George
Mann - Personal Photo Tours of South East Asia
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Wedding photographer
at work - Kompong Phluk, near Siem Reap, Cambodia
Personal Photo Tours:
Siem Reap & the
Angkor Temples
For small groups ranging from 1 to 5 tour participants. It's your party,
whether you are alone or bring four of your best friends, the tour fee
stays the same.
We specialize in personal photo tours and on location workshops in
South
East Asia. You let us know what you
are looking to do and we will set up the trip for you. We are based out of Thailand
& Cambodia, so we are always available to
conduct these
personal photo tours, and unless we are already booked, can be hired on
very short
notice.
If you wish
to visit Angkor we would like to
suggest scheduling a four day (or longer) stay in Siem Reap. The Angkor
area is much larger and the
temples more spread out than it appears when looking at the maps,
ideally
you want to spend at least three days exploring and photographing the
temples.
When contacting us about a Personal Photo Tour please provide the
following information.
1. For how many days would you like
to hire our services? (minimum one full
day)
You do not have to hire us for the full time that you are in Siem Reap,
we don't mind if you do but it is not required. Sorry no half day
personal photo tours.
2. On what date would you like to
start your personal photo tour?
Because George Mann is an essential component of our tours we can not
schedule two tours on the same day. So please book as far in advance as
possible.
3. How many people are in your party
and which hotel are you staying at?
Our personal photo tours are designed to accomodate from 1 to 5
persons, photographers need space for their equipment. If you have a
larger group we will have to negotiate another price as we will have to
hire additional vehicles.
4. Do you have a trip itinerary in
mind or would you like us to suggest
one?
If you have never been to the Angkor Temples site before, it is pretty
much a given that you will want to photograph, Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom
and Bayon (main temple in Angkor Thom), and Ta Phrom (trees growing
over and out of temple walls) first. A second day would be a boat trip
through the Tonle Sap Lake floating village and a walk through a remote
fishing village with all their houses on stilts (plenty of close-up
people photo opportunities).
Please email George
Mann
for more information - george@dpmac.com
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Angkor
Personal
Photo Tours:
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With Personal Photo Tour
Leader - George Mann
Tour Location &
Tour Guide
- This agreement applies to any Angkor temple and Tonle Sap locations
within one day
driving
distance (round trip) of Siem Reap - air conditioned van and driver
(unless we are on a boat), plus a government licensed tour
guide for the Angkor temples and Tonle Sap Lake are part of the
agreement.
Transportation
- The air conditioned tour van will be equipped with plenty of cold
drinks, sandwiches and
snacks so that we do not go hungry or have to rely on available food in
the countryside. Restaurants in the countryside and in most of the
temple areas can be pretty basic.
Personal Tour Leader
- George Mann will be accompanying you on all personal photo tours and
provide a laptop
computer for image downloads and reviews (using Adobe Lightroom) while
on location in the
temples and out in the country side. You can think of George as your
photographer friend in Cambodia.
Photography -
What type of camera equipment you bring is completely up to you. If you
are highly skilled photographer or a beginning enthusiast is not of any
importance. We will assist you in every way possible to get the images
you are after. At the end of the day we will
transfer your images to CD-ROM (no extra charge) and if you wish,
discuss your images with you at your hotel before going out for another
day of shooting.
Digital Workflow
- George Mann is a recognized expert on Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and
writes an Inside
Lightroom blog for O'Reilly Digital Media, he
also produces the dpmac.com website
and an eBook project on Lightroom.
How much of your Personal Photo Tour is spent on digital workflow
questions is up to you. If you would like to maximize your digital
workflow experience on this tour, please bring your own laptop computer.
Website Trip Reports
- We can help you produce daily web pages of
your adventures while you are here, so you can invite
your friends and family (by email) to see what you are up to. We can
publish your trip reports on this website or your own website.
Fee for Siem
Reap Personal Tour service - US$ 500 per day. (1 to 5
tour participants)
The fee includes George Mann's personal services, the tour van and
driver, and a
government licensed tour guide, plus a large picnic basket filled with
drinks and food.
Angkor Park Pass
- The fee does not include the Angkor Archaeological Park Pass which is
$20 per day or $40 for a three day pass, per person. The pass can not
be purchased ahead of time, as you have to pose for a photograph at the
time of purchase.
Length of Your Tour
- 3 days are
recommended to see most of the major Angkor sites and a 4th day for
Tonle Sap. If you
are really pressed for time and we have the days open, we will consider
two day personal photo tours of the main temple sites.
We require a $500
deposit on booking (your tour dates) and 50% of the total fee within 30
days
of your tour, the remainder to be paid at any time before the tour date.
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Personal Photo Tour
- booking deposit
US$ 500 - Deposit required to book your personal photo tour dates. This
deposit is refundable (minus a $100 cancelation fee)
if
the tour is canceled more
than 30 days before the tour date. Contact george@dpmac.com for
more
information.
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PhotoTour
Deposit -
US$500
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| Personal
Photo Tours in other locations: |
Follow
the instructions above but substitute another location and tell us
where you would like to travel.
If you are in need of my assistance in Bangkok. I have been
based out of Bangkok for over 20 years and know the city like the back
of my hand, I also probably know the rest of Thailand (and all the
border areas) better than almost anyone. Please remember though that
there will be additional charges if your tour requires traveling from
one destination to another.
Our base fee for Personal Photo Tours only covers the ground
transportation
and local tour guide services in the Siem Reap and Angkor areas. There
may be additional charges for transportation and tour guide services in
other locations.
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Our
Photo Tour & Workshop Philosophy:
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Over
the last 30 years I have traveled throughout Asia as a photographer for
commercial clients, book and magazine publishers, international aid
organizations, and just plain for the enjoyment of it. You could say I
am a very lucky man because my work and my play has always been one and
the same. Whenever people ask me where I went on my last vacation, I
always have to grin and say that I never take a vacation, I do not
understand the concept.
The journeys I always enjoyed the most were those I took with a group
of fellow photographers, exploring the roads that normal tourists and
even most veteran travelers never venture down. A key ingredient being
that you have to have control of your method of transport. Another key
ingredient being that you have to allow for chance and opportunity to
decide your final destination.
In practice this means that we travel by road in a mini-van or suv as
much as possible, so that we can carry all our camera equipment and
personal effects with us. It is also very difficult to tell an
airplane, train or boat to park it for awhile, so we can take some
pictures.
For much the same reason we also specialize
in personal tours for individuals and small groups of friends.
Our
experience says that throwing a group of strangers together almost
inevitably leads to disagreements about alternate shooting locations,
choice of restaurants and hotels, and time tables, etc.. This also
makes it easier for us to cater to clients with different economic
realities.
Siem Reap, where the Angkor temples are located is in some ways an
outcropping in the middle of the jungle, but it also has a fair number
of five star hotels and restaurants. There is also a large selection of
low to medium priced hotels, and guest houses ranging from a few
dollars a night to luxurious (foreign managed) Bed & Breakfast type
establishments.
This wide variety of accomodations and restaurants makes it very
difficult to offer a single tour package that will satisfy everyone, so
we would rather offer advice and connect you directly to the
appropriate hotel properties. If you want us to take care of the entire
package we can, but will require some guidelines so that we can make
you as comfortable as possible.
Personally I like nothing better than sleeping on a smooth teak floor
and scooping a few buckets of cold water over my head in the morning,
but it takes some time to get used to that way of life. The last thing
we want is a
bunch of grumpy photographers on the way to a sunrise shoot location.
So please be realistic about the level of comfort you require.
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| Location Scouting &
Base Photo Assignment Fee - US$ 500. per day (plus travel
expenses),
anywhere in Asia, images and reports can be transmitted to the client
at the end of each day. This service is available for film and video
production companies, and corporate clients for annual reports, real
estate ventures, aquisitions, mergers, golf tournaments, etc. |
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