Manulife 2016 Calendar shoot

A tough commercial photo shoot last month, only two days to shoot a whole calendar at several locations in rainy season, some with small children. Many of the required backdrops were green spaces and Phnom Penh is limited when it comes to parks. Indoor locations included Phnom Penh Pochentong airport's new departure terminal at its busiest time of the day, shooting around passengers scurrying about was pretty hectic.

These images are currently being used for billboards, print ads and for the up coming Manulife 2016 calendar. Again art director Phirith Uch from River Orchid was great to work with, he also did the layout design, along with much help and organisation from Miss. Both and the River Orchid team. The talents included the famous Cambodian comedian Chab Chien and family who did an excellent job. Plus other loyal Manulife customers and staff. Working with non actors and small children can be challenging, not to mention the changing weather. But we managed to get it all done in time with surprisingly good results. More pics to come from the shoot as they are released into the public realm.

Maruhan night shoot

Commercial photography shoot for Maruhan Bank in Phnom Penh. Art direction and layout - Jaime Garcia from Maxcomm. We used LED constant lights for this one plus the light coming from the laptop screen, quite a simple shoot with three different staff from the bank as talents.

PULSAR 200RS Phnom Penh

The image requirements were to photograph the bike against nighttime Phnom Penh backgrounds, no composites this time. It was a simple set up, I used a off camera Canon Speedlight with a large flash bender attached to light the bike.

There are not many choices for iconic land marks in PP and it was rather tricky with rush hour traffic swerving around us and beeping at us, plus some building's lights didn't switch on until complete darkness. We tried Central Market as well, it would have made a great shot but the building's lights were extremely dim compared to the bike lights. Also the market had half it's lights missing, typical in Cambodia, when something breaks it doesn't get fixed for a long time if at all. Could have done with some ND gels cut to fit the bike lights. Although it looks fine with the blown out headlight effect.

Fah Thai Magazine - Banteay Chhmar

This is from a while back now. But I just came across back dated Fah Thai (Thai Airways) inflight magazines online. I hadn't gotten a copy of the magazine at the time, but it's some of my photos and an essay by Dennis Gray from my Banteay Chhmar travel photography assignment for the May 2012 issue. I was hired through Asia Motion photographers agency based in Phnom Penh.

From Siem Reap my assistant Tauch Lon and I travelled by bus to Sisophon in Banteay Meanchey province, then took a shared taxi to Banteay Chhmar. As there are no guest houses in Banteay Chhmar we stayed at a homestay with a very nice Khmer family. The next day we unofficially rented a motorbike from a local who was a volunteer at the Banteay Chhmar Community-Based Tourism (CBT) group - http://www.visitbanteaychhmar.org This gave us the freedom to explore the whole area and the satellite temples by ourselves. It was proper Indiana Jones, apart from some restoration guys and a few local kids with sling shots we had the temples to ourselves.

The villagers around there are really laid back, none of the hardcore tourist business you get in Siem Reap. It took me back to when I first came to Cambodia in 1999 and then to live in 2002, when Phnom Penh people were super easy going and friendly.

It was baking hot in late March but it was well worth it, just got to get up early. It is way up North near the Thai border, not too far from either Sisophon or Poipet, less 2 than hours in a taxi.

My travel photographs from the shoot can be viewed here on this site.

ANZ Royal commercial shoot

Commercial photography works I shot for ANZ this August in Phnom Penh. Again a pleasant experience working with their marketing team and the River Orchid team, professional and easy going photo shoots. Makes my job so much easier.

Phirith Uch was art directing again and did the layout design. Producer Seathan Pom, Srey Toiche did the makeup. As always my photo assistant Miss Tauch Lon doing the mans work, lifting, operating and placing my strobes where I want them. A nice choice of pro talents played by ANZ staff as well.