SkyBlueSky

A Market Shot Postmortem

I have spent a fair amount of time photographing in and around Chiang Mai's Myung Mai Market. There is something about the constantly changing landscape of people and produce and the shifting light that, for me, makes for some great moments.

This singer is a regular fixture of the market but I had never seen him dressed like this in matching red sun glasses and jacket nor in such a great spot of light.  I'm thinking to myself' 'there's a photo there' but I'm not liking what I'm seeing from this angle. Way too much stuff in the back so basically he disappears in the chaos.

I'm shooting a 50mm on a full frame dSLR, so I move in a little closer (probably 3-4 ft). But still, too much clutter around him.

I move over to his right into the alley way and while jockeying with carts, trucks and other shoppers manage to get a slightly improved shot. I chimp it and see that I need to get that hot spot from the lady's orange shirt out of the frame.

A step to the right almost takes care of thehot spot but I figure if I wait a second she will likely move and the singer will be isolated. Then to my delight she does move..

..only to be replaced by people walking into the frame (just one of the challenges shooting in markets - the other is stepping in things but we'll leave that for another time). I wait a second or two and then (drum roll)..the shot I was after..the singer appearing out of the darkness into this great shaft of light..his red glasses playing off his red jacket...

 

I went to get another shot but the scene went dark. At that very moment someone put up an umbrella and the light was gone. Looking back at the camera's metadata the whole sequence start to finish took 3 minutes 55 seconds. Kind of the way it works sometimes.

Berjaya Times Square - Be there or Be..

 
Join me tomorrow October 23 at Berjaya Times Square for the Futuromic Imaging Fair. From 2pm to 3pm I will be presenting some of my work, walking through my approach to photography, and talking about my new friend the Ricoh GRD III.

 
(above lanterns in Penang. One of the images I will be showing shot with the GRD III).

 
The Futuromic Imaging Fair starts today and runs through Sunday. Plenty of photoshoot opportunities, and giveaways. You can even get your camera and lens cleaned for free!

 
If that doesn't make you smile -nothing will.

 
We'll be looking for you there. A quick note - the event will run in real time - not Malaysia time - so by 2pm October 23 we mean 2pm October 23 (got it?). Cool. See ya!

Kuching Reflections

I guess this is scanning week as sort and prepare images for an upcoming presentation in KL. I've always been fond of this image taken several years back (on Fuji Velvia) in Kuching, Sarawak. I had gone out in the late afternoon following a brief rain shower and spotted a pool of water along Kuching's main promenade. Much to the amusement of locals (really in the end that's what I'm here for) I laid on the ground to take full advantage of the reflection. I set the camera on the ground and since I was shooting fairly slow in the low light I stayed as still as possible. At one point two concerned policeman came to me to see if I was 'ok'. They walked on once I was able to demonstrate that I was alive but no doubt wondering to themselves if I had flipped a switch upstairs. When this girl came into the frame I figured I had my shot.I packed it in to the obvious relief of the two policemen that were still behind me.

A Sumatran Twofer

One of the great things about film is that each box of slides becomes its own treasure hunt. When I open any given box (most dating back 4 or more years) and don't know what I'm going to find. I shot a lot of film as part of a long term project on palm sugar production in south east Asia. I pulled these two shots out today while scanning some film for another project. This is a palm nira tapper taken in Sumatra just after the break of dawn. The image to the left is him carrying away the nira. Some of the nira is sold and turned into palm sugar but most likely it will become tuak or palm wine. Pairing the two images together was kind of a pleasant surprise.