Year of the Tiger

I arrived in Bangkok’s Chinatown shortly after lunch to find the crowds already growing and people in traditional costume standing beneath red lanterns. A low perspective eliminated the crowd and brought the lanterns into the shot. I rarely use flash but found that it was necessary for much of what I was shooting, although often powered-down to between -1 and -3 stops. The aim of the afternoon was to capture new images to be sold through my stock library partners but these shots are a few of my own favourites.

As a Travel Photographer, you can’t ask for a much more colourful subject than a Chinese Opera Singer in full costume with make-up and you can’t ask for a much more engaging subject than a small child, dressed in traditional Chinese costume and held aloft in his father’s arms. I took a few shots of this friendly father and son pair but especially enjoyed this shot where the father is looking at his son with what seems to be a mix of pride and adoration. I also love the protective arm gently shielding the boy.

There’s a certain quirky comic value to this shot. An everyday scene apart from the dragon, striding purposefully through the store. A visit from the dragon is considered to be great good fortune for the store owners for the year ahead, although the man behind the counter seems anything but impressed.

I succeeded in getting a few shots that revealed the eyes within the dragon’s head (right) during the afternoon. A quick burst of fill flash (set to -1 1/3 stops) with the flash held at arm’s-length and fired remotely was sufficient to pop some light in through the dragon’s mouth.

Such character. This friendly man and I had both paused for a thirst-quenching bottle of Chrysanthemum juice at a street stall and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a quick portrait.

I love my 85mm f/1.2 lens for street portraits but my first love was a 70-200mm f/2.8 IS L, which I was using when I caught this little girl, thoughtfully standing in front of Chinese lanterns which matched her bright, red dress.

The amount of light in the sky is inversely proportional to the level of my enthusiasm for photography, which means that at noon I’m listless but at dusk I’m like a cat on a hot tin roof. I especially enjoy the way that the diffused light from uncovered tungsten bulbs on makeshift street stalls can illuminate a face whilst the ambient twilight is sufficient to illuminate the rest of a scene.

OK, I try to resist but the temptation to end the day by spending an hour on a street corner and panning the passing tuk-tuks was too great. These shots are considerably slower than my preferred panning speeds of 1/30th or 1/15th of a second but a burst of flash freezes the action. This was shot at 1/2 second. The white arrow on the tarmac was, I have to admit, simply good fortune at first but once I’d seen it in the frame, I was glued to the spot.

Slower still, this was shot with a shutter speed of 1 second but the flash burst has caught the tuk-tuk and driver. This is a great example of one of the things I love most about Thailand: the warmth of the people. Even when zooming around a corner at speed, tuk-tuk drivers will give a broad grin or a thumbs-up if they see a gurning loon with a camera (me!). It’s kind of humbling, really.

Finally, on my way from Chinatown back to Hualamphong train station, I pressed the camera hard into the camera bag resting on my lap, stuck a wide-angle lens on, set the shutter speed to 1 second and the flash to -1 and crossed my fingers. This is Khun Buddee, a Bangkok tuk-tuk driver originally from Roi Et province. Hoping that one of my slow shutter-speed images had worked and despite it being after midnight, Khun Buddee and I had a quick chat at the station and he kindly agreed to sign a model-release form for me. There’s two morals for the aspiring travel photographer in that tale: 1. It’s never too late and never too early to be working and 2. Learn how to explain the concept of a “Model Release” in the local language.

Khun Buddee quickly became the centre of attention at the station tuk-tuk rank as the two of us sat in the back of the tuk-tuk completing the Model Release form. The other drivers were fascinated and he seemed delighted to have found a little local celebrity.

I hope that the Year of the Dragon brings good fortune to Khun Buddee and that you too are blessed with good luck and great light. Cheers!

P.S. If you’re interested in learning more about some of the techniques used to make the photos in this post and you live in Bangkok then check out next week’s Creative Photography Course. Saturday is full but there are one or two places open on Tuesday. See Bangkok Photo School.

Posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 at 12:37 am. Filed under: Blog, Events, My work RSS 2.0 feed.