Photo contest winner puts Cambodia’s natural beauty on display

 recently won the Smart Photo Contest sponsored by the Smart company. He studies tourism and hospitality management at Pannasastra University of Cambodia in Siem Reap.

Last week Smart announced the four winners of the company’s photo contest. Anyone could enter the contest’s two categories; smartphone camera and professional camera. At the end of the competition the company chose four winners and Mr Arun was one of them.

“I was surprised because there were hundred candidates who joined this contest. They selected my photos as the winner. That’s nice for me because all of the photos were equally beautiful. I only thought I had about a 70 percent chance of winning,” Mr Arun said.

Mr Arun said he has enjoyed taking photos since he was 18. After graduating high school he became interested in taking pictures of natural scenery, but in Cambodia at that time there weren’t many advertising pictures featuring natural scenes. He enrolled in many workshops, and learned from experts, Facebook, and YouTube, he said.

Unfortunately he had no money to buy a camera, so he took photos using his smart phone. His main motivation was to show people all around the world the beautiful views, landscapes, and scenery in Cambodia.

When he started  in late 2014, Mr Arun took a lot of photos and soon put together an album on Facebook for uploading photos of local natural and historical attractions for tourists, and other pictures showing different locations and aspects of Cambodian life.

Mr Arun said using a smartphone makes it easy because they are very portable, can be kept in a pocket, are smaller than professional cameras, and not too heavy.

“I think that smartphone cameras, in terms of function and quality, are almost the same as professional cameras,” Mr Arun said.

All photographers have their own techniques for taking photos. And it’s not just about taking photos; it’s important to know how to edit them too. And whether you use smart phones or professional cameras, technique, effort, and chance all play a role, he said.

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