Krabi Photoshoot Guide: Railay by longtail, Phra Nang at dawn and the sandbar at low tide

Getting to Railay: the longtail sets the start

Railay is a peninsula cut off from the road by walls of rock, so the only way in is by boat. From Ao Nang the longtail ride is short, about fifteen minutes, and the boats usually run up onto the sand at Railay West; from Krabi Town it is nearer forty-five minutes, to Railay East. Shared boats leave when they are full, which is fine for an afternoon and useless for a dawn session. For an early start the photographer arranges a boat for the agreed hour the day before.

Nobody arrives dry. The boats beach and you step off into water that can reach the knee, so carry your shoes, keep a long hem rolled up until you are on the sand, and put anything that matters — the ring included — in a zipped bag. At low tide Railay East is a fringe of mangrove and mud with little beach to speak of. In rough weather the boats off Ao Nang can stop running, and the crossing moves to the more sheltered pier at Ao Nam Mao, on the other side of the headland; check on the day.

The coloured cloth tied to a longtail's prow is an offering to the spirit believed to live in the boat. The prow is treated with respect — nobody steps on it — and a frame on board starts with asking the boatman.

Phra Nang Cave Beach before the first boats

Phra Nang Cave Beach, at the tip of the peninsula, is the beach people travel for: pale sand under limestone overhangs hung with stalactites, islands offshore. It is also a stop for the island-hopping boats from Ao Nang, so its quiet hours come before the first longtails land. Staying on Railay is the advantage: from Railay East a shaded path runs along the foot of the cliff to the beach in a few minutes, and on foot you can be on the sand while Ao Nang is still at breakfast. Later in the day climbers work the wall near the cave.

At one end of the beach a cave shrine is filled with offerings left by the fishermen of this coast, who have long come here to ask for safe voyages and good catches. Many of the offerings are carved, unusual and make visitors laugh. The shrine is still a place of offering: it is photographed with respect and quietly, never as a backdrop for a joke, and nobody poses among the offerings.

For a proposal, this is the beach. A question asked here at sunrise usually has the sand nearly to itself, and the cliffs give the photographer somewhere to stand far enough away to pass for another early walker. The Krabi proposal page has more.

Railay West at sunset

Railay West faces the sunset, a curve of sand between two walls of rock. Late afternoon belongs here: the cliffs at either end turn warm, the sea flattens in the dry season and the low sun comes straight in off the water. The beach is busier at this hour than Phra Nang is at dawn, so the photographer works the ends of the sand close to the rock and frames out to sea. A session that starts about an hour before the sun reaches the horizon catches the best of it; the light worth having arrives in the second half of that hour.

Above the peninsula, a viewpoint and a hidden lagoon are reached by a steep scramble up red clay with fixed ropes. It is a climb, not a session: slippery after rain and impossible in anything you would want to be photographed in.

Ao Nang, the base

Ao Nang is where most visitors stay: a long beach facing the sunset, islands on the horizon and the ribboned longtails pulled up on the sand. It is the easiest session in Krabi to arrange — no boat, no tide, a road to the beach — and the boats themselves are the frame, lined up at the water's edge in the last hour of light. The road behind the beach is busy, so the camera stays pointed at the sea. It is also the answer for a family that would rather not put small children on a boat at dawn.

Thale Waek: the sandbar at low tide

Thale Waek, the "separated sea", is a sandbar between Koh Tup and Chicken Island that surfaces at low tide, so you can walk out between the islands with water on both sides. It is above water for only a couple of hours around low tide, so the tide table sets the plan, not the clock. Most visitors reach it on the four-island boat trip from Ao Nang, and not every boat times its stop to the tide: ask before booking, or let the photographer arrange a boat around low water.

The islands lie inside a national park. Foreign visitors pay the park's entrance fee, and a professional shoot there can need the park's permission, which the photographer clears in advance. The sandbar suits an engagement session as well as a family morning — the Krabi engagement page covers it — and the earlier low tides beat the midday ones.

Tiger Cave Temple at sunrise

Inland, a short drive from Krabi Town, the Tiger Cave Temple's twelve hundred-odd steps climb a limestone tower to a golden Buddha and a view over the whole plain and its karst towers. The climb is steep and long, best started in the dark for sunrise and before the heat; carry water and a torch. Macaques live along the stairway, so food and anything loose stay in a bag.

This is a working monastery. Shoulders and knees are covered for everyone, shoes come off before any hall, and voices stay low on the stairs and at the summit. Photograph the Buddha image on its own and keep the couple frames for the view, facing away from it; never stand or sit higher than the image, and never point your feet towards it or towards a monk. The kiss and the lift wait until you are back at the bottom.

Island days: the Hong islands, Phi Phi and Koh Lanta

Boats run from Ao Nang to the Hong islands, limestone walls around an enclosed lagoon, and to the Phi Phi Islands, where Maya Bay is run under strict national-park rules. The islands offshore lie inside national parks with their own entrance fees, and a professional shoot inside a park can need the park's permission. Plan no session for the evening after a boat day: sunburn and salt show in every frame.

South of Krabi, Koh Lanta, reached by road with a car-ferry crossing, is the slow island of this coast: long west-facing beaches and a wooden old town on stilts.

The dry season and the monsoon in Krabi

From about November to April the Andaman is calm and clear and the longtails run without drama. The weeks around Christmas and New Year are the busiest of the year, so book early. From about mid-February the heat builds to its peak in April and sessions move to the first and last hours of the day; midday light on pale sand is flat and harsh in any month.

The southwest monsoon runs from about May to October and is usually wettest around September. It brings rain and swell, boat trips are often cancelled, and a red flag on a beach means no swimming — literally, not as advice. Keep a spare day, and never put a session on the day of an onward flight. The same months give the greenest cliffs of the year and emptier beaches, and Ao Nang works without a boat. Rescheduling for bad weather is free for both sides.

Drones are hard for a visitor — registration with NBTC and CAAT, insurance, approval for every flight, park rules on top — so ask whether the photographer flies a registered drone rather than bringing your own.

Planning a Krabi photoshoot

Choose the boat first and the hour second. A dawn session at Phra Nang means staying on Railay or booking a longtail the day before; a sunset at Railay West or Ao Nang needs only an afternoon; the sandbar keeps the tide's clock. For a proposal, see what a proposal photoshoot covers: the photographer arrives first and blends in, and all you have to do is get your partner to the beach.

An hour covers one beach well. Ninety minutes gives Phra Nang and the walk across to Railay West, or the sandbar and the beach beside it. Keep the session away from the evening after a boat day and from the day of a flight, and in the monsoon months keep a second date free. The photographer confirms within 24 hours, and payment is held until the photos are delivered.

A photographer who works this coast knows when the first boats land at Phra Nang, which mornings of your stay have the low tide and where the boats leave from when Ao Nang is too rough. Read the destination page for Krabi, check how it works, and browse photographers online.