Hey X100 lovers, I am up in Chiang Mai in Thailand on a photo trip with Singapore Trekkers and wanted to post some early experiences and shots. Firstly a bit of bad news and word to the wise. I was raving previously about the thumbs up hotshoe grip enhancer and soft release button attachments that I bought for the X100, well both are lost :( none of these expensive add ons fit securely for travel photography - you have been warned, don't waste your money.
Anyway, enough of this doom & gloom and back to the shooting. Chiang Mai is a cultural centre in Northern Thailand and is a bit of mixture of old and new, temples, shops and markets. All of this makes for very interesting subject matter and I will post a series from this location over the next few weeks or so.
Street shooting opportunities abound and I have found that there are a couple of ways of approaching these. One is to find an interesting backdrop and wait for the right subject (as in this case) or to find the right subject and wait until he, she or it is in the location you want.
Both of these shots fall into the former camp and I find that this is an approach that works well here due to the number of great locations that exist and, with a bit of patience, the right subject usually comes along. One thing that regular X100 shooters will be aware of is that its no speed shooter so, as with film cameras, you have to take the shot at the decisive moment and sometimes this requires very good timing. It all boils down to a sense of anticipation at the end of the day, waiting until the composition looks exactly as you want it - and then, and only then, taking the shot.
Another thing that I noticed is that some of the temples get lit quite nicely and if you catch them at dusk it's possible to get a very nice ambient background light and loads of contrast. Incidentally, I never use a tripod with the X100 and these are shot hand held on auto ISO which I currently have set for 1600 max and a min shutter speed of 1/40 th which is plenty of headroom for steady shooting due to the very soft release and lack of mirror slap.
As with many places in Thailand, temples are everywhere and they are all very interesting and social centres in their own right. There is usually open access and as long as decent manners are observed, no problem with shooting in them.
As I said, this is just a quick starter on this trip and I will update as the week progresses. Just to finish, here is a snap of this lovely guy who has a little converted van from which he sells the best coffee around. It's called Republic Coffee, keep an eye open for him if you go here, you wont be disappointed with the delicious lattes :) Its very obvious that this guy loves his work and it shows through in the quality of his coffee and the lovely ambiance around his van.
Well, that's it for a kick-off from Thaialnd, keep viewing and I will update in a few days.
Cheers,
Steel
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