Liger Leadership Academy

Another Day at Liger

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Some of the many shots from an events photography shoot at Liger Leadership Academy outside of Phnom Penh. The photo shoot coincided with a group of visiting American journalists who had flown in for a special tour of the school, with the students pretty much being the guides. A combination of capturing the kids in the act for the Liger website, as well as loosely staged portraits for inclusion in the journalist's stories (The Sydney Morning Herald among others).

The last time I was shooting at Liger was around 2 to 3 years ago, the young kids I remember have turned into confident young adults. A unique school in an excellent study and living environment, perhaps the only one like it in Cambodia.

Portrait photography at Liger Learning Centre

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I was recently hired to shoot a project during some of the hottest days yet this year, even hot for the Cambodian hot season, temperatures were up to 40C during this portrait photography session. My subjects were the talented students and staff at Liger Learning Centre in Ta Khmao district south of Phnom Penh, the heat didn't seem to bother the students, fans and surrounding foliage at the school grounds helped keep things a bit cooler.

The center is a charity foundation providing a proper rounded education to underprivileged children from around Cambodia. Out of around 1200 students aged 8 to 9, just 50 are accepted onto the 4 year programme. An exceptional school and a cool bunch of kids to work with, all of who could speak great English and hardly needed direction for the shots.

We also shot some architectural photography as well as groups, activities and class action photos. It was a nice change to the usual events and commercial photography. The photographs are to be used for the new Liger website currently in production. We shot the portrait photographs as requested in landscape format, outdoors. All the portraits were taken under a skylight on the roof of the school's main building. This diffused the otherwise extreme direct sunlight and created a soft natural look against the foliage of the surrounding gardens.

Below are some random samples from the portrait sessions.