Photograph Street Markets.

Markets are fascinating places to photograph and are always on my shot list wherever I go. They are often places where you get a real glimpse of the local, everyday life and make for fantastic photo opportunities. However, the low light conditions and busy atmosphere can make photographing markets somewhat challenging.

Read more: Digital Photography School

A very good day this morning .While shop for fruits and vegetable at Sunday street market, I have a chance to practice my street photography too.The main objective of my photography to-day is to highlight the ability of the camera to freeze a moment of time. Combining the two, the nature of “street photography” and the stillness of photographs, I was aiming at capturing interesting moment in daily life. For this reason I choose to take photos in crowed places (Satok Sunday market) so there will be more opportunity to find interesting moment of people. Also more people mean more interactions and connections between them. These are other elements that I thought would be very important for successful street photography.

Below are few of the photos taken this morning in the street market in Kuching,Sarawak.

all the above photos taken with Panasonic Lumix LX3.

Street Photography – Unethical Or Misunderstood?

Street Photography is one of the most controversial genres in the art of photography. Some have even described it as unethical.Being a Street Photographer myself I believe that all in all we get a pretty bad press from the public and sometimes even other photographers claiming it’s wrong to photograph strangers without permission.To read or view more on Street Photography just lock on to http://www.sevenbyfive.net/photos/street-photography-unethical-or-misunderstood/.
Below are few photos from my recent street photography outing in Kuching,Sarawak.

 By photographing random passersby, you can see the normal,feeling emotions and actions of the general population. The results can be unique and quite fascinating.

Street Life.

Everyday, thousand of people go about their daily lives on the street, and most go largely unnoticed as they carry out their daily tasks and errands. Only a small handful are featured on the news or in photographs, and they tend to be celebrities,VIP and superstar.Street photography is indeed an interesting field. There are so many things that could be seen there. Different kinds of people roam around the streets even on ordinary days.There are so many interesting subjects that you can try. There are different kinds of people on the streets and each one of them could create a different story once you take a photo of them.
In this post, we’ve collected some  photographs of street life in Sarawak.

Why My Street Photos Suck.

When it comes to street shooting photography you’ll never find a more interesting subject to shoot than the people you find there.Humans are hardwired to want to tell and listen to stories. And when you use your camera to capture the actions of people on the street, you’re creating a photograph that tells a story.Read more about Street photography  HERE

I shoot crowds and wanted to shoot candid at two young ladies and suddenly this uncle enter the frame.

The ice cream man.“He will totally see me. I gotta snap fast.”  It’s THE FEAR again – but now you have some time. You can compose, focus – wait for the shot.

 Yes, fear ruins a lot of opportunities if you let it. (And that´s what scares me  The only way to get over it is to keep working the streets. Shoot a lot and do it often. If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enoug say Robert Capa.

I take lots of crap pictures, but at least I enjoy doing so!

 I end up with a lot of generic, dispassionate, “from a distance” photos.Robert Capa was right. Up close and intimate – especially with wider perspective tends to bring a sense of immediacy and intimacy to a photo.

 But the problem for some people is – how do you do candid street shooting photography of strangers without freaking out or getting scared? Learn your rights and rules then give street photography a try.

What Catches My Eye?.

To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” – Elliott Erwitt.

 To me, street photography means taking the moment and just watching with your camera as events unfold around you. The secret to great street photography, however, lies in being unobtrusive. I prefer to work alone, and I am familiar enough with my trusty camera to be able to aim in the general direction of my subject and shoot without looking.Now, let see what catches my eye around the old part of the city.

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Crossing

Display

Walking alone

City Parking.

Cleaning in progress.

Street reflection.

 

 

A Walk With My Camera.

There are days when I just want to keep to myself and enjoy my street photography.  I also wanted a fresh perspective on the people I see and not be burdened by their personal stories.

Under different circumstances, unemployment could be much higher.

 This senior citizen asked to be photographed, and thanked me after I took a snap.  I don’t think he wanted a copy of his photograph; he was making a statement.

A wonderful world of public transport in Kuching City.

  Walking is definitely a better choice when shooting the streets, but seeing the same scenes week after week and revisiting the same places is beginning to feel like groundhog day.

Just relaxing..

 There are still many street I haven’t been to and I thought I’ve already seen them all.There’s too much struggle just to survive the day, and so many sad story and good story too.

That's grandpas walk alone..

 The city streets have become less appealing lately.  I am probably getting too familiar with the city scene – the newspaper vendors, the taxi drivers, the watch repairman, the freelance photographers, the fruit vendors,, pedestrians,motor cycle and buses.

Trying to skip from traffic jam in the city.

This pretty young lady selling jungle product on the street.Today, she asked me why I was interested in photographing her. Well, I thought to myself that not all pretty girls wish to be on the street to be street vegetable vendor.

Pretty lady selling vegetable .

Woman selling fruits at shophouses foot way.She told me about the good old days when her income can afford her to send her children to school.Today, she asked me why I was interested in photographing her instead of some pretty girls.  Well, I thought to myself that pretty girls won’t ever have to worry about not being photographed.  There is no shortage of photographers looking out for beautiful faces to show the world, but there are not many people who will tell the world a beautiful story.

Old lady selling fruit in shop houses foot way in Kuching.

 Just when I was about to head home this morning, I saw this old water meter and I don’t want to regret not taking a snap.

City water meter.

 I can’t make heads nor tails of the writings on the wall.  I don’t know if it has anything to do with GAY...

Gay or Gey....????

Surprisingly I found the photos equally interesting in color.

Retirement. Life is good.

 Social issues are an intrinsic part of every day life for the average person, myself included, and I sometimes write about how I feel towards them.  I could very easily show photographs depicting poverty, but I choose not to, out of respect for the people whom we know nothing about nor what difficulties they are going through in life.  A picture is worth a thousand words, and within those thousand words are a million different stories.  I prefer to tell the real story rather than let readers decide for themselves how to translate the picture.

Why Street Photography.

I am reading an article by Taylor Davidson about street photography.Why Street Photography?You have a camera. You're here. It's what you see. It’s your life. It's what you want to remember. You should shoot it. Let’s do it better.Don’t worry about how good your camera is. “The best camera is the one you have with you.” A better camera doesn't take better pictures. Only worry about the camera if you're trying to sell images.

Sometime talking to your subject can get you a better shot than a candid.

 Shot from behind can be interesting too !!.

Be alert at all time, the decisive moment comes for a split second.

get as close as possible to your subject.

Never let your fear take over you.

Have your camera with you all the time.

Make sure you focus is at the right spot.
Just for info..all the above images is shot with my Olympus E620 mounted with 25mm f2.8 Zuiko lens.

Padungan Street-In The Morning,

Busy having a  awesome time. So I haven't been blogging. I'll try and correct that over the next few days. A quick update on my photography hobby and I spent the weekend doing street photography along Padungan Street in Kuching City.So I arm with my 4 years old Olympus E620 with OM Zuiko lens 50mm f1.8.I also carry my Panasonic Lumix LX3 just in case......
Padungan Sreet is designated as Kuching Chinatown, although it doesn't make any sense to me as the whole of Kuching South or most Sarawak cities are predominately where the Chinese population then to lived. So you wouldn't noticed any differences here compared to other non-chinatown streets.There are a number of nice cafes here, traditional Chinese medicine shops and hardware shops which is what the area was originally known for among the locals.Anyway, just enjoy viewing  my photos that I shot this morning (Sunday 08/04/2012).

Its still 7.30am and the road is clear while the shop is still closing during this Sunday off day. Padungan Street is one of the busiest street in the city.