Street Market Photography

As I’ve been traversing the “travel photography blogosphere” I’ve stumbled across this post from Ailsa and decided to put together a quick post on some of the other travels I’ve taken throughout the last several years.

The idea behind this is “Street Markets.”  When Adriana and I travel, we make sure to spend a lot of timing walking through the markets, perusing the souvenirs and learning a bit more about the culture of the place.  Needless to say, some markets are more interesting than others.  I remember being particularly amazed by the Floating Market in Thailand during our honeymoon several years back.  

When looking through my old photos and the many market snaps I had, the next group that caught my eye were the ones from Istanbul in Turkey.  Such an incredible city and my wife and I had a field day walking through the massive souks that they have.  This was a great experience and we learned a lot walking through the markets, bargaining with the carpet salesmen, and perusing the myriad of things they had for sale.  I love the picture below, of the “Turkish Eye” or “Nazars” that they had for sale.  I took this picture from the bottom up to get a more interesting composition.

We eventually ended up buying a small, authentic carpet from the salesmen here.

The markets in Asia and the Middle East are simply incredible, and most of my street market photos are from those locations.  On our trip to Israel, and in Jerusalem in particular, I simply loved the layout of the old city and could imagine the ancient inhabitants as I walked through the cobble-stoned streets.

We also took a trip to Dubai for Adriana’s b-day.  One of my favorite street market pics here is of a series of lights that we saw swaying in a souk.

My most memorable (and potentially most disgusting pictures) is of this guy in India, using his hand to test the goats milk that he’s about to buy.  Yummy!

One of the places I’d always wanted to visit is Nepal.  On the same trip to India, we spent over a week hiking around Annapurna in the Himalayas.  The people of Nepal are just incredibly nice and the country is stunning – I hope that I have the opportunity to return many times throughout my life.  I particularly like the picture below, but the next one of my wife looking over the items is another favorite as well.

We’ve also hit the markets of Egypt, which is my opening picture and one of my favorites of the bunch.

As we move further west we get into Europe – we’ve travelled pretty much everywhere in Europe and truth be told I find many of the “street markets”, at least in Western Europe, to be very similar.  However that doesn’t mean it’s not interesting to look at the wares they have for sale – I personally get a chuckle out of how salesmen sell the souvenirs for which they’re known, but I have to say I’d be doing the same thing in their shoes!

Below you see some of the European photos from Pisa, Romania (which funny enough was one of my very first posts on this blog), and also Prague with the famous astronomical clock(s).

Finally I leave you with a teaser.  That’s right – if there is such a thing, I leave you with a  Street Market Teaser!  This is one of my favorite photos from a Christmas Market (this was taken in Munich).  Christmas Markets are a whole different animal, and I have a billion (yes, that’s right, put your finger on your lips and say “billion” like Dr. Evil) pictures from Christmas Markets.  My wife was sneaky enough to not inform me before we got married that she’s an absolute freak about Christmas markets (and therefore ornaments) so as we get closer to December I’ll spend some time sharing our random Christmas Market and ornament collection.

Hope you enjoyed this collection.  Most of the links above will take you to my Flickr photos, but I also have my more formal portfolio on SmugMug if you’d like to have a gander (and speaking of markets, those photos are for sale!)  Finally, I also have links to some recent posts that have some interesting market photos, particularly Tunisia and Kiev.  I’ve also taken a recent trip to China, with several interesting photos of the markets in the major cities. Please take a look and thanks again to Ailsa for organizing this – a great idea!

I’ll be travelling for a period of time, heading to Namibia to get some shots of the Namib desert, Skeleton Coast and take a safari.  I’m also hoping to have my first legit crack at star trails photography and am really looking forward to some great posts when I return.

Until then, keep taking pics!

Travel Photography at the Great Wall of China

When we were planning our trip to China (including stops in Singapore and Bali) we had a lot of new and amazing sites to see.  But for me, they all paled in comparison to the Great Wall of China.  My anticipation throughout the entire trip was palpable; it was indeed a case of saving the best for last.

There are various areas of the Great Wall that I’d expect you to research before planning a visit; we wanted to make sure we got some good pictures of this UNESCO World Heritage Site, so we went to two different sections of the wall – the North Pass section near Badaling, which is arguably the most famous part of the wall, and also an area known as Mutianyu, which is east of Badaling.  At the bottom of this post I’m including a very general map that I found along with a link to the agency that describes the areas in a bit more detail if you’re planning a trip.  The Great Wall is ancient, and it’s true that what you’re seeing at Badaling and Mutianyu are reconstructions.  For those of you that are gung ho and have the time, you can explore some very remote areas of the wall where you can see how nature is slowly overtaking the ancient stone.

Before I get to the photos, I have to mention very briefly the adventure we had in getting there.  We wanted to take a train to Badaling from Beijing on our own.  Yes, that’s right – no tour guide, no nothing.  We arrived at the Beijing North train station at crazy o’clock in the morning, trying to figure out how to buy a train ticket to Badaling.  No one spoke a word of English, we waited in a confusing line that didn’t move – I truly felt like an alien on the planet Earth.

After hours of frustrating failure, we didn’t want to lose the day so we hired a driver at the last minute to take us to Mutianyu first.  It was less than 2 hours from Beijing and when we arrived it was a bit strange.  First of all we were the only ones there – I’m not kidding.  There was no one around.  And for some reason it also didn’t “feel” like the Great Wall of China. I guess when you spend 30 years of your life hearing about the place and then arrive to an empty parking lot, the brain does a bit of a double-take.  Is this really the Great Wall of China?  Like, THE Great Wall, the thing that’s supposedly visible from space?  (It’s not by the way).

We got over this strange feeling and proceeded to walk the wall, taking some great pictures of the emptiness and vast expanse of the Chinese countryside.  And after being there for a while, we were thrilled to have the entire wall to ourselves.

The area around Mutianyu is mountainous, so I tried to make sure the background scenery showed in the photos.  In the picture below I leaned outside the wall to get a glimpse of it as it rounded the corner.  It gave a little different perspective than some of the other shots.

You can walk for maybe a mile and a half on the wall.  At the western end of Mutianyu there’s a massive hill.  You can see a glimpse of it in the background of some pictures below.

Can you see what I mean by the steep gradient in the back of the pictures above?  Here’s a zoom of two poor souls hoofing their way up to the top.

Don’t get me wrong – we’re not lazy, and I debated walking up there to get a shot back of the wall.  However it was getting to be late morning and I would have been shooting straight into the sun.  So we decided to not go all the way to the top.  Looking back I took a few pictures directly into the sun.  The one below is the first shot in the panorama that I put together.

I also took a few other photos and processed them slightly differently, giving them an older, darker look.  I particularly like the one below where I used a wider aperture to blur the background a bit.

Although it didn’t feel right when we first arrived, Mutianyu definitely delivered!  I’m very happy with the pictures that we took and it was great to be the only ones there!

Our second day we made another attempt to take a train to Badaling, and this time with the help of some friendly Japanese girls we were able to get a ticket and take a train to Badaling.  This is not for the feint of heart.  In hindsight taking the train was probably more trouble than it’s worth but Adriana in particular was determined to do it, and we ultimately succeeded!

Once there – it “felt” like the Great Wall!  Tourists were everywhere, people out selling a wide assortment of souvenirs, and family photographers were hugely abundant.  The structure of the wall at Badaling is slightly different than at Mutianyu.  The stone seemed a little more grey than the earthen toned wall at Mutianyu.  But both sites were worth visiting and after going to Badaling I was really pleased that we’d also seen Mutianyu.

Upon arriving at Badaling, the image below is the first you can take as you step off the chairlift.  You then walk to the right and proceed down the steps that you’re looking at here.

You may or may not notice that I’ve processed these photos above a bit differently. While looking them over on my computer I started to experiment with giving these pictures a dreamy look. So instead of bumping the clarity slider to the right, which I normally do for most of my photos, I moved it to the left on a lot of the Badaling photos. This creates an ever so slight “glow” for the pictures and I quite like the effect.

I also took several pictures sort of “hanging over” the side of the wall; this seemed to be more effective at Badaling for me, I think the wall twists and turns a little bit more and has a slightly more interesting formation than the wall at Mutianyu.

Finally, I took the picture above which I processed differently again.  I put the picture in Photoshop, used a saturation slider to take out all of the color and then masked over the people walking on the wall.  I was trying to accentuate the size and magnitude of the wall and yet still highlight the tourists.  Popping color can be really overdone but on occasion it’s a nice effect.

And of course I needed to include a good old fashioned HDR.  Actually several of these photos are HDR but I’m purposely processing them a bit differently so it’s not incredibly obvious.  Lately I’m getting a little tired of the look in the photo above but I did like the way this one turned out.

So what did I learn?  Here’s a few thoughts and tips on photography at the Great Wall of China.

1. Get there early or stay late.  Light is always key.  For us we were fortunate to be there in winter, so the sun is always a little less harsh and the shadows are a bit longer.  At both locations we were there fairly early in the morning and had beautiful days.  But only Mutianyu was void of people.  There are of course other areas of the Great Wall; we only saw two.
2. Be ready to walk.  Particularly at Badaling the wall is almost slippery in some places.  If it was raining or snowing it would be downright treacherous.
3. UV and Polarizing filters.  I didn’t have these with me and I wish I had.  The blue skies really were beautiful and using a polarizer would have really strengthened the contrast of the pictures.
4. Capture scale.  From a composition perspective I tried to do two things.  I wanted to always show the size and length of the Great Wall.  This structure is infamous for being “visible from Space” so people looking at these photos will want to see you prove it.  I tried to do this by making sure I used the wall as a leading line to show the length and scale.  I also, on occasion, used people to make this point.  This is especially true in the B&W photo with the color pop and the picture of the couple climbing up the massive incline.
5. Foreground interest.  This is a tough one and honestly it’s not something I did well. Hence I want to mention it.  Lots of people go the great wall and do their best to capture the overall scene (basically my point above).  However if there’s not a focal point to the image, lots of those pictures will be quickly glossed over.  So do your best to include a watchtower, tree, or friend/family in the pictures composition to differentiate it from one of the many “normal snapshots” that are taken everyday.

There are a few photos from my trip that I’m selling on SmugMug. You can choose the print size and format, pricing information can be found by clicking on each individual thumbnail.

Below I’m including a map that I found; clicking will link to the website where it’s used.  It gives some additional information on the locations that we visited.  Note that we didn’t use this group or agency or whatever they are so I have no idea if they’re good at what they do….I just liked the map.  

I hope you find this write-up both entertaining and useful.  Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to respond!

Paparazzi for a day – and catching Secret Service staring at Joan Collins butt….

I know I’m a wannabe “travel photographer” but the truth is I just like to take photos.  I take photos of pretty much anything.  So yesterday as I was coming home from work, I saw an opportunity and decided to roll with it.

There were a bunch of people hanging out around the “back entrance” to Waterloo, and this is normally how I walk home.  When I asked what was going on, there was an event at the Old Vic Tunnels where Bill Clinton and some other celebs were attending a party hosted by Gwyneth Paltrow.  There were tons of people around, lots with big cameras, and of course I felt a need to fit in.  I ran home, grabbed my camera and ran back up.  I waited patiently for a while, anxiously looking forward to these people showing up so I could shove my camera in their face and take pictures of them.  Should be easy, right?

First things first, I don’t really “know” famous people.  Adriana watches E News and I can’t stand it.  Half of the people seem famous for no reason other than they’re on TV, which has to be one of the biggest dichotomies of all time.  So I just sorta started snapping pictures of random people in the hope they were famous.  Most of them weren’t, but I thought for a split second that I got this picture below of the Princess (Kate Middleton) until I realized of course it’s not Kate and just some random chick with a guy hoping to get lucky.

The big celeb everyone was waiting for was Bill Clinton.  There were secret service officers everywhere, and you could sense the tension mounting a little bit as the cops stood at attention. Bill stepped out of a black minivan and promptly walked straight into the Old Vic Tunnels.  And I got this great picture of the back of his head below.  What’s that?  You can’t see it?  Look closely – to the left of the door man.  Yeah, the guy that looks like he should be a caretaker at Hogwarts…..

But I have to say my favorite picture had to be Joan Collins.  This lady has been around for ages, and is actually a celebrity that I legitimately recognize.  Like everyone else, I tried to take some pictures of her. When I was reviewing them late last night I had a real chuckle.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that secret service guy in the back is staring at her 80 year old butt.  And I would even say he’s got a sly smile on his face!! 🙂

Even at 80, if you’ve got it, flaunt it!

On an entirely separate topic, I’m also posting a new page (which doesn’t generate an email, so I’m telling you here) on how I manage my photos.  Now this isn’t a terribly exciting topic if you don’t take a ton of photos, but I wanted to share my system.  I take LOTS of pictures when I go on holiday, and this is my method to sort through them, clean out the bad ones, and organize them according to which ones go to Flickr, Blog, etc.

Anyway, you can check out the page above under tutorials or simply click here.

Travel Photography in Beijing – Beihai Park and the Temple of Heaven

I’m closing in on finishing the series of posts on China, with Beijing being our final destination.  I’ve already given a description and some thoughts on photography in the Forbidden City, and my closing post will be on the Great Wall of China.  But there are some other sites to see in Beijing, so I wanted to have an interim post to discuss two of the other famous photo-worthy locations in China – Beihai Park and the Temple of Heaven.

Beihai Park is located north-west of the Forbidden City; it’s essentially a Chinese garden, famous for it’s white Dagoba sitting atop an island in the middle of a lake.  We went to Beihai park in the late afternoon.  Although the overall park is open till 8:00, the White Pagoda closes at 5:00 and as a result we were really rushed to get some good pictures from the top (in fact we got kicked out as I was frantically setting up my tripod!)

As you enter the Jade Flowery Islet (by crossing this bridge) you can see the White Dagoba in the distance.  Upon entering through the gate we were confronted by an enormous collection of red ornaments, hanging in the trees.  There was writing on these but I’m afraid to say my ability to read Chinese is not what it used to be, so I have no idea what they said.  I took numerous pictures here as there were so many options.  I wanted to give a sense of place but also create a repeating pattern to show the sheer number of ornaments.

As we came through the red ornaments you walk up another flight of stairs heading towards the famous White Dagoba.  In the image below I framed the stairs with the gate and the overhanging tree canopy.

As I said, we unfortunately ran out of time when we got to the top as they were just closing the Dagoba.  They do have some repeating patterns of these praying monks that I took below – this is a basic composition of repeating figures with a leading line fading into the distance.  Finally you can see a snap that I took the of the White Dagoba itself.  The sun was setting and the light was nice, but once you get up there you’re smack on top of the thing so it’s not easy to get a good picture.

As is usually the case when out traveling in a foreign city, you live and learn.  Beihai Park is a nice little park; a great environment to walk around and enjoy the scenery.  I do think that if we’d had more time you can get some good images from the top of the pagoda of the surrounding area.  To the east is Jingshan Hill, another location where you can get some good pictures overlooking the Forbidden City.  If you’re going solely to get a better view of the Forbidden City, I think Jingshan Hill is a better option than Beihai Park.

On another day in the evening we went to the Temple of Heaven.  This place is just beautiful, and we had great, great light in the late afternoon.  It was pretty busy while we were there, but we hung around long enough for the majority of people to leave and get some good pics.

While arriving at the site, they had these big, red hanging lanterns in preparation for the Chinese New Year celebration.  They provided a great opportunity for different compositions, in many ways similar to the red ornaments hanging in the entry to Beihai Park.

As I said the light was really good; I’m particularly pleased with the picture at the top of the post but I took a few others that you can see below.  The first was taken with the dragon engraving in the foreground; this is located on the middle of the stairway as you head up to the main landing.  The second photo is taken on the platform so that I was level with the Temple.

While we were there we wanted to get the all important picture of us!  So as we usually do we exchanged cameras, took a few shots and then eventually setup the tripod to get a picture of the two of us in front of the famous landmark.  I know I don’t spend enough time discussing this but I think it’s absolutely critical to take pictures of you and your family while you’re there.  I love taking pictures and capturing these incredible landmarks from all over the world, but at the end of the day it’s great to have pictures of you and your loved ones.  As you grow older these are the pictures that will remind you not just what it was like to be there, but also what YOU were like when you were there.

As always, a few select images (non watermarked of course) from this trip are for sale. If you’d like to take a look and purchase you can click on the thumbnails below.

Exploring Tunisia – Sidi Bou Said and Ancient Carthage

As usual, Adriana made sure we took advantage of the long weekend in the UK.  We had Monday off, so flew out Friday evening for a holiday in Tunisia.  We had tickets for a trip last year, but ended up having to cancel just as the Arab Spring was getting started.  So it’s been on our list for quite some time and I’m pleased to say it didn’t disappoint!

We had three major objectives – we first wanted to see Sidi Bou Said, the famous blue and white city in northern Tunisia, about 20 km out from Tunis.  Then, being fanatics for ancient ruins, we wanted to see the remains of Carthage which is right down the road.  And our third objective was to simply relax.  I’m happy to say that all three objectives were met, but I only took pictures of the first two 🙂

We started with Sidi Bou Said – we took a bus from our hotel (which was it’s own adventure) and walked through the main area of the city, heading towards Cafe des Nattes, shown below.  I was fortunate to capture this image as a girl was getting her picture taken; she was dressed perfectly for the occasion.  The pink is a great compliment to the blue, I only wish I had more time to compose the image more effectively.

The city is incredible – the walls are stark white stucco, with all trim, windows and doors painted in a bright blue.  We had a day with white clouds and blue skies, perfectly complimenting the colors of the city.

When we first arrived in the main area of the town, I was greeted by this incredible blue door with this local man sitting beside it, shown above.  I asked if I could take his picture and he simply smiled and nodded.

As we walked throughout the city I was obviously struck by the doors – they’re such a bright blue and the color scheme is striking.  I tried to capture the doors with the white clouds and blue skies as much as possible.

I also wanted to capture the stairs and footpaths of the city that lead to the doors; I did this in the images above and below.  Compositionally it captures a little bit of that “wonder what’s around the next corner” thought.  The picture below also has a birdcage; this is one of those strange things the city is also known for.  Apparently canaries are held in high regard and there were a great many souvenir birdcages for sale throughout the city.

While walking around the place, I also took several pictures of the various markets with the vendors selling their goods. I just love markets in North Africa and the Middle East – they are so full of unique trinkets including jewellery, plates, hookahs, and everything else you can think of.  I particularly like the picture below of the merchant smiling – this was taken as he was trying to sell a piece of jewellery to a passing tourist – judging by the smile, I think he succeeded.  In my opinion this picture is made by the shallow depth of field; the foreground trinkets are blurred and the focus is squarely on the man smiling, drawing your eye into the image.

We also found a small house where you can pay to go in and walk around; we paid like 3 dinars to enter and spent some time checking out the small complex and garden.  I love the picture that I took of this door through the dark hallway.  Again I think it draws the viewer into the frame and the darkness accentuates the blue door on the white wall.  Darkness can be used as a great negative space and I cropped it with this purpose in mind.

This little house tour was also where I captured my opening image at the start of the post – we were allowed to go on the roof of the building and get a good picture of the surrounding rooftops.

Finally it was time to eat; after talking to some locals we figured out where this cafe was, pictured below.  It’s a bit difficult to find, it’s essentially behind the more famous Cafe des Nattes.  It’s called the Cafe des Delices and the view is pretty awesome (although the food and prices leave something to be desired).  At the bottom of the hill you get a view of the marina.

After visiting Sidi Bou Said, the next day we spent a few hours in Carthage, the ancient Phoenician city that challenged Rome for dominance of the Mediterranean 2000 years ago.  The city had been sacked numerous times, so unfortunately the ruins weren’t as impressive as I’d hoped.  Furthermore most of what exists today is Roman, and not Phoenician or Punic.

There are two primary sites to see (although there are others).  We spent time at the Roman Villas and the Antonine Baths, the latter being the most famous ruin there.  The Roman Villas have some great mosaics that are well preserved, including a dark hallway where they’ve safely stored many of the mosaics.  I took the image below with a shallow depth of field and used the hallway as a leading line.

When we left the Roman villas our next stop was the Antonine Baths, or what’s left of them.  These were pretty impressive to see but I really struggled with composition (and it didn’t help that we there in the noon day sun, so the light wasn’t great).

I took the picture above of Adriana at the end of this tunnel.  This is a picture that’s rather difficult to expose for and one of the few times that I’ll use something called Spot metering.  This basically lets the camera use a very small area (a.k.a. a spot) to determine what settings will properly expose for that “spot”.  If I didn’t use spot metering here, the tunnel would be properly exposed but Adriana, the blue sky and the columns would be completely blown out.

The pictures below were also taken at the Antonine Baths.  The first I used again a relatively shallow DoF (Depth of Field) to get the stone in focus in the front and then a slight blur of the columns in the back.  The second I captured the natural marble texture of the fallen column.

That’s it for the Tunisia pics!  I will note that this was also a trip that I started experimentation with video on my DSLR.  I’ve got a long way to go (and apparently a stabilizer to buy, as everything is so jittery you’d get nauseous watching it) but I’ll probably try to post a video soon to share what I learn.  I also have a few tutorials in the works but I wanted to share these pictures from Sidi Abu Said in particular as soon as possible.

I’ve also posted the whole range of pictures from the trip on Flickr if you’d like to get a wider view of what images I took.  I hope that you get some ideas for your own photography from this and use this write-up as a tool to take some great pictures while on holiday in Tunisia!

Photography in the Forbidden City – Beijing, China

Ah!!  Beijing!!

What a great, great city!  Adriana and I arrived in Beijing after visiting the terracotta warriors in Xian.  We were fortunate with good weather while we were there, albeit cold. The Forbidden City, also known as the Forbidden Palace, was built in the early 15th century.  The buildings are incredible – and it’s just the kind of place that I really enjoy taking pictures.  Once I’m in a closed off area like this (there’s a small admission fee) I feel like I’m in my element.  It’s just great to walk around and have the freedom to take pictures of whatever you want in such a unique environment.

We begin with the main gate and entry at Tiananmen Square.  This is where the Chinese soldiers are guarding the entry to the Forbidden Palace, with a large photo of Chairman Mao hanging on the gate.  The photo below is a pretty classic and basic composition – guard in focus in the foreground with the background giving a sense of place.  Aperture was set to f/6.3 to create enough blur but plenty of detail to recognize Mao.

As you enter, this is the site you see:

This is an 11 picture panorama.  I set my camera to manual, set the exposure (meaning the aperture, shutter speed and ISO) as well as the white balance, and took 11 vertical shots from left to right.  No tripod, no nothing.  When I got back I put the photo into Photoshop and it merged the image, which I then cropped and adjusted.  It came out pretty well for a handheld shot.  Click here for a larger version.

As I entered the site I was really struck by the architecture.  The curving lines of the buildings, the circular, repeating structures on the roofs and the exquisite carvings all created an incredible atmosphere.  Instead of taking standard clicks of the buildings I found myself trying to get more interesting compositions of these aspects.

I chose to process the last picture here slightly different from the others.  Instead of adding a little vibrance and saturation, I did the opposite.  I took away some of the color to give it a more ancient look.  While many photographers strive to create their own style, I prefer to mix things up and keep people guessing!

In addition to being struck by the flowing architecture, there were also a lot of guards around.  These guys were standing stoically, watching the crowds with barely a move.

When shooting photos in a place like this I also like to get a variety of images.  Instead of just getting the buildings, I like to make sure I capture the detail of the place.  Taking close up pictures of the incredible sculptures and carvings can really give a sense of place. And for me personally, it helps me to remember what it was like to actually be there.  We’ve all seen pictures of the Forbidden Palace, but the pictures below strive to be different from the norm to give the viewer a more personal sense of the place.

In line with the details, I wanted to make sure I also captured the interior of some of the more famous buildings that are on the “main drag” of the complex.  These were challenging to take – there were people everywhere, crowding in to take a picture.  When I confront a situation like this I make sure that my camera is set appropriately (right lens, Av mode) and then wait patiently until I get a center spot.  Once I get that center spot I’ll take a few quick snaps and then get out of the way so that others can have a look. These pictures are HDR, due to the tricky interior lighting and the fact that …. well, I like to take some HDR pics!

The above is the throne in the Palace of Heavenly Purity, one of the larger and more important buildings in the Forbidden City.

The picture above is another famous building, the Hall of Preserving Harmony.

I also wanted to ensure I got whole buildings, so you could get a sense of scale and understand their overall shape and how large they are compared to their surroundings.  Of course my favorites of this group are the ones with my beautiful wife!

The picture below I edited in Silver Efex and made it completely black and white.  I really like the couple walking together with the buildings in the background – it gives an excellent sense of scale and tranquility.

I also like this one – it gives that same strong sense of Asian architecture with the tubular roofs and flowing gables, but also includes the beautiful white Stupa in the background.  This is known as the Miaoying Temple and yes, we visited it as well!  Pictures to come in a future post!

 The next photos I have to guess, I’m not entirely sure which building this is but I think it’s the Hall of Supreme Harmony.  I really like the picture of the building as the colors complement each other very well.

On the photo above you’ll notice at the edges how the gables flare out to the sides.  On top of them there’s a collection of figurines, or charms.  One of the things we learned while reading about the site was that the more figurines a building has, the more important the building.  I snapped a picture of these as well, shown below.

To the north of the Forbidden Palace is Jingshan Hill.  Below you see a picture of the building on top of the hill; the view down on the Palace is one of the best views in the city, which is the opening picture of this post.

All in all, we had a wonderful time in the Forbidden City.  If you get a chance to go, I would say you need over half a day to really get to see everything and not feel like you’re rushing through it.  If you’re a history buff or architecture junkie, you could probably spend more than a day on site.

Below is a Google Satellite image of the site.  We entered from the south and then walked north, which is what you pretty much have to do.  We were there in winter and I can honestly say the light was pretty good the whole time; the shadows weren’t too harsh.

I hope you enjoyed looking at these pics and it gives you a better idea of how you can capture some memorable images from your visit.  We really had a wonderful time exploring the site, taking pictures, and soaking in the history from one of China’s great historical locations.  Any comments and constructive criticism is welcome and if you’re interested in purchasing any of these photos as postcards or prints, you can do so here.  And if you’d like to see more images of our visit to the Forbidden Palace, you can check out my Flickr photostream where I post a wider collection of photos.

Until next time, hope you get some good pictures and for my UK friends enjoy the long weekend!

3 Tips for Family Photography – Round 2

In one of my recent posts I shared some pictures that I took with my friends Grant and Nicky and gave 5 tips for a family photoshoot.  A couple weekends ago I went out for “round two” and took some new images with my friends Gavin and Sophie.  Their son, let’s call him B, is a bit younger than Grant and Nicky’s son so although there were many similarities to my last outing, there were also some significant differences.

Before I continue writing, I feel the need to tell you something about myself – I’m not a parent.  I’m sure that time will come some day but I wanted to get that out there, because I’m sure there will be mother’s and father’s reading my revelations on child behaviour and they’ll be rolling their eyes thinking “is this guy an idiot?”  Well, when it comes to real life experience with kids, the answer is yes.  For example, one of the things that became obvious is that age can make a pretty big difference.  If B is a year old and A is 18 months, those additional six months can have an impact on the types of photos you’ll be able to take as far as what they’ll be doing, how long they’ll be doing it, etc.

Anyway, back to the actual shoot.  On Sunday I went to meet Gavin and Sophie with my lovely assistant (and wife) Adriana.  B was just up from his nap, a little grumpy but was soon smiling as we started walking outside and went to the park.  He was just getting close to being able to walk, so he was constantly walking around pushing this little toy – looked to me like he was practicing mowing the lawn!  He also really enjoyed pushing a little toy truck that he had, so I made sure to get some pictures of that.

I’ll share with you a few things I learned from this shoot, in addition of course to what I picked up in my previous one.

1) Smile, smile, smile – If there was one thing that I wanted to make sure I got a picture of, it was B smiling.  He had a habit of sticking his tongue out when he was happy; not sticking it all the way out but sort of licking his lips in excitement.  I succeeded in getting several of these, but wish that I had captured more.  While I may be thinking a lot about composition, aperture and all kinds of other things the most important without a doubt is to capture the moments in time that will put a smile on faces in the years to come.  Take photos of happiness.

2) Don’t disrupt the flow – I also got some good pictures of the family spending time together; without a doubt the pictures that are keepers are the ones that are more natural.  If B is having fun and enjoying his day, then it’s best to just get the parents involved in whatever he’s doing and include them in the action, instead of dragging him to a sitting position and trying to pose a shot.  I don’t like being dragged away from my toys for no good reason – he doesn’t either!  Here are some group shots – you can see what worked and what didn’t, but my favorite is the opening shot at the top of the post.  I included the bottom shot taken with a wide angle lens to give you a taste of the good and the bad – in that instance B didn’t really want to sit on the bench and his temporary grumpiness was beginning to show!

3) Get to his level – I tried on a few occasions to get down to B’s level.  To get his view of the world and have the camera capture the day through his eyes.  This is challenging, and as usual some pictures were better than others.  I particularly like this first one with the out of focus grass in the foreground that leads the eye into the frame, with B at the center.  Some of the others I like the composition but failed in achieving sharp focus, something that will improve in time.

Overall it was a successful day, albeit much shorter than my first family shoot.  We spent less than two hours on the whole day taking pictures, and half that time was grabbing a bite to eat for lunch.  So there was definitely more time pressure, and again that has to do with the age of the child.  Younger kids tend to get grumpier quicker and need to be fed and take naps more often, so it’s important to make use of the time you have.  Compared to my first shoot I took less than half the pictures.

Hope you find this useful when taking some photos of your own family, next post we’ll be heading back to China (finally) for the Forbidden Palace!