Taken at Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park during sunrise. You will see lots of horsemen in this place especially in the morning. They are out from early morning offering their horses for the tourists to ride. If you like riding horses, you should try it.

By the way, Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, that should be the correct name of this place instead of saying just Bromo. It’s true that a lot of photos you have seen on the internet about this place have Mount Bromo in it. But this place offers much more than just Mount Bromo. When you are there, you are surrounded by mountains. Mount Bromo is just one of them. The photos above do not have Mount Bromo in it, just to give you an idea.

To those who missed it, I have started my 100 Strangers photography project and I am going to post the first two strangers today. So, come back here again to check it out. Thank you all and have a great weekend.

I love mountains, especially in the early morning when the air is cold and crisp. It’s serene with only me and the mountain and my camera in between. This was taken when I visited Mount Bromo in East Java, Indonesia last week. The mountain you see in the photos here is not Mt. Bromo, but I unfortunately forgot to ask the locals when I was there. I will ask them when I go back there again … soon … my fourth visit to this lovely place and it won’t be the last I believe.

I was lucky that morning as the sky was clear and hence I could see the layers of mountains and mist changing colors from dark foreground to the orange sky. What a beautiful scene. The image below was taken about 8 minutes after the above and you can see that it was getting brighter fast.

On a separate note, I have been working on a personal photography project since few weeks ago. I will reveal the details of this project in my next blog entry. So please come back to check it out.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat - 1

Sunrise at Angkor Wat - 2

I went to Siem Reap, Cambodia in October 2009 and came back with an intention to fly there again one day as I was not able to spend enough time exploring the place under the right light. I did get a number of images I like, but I was hoping for more. So … till we meet again Cambodia and I will make sure I am ready for the sunrise shoot every morning at the Angkor Wat.

Even though it maintains its authenticity to a large extent, you know that Siem Reap is quite touristy. You will find lots of tourists almost everywhere, starting from the airport to the Old Market’s restaurants and to the remote areas where many of the ruins are. Siem Reap wants you. They make everything easy for tourists who want to visit. If you need visa to enter, you can apply online (for certain countries) or get it on arrival (for certain but many countries) at the Siem Reap International Airport by paying USD 25. If you don’t have US dollars with you, there is an ATM machine near the Immigration counters where you get the visa on arrival.

Everything is charged in US dollars, from coconut being sold on the road side to dinner at a posh restaurant. From Tuk Tuk to a Lexus car rental. And many items have standard price, which is USD 1. So, bring with you a lot of USD 1 notes. You don’t have to worry about bringing money in Cambodian currency. Just bring US dollars.

The place is safe and people are very friendly. I left my camera backpack with some lenses in the Tuk Tuk (a motorised rickshaw) and just asked the driver to keep an eye on it.

As in many other tourist destinations, you will find lots of people including children selling stuffs and they can be quite persistent in chasing you to ask you to buy. But, they won’t harm you if you don’t buy, you may just feel uncomfortable if they keep chasing you. Just politely decline if you don’t want and you will have to politely decline many times as they will keep trying. They are just trying to earn a living, so try not to be rude when they keep chasing you. They won’t be there if they are like you, they will be the tourists spending money in your countries maybe. 

I made an appointment with the taxi driver to pick me up at about 3am the next morning at my hotel in Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia. My destination would be the Rawa Pening lake, about two and a half hour drive from the city of Yogyakarta. And I knew that I had to be quick and I was taking a risk as my return flight to Jakarta would be at noon on the same day.

Still feeling very sleepy, I left the hotel the next morning at 3am and I was sleeping almost for the entire journey. I would open my eyes once a while just to check where we were and how long more to get to the lake. I have framed an image in my mind that I wanted to take based on what I have seen before about this place. A sunrise in the background, one or two fishermen on their boat and maybe some interesting subjects in the foreground. But the sunrise would have to be good in the first place, otherwise I would be wasting the extra few hour sleep I could have enjoyed at the hotel. I was hoping all things will align themselves for me for the photo shoot at the lake.

We finally got to the place after asking some locals for directions. And it was drizzling a little bit! What a bad start. I got out of the car anyway with my camera fitted with the 17-40mm L lens, my tripod and the shutter release cable and started scouting for a good spot to shoot. The lake was very quiet, very tranquil with panoramic view of some mountains in the background. There was no activity yet on the lake. Maybe because it was drizzling even though just a little bit.

So, I waited for the moment that I wanted while trying to shoot some other subjects to justify my two and a half hour drive that morning. If I didn’t get what I wanted, at least I have the evidence that I was there. Just to cheer myself.

My wait seemed to be over soon when I saw someone started to move his boat from where it was docked to the lake. But it was from the far left from where I was standing and it was out of the frame at that moment, I saw two locals rowing their boats. Woo Hoo! The drizzling has stopped, the sunrise was wonderful, the clouds were dramatic as it looked like it was going to rain before and I got the subjects I wanted. Not one … but two fishermen on their boats coming into the frame soon. I have pre-framed my composition and waited for them to come in to complete it. I kept checking my camera settings to make sure all were correct and just hoped the two fishermen would not make a U-turn.

The first fisherman came in first (the one sitting on the boat) and I took couple images and then the second one came in standing on his boat while rowing. And I took the shot.
Can you see the reflection of the sunlight on his pole? What a great little addition to the image.

Persistence and patient are the key. So, two and a half hour drive, braving myself under the little drizzles waiting for the moment and one shot.

I packed up my stuffs after taking several more shots from different spots and we were driving back to my hotel for me to shower, checkout and catch my flight back to Jakarta. I was a happy camper.