The Lighthouse at Bang Bao

I shot this from the western shore of Bang Bao bay, looking east across the water with the 50-230mm pulled out to about 100mm, so the pier sits far tighter in the frame than it felt standing there. The red-and-white lighthouse is the landmark everyone knows Bang Bao for. It is really a little cafe you can climb for a view back over the village, where the shophouses, seafood restaurants and dive shops are all built out over the sea on one long boardwalk on stilts.

Late September is the tail of the southwest monsoon down in Trat, and the light proved it. The sky stacked up in flat grey layers, the hills behind the village went soft and blue with haze, and the whole bay turned that deep slate colour that only happens when the sun never quite breaks through. No drama, no golden hour, just a quiet, heavy stillness over the water with the lighthouse holding the only warm colour in the scene.

Koh Chang is Thailand's second largest island and still mostly jungle, and Bang Bao at its southern tip is where the boats head out to the smaller islands and reefs. On a clear day this is a postcard. On a day like this it was something better, moodier and emptier, more honest about what the green season actually looks like.