Monk Shot! #70

20 Wednesday Aug 2014

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I have to assume it is saffron that I’m attracted to, ‘cuz bald heads have never really done it for me. Or maybe it’s how vivid the colors of a monk’s robes are compared to the drab shades that often surround them. At least that’s my excuse for this shot from Luang Prabang. ‘Cuz I’m pretty sure peeking through a window at a novice monk getting dressed is not considered to be a regular stop on the path to enlightenment. If it was, there would probably be a lot more Buddhists in the world.

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Monk Shot! #69

25 Friday Jul 2014

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Cambodia, Monks, Photography

It was about time for a Monk Shot! post anyway, but since I just found out we’re going away for a long weekend and do not have the time to post my regularly scheduled articles this one kills two birds with one stone. And efficiency is something I’ve always admired. Dead birds ain’t a bad thing either.

So I apologize to those of you who tuned in to see how the Boys In The Bar were doing; So and the gang will be back next week. Besides, I’m sure y’all are busy watching the Commonwealth Games anyway. That or waiting with baited breath for John Travolta’s ex-lover to leak the story of their romance now that a judge has given him the thumbs up to spill the beans about how John likes to spill his seed.

Nude Dude posts will appear as usual over the next few days, but don’t expect much else content-wise. And I won’t be updating my front page either, so you’ll have to click through to the blog pages to see what does get published. Unless Matthew Mitchum, Ian Thorpe, and Tom Daley pull a threesome in Glasgow and post selfies to Instagram . . . there are some things in life too important to not miss even when you are supposed to be having a romantic getaway.

At least I think it is a romantic getaway. Could be I’m headed to rehab too. Phil’s less than excited about the potential of my covering the Commonwealth Games and mentioned something about an intervention. But then it’s the journey and not the destination that matters, which works quite well with this photo. It’s the first in a series of shots I took In Phnom Penh of this young monk checking out a tiny golden wat riverside. The colors were what originally caught my eye. And then I kept clicking as he made his way along the building’s edge.

Eventually he reached a spot where he could peak inside at a group of elder monks performing some sort of ritual. And that was my ‘keeper’ shot. But this one ain’t bad either. It was that or a photo of all the dead birds the guy who was selling them to the faithful to release to earn merit was busy dumping. More ended up in the dumpster than flying free. And I figured y’all may not be as fond of dead birds as I am.

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Monk Shot! #68

10 Thursday Jul 2014

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Monks

It’s been a while since I posted a Monk Shot! and while this is not one of mine it was just too good to not share. Thailand’s National Office of Buddhism was not as amused. Director Nopparat Benjawattananan says the baby monks acted inappropriately and lack discipline; his office is trying to identify them so they can be punished. You have to assume that means being beaten with a broom.

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7 Shots: Monks

14 Friday Feb 2014

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Monks, Photography

Picking out my best seven shots was difficult for a lot of reasons. One of which was trying to not end up with seven shots of Buddhist monks. Knowing that at some time in the future I’d be doing a 7 shots monks post made it a little bit easier. And now, even though it is sooner than I expected, doing that is proving to be almost as hard. But this time I didn’t use any restrictive criteria, I just went with those I liked the best personally.

I didn’t, however, just want to post photos I’ve used in the past. That too wasn’t a problem. With the exception of the first one, each of these is from a time when I stumbled upon the perfect scene. The kind that gives me a chub. The timing is right, the lighting perfect, the available angle to shoot from ideal. All that’s left is to hit upon the right camera settings (yes, some of us still do that) and the best framing. With which, even with a digital camera, you still don’t know if you batted a thousand until after the shot is taken. So I tend to snap off a few dozen photos, each just a bit different than the last. Later I can sort through them and pick out the best one.

That can take some time. Much longer than what I spent taking the shot. And while I usually do pick out the best, there’s always another two or three that really are just as good. Just a little bit different. And that’s what six of the seven here represent. The runner-ups. Preparing this post, I expected that. What I didn’t expect was that none of those six shots were taken in Thailand. Most are from Cambodia. The rest from Laos (presented here in that order if you were wondering).

The first is one of my favorites and it is from Thailand. Unlike the others, where I knew I’d hit gold (and saffron), that one was more of a eh, why not shot. I liked it ‘cuz it was monk-less, yet a Monk Shot! still in its own right. I snapped the photo fairly quickly. The lightning, which is what I think really makes this picture, I didn’t really notice until later when I looked at what I’d shot that day back at the hotel on my computer. Even Noom, who is far more critical of the photos I’ve taken, thought it a keeper. He wasn’t as thrilled with me naming it Naked Monk.

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7 Shots: The Best Of The Best – #3

24 Friday Jan 2014

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Bangkok, Monks, Photography

Too soon for more saffron?

Having just determined with my last entry of The Best Of The Best 7 Shots that the best definition of what qualifies a photo as ‘best’ when it comes to travel photography is one which immediately transports you back to a time and place and stirs your memories of that trip, today’s photo may not appear to hit that mark. But that’s ‘cuz you weren’t there. I know that it appears to be just another one of my Monk Shot! offerings – albeit one of the better ones – but despite my having taken a few thousand photos of the men and boys in orange, I can immediately place this one. And it works on several levels.

I captured this image on the express boat headed up river to Wat Pho, a trip I’ve made more times than I can count. But on this trip rather than playing tour guide for newbies to Bangkok I was just with Noom. The Chao Phraya is fertile grounds for snapping pix of monks and Noom has become quite adept at pointing out potential victims to me. Not that he caught this one. Nor did he think much of the shot later when he was going through the day’s treasure trove of images on my computer. I had to move quickly between hearing him mutter, “delete,” and his finger hitting that button on the keyboard. Everyone’s a critic. And Noom considers himself to be a master at determining which photos are good and which need to be immediately trashed. The bastard.

Noom too goes into tour guide mode when we are accompanied by visitors; save for several time outs to carry on a lengthy conversation with the Buddhas we encounter that day, he usually doesn’t participate in the experience, preferring to stand guard and watch our charges enjoy themselves instead. So even though it wasn’t the plan, when we reached the back of the wat I convinced him to have a massage. It was his first real Thai massage sans a happy ending being involved. And I suddenly discovered what Dr. Frankenstein felt. Noom insists on getting a manage at Wat Pho anytime we go there now. Or anytime we are anywhere near the area. Or anytime we are nowhere near Wat Pho but still have an hour or two to kill.

Huh. Come to think of it, this should not be one of my favorite Bangkok photos.

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Monk Shot! #67

18 Wednesday Dec 2013

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Chiang Mai, Monks, Photography

Monks on a baht bus are a fairly standard shot for me. Especially when in Chiang Mai where it sometimes seems there’s at least one monk on every baht bus you see. Sleeping monks, not so much. Which considering the Thai fondness for taking naps is a bit surprising. So when I spotted one young novice crashed out and catching some zzzz’s in the back of a pickup at Wat Chedi Luang, it was a photographic nirvana.

I never thought the shutter on my camera made much noise. But after about the fourth click, another youngster draped in saffron woke from his temporary bed in the bed of a neighboring truck. And then either out of the joy of seeing a camera pointed his way, or from the humor of being caught out, let loose with one of those smiles Thailand is famous for. And I scored a two-fer.

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09 Monday Dec 2013

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Monks, Movies & Television

Holy Buddha!

While my fascination with and love of Buddhist monks is not normally sexual in nature, the occasional hottie wrapped in saffron does stir the kind of thoughts that make me believe there must be a god. I’ve yet to score a monk, but that is on my bucket list. So it’s probably a good thing Buddhists don’t believe in hell.

Surfing the ‘net recently, I ended up on one of those sites filled with gorgeous Asian guys as I often do. This particular site, a blog, had a pictorial post highlighting the hotness known as Mario Maurer. You probably remember Mario from his leading role in the ultra-gay Thai flick The Love of Siam. Or from jacking off over the ultra-gay Thai flick The Love of Siam. Back in 2007 when that movie was made Mario was a little hottie. Since then he’s grown up into a fine hunk of manhood. And the post I found left no question about just how fine he’s turned out to be. At least not visually. There was no accompanying text. Not that it was needed.

But smack dab in the middle was the opening shot of this post. I had to assume since the post I was drooling over was just about Mario, this photo was too. I know lots, if not most, Thai men spend sometime as a monk. Even a lot of bar boys. Famous actors with a busy career, I wasn’t too sure about. But Google supplied me first with a shot of Mario having his head shaved, and then with a link that proved he hadn’t signed up for the saffron brigade, but rather had played the role of a monk in a movie called Outrage. (Google threw a few shirtless shots in in between too . . . which buttresses that there is a god thingy again.)

Outrage, or U Mong Pa Mueang as the movie is known in Thailand, is an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s revered 1950 classic Rashomon, with Mario in a pivotal but supporting role. And yes, the young heart throb’s head is shaved, but his bushy eyebrows are left intact. He was nominated for the Asian Film Awards Best Supporting Actor trophy for his work in that film and probably would have won if they’d come up with an excuse for him to lock lips with another guy again.

I don’t think Buddhists believe in heaven either, but obviously do believe in angels.

More recently Mario starred in Pee Mak, which is like the 1 millionth adaptation of Thailand’s favorite ghost story. To date it is Thailand’s biggest grossing movie of all time. He was also featured on the cover of Attitude Magazine. Which I’m sure was also that magazine’s highest grossing issue.

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19 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by Bangkokbois in Monk Shot!

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Cambodia, Monks

Monks In The Hood

Young men in SE Asia enter the monkhood for a variety of reasons, one of which is a form of community service; time spent as a Buddhist monk is preferable to jail time and a fine. I’m not sure if that’s the case if you still earn brownie points with the Buddha. And I don’t know if that was the reason these two guys donned saffron robes either. But those two mugs are faces only their mothers, or parol officers, could love. Don’t you think?

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