It’s been in the mid to upper 30s all week (that’s roughly the mid to upper 90s for old school readers). Add in the humidity and the heat index regularly hits the low 40s (getting on from 110 on the Fahrenheit scale.) Obviously as a fair-skinned northern European from an island where the roads melt when it hits 25C, I should stay indoors with the air-con turned up high. But there are streets to be walked and photographs to be taken. So, with a very thick layer of sunscreen applied I ventured out to the neighbourhood around the Chen Clan Academy, home of the Guangdong Folk Art Museum, a couple of days ago.
I’m privileged to live in a building where I can access Guangzhou’s expansive, efficient - and cheap - Metro system without having to go outside. So it was only when I emerged from the Chen Clan Academy station that I was assaulted by the weather. It felt like being slapped in the face by a very hot, wet blanket. Within a couple of minutes of stepping out I was dripping wet, my clothes soaked through. The Academy sits in an open square with little shade to be found, but there is a line of trees along the pavement of the nearby Zhongshan Road and I dragged myself across the square taking shelter under one of them.
Apart from getting a little relief from the heat, I also needed to give my camera time to adjust to the shock of moving from my air-conditioned apartment and Metro system to the hot and sopping wet outdoors. The move from a cool and relatively dry indoor environment to the hot and moisture laden outdoors leads to condensation and fogging of lens elements, including internal elements. While I can speed up the evaporation process on the front element to some extent, internal elements just need time. It’s an inconvenience, and it’s sometimes a frustration as I watch potential photographs pass me by while I wait. Longer term, it’s a potential source of mould or fungus in the lens.
So I’m standing under my tree, melting into a little puddle, trying to encourage my camera to defog with soothing words and threats, and looking across the square to the Academy. Eventually, my camera appeared to have recovered so I took an experimental picture just to be sure. This is my view across the square as I stand under my tree.
The entrance to the Metro is just off to the right, and there is a shopping mall and a market behind me on the other side of the Zhongshan Road. As a result, despite the empty plaza in front of me, more often than not there are a lot of people coming and going in both directions. So with a nice backdrop and an ever-changing cast of characters passing through, I took the coward’s way out and decided to stay under my tree for a while and photograph the endlessly shifting scene in front of me before venturing any further.
This is an approach I use quite often - pick a spot, wait to see what, or who, happens. But I normally don’t stay as long as I did on this occasion or take as many images. I assumed I might get one or two half decent pictures, but I was mostly just shooting to get into the zone for later and killing time while I adjusted to the heat. In the end I did delete an awful lot of pictures, but I also got a few more decent shots than I thought at first.
All of which is a very long preamble to posting some of those pictures with some commentary which you are free to ignore.
This was the only picture I kept from a handful I shot in portrait format. They were too cramped, and I couldn’t move back without ending up behind my tree. Even though the scooter is threatening to exit the frame, I did like the woman’s bold stride and, of course, the umbrella.
The umbrella - another one - lines up nicely with the top of the archway. There is a clear separation of the heads of the two women, while their clothes merge together, and I like the splash of colour from the red bag. I think it would have been better without the cyclist, or with him further across the frame and separated from the women. Even so, this one is decent.
I have mixed feelings about this one. I always like a cyclist, but this particular one is lacking in dynamism. I’m also distracted by that chopped off rear tyre. In the original picture the whole of the wheel is included but once I corrected for some distortion and rotation I lost that little bit. I think this may be deleted in the next cull.
Chunky shoes, baggy jeans, great posture and a bright yellow umbrella nicely framed by the arch. Works for me. It’s just a pity about the guy standing immediately behind her taking pictures on his phone. He’s not too distracting but it would still be better if he weren’t there.
While chopping off a little bit of tyre annoys me, chopping of a big chunk of a person doesn’t. In fact, judging by the number of pictures I have with people partially in the frame I like this look. Obviously, it’s mostly down to luck whether you get enough of the person to make it work. Of these two, the top one works for me while the bottom one doesn’t quite do so. I think in the latter the woman on the left needed to be another four to six inches into the frame.
This kind of image generally need something else to catch the eye in the wide expanse of the frame the person is walking into. The archway itself contributes to these two pictures, but I think the presence of the second person is more important. In this respect the top image is, again, stronger than the bottom one (despite the nice red umbrella in the latter!)
I’m undecided about this one. She is a little anonymous, more of her face would have been better. Also, in the centre of the frame like this she obscured most of the archway. I do like the hand with the water bottle though. Still, I’m leaning towards deletion.
Surprise! Surprise! Another umbrella. A pleasant, bright yellow against the blues and greys and just perfectly situated against the central entrance of the arch. A positive stride from the woman, front foot just hovering above its shadow.
Finally, for now, another person walking into the frame and another umbrella. This time, the woman is fully in the frame and engaging directly with the camera - and with me. It’s a strong look - not exactly hostile, but not shying away either. The pattern of her dress works nicely with the pattern of the pavers. And that umbrella, plain black but with that thin red stripe. In this case, she is far enough into the frame and visually strong enough on her own that the absence of any balancing content in the rest of the frame doesn’t matter so much.
There’s more. I might post them in a day or two, or I might spare you. The moral of the story is that while there is a lot to be said for ‘images on the run’ sometimes it’s good to stand still and let the world come to you.
It’s a clever idea to avoid confrontations. “I am just looking at the monument!”
For what it's worth given my lack of experience (!), my favourites are the 2 photos with the yellow umbrellas and the one with the girls and the red bag. I'm not partial at all to the 2 people with the blue and yellow t-shirts or the woman with the water bottle (altho I'm with you on the hand holding the bottle). Also, would you consider cropping the one with the young woman on the left looking towards the camera to eliminate the figure on the right?