Colorful Buildings at Wat Pho in Bangkok

Colorful rooftops gleam in the sunlight at the Wat Pho Temple Complex in Bangkok, Thailand.

I was thankful that Gary and Michelle Ford took Adam and me to Wat Pho. I took lots and lots of photos at Wat Pho in Bangkok because the place was full of color, interesting architecture, and lots of history. Any of those is good on its own but put them all together and you have something even better.

In fact, there were so many interesting buildings all together that at times I had a difficult time framing photos to get what I wanted. I would try to get the best of one building, but with the closeness of the buildings, it was hard to get the whole thing in one photo. So some of my photos ended up being of several different buildings all together, such as this one. This almost looks like a composite photo where I took photos of a few different buildings and put them all together digitally, but this really is just one view. So much to see there. So many details.

So then, let’s zoom in on a detail of this photo. Actually, technically more of just a crop than a zoom, but anyway, here he is:

He appears to be some sort of creature sitting there on top of the post with his elbows resting on his knees and his head on his hands. And he doesn’t look happy at all to be there. Why wouldn’t you be happy to be in such a colorful place as that? I don’t really know. Maybe he is grumpy because he thought I wasn’t taking his picture. Maybe he is frustrated because he isn’t as colorful as his surroundings. Maybe he wishes he could move inside to the shade, since the sun can be pretty hot out there. Hot enough that your ticket into the complex also gets you a bottle of water. Not that he gets one, apparently. And I didn’t share mine with him, either.

That was fun, so let’s do it again. Here is another detail:

Don’t look now, but there are dragons climbing up and down the roof corners! But they are yellow dragons, so maybe that means they aren’t poisonous or something. Either way, I don’t know if dragons on my roof would ever be a good thing. Although dragons are symbols of " power, strength, and good luck for people who are worthy of it," according to Wikipedia, so maybe it would be better to have them on the roof than to have snakes on the roof, which the dragons remind me of. Or lizards, since the dragons have legs. Anyway, if you are thinking these dragons look Chinese, then you might be right. There are several Chinese influences found throughout Wat Pho. Which makes it all the more interesting. Maybe one of these days I will have a chance to look into the history of the place more because there is obviously quite a lot of it there.

As you can see by zooming in on these details, there are even more small details that you can see in the enlarged photos. I’m guessing you could spend quite a bit of time there just taking it all in.

So if you go to Bangkok, I would definitely recommend a stop at Wat Pho. It’s a neat place!

For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— not from works, so that no one can boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9

About the Photo

There was a bit of post processing here to get the buildings to stand out from the sky just a bit. I layered a lighter version (from the same Raw file) on top of the original darker exposure to add some details of the buildings, while still keeping the sky a nice, deep blue.

Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about the photo software and gear I use at the camera gear page.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Olympus M.Zukio 25mm f1.8
Date: May 15, 2015
Location: Wat Pho, Bangkok, Thailand