A View through a Doorway at Thommanon, Cambodia

The randomness of my photo blog continues as I return to Cambodia with this image, which I snapped in early November, 2008. My trip to Cambodia with a friend was brief but amazing. In one day, we managed to see reconstructed and unreconstructed remains at Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and a half-dozen other sites nearby, including Thommanon. As we explored what seemed like every square foot of the buildings at Thommanon, I shot about a dozen pictures. As I stood in a smaller building on the western end of Thommanon, I looked through its doorway at the main structure to the east. I was amazed by the architectural detail of this nearly 900 year old structure, and I wanted to capture some of this detail and the main building's size with my camera. I decided to use the frame of the doorway to "frame" the top of my photograph. I like how the darkness of the doorway's frame contrasts with the lightness of the sky. I get drawn in by the incredible details and by the three dark doorways of the main structure. I find myself especially wanting to enter the middle doorway. [By the way, the middle doorway leads to a very small room cut off from the rest of the building.] From a distance, the light and dark values within the photo and the shapes created by the value contrasts gain my attention. As I imagine potential images like this one, I enjoy looking for different ways to present the subject matter to the viewer. "Framing" a subject with a part of the surrounding environment is not often possible; but when it is possible, I think it can greatly enhance the interest of the final image.