Wat Prasat

Photographer's Note

Chiang Mai, is the largest and most culturally significant city in northern Thailand. Capital of the ancient Lanna Kingdom, at its peak a centre for art, culture, religion, literature and tradition, it has survived and prospered for some 700 years. The city is renowned for its numerous temples. Within the walls of the old city alone there are 100 temples. Altogether there are 373 temples within the city district of Chiang Mai.

Wat Prasat (วัดปราสาท) , one of the most famous of the 100 temples within the old city, is a fine example of traditional Lanna architecture. It dates back at least as far as the 16th century CE, or probably still older.

The most important building in the temple complex is the old wooden viharn or sermon hall, dating back to 1823. This viharn was tastefully renovated in 1987. Built in traditional and distinctively Lanna style, the viharn is built of skillfully-crafted teak wood panels on a whitewashed brick and stucco base. The main entrance, which naturally faces east, is reached by a low flight of steps flanked by naga balustrades.

The name Prasat, I believe, originates from the Sanskrit word for Palace. I would stand corrected if the word carries a different meaning in Thailand.

I was impressed with the interiors of Wat Prasat - elegantly understated, with tall red painted teak pillars supporting a low-slung, tiled Lanna roof. Unusually, at the western end of the building where the altar would usually be, there is instead an elaborately decorated entrance to the short ‘tunnel’ leading to the contiguous chedi, the latter housing a large gilded Buddha image called Phra Pratan, that is only partly visible from the viharn due to its size.

danos, Kofman, krzychu30, jhm, pierrefonds, pajaran, josepmarin, jusninasirun, Graal, bukitgolfb301, adores, abmdsudi, ChrisJ ha contrassegnato questa nota come utile

Critiques | Translate

danos (110407) 2012-05-10 0:47

Hello Angshu,
fascinating the great depth and perspective from the interior of the Wat Prasat,with the good light management to brings out the details of the image.
I like the excellent presentation of the ceiling, the well decarated columns,as the clarity of the image.

Regards,Danos

TopGeo (38220) 2012-05-10 1:35

Hello Angshu! Beautiful photo, very interesting from the foreground to the background, excellent composition and framing! Perfect light management, wonderful colours, great definition!
best regards
Georgios

krzychu30 (15512) 2012-05-10 1:54

Hello Angshu,
this interior is really beautiful and impressive and you were able to capture these two features perfectly on your image.The scene is well-framed and has superb colors.I´m also impressed by outstanding quality of it,especially good DOF and lighting.Great work!
Kind regards
Krzysztof

mohammad_H (10178) 2012-05-10 2:17

Hello Angshu,
زاویه دید دوربین بسیار مناسب در وسعت نگاه به دکوراسیون
نمای جذاب ستونها با تزئین نقوش برجسته
وضوح و رنگ بسیار مناسب
مدیریت نور عالی
عکس در یک قالب قشنگ
روز خوبی داشته باشی
Very good camera angle to look at the extent of decoration
Attractive facade with columns decorated relief
Very good resolution and color
Excellent light management
Images in a nice format
Have a nice day

ChrisJ (172436) 2012-05-10 3:27

Hello Angshu

Reminds me of the interior of some of Maori buildings in the North Island of New Zealand, with all that red colour & intricate woodcarving. Perspective has been well managed & color sharpness & saturation are all excellent. I've really enjoyed Chiang Mai the few times I've been there. Tfs!

jhm (211738) 2012-05-10 3:45

Hello Angshu,

Very nice interior picture with excellent colors
Perspective and depth image to the end of the view.
You chose an excellent angle, splendid presentation.
Very well done, TFS.

Best regards,
John.

npecanhuk (79329) 2012-05-10 7:03

Hi Angshuman!
Wonderful interior architectural & decoration details!
Very attractive and beautiful picture!
Sharpness, exposure, colors, chosen pov, vertical format, black & white borders with grey words, contrasts and symmetrical composition are all excellent and really pleased me!
TFS - congrats,
Cheers,
Neyvan

mayjayne (7204) 2012-05-10 7:24

Dear Angshuman,

A composition rich in colour and intricate designs here.

TFS,
May

pierrefonds (115624) 2012-05-10 16:20

Hi Angshuman,

The length of the hall is giving depth to the composition. The point of view is showing the details and colors of the interior of the Wat Prasat. Using an ISO of 1600 and a slow shutter speed have a special effect on the colors. Have a nice day.

Pierre

papagolf21 (152607) 2012-05-11 0:23

Bonjour, cher ami Angshu,
Encore et toujours de très belles images proposées à travers ton album.
Ici, encore, nous bénéficions d'un lieu exceptionnel par sa beauté générale.
Très bonne journée.
Amitiés.
Philippe

Nicou (193814) 2012-05-11 1:43

Hello

merveilleus eiamge et compo quelle vue sur ces colonnes quel intérieur det maîtrise de lumières sueprbe compo très belle perspective et couleur.

bravo et amitié

Nicou

pajaran (117137) 2012-05-11 4:21

Dobar dan-popodne.
Vrlo interesantan i dobar tekst sa datim podaacima o hramovima , i istorijom ...
Lep pogled na unutrasnjost hrama sa stubovima i konstrukcijom krova, dobra kompozicija.
Dobra ostrina snimka, kontrast, perspektiva i prikaz lepim bojama.
Lep enterijer hrama.
Prijatno popodne i sve najbolje.
Paja.

Google.

Good morning-afternoon.
Very interesting and good text with the given data was on the temples, and history ...
Nice view of the interior of the temple with pillars and roof structure, good composition.
Good image sharpness, contrast, perspective view and beautiful colors.
Beautiful interior of the temple.
A lovely afternoon and all the best.
Paja.

Fis2 (172023) 2012-05-11 5:04

Witaj Angshu!
Interesting interior.
Good frame and perspective.
I like colours.
Well done.
Best regards
Krzysztof

josepmarin (59385) 2012-05-11 7:08

Namaste, my friend Angshuman,
the wooden architecture of this temple is simply amazing, has a great aesthetic wealth and a few spectacular dimensions, which we can estimate thanks to the presence of the persons in the composition.
The light and the quality of the colors are very good, and it was not easy in this capture inside the temple.
As always, an elegant composition and a good informative note.
It is a great work.
Best wishes,
Josep

jusninasirun (17529) 2012-05-11 8:38

Hello my friend Angshu.
This is nicely captured tall frame with well juxtaposed visitors in the frame. The tall red pillars are fabulous with nicely included ceilings.
Thanks for sharing and have a nice day.
Jusni

Graal (103040) 2012-05-12 0:38

Hi Angshuman,
an interesting interior, details and construction. Good shot, fine perspective and vertical composition. An interesting note.
Have a nice day.
Aleksander

bukitgolfb301 (54014) 2012-05-12 1:09

Hello my dear Angshuman

So fantastic geometry shot!
Great colorful and gorgeous image, event hough they are all common objects. Well adjusted by panfocus vertical appraoch. So well considered framework and composition. Thanks for your sharing with your good job and have a good weekend, best regards,

Takero from Tokyo

sacimar (38173) 2012-05-13 2:58

Hello Angshu,

this is an interesting place, I like the point of view with the tall columns on the sides, details are very good, well seen,

Best regards,

Sergio

adores (46979) 2012-05-13 18:06

Hi Angshuman!
This is a beautiful architecture! The colours and the details are impressive! I like your pov to show the columns and also those wonderful details on the ceiling. It was also a good idea to include the persons in background.

abmdsudi (95869) 2012-05-15 20:58

Namaste Angshu
Something diff and special subject seldom posted on TE. I love that wide angle effect a nice pov you have taken this from. It shows off the repeated shapes in the ceiling, symmetry and coloumns along the sides and the wonderful glow it gives off. You really showed the beauty of the temple interior, its intricate design-detail and brilliant unexaggerated colors under natural lighting conditon. It is a very good composition and the presentation is grand, a high quality image indeed! Congrats, TFS
Warm regards

macjake (98544) 2012-05-19 1:41

Hi Anghsu
hmmm...you were wanting an honest critique, i can do that for you :)
First of all, I have to say that you're already at a disadvantage because you're shooting indoors, and inside a temple - therefore you can't bring in a tripod, you're probably have to use a slow shutter speed, and the lighting may not be suitable - alot of disadvantages from the start!
When i traveled to Thailand, it was forbidden to photograph inside these Wat's - another disadvantage for you, as I find that worrying about being confronted makes me rush my composition.

As for this scene, its hard to say because I don't know the actual circumstances in terms of the amount of space you have to work with.
It looks to me that you have a space thats very tall, and also very narrow, at least with this exact POV.
That alone causes trouble with the composition, as long tall lines can be difficult to line up symmetrically, and depending on the focal length of the lens they will be exagerated even more so.

Here, you have the 2 teak pillars on the outer edges of the frame - personally i would have made sure they were OUT of frame as they are distracting, and minimizing the importance of the 8 pillars behind them.

One more important aspect of the photo is the base. Tall vertical lines almost always need a base structure, its human nature to visually see that. For example, the 2 pillars that extend down to the bottom of the frame....it would be more effective from a visual standpoint if we could see the floor (like the pillar to the left and right of the table, we can see the base of the pillar hitting the red carpet).

But in your defence, if you extended the photo to have the fg pillars striking the carpet, you would most likely end up with the orange lighting of the ceiling out of frame - so its positive and negative.
But thats where the benefit of a super wide angle comes into play. A 8-16mm lens or a 12-24 mm lens would be perfect for this scene - elongated verticals in a short narrow space.

As for the lighting, thats great! Indoors, slow shutter...and its still very bright and colorful. Hard conditions to work with.

Hope that was helpful for you? and i hope it wasn't too much of focusing on the negative, i certainly don't mean it to be that way. You know i respect your work!

Until next time!
Cheers
Craig

Waylim (25436) 2012-05-21 22:43

Swadee Angshuman,

I was in Chiang Mai many years ago, and visited many temples, I don't remeber having seen this one. This is beautifully decorated with rich red, almost more chinese than Thai. the extra tall vertical format also works well here.

Way