After an early retirement from the medical profession, Thai photographer Weerapong Chaipuck rediscovered his dormant creativity when he traded the tools of the radiology room with the tools of a photographer. He now travels the world, photographing magnificent, rich landscapes, nature and diverse cultures.
Driven by the hope to “inspire us earthlings to preserve mother nature,” Weerapong puts much thought into photographing the various places he travels to. Not only thinking about what camera and lenses he should use, but methodically researching the best season and time period, vantage point and even what the post processing will look like.
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The greatest tool in his arsenal is his imagination and the images he first produces in his mind.
It depends on the objective and what your imagination is like. Simple places may be of importance if you have an inspired mind…you have to go there to absorb everything yourself before you shoot.
He lives by the adage, “Love intensely and everything else follows harmoniously,” and his passion is clearly seen in his work.
His lighting is 100% natural. He carefully calculates the perfect time of day to get the image he has envisioned, be it “30 minutes before the sun begins to rise or 30 minutes before sunset, is a constant challenge. But that’s also what makes it all worth it,” he says.
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For gear, he has used an assortment of Nikons from the Nikon D300, the Nikon D7000 and now the Nikon D800. His post processing is an art form in itself, having studied retouching years before. He is not afraid of extensive time in Photoshop to get the image he wants, as shown in the way he photographs star trails. 
Typically, star trails are created with the use of long exposures, but Weerapong chooses to painstakingly stack 30-50 continuous shots in post to avoid ‘hot pixels,’draining battery life and noise due to lighting blend. Stacking, though, can make the image look unnatural, so Weerpong uses his knowledge of Photoshop to create the final image, exactly how he imagined it.
In Thailand, Weerapong is on staff of two different photography wbsites and to give back to the community, he works with photographers just starting out. He also organizes one-on-one or small group tours across Asia and is very gracious with his time, knowledge and talent.
As a new task of travel photographer, I experienced a lot of memorable moments from kind-hearted people during my trip. So, pay it forward, if you want to make a trip as a travel photographer too, welcome to my country. Contact me and be my guest!
Weerapong’s hope is that, through his images, the viewer will be touched and reminded of the beauty around us.
To see more of Weerapong Chaipuck’s incredible work, visit his 500px page.
CREDITS: All photographs by Weerapong Chaipuck are copyrighted and have been used with permission for SLR Lounge. Do not copy, modify or re-post this article or images without express permission from SLR Lounge and the artist.
via @Nikon-Asia
