Photography Thailand Forum

[SimonP]

Here are a couple of pictures from last Saturday's Trooping Of The Colours.  Guards pledge allegiance to The Monarch as part of his birthday celebrations.  It is another great opportunity to get colourful pictures of a parade and historical Thai event.

Compared to the celebrations at Ratchadamnoen and Sanam Luang there are very few people which makes for a pleasant photo taking experience!

My zoom lens performs averagely at best in low light conditions but I had a fun time there.  As usual, any comments on my pictures are much appreciated.

[SimonP]

Another colourful uniform...

[mrClaude]

would be great to shoot the first one against a heavily saturated blue sky...great colors.

cheers...mrc

[SimonP]

Thanks for your comment mrc, a blue sky would have been nice but unfortunately it was a cloudy afternoon.  Maybe next year!

[kinginexile]

Hi Simon,

The second one is more for your own sake, we feel that you were kept out  by the distance (imposed, I am sure), and we have one of these zoom shots that cry out "sorry, couldn't get any closer".

The first one is made of very pleasing elements, multiplicity (soldiers) and uniformity (color) are a dynamite mix in photography, the duality often works. But I can't help thinling you couda bend a bit for a lower POV, which would  show more of the faces  and block out some of the soso white background of window ranges in the background. BTW, this shot is one of those where a big zoom really does wonders from all the compression of shapes and painting the whole frame with the dominant color. 

[SimonP]

Hi Kinginexile,

Thanks very much for your detailed comments.  Yes, you're right in the second shot the soldiers were in the middle of  Ratchadmnoen Nok which was then closed off to the general public and I was limited by my 300mm zoom.  I usually prefer not to use it at it's full extent because then the lack of quality becomes more apparent.  In that shot I was attempting to use the sun as it momentarily burst through the cloud cover and gave that orange halo effect on the headgear.   I also  wanted the orange fairy lights in the background as well, hoping that together those elements would set off the orange in the uniform as well.  However I think the general light was too low to really achieve that.

For the first one I was able to get close as the soldiers came out of the gates so didn't have a problem with the zoom.  I like your idea of shooting from a low position.  I didn't get any from that POV, and also I think I should have played around more with the angles, the diagonals of arms and legs in motion, etc.

Of course if I wanted to I could crop the windows out of the equation too and the good thing about the position I did use is that you get to see the nice colour of all the soldiers headwear. 

So, thanks again for your suggestions and I now have a list of new things to try next time in a similar situation!

[agitlits]

Nice colours, Simon. Really like the first one.

Alex

[SimonP]

Thanks Alex also for your comment.  :)