Pictures & ideas flourish at the flower market

At the market

Wat Ratchabophit girl

I met up with Mike Robson this morning and we spent a few hours wandering around Bangkok’s fruit and flower market, taking pictures and pausing occasionally for a cuppa and a chat about photography in general and photo tours and workshops in particular.

Taking a break

Mike’s an ex-Marketing guru and a terrific source of ideas, all of which I’ll be taking with me as I begin to plan my activities for 2009. One of the projects I’m hoping to introduce next year is a one-day Bangkok workshop. However, we agreed that “workshop” sounds too much like work so I’ll be coming up with a title that more accurately reflects the sense of fun that inevitably accompanies photographing in Bangkok. Perhaps I should call it a “funshop”?

“Happyshop”?

I’ve been contacted several times recently by keen photographers who’ve seen my work online or in magazines and who are coming to Bangkok and want to spend time taking photographs away from the tourist trail. It’s nice to know that visiting photographers are enthusiastic about this side of Bangkok and I’m learning what a wealth of opportunities there are to create memorable and engaging images in places rarely visited by tourists. Bangkok’s temples and palaces are magnificent but I also understand the attraction of taking photographs of more authentic local life.

By the market temple

Serious expression

So watch this space whilst I get my head around the concept and come up with the sort of itinerary that would appeal to me. It’s exciting stuff! As always, subscribers to my newsletter will be the first to receive details.

The funniest part of a fun morning came when we encountered this little girl playing chess although I’m not convinced that all of her moves were completely within the rules. One move seemed to consist of scraping a knight rapidly across the board, sweeping other pieces onto the ground and I don’t seem to recall Kasparov ever using that gambit.

When her mother urged her to smile for the Farang photographer she came up with what can only be described as a full-on grimace. It’s not really her best look although it is a perfect illustration of her cheeky character.

Market girl #2

Market girl #1

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 6:23 pm and is filed under My work, News and tagged with bangkok, thailand, workshop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.