If you were to rank countries by population density (people per square kilometers), you might be surprised to learn that Hong Kong actually ranks number 4, after Macau, Monaco, and Singapore, and that Bangladesh is a distant 10 on the list. Nevertheless, there are a lot of people in Hong Kong all competing for a small amount of space, so the government started to build affordable multistory public housing in 1954. There are many public housing estates in HK, but this one is unique in that it is circular in design, and the only one of its kind in the territory. The resulting spiral effect is a photographer’s dream. There are over 11K residents in this estate and by my count each floor has about 8 flats. In 2016, a circular atrium of this estate was used as a location for the filming of the movie Ghost in the Shell starring Scarlett Johansson.
Tags: China circular corkscrew Hong Kong layers person public housing estate scale travel photography
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This composition is interesting in that it was the idea of the monks themselves. I ran into them at another temple and the head monk invited me to photograph them at his monastery. Well of course I obliged. As I started to pose them the head monk essentially took over and began directing the photoshoot. I just went with it. When photographers take pictures of others, we often pose them according to our aesthetic values, with little regard to how our subjects would like to be seen and photographed. Well I can truly say that this is how the head monk wanted this novice monk to be photographed - sitting in front of his monastery deep in meditation.
Tags: buddhism Buddhist monk Buddhist temple Cambodia environmental portrait lotus position meditation Siem Reap Southeast Asia travel photography travel portrait
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Monks at a temple in Cambodia. This is probably one of the most spectacular example of a root covered temple. The strangler fig tree is a parasitic plant that eventually chokes out its host tree. The plant is spread through bird droppings when they eat the seeds. When a seed drops on top of a temple the roots eventually grow downwards and over time can completely engulf the structure. This temple is about a thousand years old, and strangler fig trees can live for centuries.
Tags: Buddhist monks Buddhist temple Cambodia environmental portrait Southeast Asia strangler fig tree sunrise travel photography travel portrait
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If I stuck a cigar in his mouth and told you that he's Cuban I bet you'd believe me. But no, he's actually Cambodian and the father of the man who was pictured climbing the palm tree in my previous image. He is in his 60s now and still climbs palm trees to collect palm juice which his wife then processes into palm sugar to sell.
Tags: Cambodia climber intimate portrait palm sugar palm trees Southeast Asia travel photography travel portrait
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It can be said that the palm tree (Borassus flabellifer) is Cambodia's national tree as well as its national identity. If you are travelling in SE Asia and you see a number of these trees growing in an area, it's a safe bet that there are Khmer people living nearby or had lived there once upon a time. Vietnam's Mekong Delta for example has a number of these trees, as it once belonged to Cambodia.
This man is climbing the tree at sunrise to gather palm juice to make palm sugar. He uses a bamboo ladder attached to the trunk and several bamboo bottles are tied to his waist. The so called ladder is really just a single bamboo pole with stubby branches sticking out on either side to use as foot hold. I tried climbing it, and believe me, it wasn't easy!
Tags: Cambodia climber colorful sky culture environmental portrait Khmer people palm sugar palm trees Siem Reap silhouettes Southeast Asia sunrise travel photography travel portrait
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