A Photography Direction Change?

Searching through my photos the past week or so, trying to find a photo that I would declare as my best photo, made me realise that more than half of the photos I took the past 8 years, were not landscape photographs, but rather street photographs (or maybe rather street and travel photography).

This came as a surprise to me!

Most importantly, I remembered vividly the circumstances in which I took each of these street photographs. Much more than how I remembered the circumstances of each of my landscape photos.

This street photograph of this beautiful old lady is a great example.

Life is Beautiful

I was walking in the streets of Taizhou together with Claire, my guide/helper/translator when I saw this lady. I kneeled down to take a portrait photo of her, and she became aware of me and hide her face behind her hands while mumbling something. I asked Claire to ask her permission for me to take her portrait. After a heated discussion between the two of them, Claire told me to just wait a bit. She helped the lady up and they went into her home. After about 10 minutes they reappeared, ready for me to take the photo; The lady was not happy for me taking her photo because she had not put on her makeup or done her hair yet that morning.

Claire helped her to look "more respectable" for my photoshoot!

Here is another of these story photos:

Speedo Lady

We were staying over in Hong Kong one night in order to have a bit more time for street photography. Because it was the middle of summer, I set the alarm for 5 am in order to get a good Photowalk in before the people flock to the streets.

But, when a looked through the window at 5 am that morning, I noticed that it is raining. Xiaoyi said that she will sleep in because it is raining. I said I want to go out and photograph the streets because it is raining.

I think some of my most unique street photos were done that morning - well maybe just because there was no other photographer out in the rain that time of day taking photos!

But then there is this photo:

The Transaction

Some of my most memorable photos are those where I saw my own imaginary story in a street scene and then "direct" the actors (wait for the right time...) to capture the story.

This is one of those stories.

At the end of our photo tour in China in October 2014, I flew back from Shanghai via Hong Kong to South Africa. But, our flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong was delayed and I arrived way too late for my connecting flight to South Africa. This resulted in me getting put up in a hotel (with an amazing view over Victoria harbour!) and on a standby list for the flight to South Africa the next evening.

This delay turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it gave me ample time the next day to explore the streets of Hong Kong.

It was, unfortunately, raining the whole day, so I walked mostly from one shopping mall to another.

I noticed the red translucent divider of this restaurant and in my mind, I saw a couple sitting down at one of the two tables visible through the divider. This would really make for a very thought-provoking silhouetted image.

And then this man sat down at the table close to the entrance. I think he was the manager or boss of the restaurant. Not long after he sat down, one after the other of the staff members came to his table for a quick conversation - most likely asking something or reporting something.

I photographed quite a few of those conversations, but the gesture in this one was just perfect. He bends over as if sniffing something while the posture of the man standing looks very serious. For me, this mimics a transaction taking place between two drug lords or maybe between a drug lord and one of his handlers...

I am not sure if one of these three photos is really my best photo of the past 8 years, but it surely will be amongst my top selection!