Landscapers guide to Thailand - Phuket - Kata beach
Originally published at Anton Averin Photography. You can comment here or there.
After spending a few days on Bang Tao we got a taxi and drove through all Phuket beaches hoping to find a better place to stay - Bang Tao during the low season was too desolated.
Patong turned out to be too nosy for our taste, and we quickly drove through it.
Karon beach was looking very nice - clean sand, some palm trees, not so much tourists. When we asked taxi driver to drive through Kata before going to Chalong area, he, surprisingly, couldn’t find a way to the beach, so we only had a glimpse of Kata.
Reading some more data afterwards, we decided to move to Kata beach.
For me, Kata beach turned out to be much more interesting then Bang Tao.
Right at the day of arrival I checked out both sides of the main Kata beach, and south part had this amazing looking stones - very promising for interesting seascapes. Also, the sun was setting right into the sea with the small island being the only obstacle, actually adding some interest to the image.
These stones was my main photography place of interesting during our stay on Kata. For 6 days in a row I have been shooting pictures there, each time taking back home different images.
The main reason for that was the tide - it was different each time, exposing different parts of the large group of stones. I’ve went the furthest the first day, and wasn’t so lucky after that - tides were high and going too deep was too dangerous. I think if one would use some cover for the equipment he could go to the furthest stones even during the high tide - it isn’t really deep there, but the waves were too strong.
Now, before I show some more examples of pictures shot on Kata stones, a few tips.
- You WILL get you feet wet, and probably not only the feet, so wear shoes that you can step into salty water in.
- Some stones are VERY slippy, so, check where you put your steps, keep at least one hand free so you could balance, put your camera back to the bag when you change shooting position. The best would be to have someone else around, just in case something goes wrong - bring you buddy photographer with you=)
- Sometimes you just stand and shoot, when an unexpectedly strong wave comes. So don’t forget that you shoot on the sea, and be prepared. Have a dry cloth to wipe out water from camera and the lens. You can even use some plastic cover for you camera.
- Trying to get a better composition on Kata stones, you may find yourself going too deep into the water. Be aware that a strong wave may pull you into the water, or push on some underwater stone - choose your position wisely and don’t go too deep. Stay for a few moments checking how strong are the waves and what stones do they cover, then pick a shooting position.
- After shooting the main sunset on the stones the good idea would be to go back to the beach, find some point of interest and shoot some really long exposures - 3-5 minutes for each. Reflection from the wet beach will accentuate colors of the sky.
And now a few pictures of what you can expect to find on Kata beach.
