U Bien's Bridge is located about 30 min south of Mandalay and consists of a teak bridge that crosses the Taungthaman lake. The Bridge is about 1300 yards long and has been there for 200 years. In the rainy season the lake comes up to the pathway on top and sometimes covers the whole thing. The lake is used for irrigation and fishing... and Moto/shower Bathing as you will see.
On my first visit here I was looking forward to shooting an iconic image of women and or monks crossing the bridge at sunset. I trudged out to a point ware I could see that the image in my mind and waited for the light to be right.
Waiting...
Most people see images that photographers take and say wow... I wish I could do that... but what they often don't know about is the waiting. Time... time... and lots of it! Waiting for the light, waiting for the people, waiting for the place... waiting waiting waiting. Often waiting in vain... as the optimal conditions never appear... or at least don't appear when the photographer is there or ready. It's a bit of a gamble much of the time... sometimes you win and sometimes not.
Such was the case that fated day... I waited, I shot, I didn't get what I wanted. To much smoke in the air, to many tourist... omg, a never ending train of Western tourists clogging up every shot. (A few times there were these idiots who could see what I was doing and they just stopped in the middle of the frame and stood there expecting me to take there photo.) I did get a few nice sunset images... and the boys taking a shower via there partially submerged motorbike was hysterical... but not what I was there to shoot.
As a commercial photographer I'm always seeking to controle as many of the variables as I can, so I enlisted the help of a young woman that I had met on the walk into the lake, May Thingyan. May is a vendor who sells jewelry that she and her mother make from watermelon seeds.
I just have to say here that Vendors have been some of the most impressive, helpful and intelligent people that I have met on this trip. They posses many of the personal characteristics that I most respect in people... they are self starters, they survive by there wits and they work harder than most, doing what ever it takes to make there way. Most of the time they speak multiple languages and they seem to alway find the good in a situation. Once a relationship has been formed they can be incredibly generous... Surprisingly so.
I found May after the sun had set, with some effort, asking around to the other vendors who were trying, mostly in vain, to sell to the mob of people eager to make there way to the scores of waiting busses ready to take them back to there hotels. Finely, she appeared from the crowd, one of the other vendors had gone and found her.
Now this speaks to the intelligence of the typical vendor... I had met May on the way in, but only in passing and only long enough for her to realize that I was not a potential buyer. The exchange was cordial as I alway try to treat people with respect. (This is an important note... I realized early on that though vendors can be insistent and somewhat annoying... they are just doing there job. And as annoying as they can sometimes be they are often enough, through there persistence, reworded with a sale. So I try to cut them some slack and make the best of what ever the situation is. It is the exception that I will become aggressive or rude with them.) Though I had only briefly encountered her she remembered me, my name and where I was from. What is more impressive is that the vendor a few feet away, at the time of that encounter, remembered me and that I was talking to May and that is how she knew who to find when I was asking for "the vendor that I had talked to a few hours earlier". I didn't ask for her by name because I had forgotten it.
So I told her what I was trying to accomplish and asked if she would be willing to help me. I offered to pay her, as I don't expect to take up someones time without compensation, and she agreed. She immediately went and got a friend and her mother and explained the situation to them. Within Minutes we had our team set. We made a plan for a day and a time, I got her contact info and then my driver took me back to town. The next day I confirmed with her... good thing because there was a conflict, so re reset the schedule and on the appointed day I showed up at the lake. We had set a time for the morning rather than evening so as to avoid the torrent of tourists and as promised they were there and ready.
We did the shoot and all went well. They were very easy to work with and were eager to please.
After the shoot we all sat and had tea. They really seemed to enjoy the process and they were happy to see the images as they appeared on the back of the camera.
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