The Goodman’s Blog: Lifelong Learning and Sharing

In street photography, you have to think on your feet. Do you shoot people from a distance or do you dare to come nearer and ask them to pose for you? 

I was coming back from a boat cruise along Chao Phraya river.  As I got nearer to my budget hotel along Khao San Road in Bangkok, I was surprised at a large crowd gathered near my hotel. I asked around and someone said that they were shooting a tourist promotion video.

Then I saw this lady whose dress was being sewn, on the spot, to hug the contours of her body. She couldn’t speak English. I asked her boss, the owner of the dance company, whether I could take some closeup shots, once her dress was fully done.

I got her approval. Through sign language, I directed this dancer on how to pose for my camera. Whenever you shoot faces, always make sure the eyes look sharp. Everything else can be blurred. After looking at the playback on my camera, I had a hunch that I would experiment further, to draw the viewer’s attention on this lady’s lovely face. I did this by converting to black-and-white the rest of the background, to remove the distraction.

The lesson here is: don’t be afraid to ask people if you can take their photo.  Once they say yes, you have their approval to follow your direction on how to pose. Then, make sure you show the playback photo to them. They will gladly pose for you again and again. 

Then, if you want your photo to be good enough for exhibition, you must learn to apply photo-editing techniques. You can eliminate distracting elements through blurring or B&W filters.

I am not a professional photographer but I have taken enough shots over the years to be street-smart. At the Kiyomizudera temple in Kyoto I spotted a group of ladies dressed up like make-believe maikos (apprentice geishas). I stopped walking to observe the way they walked and then, chucking to myself, I pressed the shutter of my Sony F707.

Although I shot them from head to foot, I knew even then that what I wanted to show was the lower half of their body in motion. By deliberately cropping out the upper half, I wanted to draw attention to the design of their kimono and the way they walked with their platform shoes. Had I shown their full bodies, then your eyes would have been focused instead on their faces, turning the image into just another souvenir shot for the album. So for those of you who are photo-amateurs, look out for the more interesting images when doing street-shooting.

Another observation was that these Japanese ladies wanted to experience the life vicariously, even for a day, of the fabled maikos and geishas. There were many Japanese tourists taking their pictures as well, knowing that these ladies were not the real McCoy.

It doesn’t matter. Everybody had fun. When these ladies get back to their hometowns and change into their normal wear, they will have pleasant memories captured with their digital cameras.

Babies are among the most difficult to photograph. They get easily distracted. You can’t tell them to sit still or to turn left, turn right, chin up, down, etc as you can with adults.

I was shooting this at a balcony, meaning I was stuck in one corner and could not move around. Her mother was holding her. I knew I had only one or two minutes to fire my shots. And so I did.

After reviewing the playback images on my camera, I knew that the best way to exhibit these was as a collage, showing her different facial expressions. I then created a digital frame, taking the colour of the frame from her lips. I used the photo-editing software, Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 (now I have moved up to Adobe CS3) to create this collage.

So, photo-enthusiasts: be creative. Think of collages even as you are taking your shots!

 By the way, she’s my first grandchild and her name is Ella.