While on our cruise in Halong Bay, Jeanine and I met a fellow passenger who worked as a guide in Myanmar.  At the request of the passengers on the boat, he shared photos and stories of Bagan, his home town. When I decided to travel there, I contacted him and made arrangements for him to be my guide. It was a great decision because he was very attuned to my photographic goals and consistently made excellent choices for where we would find the best opportunities. Pictured above are the same temple, one shot before sunrise and the other just after.

Bagan is the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Pagan, the first kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern Myanmar. During the kingdom’s height between the 11th and 13th centuries, over 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains, of which the remains of over 2200 still survive to the present day.

Ballooning over the plains is a popular tourist activity. I opted to use them as photographic element rather than as a platform from which to shoot.

There are as many great photographic opportunities within the temples as there are from the outside.

It is essential to alway check overhead in stairways for bees nests.  Bumping your head into one of these frequently found hives could make for a really bad day.

My guide, Kyaw, was an excellent photographer in his own right and he was kind enough to share some of the photos he took of me while I was shooting.