Blog Archives

holiday in cambodia

5/27/2014

So I dont know if any of you follow the very talented writer/photo Fiona Campbell http://www.fionacampbelllondon.com/blog/ but if you have you'll have noticed Cambodia seems to be a bit of a common theme in her blog posts of late, so I feel the time has come for me to tell my side of the Cambodia story.....
So I was travelling through South East Asia when all of a sudden I recieved an email from a friend back in London telling me she knew a lady called Fiona who was being sent out to cambodia on assignment for Harpers Bazaar magazine and she was doing this photoshoot and there was some talk of her needing a make-up artist and would I be interested by any chance???
Yes yes a thousand times yes!! I wasted no time in accepting and then spent the next several days winding up local bar owners as I sat for hours over empty coffee mugs stealing their wifi as Fiona and I wrestled with the logistics of trying to get ourselves plus kit etc into the same place at the same across a 7 hour time difference from the other side of the world!
God knows how but we got there in the end! and so on a sweltering hot afternoon I caught up with Fiona and model Natalie at Sihanoukville harbour as they returned from a visit to Song saa private island which sounds AMAZING by the way you can read more about it here

Above: Otres beach at sunset
Right:'Caught in the act' Model Natalie about to take a cheeky pre shoot selfie.

We returned to Otres beach where we were spending the night before heading off to Siem Reap, home of the magnificant Angkor Wat temple complex (see right) Some how or other we managed to pull off an impromptu shoot on the beach at sunset, Natalie's look was inspired by the Apsara (see left) a beautiful female water spirit of Hindu and Buddhist mythology.

If you ever get the change to visit Angkor wat do not turn it down! The setting and architecture are absolutely stunning and I felt very privileged to be shooting in such an amazing location. Our tuk tuk driver and various parties of Chinese tourists may have thought we were absolutely barking mad but I felt like we were putting those temples to their best possible use. and despite the killer heat and bitey insects I had a great time working with Natalie and Fiona and I think we got sme great pictures - cant wait to see the finished results!

The next day we set off on the long drive and short flight which would take us from Sihanoukville on the south coast to Siem Reap in the north west of Cambodia very close to the Thai border (infact the name Siem Reap literally means Siam defeated and refers to a 16th century conflict between the Siamese (Thai) and the Kyhmer (Cambodian) people.

Teenage monks hanging out at angkor wat ( thought this photo was too good not to squeeze it in somewhere!)

1 Comment

holiday in cambodia

Tony Mcgee

Author

Archives

Categories