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I recently went on a guided tour to Beijing, the capital of China. As expected the chilly winter presented many challenges for a photographer like me who's more used to shooting in tropical Singapore.
I'll list out the challenges that I faced, and how I managed to overcome them.
I'll list out the challenges that I faced, and how I managed to overcome them.
Cold!!!
First of all, I had a little trouble adapting to the cold. It was so uncomfortable that I had trouble focusing my mind on compositional elements and the likes of that. To make matters worse, within a couple of days, my discomfort increased as I had a perpetually blocked nose and cracked lips due to my refusal to use lip balm despite the very dry climate of Beijing.
Hence, we have lesson number one, which may seem like a no-brainer, but should never be under-emphasised - take very good care of yourself not just when shooting in winter, but more generally, when shooting in a climate different from the one you are used to. Know the new climate, and bring the appropriate attire. Have sufficient sleep every night. If not, you'd be busy thinking of how to keep yourself alive instead of concentrating on your photography!
Hence, we have lesson number one, which may seem like a no-brainer, but should never be under-emphasised - take very good care of yourself not just when shooting in winter, but more generally, when shooting in a climate different from the one you are used to. Know the new climate, and bring the appropriate attire. Have sufficient sleep every night. If not, you'd be busy thinking of how to keep yourself alive instead of concentrating on your photography!
Clumsy Fingers
However, sometimes the appropriate attire brings about even more restrictions on your photography, as was in my case. Thick leather gloves made it difficult to operate the the buttons of my Nikon D5000. Most of the single buttons were still usable, but I had trouble pressing the Fn button (which I had programmed to control ISO when pressed while turning the control dial), the D-pad (which meant I had trouble selecting the focal points) and worst of all, at times I couldn't feel the shutter release button! As you can guess, I probably missed a few good shots due to a combination of these.
Shooting without gloves wasn't much of an option for me as they'd take too much time to remove, allowing for golden photo opportunities to flash pass way too easily. Not wearing gloves at all is even worse, as I lost all sensation in my fingertips within 10 minutes if I left them exposed.
My solution was simply to get used to shooting with gloves. I did get better with operating my camera with my gloves on towards the end of the trip, so that method worked.
Another possible approach is to learn to anticipate that golden moment. Start taking off your gloves when you think there's a high chances of something interesting to capture. However, this method may not be very applicable in even colder climates, and you'll never learn to shoot with your gloves on (admittedly, only DSLRs can be operated with gloves on - point-and-shoot cameras have buttons that are way too tiny).
Zap!
Shooting without gloves wasn't much of an option for me as they'd take too much time to remove, allowing for golden photo opportunities to flash pass way too easily. Not wearing gloves at all is even worse, as I lost all sensation in my fingertips within 10 minutes if I left them exposed.
My solution was simply to get used to shooting with gloves. I did get better with operating my camera with my gloves on towards the end of the trip, so that method worked.
Another possible approach is to learn to anticipate that golden moment. Start taking off your gloves when you think there's a high chances of something interesting to capture. However, this method may not be very applicable in even colder climates, and you'll never learn to shoot with your gloves on (admittedly, only DSLRs can be operated with gloves on - point-and-shoot cameras have buttons that are way too tiny).
Zap!
Another problem was that of static electricity. Static electricity accumulates due to the dry climate of Beijing (while static is usually discharged into the water vapour that's in abundance in Singapore's air). This causes two issues for the photographer.
Firstly, a discharge of static electricity from your hands into the electronic contact points of your camera could easily fry its electronics. I was worried about the exposed hotshoe of my D5000 (I don't have a habit of putting on the hotshoe cover, so I didn't bring it to Beijing), hence I minimised contact with my bare hands. That's why all exposed electronic contacts on your equipment should be kept covered.
Secondly, a buildup of static electricity on your equipment attracts dust. It didn't help that Beijing is an extra-dusty city with air pollution and sand blown in from Mongolia. That's why it's important to use a blower to blast dust particles off your equipment at the end of everyday. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT BREATHE ONTO THE GLASS ELEMENTS OF YOUR LENSES IN COLD WEATHER. While this is a good method in clean your lenses in hot weather, in cold weather, the condensed water droplets from your breath will instantly turn into a layer of solid frost on your lens, which will have to be melted before it can be removed. If not, the minute ice shards will do a pretty nice job of scraping the delicate coating off the glass. Not nice.
I forgot to bring my blower along for the trip, but thankfully I had a UV filter on the only lens I brought along, so I could simply wipe off the dust using a lens cloth. UV filters are definitely recommended when shooting in dusty environments as I was.
Safety
I was sure about the safety level of Beijing, but walking around in dark alleys of a low-income district at night while carrying expensive camera gear sure got me jittery. Carry a discreet camera bag if possible. I like Crumpler's camera bags as they don't scream "CAMERA BAG!" like other brands such as Lowepro, Domke etc.
If you already have a camera bag and don't want to spend more money on getting a new discreet-looking one, you can always buy one of those neoprene camera sleeves for your camera, or fashion one out of foam and/or a small towel, and chuck the whole bundle into a large rucksack.
Another thing is, as much as possible, you don't want to hang your camera around your neck. Sounds like another no-brainer? You'd be surprised.
What To Bring
Don't bring too much gear when you're travelling. Firstly, most tours will involve a lot of walking, and unless you're some hyper-muscular beefcake, you probably wouldn't last a few days lugging a heavy camera bag around for 5 - 6 hours daily. Locking many pieces of supposedly unneeded gear in the hotel room defeats the whole purpose of bringing all that gear anyway. Secondly, the more equipment you bring, the more you're likely to lose or damage.
The question now is, how much is too much? The maximum amount of equipment you should bring is the amount that you can physically carry around daily, and comfortably, over the entire duration of your trip. You probably wouldn't need to cover every focal length, unless your life depends on capturing every single moment during the tour.
A fast standard zoom would be a good idea. I brought along just a single Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8. If you're feeling brave, you could bring along a few prime lenses instead, such as a 24mm, 35mm and a 50mm if you're using an APS-C camera. A flashgun isn't necessary unless you expect to take lots of pictures of people in low light, or if your lenses are not fast enough (of course I'm biased in that I tend to avoid using flash as much as possible). Tripods are most definitely too cumbersome to lug around in a fast-paced guided tour.
All Grey!
Firstly, a discharge of static electricity from your hands into the electronic contact points of your camera could easily fry its electronics. I was worried about the exposed hotshoe of my D5000 (I don't have a habit of putting on the hotshoe cover, so I didn't bring it to Beijing), hence I minimised contact with my bare hands. That's why all exposed electronic contacts on your equipment should be kept covered.
Secondly, a buildup of static electricity on your equipment attracts dust. It didn't help that Beijing is an extra-dusty city with air pollution and sand blown in from Mongolia. That's why it's important to use a blower to blast dust particles off your equipment at the end of everyday. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT BREATHE ONTO THE GLASS ELEMENTS OF YOUR LENSES IN COLD WEATHER. While this is a good method in clean your lenses in hot weather, in cold weather, the condensed water droplets from your breath will instantly turn into a layer of solid frost on your lens, which will have to be melted before it can be removed. If not, the minute ice shards will do a pretty nice job of scraping the delicate coating off the glass. Not nice.
I forgot to bring my blower along for the trip, but thankfully I had a UV filter on the only lens I brought along, so I could simply wipe off the dust using a lens cloth. UV filters are definitely recommended when shooting in dusty environments as I was.
Safety
I was sure about the safety level of Beijing, but walking around in dark alleys of a low-income district at night while carrying expensive camera gear sure got me jittery. Carry a discreet camera bag if possible. I like Crumpler's camera bags as they don't scream "CAMERA BAG!" like other brands such as Lowepro, Domke etc.If you already have a camera bag and don't want to spend more money on getting a new discreet-looking one, you can always buy one of those neoprene camera sleeves for your camera, or fashion one out of foam and/or a small towel, and chuck the whole bundle into a large rucksack.
Another thing is, as much as possible, you don't want to hang your camera around your neck. Sounds like another no-brainer? You'd be surprised.
What To Bring
Don't bring too much gear when you're travelling. Firstly, most tours will involve a lot of walking, and unless you're some hyper-muscular beefcake, you probably wouldn't last a few days lugging a heavy camera bag around for 5 - 6 hours daily. Locking many pieces of supposedly unneeded gear in the hotel room defeats the whole purpose of bringing all that gear anyway. Secondly, the more equipment you bring, the more you're likely to lose or damage.The question now is, how much is too much? The maximum amount of equipment you should bring is the amount that you can physically carry around daily, and comfortably, over the entire duration of your trip. You probably wouldn't need to cover every focal length, unless your life depends on capturing every single moment during the tour.
A fast standard zoom would be a good idea. I brought along just a single Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8. If you're feeling brave, you could bring along a few prime lenses instead, such as a 24mm, 35mm and a 50mm if you're using an APS-C camera. A flashgun isn't necessary unless you expect to take lots of pictures of people in low light, or if your lenses are not fast enough (of course I'm biased in that I tend to avoid using flash as much as possible). Tripods are most definitely too cumbersome to lug around in a fast-paced guided tour.
All Grey!
Physical challenges aside, Beijing in winter presented some interesting challenges to the style of my images. The first of which would be the lack of colour. The trees, without their leaves, are in shades of grey. Evergreen conifers, shrubs and grass are in a shade of dull grey-green. Modern buildings are, you guessed it, mostly grey. To make matters worse, Beijing is known to be dusty, so the sky was mostly in a sickening shade of grey as well!
I dealt with the lack of colour by doing away with it altogether in the most extreme cases. I concentrated on the composition of my images instead, as though I was shooting in black and white (my camera was still producing coloured JPEGs). I then processed these photos to look like blue and white Chinese porcelain (like the one above) by meddling extensively with gradient maps.
Remember, if you can't beat them, join them!
I dealt with the lack of colour by doing away with it altogether in the most extreme cases. I concentrated on the composition of my images instead, as though I was shooting in black and white (my camera was still producing coloured JPEGs). I then processed these photos to look like blue and white Chinese porcelain (like the one above) by meddling extensively with gradient maps.
Remember, if you can't beat them, join them!
Contrast and Dynamic Range
The greyish surroundings resulted in many high contrast scenes. Focusing on foreground subjects often resulted in the sky being completely blown out. I'm not sure if the greater dynamic range of film cameras will fare significantly better, but my solution was to use the bracketing function of my camera to fire off a quick succession of images at EV-2 , EV0 and EV+2 for high contrast scenes. Unfortunately, I'm no good at composing them into HDR images, so I'll probably touch on this when I get better at HDR photography.
I Can Take a Photo Like That Too
At the more famous places of interest, we often have a crowd of people with cameras packed at a single location jostling for the best spot for that cliched shot that we've all seen.
Which I think is completely not the point. Don't bother with joining the crowd. Wander off to somewhere nearby to look for an alternative angle to capture the image in an innovative new way (well, I do lean quite a fair bit towards abstract photography anyway). For example, try going really low for a low angle shot like the one above. Lie on the ground if you must (though the flippy screen of my D5000 means I rarely have to do that)!
If you really must take that picture, by the time you're done, they'd be done as well, and that spot would probably be empty enough for you to make a quick snap.
Serendipity
Sometimes, interesting photos may await in the least expected of places. The photo above was a long exposure shot of street lights and traffic taken hand-held through the glass window of the moving tour bus!
That's why you should always be alert and ready to get snap those photos that no one ever thought of!
That's about as much as what I can wring out of my photography experiences in wintery Beijing, but please, do add on about your experiences in travel photography. I hope this article was helpful for you!
P.S. You may find this article about shooting in the snow by The Photo Argus useful as well.
I Can Take a Photo Like That Too
At the more famous places of interest, we often have a crowd of people with cameras packed at a single location jostling for the best spot for that cliched shot that we've all seen.
Which I think is completely not the point. Don't bother with joining the crowd. Wander off to somewhere nearby to look for an alternative angle to capture the image in an innovative new way (well, I do lean quite a fair bit towards abstract photography anyway). For example, try going really low for a low angle shot like the one above. Lie on the ground if you must (though the flippy screen of my D5000 means I rarely have to do that)!
If you really must take that picture, by the time you're done, they'd be done as well, and that spot would probably be empty enough for you to make a quick snap.
Serendipity
Sometimes, interesting photos may await in the least expected of places. The photo above was a long exposure shot of street lights and traffic taken hand-held through the glass window of the moving tour bus!
That's why you should always be alert and ready to get snap those photos that no one ever thought of!
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That's about as much as what I can wring out of my photography experiences in wintery Beijing, but please, do add on about your experiences in travel photography. I hope this article was helpful for you!
P.S. You may find this article about shooting in the snow by The Photo Argus useful as well.
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