Photography Thailand Forum

[David Procter]

here's a portrait i took last week on the rayong coast. i'm just having a go at resizing for the web as i havent had to do this before. it may go wrong!

[David Procter]

here is his wife May. They moved from Udon Thani to Rayong nineteen years ago. may now collects shells to made into ornaments for the tourist trade.

[Little Buddha]

Nice photos, David. It thinks it's very neat that you've included some background story on the couple's history. Perhaps there's one too on where he picked up the 'Saigon' embroidered hat.

What causes that hazing of the eyes on old Thai people? Is it too much 'lao kao' (cheap Thai white whiskey)?

PS I love how some photos at the beach light up the face through reflected sunlight off the sand. I assume you didn't use a reflector? Thanks for sharing the cool portraits.

[David Procter]

Thanks for the comments!

Thai poeple are a joy and actually the reason i took up photography, theyre so approachable and happy to talk. i didnt use a reflector because as you say the light from the sand was perfect. I've actually never used a reflector - would you recommend carrying one about? Might post that enquiry in the other forum.

My firend told me last week the hazing in both people's eyes is a medical condition that effects many old people, he told me its name just last week but i dont remember. I'm sure the lao doesnt help.

cheers again

[Marc Lathuilliere]

The picture of the old woman is really wonderfull. It is much more than a travel photography : it has something to do with Renaissance portraits of old folks, in which their gaze asks you something about the end of life, sometimes about some madness. I guess it comes from the way she looked at you (it so much interesting than taking pictures of easy smiling Thais), but also from the mess of her wrinkles and hair, of the blured trees, rocks and shadows in the background, an interesting contrast with the "elegance" of her shirt.
Thanks for sharing this !
Marc (toygrapher)

[David Procter]

Marc,
Thanks for your insight. I have another one of May posing in a really elegant manner -  i'll post it here when i've typed this. it works better in black and white but I'm actually in the process of learning to convert and i cant get it right. What do you think? It was extremely backlit and I used fill in flash - but she feels too superimposed.
Yes, its easy to get pics of those incessantly smiling Thais and I have a few of these but every now and again you see a face that has something else - i love narrative, especially involving people.

david

[Marc Lathuilliere]

David,

I'm am not very good in technics and do still use films. Have a lot to learn... It means I'm not trained well enough to see all the technical details of a picture. In your case, the two seem equally good to me ; may be the use of a flash is a bit too visible in the B & W one.
Anyhow being an artist, I'm more careful of the meaning and references given by a picture. And in that sense I much prefere the colour one. In the B & W, the expression in the eyes is more sad, less enigmatic. May's face seems older, or at least more damaged by time. The tree that looks dry in the background, as well as the use of the B & W, makes it look more in the documentary, social report tradition, which I personnaly find a bit outdated.
On the contrary, the colour one is really wonderful. Technically, the light is well balanced, the colours are soft and well composed as well. The frame is also perfect, and I now understand why it makes me think of Renaissance paintings. She is "captured" in exactly the same posture the painters of the time would paint their models : neither full face nor profile, in between (don't know how to call that in english). I also noticed the mouvement of the hair is kind of matched by the mouvements in the branches in the blured background. And, appart from the beauty and the human dimension of the portrait, I really like this kind of reapparance of Renaissance picturial innovations in a contemporary travel portrait shot in Asia. Did you reframe it to make it square ?
I myself discover how much the paintings I've discovered and liked was I was a teenager influence the way I take pictures of people and places in France and Asia. And I'm seldom aware of that when I press the button.
All in all, it's a pctures I wish I was the author !
Cheers

Marc

[David Procter]

Thanks Marc,
I'm touched by the time you've taken to comment and by the comment which contains the a really important message about photography as an art. I'm at the stage when I've only been taking pictures since the end of last yaer and really finding my feet (or my eyes!). i find many people i turn to for advice can be distracted (as i am!) by technical issues and sometimes miss the true content and often the humanity invloved in photography (talking portraits). I'm also at the stage when I'm learning to articulate my choices as much of what i do is largely instnctive or based on simple interaction with the subject.
I completely understand your comment about Mays rennaisance pose and yes  i did crop it (not to any particular formua) until it 'felt right'. The light was so difficult in the black and white one and to be honest I was stumped as to what to do with it. The colour one was much more natural and required very little post production.
I'm thinking of taking a painting course at the hof gallery in bangkok.
Thanks again for your insight.I'd also love to see some of your pictures!
david

[Marc Lathuilliere]

Hof Art is a cool place. I hope they have good painting lessons their (no idea, I am not a painter).
Here is another unsmily Thai on a beach. A Moken on Surin a few weeks after the tsunami. It's not the best of the project I have started here, called Toyland, but one of the few I have scanned some month ago. I only have a basic scanner and at the time had only vague notions of Photoshop : coulours seem strange...
But if you want to see the project that started it all for me, type Transkoreana on Google and you'll find many pictures, especially the web site of a friend who hosts a good selection of these pictures :
http://www.macoree.com/Transkoreana.html.
Since you seem to be living in Bangkok, you can also see it for real at the opening of my exhibition at Tang Gallery (Silom Galeria, soi 19) on april 20. You're welcome !
Cheers
Marc
   

[Marc Schultz]

If you are having an exhibition why not post it in the Exhibitions section.

[David Procter]

I'll be there on the 20th

david