Monks And Worker Portraits

On my second last day in Muang Noi Laos I did some good portraits. First I walked to local temple where I photographed some workers, then after that monks from the temple. I photographed one older monk who was 76, the rest were novice monks (short time monks who might only be in the monk hood for a few months). Later on I photographed 4 young men (14 year olds) on a jungle path.

Quite exhausted with sweat pouring down my face I came back to my room to find Purb waiting for me, he asked me to photograph his family. Problem was I had only 4 sheets of unexposed film loaded and it was 5pm with the light fading rapidly. I hurriedly grabbed my gear after a quick shower and followed him to his family home (10 minute walk). I made the most of what light I had and shot the 4 pictures.

One rather embarrassing moment came after the session when I managed to break the back rest of a plastic chair I was given, knocking over my tripod mounted Linhof in the process(fat boy Gerry!). I guess I have to work on bringing down my weight a bit, now am 230lbs, which is huge for plastic South East Asian chairs. I gave Purb some money for the broken chair and walked back home in the dark completely spent, a long hard but rewarding day of portraits.