Category: Candid

Candid, people photography

In Conversation Amongst Chaos

My test of the 20D continues…

A visit to Chinatown last evening in search of pictures founds hordes of people thronging the streets in search of festive goodies for the upcoming Lunar New Year. One of my favourite techniques for photos in crowded places is to adopt a high angle to spot interesting pockets of activity. Coupled with a slow shutter speed setting, I love the way the moving crowd gets motion-blurred but yet with the main subject kept relatively sharp because of their relative lack of movement. And all this “special-effects” without ever the need to resort to Photoshop filters 🙂 It goes to say that the camera needs to be tripod-mounted and the shutter triggered with a remote/cable release (I just got my RS-80N3 for the 20D) to get the best results!

“I’m Not Impressed…”


I was going through my collection of pictures taken last year when I came across this one that was taken at the Kota Tinggi waterfalls during my trip to Desaru in August 2004. The kid “washing” his hair, seeming trying to impress his friend is the same one seen in “Woo Hoo…” and “Wheeeeeee…”. I thought the expression of his friend sitting next to him said it all: “I’m not impressed!”

Escalation


I spotted this view in the Landmark shopping arcade in Central District, Hong Kong while waiting for CY. Although the arcade was bustling with shoppers at lunch time, this escalator was surprisingly under-used, with one or two shoppers using it only from time to time. I waited for quite a while before this gentleman wearing striking red came into the picture. Lighting conditions were quite dim in the shopping arcade for photography (and also for me to choose a reasonably fast shutter speed to freeze the action) — I had to use my fastest lens, a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 set at f/2.5 to obtain a shutter speed of 1/50 sec (at ISO 200). Thankfully, the focal length was just right to capture this with minimal amount of cropping.