Floating Market, Thailand

anonymouscuban · January 10, 2011

Here are a few of my favorite shots from our trip to the floating market in Thailand. There are a couple floating markets in Bangkok. This one was about a 2 hour drive from our hotel in Sukhumvit. It was quite an experience. Like nothing here in the States.

There are quite a number of boats coming and going down the canals.

This is the captain of our boat. Very nice young guy, very polite and quite the driver. And he spoke English, which was very rare in Thailand.

There are areas where the boats can dock and you can get off and walk to shop at the various "stores". You can see all the tourists here sitting along the dock eating and resting:

There are also vendors that sell their goods from their boats. Most are woman, although we did see a few men:

As you travel along the water, the vendors approach your boat and offer you stuff, mostly food. We bought fried bananas from this woman. They were quite good:

At one point we stopped in this area where there was a large open market. They sold mostly souvenirs:

As I ventured around, I found this nice man and his son making these small cookie shaped things from coconut sugar.

He was quite animated and moved around very fast:

He noticed my wife was watching with great interest so he began showing her how to make them:

A couple seconds after this shot, he popped me on the had with his spatula for making fun of the "cookies" my wife made:

Shortly after we got back on the boat and traveled down the canals and bought some fruit:

Our driver then stopped at a temple that was along the one of the canals. This monk was sweeping the water from in front of the temple. It had a rain a bit throughout the day.

A Buddha statue greets you as you enter the temple:

The inside of the temple had a large shrine with many thai Buddha statues. I was surprised when they allowed me to take photos. I was not allowed at a few other temples we visited earlier in our trip:

After the temple, I asked our driver to take us back to the main part of the market so I can take some photos. I took quite a few photos of the women as they talked and sold their wares.

Dogdots · January 10, 2011

Wonderful series of photos

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Qarik · January 11, 2011

great set alex

mr peas · January 12, 2011

great set, love the colors, great composition, good use of your WA.

anonymouscuban · January 12, 2011

Thanks all.

zoomer · January 12, 2011

It was a lucky day for you when the only lens you had avaiable was the 16mm, that perspective gives these such a nice quality.
I like every one of these shots and your commentary really adds to your series.

My favorite and I have to say one of the best photos I have seen in awhile is the shot of the monk sweeping away the water in front of the temple. You should submit that into some photo contests...that is a winner. I love how he is surrounded by the temple reflections in the water he is sweeping away.

anonymouscuban · January 12, 2011

zoomer wrote: »

It was a lucky day for you when the only lens you had avaiable was the 16mm, that perspective gives these such a nice quality.
I like every one of these shots and your commentary really adds to your series.

My favorite and I have to say one of the best photos I have seen in awhile is the shot of the monk sweeping away the water in front of the temple. You should submit that into some photo contests...that is a winner. I love how he is surrounded by the temple reflections in the water he is sweeping away.

Mike,

Thanks man. We have similar tastes because the monk shot is one of my favorites of the whole trip. It's funny because I was crouched down over on the left side of Temple, kind of just taking things in, trying to "see" the shot I wanted. Then, this monk comes walking out from the side of the temple with a broom. I kind of just hung back to see what she (I think it was a gal) was going to do. So she starts sweeping and I shifted over behind her and waited. Then, I saw the money shot, composed and fired a bunch of exposures in burst mode. I also had auto bracket on because I new this was a one time shot and I wanted to make sure I didn't miss the exposure. I got several workable frames but this was by far the best. And much better than just a shot of the Temple itself. The monk really adds to story. I think without the monk, it's a snapshot.

Here is another Monk shot but from the Grand Palace... Not as good but I like it. Also, I had to dodge the monk because I shot this originally to have him somewhat silhouetted but I didn't like it. I think I have to work on it some more... He's a bit noisy and I don't know if I like the dude snapping a shot on the right.

zoomer · January 12, 2011

I do like the last one at first glance....upon further review I think it is a So Close.
If you had taken if from a lower angle so the spire was entirely in the photo but not so low that you would lose the reflection. In that closer photo you could have come pretty close to missing the other guy....or you could have yelled hey you and waved him off...maybe not

.
Still a very nice shot as is.

Awais Yaqub · January 13, 2011

These are awesome, very nice stuff. Thanks for sharing.

anonymouscuban · January 14, 2011

Thank you Awais.

Floating Market, Thailand

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