{"id":5087,"date":"2011-05-31T16:41:18","date_gmt":"2011-05-31T20:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lightstalking.com\/?p=5087"},"modified":"2023-05-07T04:38:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T08:38:49","slug":"floating-market-in-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lightstalking.com\/floating-market-in-thailand\/","title":{"rendered":"The Amazing Floating Markets of Thailand: And How to Photograph Them"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When people mention Thailand, some of the images that come to mind are the postcard photos of beaches, the water festival \u2018Songkran,\u2019 or their favorite Thai food. For a photographer, Thailand has a lot to offer. If you are ever in Bangkok for a few days, one of the places you just have to shoot is a floating market.<\/p>\n<p>A popular destination for tourists who visit Bangkok is the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. This market is only one of many around Central Thailand, but it is the one made famous by postcards of small sampans filled with colorful fruit peddled by a smiling Thai woman. Other than this postcard photo that you can easily snap if you visit the Damnoen Saduak floating market, there are many other images you can make. Let me take you on a guided shooting tour of Thailand\u2019s most famous floating market.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Get There Before First Light<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Damnoen Saduak is only about 90 minutes outside of Bangkok, so it\u2019s possible to leave around 5 am and reach the market before sunrise. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lightstalking.com\/first-light\">First light is the best time to start shooting<\/a> at the market. The market itself is very small; it\u2019s a network of canals that surround a village on stilts and the central market of the area. The vendors paddle back and forth in the narrow waterways, and if you stand at certain spots, the light is incredibly beautiful.<\/p>\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Start at first light. Copyright <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210622175450\/http:\/\/alohal.com\/\">Aloha Lavina<\/a>.<\/h6>\n<p><strong>Bring minimum equipment<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There is so much to capture at the floating market, so you want first of all to be able to walk around back and forth between the two major waterways. There are also few places to sit unless you count restaurants. So if you want to catch the action, you need to bring the minimum equipment for the assignment. One camera, one wide lens, and one telephoto should do. My motto is, \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20160322230825\/https:\/\/www.pointofutterance.com\/2011\/03\/13\/be-a-photographer-not-a-lens-changer\/\">be a photographer, not a lens changer<\/a>,\u2019 so I schedule the lens change according to the types of photos I am after, rather than changing lenses back and forth all the time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Knowing When to Go Wide for Best Results<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are times when I go wide to catch the bustle and color.<\/p>\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Go wide to catch color and crowds. Copyright <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210622175450\/http:\/\/alohal.com\/\">Aloha Lavina<\/a>.<\/h6>\n<p>Also good to capture are the patterns reflected on the water.<\/p>\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Catch the patterns reflected on the water. Copyright <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210622175450\/http:\/\/alohal.com\/\">Aloha Lavina<\/a>.<\/h6>\n<p><strong>Knowing When to Zoom In<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, you find details that help you tell your story.<\/p>\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Catch detail. Copyright <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210622175450\/http:\/\/alohal.com\/\">Aloha Lavina<\/a>.<\/h6>\n<p>Since the places to stand are limited to the sides of the canals, a telephoto lens is useful for portraits. A zoom allows you to isolate your subjects in the crowded market.<\/p>\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Zoom in on faraway subjects using a telephoto. Copyright <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210622175450\/http:\/\/alohal.com\/\">Aloha Lavina<\/a>.<\/h6>\n<p>Damnoen Saduak Floating Market is open on weekends from sunrise to around 11.00 am, but the few hours it is open gives you enough time to take photos of both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lightstalking.com\/first-light\">early light<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lightstalking.com\/second-light\">second light<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Look for Pockets of Light<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Thai people love their noodles, and when you go to the market, you can find the popular noodle boat by looking for the largest crowd seated at the tables nearby. Sometimes, you might get lucky and catch some of the light bouncing back from the risen sun.<\/p>\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Look for interesting light situations. Copyright <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210622175450\/http:\/\/alohal.com\/\">Aloha Lavina<\/a>.<\/h6>\n<p>If you move around, you can find a vantage point that gives you a unique lighting situation.<\/p>\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">You get lots of practice with light metering at the floating market. Copyright <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210622175450\/http:\/\/alohal.com\/\">Aloha Lavina<\/a>.<\/h6>\n<p><strong>Change Your Vantage Point Often<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The floating market is a great place to hone your composition. It\u2019s a place where you get to shoot beside your subject or above them.<\/p>\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Shoot from beside your subjects. Copyright <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210622175450\/http:\/\/alohal.com\/\">Aloha Lavina<\/a>.<\/h6>\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Shoot from above, too. Copyright <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210622175450\/http:\/\/alohal.com\/\">Aloha Lavina<\/a>.<\/h6>\n<p>As a tourist spot, I have to say that the floating market is a bit overrated. The postcards always make it seem like it is much bigger than it actually is. But as a place for travel photography, it has everything you need\u2014beautiful light, action, character, color, some pretty good noodles, and it\u2019s close enough to the city that you can shoot it all in one morning. So the next time you visit Thailand, go to a floating market. I guarantee you\u2019ll get some good photos and be at a beach or shopping mall by afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When people mention Thailand, some of the images that come to mind are the postcard photos of beaches, the water festival \u2018Songkran,\u2019 or their favorite Thai food. For a photographer, Thailand has a lot to offer. If you are ever in Bangkok for a few days, one of the places you just have to shoot [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2248,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31611],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.5 (Yoast SEO v22.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Amazing Floating Markets of Thailand: And How to Photograph Them | Light Stalking<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When people mention Thailand, some of the images that come to mind are the postcard photos of beaches, the water festival \u2018Songkran,\u2019 or their favorite .\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lightstalking.com\/floating-market-in-thailand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Amazing Floating Markets of Thailand: And How to Photograph Them\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When people mention Thailand, some of the images that come to mind are the postcard photos of beaches, the water festival \u2018Songkran,\u2019 or their favorite\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lightstalking.com\/floating-market-in-thailand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Light Stalking\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LightStalking\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-31T20:41:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-07T08:38:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lightstalking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/logo-emblem.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"alohal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@lightstalking\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@lightstalking\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"alohal\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lightstalking.com\/floating-market-in-thailand\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lightstalking.com\/floating-market-in-thailand\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"alohal\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lightstalking.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b6e49dc380fd76fed60a904f38212c13\"},\"headline\":\"The Amazing Floating Markets of Thailand: And How to Photograph Them\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-31T20:41:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-07T08:38:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lightstalking.com\/floating-market-in-thailand\/\"},\"wordCount\":745,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lightstalking.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Adventure &amp; 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