How to Control The Space In Which You Make Photos
My wanderings around the Temple of Heaven brought me to this doorway and I very much wanted to make a photo that showcased the symbolism embodied within this imposing structure.
Composition goes a long way to making good photos. Notice how the composition in this photo is underpinned by color, shape and line.
Regarded as the national color of China, red is quite obviously the dominant color in this photo. An important hue in Chinese culture, red is used to symbolize prosperity, good fortune, luck or joy.
Of course, the deep cultural significance of the color red was not lost on the Communist Party of China when they incorporated it into the nation’s flag to symbolize the Chinese Communist Revolution.
Yellow is another important color in Chinese culture. In Buddhism, yellow symbolizes freedom from worldly cares and spiritual enlightenment.
In Chinese philosophy, the color yellow represents the centre of the universe and, by extension, planet earth’s role as a point of balance in the cosmos.
Considered the color of royalty, yellow has long been associated with the emperor and his pivotal role between heaven and earth.
As far as shape is concerned, the red colored doors and wall are divided into square and rectangular shapes. But it’s the shape of those large, yellow rounded studs, leading the eye towards the centre of the image, that really stand out.
The fact that those studs are aligned in two distinct diagonal lines adds a lovely flow and a gentle dynamic energy to the image. It’s a very different energy to that of the vertical and horizontal lines evident in other photos throughout this post.
But photos have their own reality.
The fact is the studs on the left door are placed to form horizontal lines, just as you can see with the studs on the right hand side of the frame.
It’s my use of a wide-angle lens, up close and on the left hand side of the scene, that’s distorted the image to create a sense of greater space and exaggerated perspective on the left of the frame.
But it works, adding drama and a greater sense of space and depth to the image.
True to form, no sooner had I brought my fancy pants camera out than the hordes descended, standing in front of me, to make photo after photo.
Not only that, but there was also a pretty constant stream of tourists moving through the open doorway in the centre of the photo.
After waiting for about 10 minutes, I decided to move away and look for other things to photograph.
Sure enough, not long after I’d gone, the crowd had moved on and I was able to return to make a photo, very quickly, before a new crowd of local tourists pushed in on the action.
I’m patient and I do try hard not to hog a location or block anyone’s passage through a space.
I’II usually wait it out in the hope that the crowd will move on. But after many years of photographing under these conditions I’ve developed a pretty good sense of the mood and intentions of the crowd and how that day’s likely to proceed.
Somedays you know you just can’t wait them out and the best option is to move on. If you’re lucky you’ll get to the next site before the crowd catches up to you.
Needless to say the advice I’m providing in this post is based upon many years of travel photography experience, mostly as an individual wandering the world at my own pace.
While you’ll likely get to and through more places on a group tour, the timetables and kinds of organized experiences offered may make it hard to find the kind of chill time I’m describing.
One thing I often do, particularly when traveling around countries where English is not widely spoken, is to take a local guide with me. I might only do so for a few days at a time, but sometimes I’II engage a guide for a significant portion of my adventure.
I’ve found local guides to be tremendously helpful getting me around and helping ensure I have permission to photograph all manner of people, objects and sites I encounter on my travels.
Myanmar is a predominantly Buddhist country and I remember speaking with a local guide I’d met around dusk on Christmas Eve.
He said he had no work over the Christmas period and, as the day held no personal significance for him, I contracted him for an interesting one day project.
We were in a village near the shores of the beautiful Inle Lake and I asked him if he could organise access for me to visit and photograph the four oldest people in the village.
He said he could and, true to his word, he did.
It was a great little project and I was thrilled to meet and photograph these local people, who’s ages ranged from 73 to 97 years of age.
What a fantastic experience, and one that’s a long way from what you might expect from a large group tour.
Mind you, most group tours include one or two free days in their schedule. They’re the days when most folks sleep in or do some shopping.
Fine, but if you’re a keen photographer, you might be able to organize a little adventure of your own. One where you’re able to make use of local knowledge and you’re own time to undertake a unique travel project.
For example, if you’re a school teacher, you might enjoy visiting a local school and photographing the kids, classroom and teacher while you’re there. I did this in Myanmar and it was a really fantastic experience.
These kind of images are great to share online, with your own students or with local service groups back home that might be interested in providing financial support to schools in developing countries.
When Good Manners Desert Us: Aussie Behaving Badly
Sometimes I’ve traveled during times when geopolitical tensions are particularly tense. I’ve spoken in a way to ensure folks know I’m an Aussie and, for the most part, it’s proven helpful to do so.
Mind you, Aussies don’t always make the best nor most respectful tourists.
I can remember being really embarrassed by the behavior of a bunch of Aussie tourists, flying back from Bali to Australia. While the airline was an Australian carrier, the flight attendants I noticed were all Indonesian.
After witnessing the less than optimal behavior of my Aussie compatriots, I approached several of the fight attendants and apologized.
They were really warm and friendly people and I quickly discovered that they each spoke 3 or 4 languages and had numerous university qualifications.
What really irritated me was that, despite working for an Australian airline, and spending their working life caring for passengers traveling to and from Australian cities, they were not paid anything like colleagues with the good fortune to have Australian citizenship.