
Fisherman on Taungthaman Lake near the town of Amarapura in Myanmar.
Fisherman On Taungthaman Lake, Amarapura, Myanmar
This image was made at sunrise from U-Bein Bridge, a wooden teak bridge overlooking the gorgeous Taungthaman Lake, near the small town of Amarapura, a 45-minute drive from Mandalay in northern Myanmar.
The image was made with a Hasselblad 500CM camera and Hasselblad 150mm f/4 Sonnar lens with Kodak Professional Portra 160VC film.
Some days are truly wonderful. As part of a photography trip to Myanmar I’d undertaken a short pre-dawn trip from Mandalay to photograph U-Bein Bridge at sunrise.
It was an incredible scene to behold with the warm, soft sunrise light illuminating the fog that surrounded the two fishermen as they walked through the water. The sheer beauty of the scene was undeniable and the appearance of the fisherman through the fog serendipitous.
It should be no surprise that the surreal nature of the scene reminded me of the famous bible story of Jesus walking on water.
Whether fact or metaphor, that story from the bible conjures up amazing images in the imagination. As a consequence, witnessing and photographing this particular poignant scene was a very special experience.
As far as my photograph is concerned no fancy Photoshop hocus-pocus has been employed. This is, most definitely, not the result of superimposing one image onto another.
The fishermen were simply walking through very shallow water at a time of day when beautiful light and atmospheric weather combined to transcend the reality of the everyday into a truly blissful state.
I think it’s a very successful example of capturing a blissful photo, with the two fisherman depicted appearing to be walking on water.
The fact is they were wading through thigh high water, at sunrise, on a misty morning. Fortunately the mist opened up just at the right time for me to situate the two fisherman centrally in the frame.
The warm sunrise light helped to visually separate the fisherman from the cooler colored water and sky surrounding them, while dramatically enhancing the warm, saturated colors they were wearing.
As there’s no clearly defined horizon, the sense of scale in the image is a little challenging. I think that’s great as it adds to the sense of mystery showcased in this gorgeous image.
I also love the subtle connection that’s made between the two fisherman and the little boat in the top right corner of the image.
In an picture as ethereal as this one it’s only natural for the eye to seek detail or, where that’s missing, to look for connecting elements within the image.
Notice how your eye now moves, back and forth, between the fisherman and the boat. This action creates the impression of a diagonal line between the boat and the fisherman and, from there, down to the bottom left corner of the image.
I consider this to be a powerful, yet blissful image and I’m really glad I had the opportunity to travel to Myanmar, get up early and make the image under a beautiful sunrise. I can’t wait to return.
Memories Of Myanmar: Blissful Days Traveling Ahead
The images in this post are very old, going back to December 1999 as part of an extensive trip to Myanmar, Laos and Tibet. The original color negatives was scanned back in the early 2000’s then processed in Adobe Photoshop.
One day soon I hope to re-scan and re-process these images to better bring out their true communicative potential.
I remember going to bed very early on New Years Eve 1999. I was ill and in the temple town of Luang Prabang in Laos and the Y2K bug, which was rumored to wreak havoc across the world, was only hours away.
Well we survived that particular scare, and a few others since then, and I’m glad that I’ve been able to continue to travel and create beautiful, life affirming images over the years.
In many ways I feel like my journey through life has only just begun. I’m looking forward to many more trips and being able to share loads more images and stories with you long into the future. I really hope you’ll come along for the ride.
My Darkroom Days Weren’t Always So Blissful
In those days I’d print all my medium format work, in a high tech darkroom at Kodak in Melbourne, where I worked from the beginning of 1990 till the end of 1997.
Almost without exception I’d produce 16-inch square prints which would be matted and framed for exhibition. That made sense as the Hasselblad cameras I was using at that time were all medium format cameras producing high quality, square images.
The images in this post were originally printed in the middle of 2000.
I’d finished up at Kodak 2 ½ years earlier and, after a 6 month break, and moved onto the next stage of my photography career. I was now working, full time, as a photography lecturer across several tertiary institutions in Melbourne, Australia.
Sadly, the facilities at these institutions were not up to the standard I’d become accustomed to at Kodak. But thanks to the kind support of an old friend and colleague, Rob Boff Boffey, I was granted access back into the excellent darkroom in the Photo Technology department at Kodak, where I made use of the enlarger and the wide-roll Autopan print processor.
The photographic paper would be exposed in the darkroom and then feed into one end of the Autopan print processor where it would advance, through various chemical and water baths, prior to coming out, washed and dried, at the other end about 4 minutes later.
I was so glad to be freed from all those years rocking trays in black and white darkrooms and processing color prints in drums/tubes and other manually operator processors. After 9 years of tertiary studies I’d well and truly “done my time in the kitchen at parties.”
