Slings are the latest Thai fashion

You know what’s great to do just before you go travelling? Breaking your shoulder. So that’s just what I decided to do! Two days before my flight to Thailand I fell over the handlebars whilst mountain biking and so I’ve had to adapt to travel with a sling and one arm… not quite what I had in mind! Unfortunately it also affects my photography as it’s an effort just to take photos and carry stuff around. Annoying but it isn’t stopping me! At least it’s a talking point and my current favourite explanations are Thai massage gone wrong or wrestling tigers to death at Tiger Temple.

Day 1

Mark

Arrived in Bangkok at 6am, jet-lagged to hell. The cheapo hotel I’d booked in advance let me check in early. It’s in a neighbourhood close to backpacker haven Khaosan Road but it’s quieter, cheaper and less touristy. I grabbed a few hours sleep but forced myself to get up so I wouldn’t make my sleep pattern any worse. My friend Mark came to meet me – he was my tour guide on my first trip to Thailand and lives in Bangkok. The daily rainstorm descended, trapping us for an hour (it’s monsoon season in SE Asia). We braved the rains to have drinks at a wee local bar hidden in an alley at Khaosan Road. I love these kind of places, just a few chairs, tiny bar, ice buckets with bottles of beer, a couple of people. In Bangkok the bars and eating joints just spring out of the street. We went for food at a nice retro bar where a musician was playing. Many bars have live music which is cool.

ISO 3200, 20mm, f/1,8, 1/60 secs

On Friday night the streets are heaving and after Mark had to go, his friend showed me around the red light district to see the seedier side of Bangkok. Some of the bars are hostess bars, just like a normal place but the girls come and sit at your table and chat to you, you pay for their drinks and you can go off with the girl or perhaps hire them as an escort depending on the girl. In Thailand these places are are pretty common, you find them in most big towns and apparently it’s pretty common for married guys to have mistresses at these places. It’s actually quite a laugh, the girls seem to enjoy themselves and they pay the bar to work there. All sorts of people were in there including tourist groups and couples.

Then we went round some of the go-go bars in “seedy square” (well, that’s what I’d call it!). It reminded me of Amsterdam’s red light district with its weird variety of visitors from groups of western guys, to couples, to lone Thai guys. There’s dancing girls on podiums with number badges (for that personal touch) so you can pick one you want to have a drink with or be whisked off to the private rooms for some Thai hospitality. Unlike British strip clubs you don’t pay to get in and the drinks aren’t much more expensive than normal.

And lets not forget the ladyboys! Dotted amongst the girls in these places they’re sometimes easy to spot, and sometimes almost impossible. Some of these ladyboys look more like a girl than some of the genuine girls up there! One guy next to us was a bit drunk, having drinks with two of the girls and couldn’t believe it when he discovered they were ladyboys, haha! Apparently the trick is to look at the arms, men’s have a different shape which gives the game away even if everything else looks genuine. Getting a taxi home was a pain, some taxi drivers don’t like taking you to places away from the tourist hubs and quote stupid prices for doing so. Rolled into bed at 4am, not the best way to cure jet lag!

The Fringe festival is in full swing and the city was packed. Street entertainers were all over the place and it was a nice change from Edinburgh’s usual streetside entertainment, drunken tramps shouting obscenities at passers by, or pipe band rejects destroying the ears of the innocent…

I was there to shop but took a few hours out to get some practice at travel photography. I got some people shots like Frankenstein here, asking permission first. For me it’s still unnatural and uncomfortable to go around asking strangers for photos but that’s something I have to work on if I want to get good travel photos. It really puts your technical skills to the test, if things aren’t set up right to begin with, they will lose interest or patience if you’re spending ages fiddling around with dials and worse, not interacting as a result.

ISO 200, 20mm, f/14, 1/60 sec, flash

I was put to the test with performer Harvey Gross here but it taught me some valuable lessons. I’d picked the location and had the camera pre-set before I asked him for some photos. But I had to use fill flash and wasn’t getting the right balance with him and the background. I couldn’t just keep him there for ages whilst I took tons of photos with different exposures so chalked it up to experience. Another thing I learned with Harvey was that although it’s great to chat with your willing victim, it’s not so good to have a bunch of otherwise decent photos ruined because your subject is in mid-speech! Next time I’ll wait till a pause or make it clear when to pose. Any tips appreciated! I also didn’t pay enough attention to the background, I could have moved to get that couple out of the shot. So inconsiderate of them 😉

ISO 160, 45mm, f/11, 1/40 sec, tripod

I was there during golden hour and after trampsing through the city looking for good shots I appreciated the advice given in the travel photography books I’d read: do your research beforehand. A lot of my time was wasted just looking for stuff the golden light was hitting before it rapidly vanished. The Scott Monument here caught the light nicely. With some research beforehand I could have planned out a better place to photograph it from. A wrecking ball to take out Princes Street behind it would do the trick.

It’s a dilemma I’m going to face on my travels. By researching all the sights beforehand it takes the wonder away from seeing something new and finding things yourself. Hopefully I can reach a compromise.

ISO 160, 23mm, f/10, 1/13 sec, tripod

I also got plenty of opportunities to use my trusty tripod. It feels pretty weird setting it up on the pavement but again I need to get used to it! The shop above was quite dark and using the tripod let me capture it with a decent light, plus the movement of the people. I had to wait until a break in the traffic too. A bus going through it doesn’t really help much, trust me.

The day was a good experiment for my bag setup. After two hours of walking around with a shoulder bag containing camera stuff, tripod and laptop, I realised I will cripple myself if I  walk around all day with all the weight on one shoulder. I’ll have to take a backpack for my tripod trips with a sling bag for quick cam access. The two bag wonder, oh god.

So, a lot learned. Not long to go now! Here’s my bobby for you (only dirty Scots will get this joke…)

ISO 200, 20mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec

ISO 160, f/10, 31mm, 1/15 secs, tripod, manual focus

Inspired by a Practical Photography video on still life, I experimented with this wooden mushroom with a variety of backgrounds. I don’t have any fancy lighting equipment so I had to hold a desk lamp in place and find things to prop up the backgrounds. And in the shot above, the “things” were actually my sister and my mum…

For many of my shots, the strong light from the desk lamp was harsh and left sharp highlights as you can see above. In the first shot, the lighting was too flat (maybe because it was far away?) and the background (a waistcoat) wasn’t big enough to fill out the frame with that pattern placement. In the second photo here, I’ve actually changed the background colour in Lightroom from yellow that to help the mushroom stand out. Although I like the shadow, the mushroom doesn’t stand out from the background enough on the left, the tones are too similar.

ARGH!

Actually I found this photography frustrating and stressful. Where do I begin? Having to hold lots of things at awkward angles, slightest movements knocking your shots out, Constant readjustment of tripod and camera angle, out of focus shots, most shots looking flat and uninteresting, uninspiring backgrounds…. it all wound me up and made the experience feel like a lot of effort for little reward. The Practical Photography guy made it look easy, though he had a proper soft light and a top-down angle on his subject, plus experience! Perhaps when I’m wiser and more experienced I will enjoy this kind of photography more? Also I’m not sure if my lens choice was correct. 18-45mm at the far zoom end? I could have used my 80-200mm (which would have meant being half way across the room to get it in shot), or my 20mm pancake which would have been harder for framing.

ISO 160, 34mm, f5.5, 1/125 sec, tripod, manual focus

In the end the best images came from shining the light through art paper, naturally bouncing up to light the mushroom from below. I increased the exposure in Lightroom to show more under the mushroom cup, also adding contrast and boosting shadows to add drama. Although I didn’t realize my original vision (mushroom in a green landscape!),  instead I discovered something far more interesting which made the shoot worthwhile once I saw it on the big screen! Mushrooms from hell!

If anyone has any thoughts or advice about still life photography, especially if you’ve found frustration like me, or want to talk about my lens choice – please leave a comment!