My name in Maung Maung Soe. I am at Forest Department as Staff Officer (same as Assistant Conservator of Forest) in Myanmar. I graduated in Forestry from Yangon University in 1977.

As my father was a Photographer, I was crazy in Photography since my early life. So I was in contact with and became one of the trainees of Myanmar Photographic Society in 1976. Now I am a life member of Myanmar Photographic Society.

At first, I was shocked but it made me very happy later to hear that I was mentioned as one of the commendation prize winners among with the other 13 photographers.

This photograph was taken in Mongtha Reserved Forest in Mabain Township in Northern Shan State. There were many natural teak trees as big as like one in the photograph. Due to sustainable forest management practiced in our country we are still rich in forests, also still rich in natural teak. Because of its splendid wood properties, teak is famous timber all over the world.

The gentlemen in the photograph are the retired Senior Officials of Forest Department. They were on the tour to observe the ecological and Silvicultural status of those big teak trees. That place is a little remote but accessible to reach there in a day from Mandalay. As for me dreams came true to have opportunity to participate in that tour to take photographs of natural flora and fauna.

I used just a Nikon FM manual camera with the 35-70mm Nikor lens. The film was Fuji 100 ASA and I used a tripod. The composition was almost casual. I had to request just to look at the upper part of the tree’s stem bole.