Favorite photo time! I think all photographers get goosebumps when they see monks and constantly are seeing one compelling composition after another. And often when you look at a photo, like the one above, the viewer doesn't know the story behind the photo, and there usually is one, and one of the advantages of this blog is being able to tell the story! In this instance, this photo was taken in a small wat in the village of Muang Vaen where some of our most beautiful Lao textiles are woven.
Sometimes it's difficult to find the time to actually leisurely walk through a village when you're there for "business," but we always try to find the time because you'll never know what you will see and discover. It's really what I enjoy the best. When we walked by the building above, the sleeping quarters for the couple of monks for this wat, I saw this monk look out the window opening and then disappear. My wife was talking to the other monk who was on the porch by the front door where this monk then joined the other monk. I kept thinking, wow, that window opening is a great frame for the monk, but how am I going to get him to come back? Sometimes it's easy to just let it slide and move on, but I couldn't pass this up so I asked Bai if she could ask the monk if he would come back and peer out the window. Sometimes they are shy or just don't want their photo taken, but most monks will accommodate to "visitors" and this one quickly went back to this window where I took several shots. I would have liked to see him smile a little, but he wouldn't "nyeem" (Lao word for smile), but I still really like the shot.
I wonder what is he thinking?
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