Cambodia Photo Tour 2024: So Good It Looks Staged!

Last year, Regis from Asia Travel Photography and I drafted an itinerary for a brand-new Cambodia photo tour 2024. As Regis is almost a local in Siem Reap, I knew that we would visit the best locations for people photography, just the way I love it.

I hadn’t travelled to Cambodia for over 10 years, so I was very excited to start this photography tour. Even though I live next door, I haven’t had the opportunity to go back. I did not remember much of what Cambodia is like, and rediscovering it with a focus on photography has been a wonderful way to do so.

Day 1: Cambodia Photo Tour: More Than a Warm-Up

As with most of my photography tours in Asia now, we scheduled Day 1 of the itinerary as a day for people to arrive in Siem Reap. We organize airport pick-up and drop-off for the guests so they have nothing to arrange and can focus entirely on their photography.

This year, as most of the participants had arrived early in the day, we decided not only to have a welcome dinner but also to take everyone to the Angkor temples in the afternoon for a warm-up session.

This photography tour in Cambodia focuses primarily on photography, but we couldn’t come to Siem Reap and not visit the Angkor temples. This truly is a great experience, not only for the photo opportunities but for the atmosphere of the temples surrounded by the jungle.

It was a great way to meet everyone, even though I already knew half of the group from previous photography tours. We took the time to assess everyone’s level of “rustiness” and get them up-to-date with their old or new camera systems. Many people do not practice much at home and mostly take photos when they travel, and this day allows everyone to get back into photography mode.

After we left the temples, Regis took us to a village where he knew people would be planting rice in the fields. As we arrived, we saw a man finishing planting rice in a field. Regis asked him if they would be planting rice the next day, and the man took us to his house and showed us where they would be working the following day. We had a date with this man and his family to photograph them planting rice in the fields. What a wonderful beginning to a photo tour!

On our way back to Siem Reap, we stopped along a lake near the temples for sunset. The shooting days of the tour hadn’t officially started yet, but we were already faced with great photo opportunities! We worked on layering silhouettes of people watching the sunset.

Later, we drove back to Siem Reap for a well-deserved dinner and an early night for the actual beginning of the photo tour.

Day 2: Water Blessing and Rice Harvest

On this official first day of taking photos, we left early in the morning to return to the Angkor temples. Regis had a few secret locations he wanted to share with us. He also took us through the jungle to the back of a temple, making the experience truly unforgettable.

We walked around the ruins for a couple of hours, working on the light and how to compose using the environment around us. You know that I love photographing people, but I found that these temples are so inspiring for photography. I particularly liked the mix of nature with the ruins and how it felt like stumbling upon ancient ruins in the jungle…

Later, Regis took us to a local monastery inside the Angkor temple complex. Thanks to Regis’ contacts there, we were able to photograph people cooking for the monks, as well as a water blessing ceremony.

In the afternoon, we went back to the village where we met the man planting rice the previous day. As planned, there was a group of people planting rice in a field not far from their house. We spent a couple of hours taking photos of this activity, which was also a good excuse to get our feet in the mud!

After this session, we drove to a different village to capture some handicrafts, with people weaving baskets from bamboo. There, we met an adorable local family and spent some time chatting with them.

Later, we ended the afternoon at a beautiful local monastery.

As I mentioned, this tour offers such an incredible variety of photo opportunities that everyone has a highlight moment during the day. Whether participants enjoyed the rice field action or the peaceful monastery vibes more, there were great photo opportunities all day!

Day 3: Local Market and Plastic cups

That morning, Regis took us to one of the biggest local markets in Siem Reap. As this was our first market of the tour, we took the time to introduce the concepts of photographing very busy scenes.

Later, we walked outside the market where Regis knew some metal workers. There, men melted and hammered metal to create farming tools and knives. There were plenty of great photo opportunities, with the fire and sparks from the metalworking adding drama to our images.

After lunch, we started our drive outside of Siem Reap to Battambang, where we would spend the night. We arrived before sunset at a very beautiful monastery where the monks were preparing for the afternoon prayer. Surprisingly, in this scene, all the monks and novices had plastic cups. During the tour, we discussed whether some would remove these plastic cups from their images to clean them up. Personally, I think they are part of what the scene was and represent a more authentic side of Cambodia, where not everything is clean and looks like what we think it should look like. Real authenticity in your face!

After this monastery session, we walked a bit further to a nice viewpoint with cold beer to watch the incredible cave from which millions of bats fly out at sunset. Yes, I called it the bat cave. Who wouldn’t? A wonderful way to end a wonderful day.

Day 4: Rice Paper Making and Floating Village

After a wonderful night, drinks, and dinner in our “France-themed” hotel, we drove to a local market along the river. Compared to Siem Reap, Battambang instantly felt more “countryside” with its dirt roads and wooden houses.

The market offered many cool opportunities, and we could tell that the people there were not used to seeing tourists around. It was a good chance to capture people selling street food as they moved their food carts from one place to another, allowing us to follow them until they walked in the best morning light.

Later, we drove to a small village where a few families were making rice paper. This was a very interesting situation as we tried to tell the story of the rice paper-making process with our photos. A very good exercise for all the participants of the tour.

We then made a quick stop at the local market to see the making of Pra Hok, a very stinky fish paste used a lot in local Khmer cuisine. It is actually pretty good, but the smell in that factory was quite overwhelming! After that, we ended the morning session at another family house, where they were making local pastries (and we got fed plenty of them!).

As I said, this photography tour offers an incredible amount of different photo opportunities every day. Actually, there were so many photo opportunities that when we looked at our images in the evening, we had already forgotten what we shot in the morning!

After lunch and a rest at the hotel, we drove to Kampong Chhnang. We took a boat ride to visit a floating village on the Tonle Sap Lake. A good point for me: I could finally talk to the people living on the lake as many families there are Vietnamese. After we began visiting the village, we stopped at a family house as the sun was still quite harsh outside. These Vietnamese-origin people have lived on the lake for over 45 years and are people without a country—no Vietnamese passport, no Cambodian one.

It was very interesting to hear their stories and see how they live, with the kitchen, the toilets, and everything directly above the water. Even the chickens were living in their floating house.

We captured some very nice sunset light while driving our boat through the village. In the late afternoon, many local sellers go around the village in their boats, selling goods directly to people’s houses. This village remains one of the highlights for several participants on the tour.

Day 5: Getting Muddy in the Countryside

Regis knew about some very beautiful rice fields in the area, so we drove there in the morning to try and capture people planting rice. We were lucky, once again, to find a small group of people there, as the morning light was still pleasant.

We spent about an hour chatting with the people, walking in the mud to try and get the best shots of this scene. The people kept walking back and forth from one field to another, allowing us to get a good variety of images.

After lunch, we drove to our next destination: Kampong Thom.

Before arriving there, though, we made a little detour to visit an incredible village. I really wonder how Regis knows about all these amazing locations, but this village was gold. It is a small and peaceful village where every afternoon, the people walk back with all their buffalo. At first, we walked around the village and then waited for the buffalo herders to return home.

We also took many portraits of the people, who were very eager to meet the foreigners visiting their village. We all had such a good time there, despite the heat of the day!

After sunset, we reached Kampong Thom and our hotel for a well-deserved shower, dinner, and beer.

Day 6: The Best Market and the Magic Buffalo Village

The market in Kampong Thom is by far my favourite of all the markets we visited. Because Kampong Thom is only a small town, this market has the perfect size and level of busyness. Clear backgrounds and great light allowed us to take some really good pictures of the local vendors and buyers.

Afterwards, Regis took us to another amazing village in the middle of the countryside. As the sun was setting, this village came alive. Everyone was riding their buffaloes or bringing them back home from the fields. As it was harvest season, there was an extra buzz in the village, making it a perfect ending to our photo tour.

The participants were already starting to review their photos from the week, and we were all impressed with what we had captured. This day was another highlight for the tour, with the local villagers very friendly and the light perfectly warm.

Day 7: More Buffalos and Monastery Kitchen

We left not too early in the morning to visit another village outside of the city. One thing I love about this tour is that there are very few early starts. When I say early, I mean Vietnam early, when we want to catch the sunrise on the beach. We often began our days at 7 a.m., which to me is a luxury. However, as I witnessed on the tour, there isn’t much happening early in the morning here, unlike in Vietnam. So, Regis has it easy!

We arrived at the village and began photographing a small market where herds of buffalos roamed through the streets. They were heading to the fields for the day. We followed them for a bit until they crossed a river, which was slightly flooded.

Later, Regis took us to the kitchen of a monastery where he knew some lovely ladies were cooking for the monks. Imagine the scene: an old kitchen with great light, excellent subjects engaged in interesting actions, and cats all over the place. It was a fantastic place to shoot!

After checking out of our hotel, having lunch, and enjoying a coffee break, we drove back to Siem Reap, where we would stay for the remainder of the tour. We gave the participants the rest of the afternoon to relax, shop, or try new restaurants in town.

Day 8: Ta Prohm and flooded village

Back in Siem Reap, we went back to visit another less-visited temple in the complex of Angkor. Something I really love about Regis’s itineraries in Cambodia is that he always combines temples (in which sometimes I have no people involved) with a monastery where we can always find some good people activities. And this day was no different. 

After over an hour spent in a beautiful temple capturing the morning lights, we visited a monastery where we were allowed to photograph a group of people receiving a water blessing. After some time of praying, the monk throws buckets of water at the people. Quite a dramatic scene, I only wish the buckets used weren’t made of colourful plastic! Once again, real authenticity! 

After lunch and a break, we drove to a local village on stilts on the Tonle Sap lake. As the water is slowly rising during the rainy season, we were not sure what to expect in terms of water levels in the village. The locals, too, were busy moving things around because of the rising waters. We could capture the people under their houses moving their fishing nets up to the higher levels of the houses as the lake waters were coming up. 

We also got many great photo opportunities with all the daily life of the village. Cambodia is such a “young country”, many kids are running around and playing and there are always great photo opportunities around. 

We had a beer on the way back on the boat for sunset, before driving back to Siem Reap for some cocktails and spring rolls evening! 

Day 9: We got blessed and light lucky

This morning, Regis took us to some small and less visited temples in the complex of Angkor temples. 

Later on, we went to a monastery where Regis knew some of the monks. We walked around for a little bit and took some cool photos. We also had a water blessing for your group. Because sometimes you gotta be a tourist and get your water blessing! Thanks to this, we have only good weather and good photos for the rest of the trip! 

After lunch, we drove to another village on stills at the Tonle Sap Lake. This less touristy village was simply amazing! We were quickly escorted by a bunch of kids who were showing us around, and giving us many great photo opportunities. We then kept walking through the village to capture people fixing their fishing nets, or the simple daily activities of the village. 

There was a fantastic light on that afternoon and we ended the day taking photos of the people along the river. This was the kind of village where I wished we could spend a couple of days, there was just so much to see and photograph. I cannot wait to go back next year!

Day 10: Spiderhunter and circus artists

The most cultural day we had on this photography tour! We began early morning with a quick drive that would take us to a village outside of Siem Reap. There we met with Mister Way (pronounced “Why”) who is a spider and scorpion hunter. And not any kind of spiders: tarantulas! 

Shortly after meeting Mister Way, we followed him into the fields to capture him at work. Regis and I told the participants to try and build a photo story using this man and his activity as a subject, which we reviewed on that afternoon. Mister Hay uses spiders and scorpions as the main source of proteins for his family. Being from a poor countryside, this is often for some people the only way to get the proper nutrients. 

Mister Way walks around and (I do not know how) can spot a spider or scorpion nest from a distance. He then rushes there and begins digging a hole with his multi-task tool. Once the whole is done until he can see the spider, he will use a wooden stick to attract the spider out of its whole and then grab it with his hand. This is quite spectacular to witness and I am sure it is a risky business. 

After catching a spider, he would remove its fangs using, once again, his tool. He will then place the spider into his carry-on basket. Later on, we followed him back to his house, where he began preparing the insects (cleaning them from the dirt). He kills the insects by pressing with his fingers on their heads. He then lit on fire and fried the spiders and scorpions he found, to our (maybe) delight! Most of the participants actually had a try (even if for just a spider leg) and it was… crunchy! 

After this wonderful cultural and photographic experience, we drove back to the hotel for a break and lunch. 

In the afternoon, we once again benefited from Regis VIP access to some locations! Because he has been living in Siem Reap for so many years and worked as a photographer for many companies, he built relationships with many people there. This allowed us to access the rehearsal of the Phare Cambodian circus. We spend an hour on stage with the artists, capturing their rehearsal session. Later on, we also had very privileged access to the make-up room where the artists were getting ready. 

After a wonderful dinner on-site, we were able to watch the circus from the VIP row, right in front. Thanks again Regis for this wonderful experience! We could be taking photos there but I was so absorbed by the show that I did not even think about it! 

Day 11: Finally we experienced the rainy season!

On that morning we went to visit another monastery where we could capture the people preparing food for the monks. We were definitely not “monked out” by that time and we spent quite a lot of time walking around the pretty temples, looking for a good subject to add. 

The kitchen was also very interesting and very cool to photograph thanks again to Regis relationship with the people. 

Later on, we had a short cultural visit to a local silk farm where we could witness the process of a very fine silk making, as well as take photos of the workers there. 

After lunch and a break came yet again another fantastic adventure! 

We arrived at the temple of Angkor Wat in the afternoon. Even though it is not the best temple to photograph and is usually packed with tourists, we thought we could not leave Cambodia without seeing the temple that is on the Cambodian flag. We decided to visit this temple in the afternoon in order to avoid the throng of tourists that come early morning to photograph Angkor Wat. 

As we arrived, massive dark clouds began gathering around us. This is what I love about the rainy season in Cambodia, it can offer formidable backgrounds with dramatic clouds. And this is why we chose to run this Cambodia photo tour at that time of the year.

After entering Angkor Wat temple, we stumbled upon some monks who were visiting Angkor Wat. They were from a remote village in the North East of the country. They were taking photos and they began showing interest in our group. One of them took photos of us and Regis started chatting with them. So we followed them for a little bit through the temples, sometimes taking photos of them, sometimes letting them take photos of us, sometimes taking photos together. Honestly, if we had staged this, it would not have been as good as this candid encounter! I love candid travel photography! Always facing the unexpected! 

It was so good it looked staged!! 

Thanks to the rain, we were all stuck in the temple, waiting for it to stop. So we had plenty of time to chat and take photos with the monks. We believe our group water blessing was beginning to work as we got very lucky with these scenes!

As we exited Angkor Wat and walked around to reach our van, we saw a rainbow over Angkor Wat. We were truly blessed and we told ourselves we should have done the group water blessing earlier on the tour! That brought us so much luck!

We ended this tour in another monastery, simply sucking in the relaxing atmosphere of the monks praying and chanting. And of course, taking a few photos! 

We went back to Haven, one of our favorite restaurants we ate during the tour, for our goodbye dinner. I highly recommend you visit this place in Siem Reap if you have a chance, great food for a great cause. 

Day 12: Final Reflections and Departure

A few participants and I decided to go back to a village on stilts near the lake, hoping to catch an incredible sunset there, as we love the location so much! The amount of kids in this country is just unreal!!! 

Regis and I saw all the participants leave, making sure that everyone’s airport transfer was done successfully. And then it was time for a good massage!!! 

As always, this Cambodia photo tour offered a comprehensive exploration of the country, filled with diverse photo opportunities and cultural experiences. It’s been a pleasure to guide such an enthusiastic group, and I look forward to organizing future tours to capture the beauty and richness of this amazing country.

Regis and I have slightly updated the itinerary for 2025, as we’re excited to run this fantastic photography tour in Cambodia again! Places are limited, so get in touch if you’d like to sign up for this great adventure!