These little finds are everywhere! Sometimes, while stumbling around from alleyway to alleyway, I appear right in the middle of these perfect little scenes.
It was very close to the National Day, and crews were out freshening-up the city. There were about four Chinese painters that were busy putting a fresh red coat of paint on this perfect little bridge. By chance, they were just finishing up as I approached. This little boat from the painters was pulled up beside the bridge in a wonderful way, so I set up my tripod along the bank for a photo.
They all looked at me in a confused way. They had no idea why I would want to take a photo of their little boat and the bridge. I imagine they find this so commonplace as to be hardly worthy of a photo… and it makes me wonder about all the non-photographers (or fans of this site) out there. Perhaps they just go through life and don’t even notice anything interesting pretty and nicely composed. What an empty visual life this must be!
On October 11th, I’ll be heading over to the Google China offices in Beijing to give a talk on art, photography, HDR, and everything in between. If you’re part of the Google team here in China, then I look forward to meeting you!
If you missed my first Google Talk at their HQ in California, just follow that link.
Daily Photo – A Lonely Night in Iceland
I was in the southern area of Iceland, only a few kilometers from the big volcano eruption. There was still a bit of ash scattered around, and I was driving down random side-roads. I made a deal with myself that I would randomly take exits off the main highway to see what I could find. This was one of those occasions.
On the way back to the highway, I saw new things. It’s hard to have a 360-degree sense of all compositions while driving. Usually my viewing cone is fully stimulated at 180 degrees while moving forward! So, moving back and forth along roads sometimes provides surprises.
I had just spent a few hours around midnight on a black-sand volcanic beach on the shore. I was the only one there, as usual. It’s very creepy, in a way, being on a gigantic black beach in the middle of the night without another car or human anywhere in sight. And I know that it is even beyond my sight for a long way because I had not seen anyone on the drive there. I listened to music and took photos all the while, of course. And on the way back, I saw this tiny lit church against some distant mountains, so I popped out for another shot.
Have you seen my SmugMug Review? I have something new to report about China – It works here! I’m still here in China, making daily updates to the blog.
Flickr is blocked here, so if I still linked my photos there, the blog would look rather boring. Now, when I meet with people here, I can easily show them everything, and it essentially opens up the blog to several hundred million more people. That’s great… and not something I really thought about before switching my main party affiliation to SmugMug.
Daily Photo – The Nikko Waterfall from Afar
I’ve been pretty lame, frankly, in finishing up my Nikon 18-200 Review. But, this is a photo that I took with that lens when I was in Japan. I wanted to show the vast range of the lens, and this is the “zoomed out” view. In coming weeks, I’ll post the “zoomed in” view, so you can see the tremendous range. Yes, it’s a cropped lens so I can’t use my full-frame, but it’s not really the end of the world. It’s light, cheap, and very flexible… these are some nice plusses!
I had never gotten to a waterfall in such a unique way! I started at the top of this thing and took an elevator DOWN, hundreds of feet. I then went through about a quarter-mile of caves to emerge at the bottom, where I got this perspective. It was really unique and messed with my whole sense of location. I’m so used to taking the elevator “up” to get somewhere interesting. I had to put on my earphones to listen to some unique music to get my bearings back before shooting this photo.
When I was in Iceland with Rebekka, she set up for one of these long-bulb jobs. There was a light rain and a few drops kept getting on her lens, and the frustration ended with a wholesale slaughter of all nearby mountain-elves.
She’s gotten over it and recently posted an article on Long-Exposure Photography over at Pixiq. Follow that link to see more of her work!
Daily Photo – The Private Library
Here we are again, continuing the Hearst Castle thread. We have so many threaded stories here, yes? It’s a bit like Lost, in that there are so many story-lines that never really get resolved. Maybe at the end, we’ll all end up in a generic church together, staring at a white light out of the doors as the camera pans up and away…
There are a few libraries inside Hearst Castle, and this is the biggest. I’ve always wanted something a little like this. Maybe it doesn’t have to be quite this large, but I’d settle for a few warm shelves full of books, a reading table, and a few servants to bring me coffee.
It’s such a small world! I was standing at this very spot below when my friend Gernot walked up and said hello! I first met Gernot at my workshop in Tokyo, and he had flown in from Shanghai. He’s an Austrian that’s been living and working in China for the past few years. In fact, besides other things, he’s just started giving motorcycle sidecar tours of the city. He’s trying to convince me to do it here in Beijing… and I’m not sure i have the time but will try!
The Forbidden City sits in the middle of Beijing along an imaginary line called “The Central Axis”. Many of the important buildings, temples, and monuments are along this line. It might seem convenient just to walk along this line to see everything you need to see, but this idea only works if you have the mobility of the Genghis Khan cavalry.
I had a delightful tea inside the Forbidden City at a secluded and secret tea house with my contacts. It all sounds somewhat cloak & dagger, doesn’t it? But this ancient tea house was so hard to find that Google Maps street view would have just shown a black starfield instead. There was a tiny and old looking building in an aged arched alleyway that had a long line of antique windows. Upon pushing on one of the windows in a certain direction, you would suddenly discover it was a door that would open into another set of richly decorated rooms. There were rich wood surfaces everywhere, each full of antiques, ornate bowls, delicate tea service, and Chinese women clad in traditional garb running about whilst preparing tea in the old way.
After spending a few hours in here getting lost and having tea, I emerged around sunset to move around the fortress area. Arriving at the corner tower just in time (and with my slight Chinese assistant buckling under the pressure of my Lowepro), I snapped off this HDR of the setting sun.
I’ve been talking about this for a long time, so I wanted to go ahead and give you some free tips for on-the-street people photography.
From various conversations, I think that photographers are REALLY interested in taking photos of people they see on the street. We can’t help it, right? Our eyes are drawn to interesting “things” — not just landscapes. And if we see an interesting person, we really want to take their photo, yes? But then, often times, we don’t even pull the camera up to our eye because we are shy, embarrassed, or think about all the horrible things that could go wrong. So, maybe these tips will help!
Look, honestly, I don’t know if these will do you any good or not. But these are some things that I personally think about. So, insofar as some of my insights are useful to me, maybe they will be useful to you too!
Even though I’m known for “landscape photography”, I actually enjoy all kinds of photography! I take hundreds of people photos, object photos, food photos, model photos, B&W photos, etc. I assume that you take many types of photography too.
1) Keep an extra camera ready for people shots. When walking the streets, I normally have my “big” (D3X) camera ready to go for city landscape shots. My tripod is on. My wide-angle is on. It’s in that “mode”. If I am going to have to switch lenses, it will take forever, and the moment will be lost. So, I carry a second camera (D3S) on a sling around my shoulder for people shots. On that camera, I have a 50mm prime lens. Now, you don’t have to have this exact setup by any means, but having ANY kind of second camera for people shots is recommended.
2) If they are clearly not looking at you and will not notice you, just start taking photos. You’re a photographer, dammit. Just do it.
3) If they ARE likely to notice you, be confident and deliberate, softly asking permission with your eyes. This is a very subtle and hard thing to explain. I usually raise my eyebrows while I raise my camera, clearly indicating, “I’m about to take a photo. Everything is okay.” If they don’t want you to, they will make it clear. Usually, they say it’s just fine. People like to be thought of as interesting.
4) If they are very close, I ask permission out loud. Often times, I don’t want them to pose… so I say something (smiling!) like, “You look very interesting — can I take a photo?” Once they say yes (98% of the time they do), I usually ask them not to pose and carry on about their business. Then I start taking a bunch of photos and enjoy the pressure of capturing the moment.
5) Don’t be shy! You’re not a 9-year-old girl.
Regarding that last one, seriously, folks, just be cool and confident with it. If you want to do it, and it feels right, just do it. Do not worry so much about rejection. Yes, you WILL get rejected 2-10% of the time depending upon how likable you are. Out of 500 people photos, I’ve been rejected maybe 10-13 times. It doesn’t bother me a bit. So what? People say no… big deal. The fact is that MOST people LOVE to have photos taken of them. To be interesting in a world of same-ness is a tremendous thing. Chances are that no one has ever taken a photo of them before, and they will feel special that you thought they were special.
Most of the time, after I take a photo and people look over at me, wondering, “Why did you just take a photo of me?” I usually say, “You look cool!” Or, “You look awesome!” Or, if they don’t speak English, I give them a thumbs up and a facial indication that I think they look cool. 99% of the time, they smile and carry on.
If you’re taking a photo of a kid, just get a steady nod from the parents before. Bend down to take the photo, look up at the parent, saying, “is it okay?” with your eyes. They’ll say yes or no… There is a significant number of moms out there that watch too much sensational news and assume that 50% of the population are pedophiles… but, maybe you’ll hit that other 50%! Again, we’re all just photographers, and if we see a cute or interesting kid, of course we want to take a photo! It’s what we do! There is no need to apologize for it!
Daily Photo – Salaryman in Tokyo
While I was in the middle of making a time-lapse sequence (see the video below the photo), I was using my D3S on a sling to take quick photos of interesting people. They were everywhere!
Behind me, waiting for the light to change, was this young salaryman. Salaryman is the Japanese word for “businessman”. That word salaryman always cracks me up for some reason. Anyway, he was this young kid, standing there in a most unassuming way in this nice suit. I spun around and grabbed a quick shot.
He looked a little confused at me after I took it. I gave him a nod of thanks, and he smiled in a surprised way then went merrily on his way.
Videos – Life in Japan
While I am busy shooting landscapes and people in Japan, I also take time to make some videos. Below are a few of them from recent past. The music from both is by the great Patrick O’Hearn (buy his stuff!). Enjoy!
I wanted to ask some of my Kiwi friends if they had a suggested website that listed rentals on the south island of New Zealand. I’m coming there with my family again for about a month. And we are probably going to get three different apartments (or homes) in three different cities for about a week or so each. Perhaps there is a trusted website where we can find some good properties?
Daily Photo – Indian Family on Motorcycle
When traveling around outside of the usual spots, I continually see entire families on motorcycles. This one is in India, but I’ve seen this all over southeast Asia as well… but don’t think I ever posted a photo!
The most I have ever seen is five people on a motorcycle from the same family. Usually two of the kids are crammed between the parents with the baby or smallest on the very front. The motorcycles are usually tiny and loud, darting in and out of traffic. These are usually very hard to photograph — I don’t dare use a flash or else I might make the dad crash the motorcycle! That would be a little too much… so I just crank up my ISO and hope for a good angle.
Don’t you hate/love that pressure-zone of the sunset? Well which one? I of course love it… but the pressure to move around and get as many good shots as possible is pretty hardcore. I plan it all out like I’m playing an RTS game. I’m constantly calculating compositions, timings, and the logistics of getting from one point to another. Every situation is different… if I am on foot, with vehicle, or on bike. It’s a period of sweet sweet high-anxiety!
Daily Photo – A Soft Evening on the Lake
Here is a situation when I had no sunset-pressure at all. It was a perfect evening and the sunset lasted for about five hours, as the slow-moving sun sank into the solstice sky.
I was driving through some dirt roads that connect Iceland to an area of fjords in the Northwest. While weaving in and out of these little roads, I saw the edge of a lake, and did a short hike to find this boat, all alone at sunset.
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