A little flashback story, I was on Cruise trip, back at December 2019 with my (big) family member. The plan is to visit three locations: Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Phuket. We departed from Singapore, sailed for 5 days, then backed to Singapore again.
Due to the importance of being presence with my family, I did not shoot in Singapore at all (fully family time). I also did not stop at Kuala Lumpur because I already visited that city for several times. Instead, I used that one day to tried focused more on circled the big ship (around 350 metres length) and thought perhaps I could create more unique shots while inside there.
At first, I planned to brought 1 Zoom and 1 prime lens, but then I thought that I could not shot much because this is family holiday. So I decide to make my set up as light as possible by carry only one prime lens.
My (super simple) camera set up:
- Fujifilm X-T30
- XF23mm f/1.4
- 2 pcs 64 GB memory card
- 3 pcs batteries
First stop: Penang, Malaysia
Truth to be told, I almost decided to not went down to Penang. I just thought how could be it different than Kuala Lumpur? Oh dear, how wrong I am! Personally, Penang is a much better city than KL to do street photography due to their unique (retro) buildings everywhere.
Unfortunately, I did not have much time to shooting there, only able to visited 3 places: A famous pharmacy for my family needs, a super delicious chicken rice spot, and Peranakan Mansion (the only place I able to shoot street).
Peranakan Mansion is such a beautiful place. An old house with luxury Chinese style, that now turn into a museum. Filled with many antique stuff and also with retro style architecture of 19th century. I was lucky because Sun was on my side. The light falloff at this house was majestic.
The colour of wall, the texture of the tiles, and retro style of other equipment able to enhance my mind to create an unique looks photo. Not to mention this place has a good crowd. Many people visited this house, but not to the point of being too busy that I could not find a space to shoot.
If someday I plan for a street photography trip to Penang, I will definitely visit Peranakan Mansion once again, to shoot even more scenes without being “disturb” by family time. It is such an interesting place, with full of distinctive household equipment.
Second stop: Phuket, Thailand
I have been in Thailand for several times, but never to Phuket. Heard a lot about this place, a beach “tourist” city, combine with the friendliest and style of Thai people. Personally, that sounds like a perfect place to shooting street!
As expected, I did not have much time to shoot. Generally I only have time around 5-6 hours at each city before need went back to Cruise. Managed to stop by at 4 places, consisted of: Restaurant for lunch (2 hours lunch!), a giant size of gift shop, Monkey Hill (almost full time with family though!) and Patong Beach (Finally!).
The only reason I was able to shot on this beach simply because that was docking point of Cruise. Otherwise, I did not think I could shoot at all, because time was so limited. Honestly, I really curious to visit other famous beaches with more exotic looks and definitely more time to shoot.
Anyway, street photography is about imagination and concept in our mind. So just gotta shot at everything lies in front of us, and try to get creative with any available elements. Shooting at the beach is always lovely. Open space, beautiful light, and crowd are simply there, waiting to be composed and be captured.
Patong itself is a water sport type of beach, where we can easily see many activities there. The one that capture my attention was their Parasailing. One of the local person who work there also would go “flying” to help handle the parachute when they were about landing. I have seen (and flown) with parasailing before in Bali, but I never seen this kind of “tandem” parasailing there. Managed to catch the perfect gesture above, thanks to the 20 fps burst of Fujifilm X-T30 (Read my review about X-T30 here).
All in all, it was a short trip with full of joy in Phuket. This place felt so fun to shoot at, and Phuket able to create a “warm, fun, and peaceful feeling like if I were in Bali, which is great!
On Cruise
Shooting on Cruise was definitely my main interest in this trip. Never been on Cruise before, so actually I did not have any idea what and how to shoot there. Also I was a bit worried about their security system, whether I allowed to shoot on ship freely, or limited only in some spot, or totally could not shoot at all. Because on Cruise means I was at private place, whenever I got restriction to shot, I need to follow their rule.
Luckily, no one ever stopped me of shooting on the ship. Not even when I shot at pool area, standing for 15-20 minutes right between of two crowded pools. People (include security person) just took a glance of me and they continued to had fun with their activities. This was the moment when I felt glad to use friendly look camera in compact size. I did not think I would able to do that with the bulky camera and big zoom lens.
Shooting at the top floor of Cruise feels like shooting on the beach. Open space with plenty of Sun light was simply a joy to shoot street. People activities were simply everywhere, and most of them had “tourist feeling”. Either they brought their own camera, or they simply did not care at all when saw me carry camera everywhere.
One of the most benefit of shooting on Cruise is because the ship so large in size, that I able to create photos at multiple different places. It was felt like I walked around in a (small) city. So many different type of elements, textures, and creative objects. Also, not to mention different behaviour of people in each area. For a bit extreme example: Generally people at outdoor area much less concerned about being photographed compare to indoor area like in dining room or casino.
Travel with one fix lens is always challenging, I have to push my creativity to compose whatever scene in front of me to looks balance and great in various conditions. However, I think create street photo is about being how unique we combine elements such as colours, composition, and moment.
Therefore by stretch our creativity (and imagination), we able to produce stronger photo compare to use zoom lens. Zoom lens provide every focal length we think we need. That is the weakness of it. We only shoot what we feel comfortable to shoot. We already knew what to shoot, even before we shoot it.
In prime lens case, more often than not, I need to pause, just stand there in front of a scene. Then start to think what I can do with this certain angle of view. I do not just keep shooting with style/angle that I already tried or I know, instead, I push my mind to develop something new due to my restriction. That is the moment I able to create more creative shoots.
Shooting on Cruise involve many various conditions. Outdoor, indoor, Sun light, artificial light, different colour themes, different type of outfit (because of multiple nations here), different culture/personalities etc. I need to adjust my style of shooting in almost every scene I encounter. Not to mention this ship is totally a new environment to me. I had no idea which side has good geometry looks or had beautiful light off or perhaps simply a restrict area to be photographed (like inside staff area).
Here are more street photos I took on Cruise:
That is all about my trip on a Cruise! Overall it was a pleasant trip, and I felt glad I had XF23mm f/1.4 (equivalent to 35mm) lens with me. This lens proved to me one more time that it is the “perfect” angle of view for versatility.
Always embrace travel as a new opportunity to develop ourself!
The point is, by travel to somewhere new can help us to push creativity in our mind with new opportunities. To capture something different than what we used to shot, and to learn how to adapt quickly in different situations. –Street photograpy forces us to go outside
Keep shooting wherever you are!
Nico Harold
Related article, one camera one lens on a trip:
Melbourne Street photography with Fujifilm X100F