It was my student Arno’s idea to pool some of our money and offer it to a few of the monks at Angkor Wat in exchange for 15 minutes of their time in front of the camera. Although I rarely pay people to take their picture, this is one time when it proved to be a wise decision. In a matter of minutes, we were able to photograph these two monks in a number of exciting compositional arrangements around the Temple Angkor Wat, including the one shown here. However, note the “crying baby” in the background of the first image (top): the extreme contrast shift from dark to white, much as we saw in the first image on the previous page. The solution was a simple one-two step to my right, and just like that, my two monks were now composed for all to see and without any background distractions (bottom).

As an aside, I am often asked where I take my meter reading in situations like this, with strong sidelight. I wanted a lot of depth of field for this composition, so I opted for f/16 and then moved in close until my lens was filled with the first monk’s orange robe. I then adjusted my shutter speed until 1/100 sec. indicated a correct exposure for the light reflecting off his robe.

Both images: Nikon D3X with 16–35mm lens at 30mm, f/16 for 1/100 sec., ISO 100