Girls of Cambodia

[Chinaman]

As I will be in Cambo - mainly Phnom Penh - until early July, I am out quite a bit, taking pictures - some of local girls and women. Just before leaving Thailand, I also got a new EF 70-300 lens for my EOS450D, which I really like for snapping from a distance without making my models too aware of my presence. However, sometimes they also like to pose.

There will be no nude pics and all of these girls/women were photographed while wandering the streets of PP. Other parts of Cambo will hopefully follow.

I also leave the pictures as they were taken, no cropping, no retouching, I just ran them through the resizing and automatic enhancement feature of Jade 1.4.0 on my MacBook.

I hope some will enjoy this small work in progress-project.

Cheers
CM

[Chinaman]

Some first shots ...

[Bumblebee]

Looking forward to this Chinaman, always enjoyed my times in PP, some great faces there.

[Chinaman]

... a few more ...

[Chinaman]

(Bumblebee @ May 09 2010,08:20) Looking forward to this Chinaman, always enjoyed my times in PP, some great faces there.

Hi BB! You r up late, as it is barely 8:30 a.m. over here, so it must be after 2 a.m. where you are.
Pity, you r not around, wouldn't mind a buddy at times to explore the city and its treasures ;-)
Thanks for yr reply and good luck.
Cheers
CM

[Chinaman]

... last batch 4 now, folks ...

BTW, 3 pieces of info on Cambo:

1. After my first 2 weeks here, I have not come across any lbs in daily life, yet.

2. Phnom Penh has absolutely no public transportation system. It's all motos and tuk-tuks.

3. Cambo's currency, the Riel, is virtually coin-less. Even for the smallest denomination, 100 Riel, which equals 0.025 cents of the USD, there is a note. And other than in Bali, they always have change. I keep ending up with a bunch of those 100-Riel notes.

The USD and the local Riel are both used in everyday life. It works actually surprisingly well. One can pay in dollars or Riel or any combination of them. Most cash registers show the prices in both currencies.

[Bumblebee]

(Chinaman @ May 09 2010,08:28)

(Bumblebee @ May 09 2010,08:20) Looking forward to this Chinaman, always enjoyed my times in PP, some great faces there.

Hi BB! You r up late, as it is barely 8:30 a.m. over here, so it must be after 2 a.m. where you are.
Pity, you r not around, wouldn't mind a buddy at times to explore the city and its treasures ;-)
Thanks for yr reply and good luck.
Cheers
CM

Well it is Saturday night. Good point about not seeing many LBs in your everyday travels. There are the ones in the bars off Riverside, street 136 or so I think. The legendary Bobo might be around lol. Would love to be there now, more so that Los even lol. Something exciting about the streets of PP.

[deepthroat]

great stuff so far Chinaman. That girl in the green jacket and the black hat - million dollar smile! I'm a sucker (no pun intended) for a super-wide mouth.

I won't let this degenerate into a discussion/thread-jack about my tongue fetish. Trust me.

I love the pictures and this gets me thinking more and more about investing in a real camera. The hard part is that I'm too dang lazy to want to learn how to edit the images properly. But looking at your results sure gets me thinking.

Looking forward to more sir.

[Midget]

Very good and inspiring pictures.
I have been to Phnom Penh 4 times and hope to go again this summer. Love that Wild East !

[guydesavoy]

Very enjoyable so far Chinaman The picture quality is great

[pacman]

(deepthroat @ May 09 2010,10:28) I love the pictures and this gets me thinking more and more about investing in a real camera. The hard part is that I'm too dang lazy to want to learn how to edit the images properly. But looking at your results sure gets me thinking.

Every man should own a decent camera. Saying you can't edit the pictures is akin to saying you can't cook. I always ask anyone who says they are hopeless in the kitchen if they can read. If the answer is yes, then they can cook.

And with modern technology taking control of all aspects of the latest cameras, decent results are almost guaranteed. Chinaman says in his first post that he has left the pics as they were taken.

Of course with his long focal length lens, he has done the framing of his shots in the viewfinder & has zoomed in to isolate his subject from unnecessary background. Without such a large lens, the pics can be simply cropped with basic software. Macs & Windows 7 come with the tools to do most post production anyone could need.

I think you are avoiding the inevitable Deepthroat & using the excuse of being too lazy to learn really doesn't wash. There are numerous photo forums that can be used to ask any technical questions & even here on TLF there are a few guys who can set you straight.

It comes down to the right camera for starters but the choices have never been so good. In October at Photokina, new models are released every year & I am holding off till then myself. I know what I want but if there's to be a breakthrough in technology, that's when it will be announced.

[pacman]

And well done Chinaman, I love candid shots of pretty girls. And in a country like Cambodia, you will never run out of subject matter.

[Ivor Biggun]

I do like this sort of thread- keep up the good work and updates on PP. I may do it as a visa run next year.

[Chinaman]

(pacman @ May 09 2010,17:26) Every man should own a decent camera. Saying you can't edit the pictures is akin to saying you can't cook. I always ask anyone who says they are hopeless in the kitchen if they can read. If the answer is yes, then they can cook.

I agree with pacman and I like your analogy on cooking versus reading. However, I also understand people's concern when perhaps never having owned a DSLR (or SLR prior to the D-revolution) and thinking about making the switch.

With all the help out there, it it still quite confusing in which system to invest your money. I chose Canon over Nikon (and all others of course) 5 years back when I purchased the EOS 300D back then. I can't remember the exact reasons, if there were such, but it might have been price. Once you start with a system you are pretty much stuck, in particular if you have invested in glass. So far, I have not regretted my decision, which was also the reason I have been looking into a 2nd body for quite some time already.

I have to say that technology has come a long way since that 300D if I compare it now with the 450D which isn't even the latest state of the art cam. But as I really do not need video (yet), I thought the 450D would do. But with the new EF 70-300, I actually own 3 lenses apart from that crappy standard lens which came with the EOS 300D at that time.

EF-S 10-22 - great wide angle
EF 28-135 - which has been my work horse for the past years and the new
EF 70-300 which is superb for (candid) portrait shots and actually surprised me even the reports were quite good on it

Wishlist for the next year or so:

probably a monopod
a 3rd camera body (EOS 550D or 7D or anything new that might appear - but do I really want to "mess" with video?) as I hate to swap lenses and since my latest acquisition, the wide angle moved to the EOS 300D and the 28-135 has been living in my bag mainly ;-(

I also have to add that last year I bought a small IXUS point and shoot and it does a great job for the quick pic-situation and when you don't want to carry 4-5 kgs around. Nevertheless, a DSLR feels so different - zooming is seamless, one has a viewfinder (!!!) and pic-quality is def superior - apart from looking more like a photographer than a tourist of course, but that might have its downsides at times.

So yes, deepthroat, I would def recommend looking into a good DSLR system but you need to ask yourself how it will fit into your photographic workflow. It not only means more bucks, it also means more weight (a lot more) and it means more worries regarding loss or damage.

But if you take a lot of pics or plan to, it is certainly worth the money and the rest.

[howdydoodie]

Anyone know this girl. I thought I saw her working BKK not to long ago.