When you are with us and you head out to shoot,  you really have to keep an open mind.

We’d been told that near our hotel monks and nuns could be seen early in the morning walking the street as they went about collecting the morning donations. We decided it would be great to capture a line of monks, dressed in red holding their collection bowls. It’s a nice visual of color and repetition. The nuns also go about collecting their morning donations with their bowls, so we had another visual of a line of nuns in pink along the edge of the street.

Up way before dawn, we headed to the streets. Sure enough, there were nuns and monks, but it was really too dark to shoot and capture more than a grainy, dark, blurry image. (Believe me we tried.)

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Young nuns returning a smile and a wave

NIKON D800E, f2.8, 1/160”, ISO 800, 70mm, AUTO1

Jeff somehow captured this amazing image of nuns and monks

Discouraged (Jeff wasn’t as he got the shot), we walked a little further to the Palace City, an older government complex in the center of the city, surrounded by a wall and a moat.  The sky brightened as dawn approached. Eagerly we approach the moat hoping for some reflections of the wall in the water.

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Still reflections of the wall and trees.

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A hint of color enters the sky and reflections

The stillness of the morning made for beautiful reflections and then the sun rose. The color of the sky (and water) was amazing.

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Sun rising over a distance mountain transformed the reflections to gold

Sometimes, you just get lucky.

And, once again, you can see its all about the light.