On a recent long weekend trip to Singapore, I met up with Singaporean Fujifilm X Photographer Ivan for a morning photowalk around Little India. He may be a Fujifilm X Photographer, but more importantly he’s a fuji fanboy who has a quirky and fun approach to photography. It was such a fun and insightful morning of photographing around little India.
Here are some of my images (among hundreds of shots) which I took during the photowalk around Little India. I shot with the Fujifilm X-T10 and the 23mm f2 lens.
We kicked off our morning with some local Singaporean noodles at Tekka Centre food court. As it was the first time meeting him in person, we had a great chat over breakfast about our photography interests, how we came to owning Fujifilm cameras and his story of how he came to be a Fujifilm X Photographer. Then we meandered our way around the streets of Little India. As it was still relatively early in the day, the streets was just waking up. The buildings are historic and colourful, the perfect location for some good ‘old street photography. Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple is an iconic temple in Little India. It’s a great place to visit to photography a cultural icon as well as locals going through their rituals and prayers at the temple.
My experience photographing on the streets of Singapore is that photography is pretty well accepted. It’s all about being polite and respectful in the way you photography people or place. Doing street portraiture is not something I’m comfortable with so it was great to see how Ivan shot on the streets. He taught me a thing or two about how to approach strangers for portraits shots, how to “see” on the street and also how to shoot without people knowing!
- Shoot in manual, pre-focus for the right distance and snap the shot that you have in mind as you walk past the scene. No one will take much notice.
- Approach the subject confidently. Then say something positive, something that caught your eye about them and ask if you can take their photo. That was it, he didn’t get rejected at all during our photo walk
- He showed me how to create a rim light effect when shooting street portraits. It was such a handy and easy trick. Basically position the subject in the shadow, but shoot into the light rather than the shadow.
Last but not least he strongly recommended starting personal projects. He talked about the importance of having personal projects on the side even when you’re working professionally as a photographer. Projects can be as simple as taking photos of your own shoes in interesting locations or angles. I saw him do that on our walk and he definitely practiced what he preached!
Before we parted ways, I suggested that he visit Perth someday soon. The Fuji X Aus team will certainly be keen to put something together as at the heart of it all, we’re just fujifan boys and girls who love photography and shooting with Fujifilm gear.
This blog post has been cross-posted to the Fuji X Aus Blog. Thanks for stopping by today.
J
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