Travel Series (I)

I’ve taken a little time out of my hectic schedule (5 articles due by the end of this week!) to write a little bit on travel photography, in time for all of you to sharpen your skills in the coming June holidays!

“What is the easiest form of photography for you?” I have had some people ask me that question before.

My answer?

There’s no such thing as “easy photography”. Taking photos is no easy matter. I can tell you what I love shooting best, and what I’m good at doing, but neither of them is “easy”.

I love doing portrait photography. I love doing landscape photography. I love doing nature photography. I love doing adventure photography. I love doing documentary photography.

Tell me, which one sounds “easiest” to you?

Portraiture involves knowing how to pose models, place them in the right light (or place the right light on them) and knowing how to capture their natural selves. Landscape photography involves waiting minutes, hours and sometimes even days for the right light to fall on your particular landscape. Sometimes we have to sit out in the cold just to be disappointed by bad weather, or sometimes we have to wake up at the ungodly hour just to capture a few shots before running back into bed. Nature photography, again, involves heavy equipment and tones of patience. Adventure photography? Ever tried sitting on a speed boat veering left and right and your hands are preoccupied with taking photos that you have no way of holding on for your life? Documentary photography; do you have the physical and mental strength?

Unfortunately for you, travel photography seems to be a mishmash of everything put together. Definitely you’re going to be shooting some people, some landscapes, documenting some of the local’s daily lives, shooting some of the natural landscape and animals in the area, and maybe if you’re into adventure, you’d have to do some of that too.

But no problem.

I’m here to offer some tips in this travel series part one.

1. Learning to smile and look friendly.
This sounds almost mundane and stupid. Why do photographers have to learn how to smile and look friendly?

The simple reason being your photographed subjects are actually mirrors of your personality. If you project a good positive outlook, your subjects feel natural and at ease for your shots. But if you look uncertain and scared, there is very reason for your subjects to feel tensed up and scared as well.

Also, people won’t want to let creepy and scary looking people take photos of themselves. Friendly and outgoing photographers tend to let people feel that they are not posing for some pervert. Of course, don’t be TOO outgoing. That’s gonna creep people out too.

2. Get a feel of the local scene.
In some cultures, it is really rude to touch somebody’s head. In OUR culture, we may feel that it is all right to ruffle a kid’s head of hair, but you do not want to rub the locals in the wrong way. Knowing what might upset the locals is very important, and in the event that you know you have accidentally done something wrong, offer your sincere apologies.

Nepal is a very poor country. Not many people own a camera, or have their photos taken before. More than once I take photos in a village area, the villagers will crowd around to take a look. Being a Singaporean, we hardly get that sort of response that it almost feels threatening to us. But understanding the local scene will also let you know that these people are just plain curious. Befriending them will actually help you get even more portraits of the locals.

3. Learn how to say “Hello” and “How are you?” in the local language.
How difficult is it to learn saying hello and how are you? No matter where you go, it is just sheer common courtesy to ask before taking a photo. Saying hello and how are you will show that you are not just some rude foreigner who doesn’t know any manners.

Usually, this will garner friendly responses from the locals, and they’ll be more than happy to pose for you.

That’s all from me today, I will be posting more when I have time touching on the other parts of travel photography.

Over and out-
Eunice Chan

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A little about the writer:

Eunice Chan is a third-year undergraduate studying in NTU’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, majoring in Broadcast and Cinema Studies. Although she loves photography and film making, she also has a strange liking for suffering. Currently she is serving a five-month journalism internship in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Eunice didn’t know how to take photographs before she joined MJC Photography Club, much less know how to use a DSLR. Before long, she won her first DSLR upon graduation from Meridian in a competition, and was on her way to becoming a press photographer. She has covered stories and issues relating to NTU and also the Youth Olympics last year.

She hopes that through her blog posts in this little space, she could continue to inspire youths today to become better photographers.

Read her photography blog and musings at http://eunicechan-photo.tumblr.com/

Slice of Life

Come on people, posts on this blog doesn't have to be a hell of a revelation of photography skills. Just post something, lah!


Here's a slice of life in Nepal. You wash your car, get on with the day's work and a cow walks past. Just like that.

As originally posted in Eunice Chan's photo-blog My Weekend Getaway to Pokhara.

Namaste, from Nepal

Hi guys, I've been in Nepal for 3 out of 150 days now. I am beginning to appreciate our transport system, even though we keep complaining about it. I should probably upload a video some day about public transport here.

I digress.

Anyway, these were some pictures I took from the aeroplane while waiting for landing at the Kathmandu Tribhuvan Airport. As there was a lack of parking space at the airport, my plane circled the Nepal skies for about 40 minutes. We saw the 800s, we saw their ridges. It was gorgeous.






See the 8000s in the background. If you spot a small white spec in the middle of the photo, it is actually another commercial flight waiting for landing too.






Read the original post at Eunice Chan's Photo Blog- Namaste, from Nepal

Convenience of the 7D =)

Hi Beautihoo Chewrens =)

While you wait patiently for JS's next tutorial, you can take a break from your revision (you have been studying right??) and watch my amateur-ly made Japan videos. I thought you better see mine first before you see PPC's Japan photos shot with 5DMkII and L lens LOL

Sorry my hands are not very steady so sometimes it's like Blair witch project hahaha and my 18-200mm is a bit ngeh ngeh (not smooth) so zoom in zoom out is argh argh argh...

I'm getting lazy... when I feel tired of shooting, I just switch to video mode heehee...

Shizuoka - the home of green tea with verdant tea fields and teahouses everywhere boasts of excellent views of Mt Fuji (if the weather permits). When we were there, we saw only clouds LOL it's also the childhood residence and retirement home of Ieyasu Tokugawa (who unified Japan). The Toshogu Shrine is the first and original one built by Tokugawa's son. The one in Nikko (built by his grandson I think) and all others copy its architecture. The Oigawa Railway is (I think) the only steam locomotive in Japan and definitely the only one which uses the ABT saw-toothed system to climb slopes. Okuoi kojo is a train station that sits on a dam. It's part of the rainbow bridge that runs across the dam.

There's some problem with the second transition...



Kawaguchiko, one of the Fuji five lakes boasts of splendid views of Mt Fuji (if the weather is good). The weather was not good when we were there hahaha but it was still beautiful =) Love the cute trains (at the beginning and end of the clip)

Two of the transitions are a bit off (see if you can spot them!) and I forgot to turn off the sound at the Kawaguchiko Natural Living Centre hahaha. Don't be so ngiao la!



Tateyama Alpine Route was the one I was most looking forward. Unfortunately, 2 days before our trip, the hotel sent us an email to inform us of a last minute maintenance at one part of the route so it was not possible to go all the way. But it's still really beautiful and I strongly recommend this place =)

Redang

I'm not so much of the kind of person to sit around and just wait for something to happen, and while my syndrome of stare-at-photog-blog-screen-hoping-for-a-new-post-to-appear is ever so excruciating, so let me post something... Haha...

I remember last year during the June holidays, I went to Redang for a short R&R trip with my dad and some friends. If you have been to Redang, you'd probably know that there's nothing much there except for the sun, sand and the sea. We stayed at a kinda lao pok resort, each room was small and it had to accomodate 3 to 4 persons each. The food there ain't exactly good either, I think it was quite a pretty successful 4 day weight reduction programme.

I loved snorkeling. It's really fun when you get a bag of bread from the resort lobby, and just swim out to the deeper ends of the waters and start feeding the fish. They flock towards you in all directions, begging to have a bit of the food that you have to offer. More often than not, they'd come right up and kiss your goggles. My dad was elated. He was having a lot of fun, for he was rather tickled by the fishes. I rarely hear him laugh like that. His laughter was really cute then, a mix of amusement and terror. He was feeding the fishes, but he was scared that the fishes would bite his finger off. I went hunting for a baby shark, but I guess he didn't like me and didn't want to meet me, so I got a jellyfish in my face instead. Lols, I only realised a jellyfish was right in front of my goggles after a few minutes and frantically tried to go astern in the water.

Of course, you would be thinking that going on a trip like such would really involve a lot of exposure to sea water- the digital equipment's nemesis- and no one would actually bother bringing an expensive camera. But me being me, I packed the 350D kit and 10-22mm in ziplock bags, packed them into a camera bag, and brought it along with my luggage. (And got my friend to bring her waterproof camera so we can take cool underwater shots.)

When we reached Redang, the tide was coming in but the waters weren't very deep- YET. (When it is high tide, expect to get off the boat with waist high water.) The water was up above my knees, and the beach didn't have a shared dock. We had to get off the boat and into the water, and work our way up to the coast. Well, all I managed to do was to hug the camera bag tight around my chest and start walking.

I'm rather glad I brought the camera despite all unfavourable circumstances. I took a lot of photos, almost 600 pictures. The sorting was terrible because I refused to delete any of the shots -.- terrible mistake, by the way. And I guess some of you might be unacquainted with this three favourite shots of mine from the Redang series I took-

Just wanna share the pics-






I really like landscape photography... maybe because it's one of the easiest to shoot. You just need the right lens and right composition, and you just sit there and wait for the perfect light to press your shutter. Either that, I'm just always lucky. Anyways, the above three shots were sunrise pics which I woke up specially just to take photos of...

P.S. If you're wondering what happened to [Stairway to Heaven], I didn't like it anymore.