Crouching behind a small crowd you frame the scene on the camera. A thousand coloured saris cover the walls of the bamboo shack. As the woman meets a customer her perfect row of golden teeth lights up the frame further. Her orange headscarf complements the moody sky, and the customer’s black hijab adds a composed contrast.
Cameras can be scary, especially the modern brand with attachments soon to be categorised as offensive weapons
Thoughts of royalties from travel magazines are flying around your head as you refine the focus, and your finger tentatively moves to the shutter, and… busted! They’ve spotted you. You weren’t subtle enough.
A volley of screaming comes your way as the camera clicks and you’re forced to exit the exotic market in shame, an image of anger and contempt captured in freeze frame.
Few people like a camera being flashed in their face. Most people mumble a protest and think ‘oh God’ when a friend asks them to pose. Some enjoy the limelight, but when it comes photos a lot of us will cower, embarrassed, straightening our hair and turning so the lens sees our ‘best side’. And that’s when a Maltese person is pointing the lens. Imagine if it was a foreigner?
Cameras can be scary, especially the modern brand with attachments soon to be categorised as offensive weapons by airlines.
Brandishing the camera with abandon, forcing it into the face of a petrified local, or accidently swinging the lens into a child’s head, is never going to create memorable holiday photos. But with a few simple tricks the memories of fascinatingly colourful locals can be captured.
Know when to put your camera away
No matter what your technical talent, a blinding midday sun will never contribute to memorable imagery. In a bustling market what can you snap unobstructed from ground level? From a moving bus window the end result will rarely be sharp.
Having your camera out in certain places can offend some people, so why be offensive if you know the end result will be unusable? Keep it in its case at these times. Future photographers will thank you if the locals’ saturation point to camera-wielding tourists has yet to be reached.
Utilise established relationships
In a foreign country you interact with locals every day – some people for a long time, such as guides, guesthouse owners or those sitting next to you on long journeys.
The more you get to know someone, the more opportunities you have to ask their permission to take a photo (and yes, you should be asking permission to take somebody’s photo). Furthermore, these people are most likely to say yes. And are more likely to want to look good on your photos.
In a busy market of colourful traders, you will have greater success with those people you have bought goods from. People you have become friends with will want to remember you so they are more likely to understand why you want a photo to remember them.
Don’t be obsessed by the perfect shot
Now you have permission, the subject is waiting; frame the shot, analyse the lighting, adjust the shutter speed, isolate the subject, focus, make a joke, relax the subject, shoot, but something isn’t right. Sometimes it is easy to get obsessed with taking the perfect shot and not be satisfied.
Don’t show any of this disappointment to your subject; show how grateful you are for the opportunity to take that photo. It wasn’t their fault that you forgot to adjust the range or a foreign tourist crept into the corner of the shot. And don’t delete. It might not be perfect but five years from now you won’t regret keeping that photo.
Give your camera to the locals
Europeans, North Americans, Antipodeans and camera-crazy Chinese and Japanese aside, the camera remains a novelty item. Most people will never own one. For some the novelty is recent, and the simple act of seeing their own image on a camera screen is enough to delight them.
But why not give them a chance to use one? Especially a child or teenager.
Pre-setting the lighting and selecting auto-focus is essential, and in the hands of a novice the quality of the photos will be hit and miss at best. But friends and family will want to be in those photos, and the delighted budding photographer will want to keep pressing the shutter.
Help this budding photographer by subtly moving their hands to enhance composition. When you sift through, most photos will be deleted. But hidden among the photos will be the gems – those natural expressions that you, as an outsider, will struggle to capture.
I used this approach to capture nomadic families in Krygyzstan. The excitable 12-year-old would usually walk around the whole family encouraging people to pose for photos, delighted and proud at what they were achieving.
The Polaroid printer
Polaroid has evolved. No longer just a bulky point-and-shoot with unpredictable results, instant printing is available for little more than €30 in a size little larger than a calculator. The Polaroid printer can serve two purposes. It allows you to thank others more powerfully. Not only do you have their family shot, but they also have a portrait on their wall, a rare luxury in many countries.
Hang around long enough and people may start coming to you because they would also like a portrait for their wall. They will be open to your artistic direction, happy to pose against different backdrops, and they won’t mind a dozen shots being taken in search of perfection.
In Pakistan the Polaroid printer enabled me to photograph a whole rural village of elderly Islamic women. I initially printed one family’s portrait.
Two days later and women were spending three hours drawing henna patterns, applying make-up and selecting the finest dress, just to go in front of my camera. Before the printer I hadn’t managed to get a single photo of a woman in Pakistan.