Photograpy around Chiang Mai

<p>I'm going to Chiang Mai in a couple of weeks. What photography opportunities should I not miss?<br>

In terms of style, I'm drawn to things with a strong graphic design attraction, but rarely have the forethought to plan a picture in terms of composition beforehand :( I like the idea of taking photographs of people, but I am rarely able to sufficiently put them at their ease and achieve a good result. Therefore most of the pictures I'm <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/jay/PlannedPrintOrder">happiest with</a> are of things or aminals.</p>

<p>Well James as far as photogenic goes there are more than a few places. Trips up into the hills for tribal encounters, gibbon sanctuaries, elephant sanctuaries, cooking classes, umbrella making, oh and the night market is not to be missed. It is a people photo type place but everyone is very used to it and accommodating. Push yourself it will work out great.</p>

<p>It is the most cosmopolitan of the Thai cities, Starbucks and Burger King territory. You need to dig very deep, or go into Lao, to find some authenticity nowadays though.</p>

<p>Have fun, Scott.</p>

<p>For strong graphic design, I would suggest going to various Hill Tribe villages and photographing the textiles that are for sale. These works of art have strong geometric elements, intricate detail, and vivid colors.</p>

<p>I'd agree with what Scott was saying about having to go out of your way to find anything "as it used to be". Chiang Mai city has changed dramatically over the last two or three decades and has now become something like an extension of Bangkok. There are hourly jumbo jet flights from BKK to Chiang Mai transporting thousands of tourists each day to and fro. For animals, there are elephant rides, butterfly farms, snake farms, etc., many located in the Mae Rim Valley area, or up into the Pong Yang area just above Mae Rim. This would take about 30 minutes by car. The drive is pleasant, with a wide, two-lane blacktop winding its way up through lush hills. Wat Phra Singh and Wat Chiang Man, two of Chiang Mai's oldest and best preserved temples, are both located in a historic central part of the city. They have many "things" to photograph. It might help if you knew what you were photographing, so get a good guide book, and try to practice some basic etiquette while in those sacred places. There are comfy but pricey boutique hotels in that area, too. It's rainy season here, so plan on cloudy weather and some pretty heavy rain storms that may bring flash floods. Not a good season for trekking into hill tribe areas. Don't forget to savor Northern Thai food. It is some of the best in a country famous for tasty treats.<br>

Enjoy your trip<br>

Charles, Bangkok</p>

<p>One other recommendation for the Pong Yang valley area would be the Queen's Botanical Gardens, located well up the road above Mae Rim and the Mae Sa valley area. I think the highway up into the hills is Route 1069, but you'd better check. The Mae Sa elephant camp is there, and just 2 kms or so beyond that is the Queen Sirikit Botanical garden. Lovely place, with lots of areas for hikes and sight seeing. THere are several green houses full of tropical plants. I used to take my Hasselblad, a macro kit and a tripod and enjoy the morning hours photographing the plants. Then, for lunch, continue for just a few minutes on up the same highway until you reach the Singha Beer garden, which has a very good restaurant situated in a spectacular location with views of forested hillsides and a tropical waterfall. There's fresh Singha beer on tap and excellent food. Getting out of Chiang Mai and going to Lamphun or Lampang are also good sidetrips that can be made in a day if you leave early in the morning. Rent a car/van and driver for these unless you're prepared for the Thai highways. Daily rates would be around Baht 2,000 for the car/van and driver. <br /> Again, good luck, Charles</p>

<p>There's some nice temples downtown. Show up early to avoid crowds.</p>

<p>A few km out of town is Doi Suthep temple. It's worth the trip. I rented a motorcycle, but you could also get a motorcycle taxi or regular taxi to take you there. Beyond Doi Suthep is a nice viewpoint. There are also some hiking trails along the road.</p>

<p>There is intense pressure to go on a trek. You'll be approached by touts and hotel staff to sign up. Shop around and check things out carefully if you're interested. I didn't go, but it sounds like a fun, touristy thing to do. Again, check things out very carefully since you're going into poppy growing border country. You'll be advised to leave valuables in Chiang Mai. Be careful where you leave them - people have gotten their stuff stolen while trekking. Your best deal may not be the cheapest deal in town.</p>

<p>There are river trips between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. It sounded very interesting, but when I was there it wasn't safe. Things may have changed and it'd be worth looking into.</p>

<p>The night market is very overrated. Skip, unless you're interested in picking up a Louis Vuitton knock-off. One of the funnest things I did was to take a Thai cooking class for a day.</p>

<p>Hi James... Let me guess. I would guess that you have a comfort area that you don't like to have intruded on. This results in the perfectly natural desire not to intrude onto other persons areas of comfort. I can relate to that. On a recent photo shoot with my camera club in downtown San Diego, we passed one of the many homeless men sleeping on the street. Several of the club members gathered around the man to shoot portraits. I was reluctant both because I didn't want to bring home pictures of his misery and because I didn't want to intrude in the privacy he deserved even when sleeping on the street.<br>

Unfortunately the desire not to intrude often results in travel images of statues, buildings and other inanimate objects when people are IMO the real subjects of interest. The more unusual they look (to me, that is) the more interesting people images are. In other words, I am not particularly interested in images of a mail carrier in San Diego, California or of a police officer directing traffic in Los Angeles.<br>

However, dress the mail carrier in an exotic uniform or place the police officer in a turban amongst ox carts and three wheeled cycles, the image becomes interesting to me.<br>

I have found that a longer focal length lens will help me to obtain close-up, portraits of people in my travels without physically "getting in their face". I carry a 70-200mm f/4L IS lens attached to a 40D camera for that purpose. The additional benefit of a long lens, other than enabling you to get close-up portraits of people without intruding into their space, is that the shallow depth of field at relatively large apertures can isolate your subject. I carry a tiny 270EX flash mounted on that camera at all times and have only to turn it on to get some fill light.<br>

Shooting in Southeast Asia, I love a longer lens. It seems that people there either don't want their picture taken or will ham it up for the photographer. The kids are the biggest hams but, that sometimes results in human interest images. However, I like to stand off a bit and shoot portraits while people are somewhat unawares of the camera.<br>

My second camera is a 30D with a 17-55mm lens and I use this mid-range zoom for my general shooting. I carry these two cameras on an OPTECH Dual Harness which allows easy use of both cameras while distributing the weight across my shoulders rather than around my neck.</p>

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<p>There are some good opportunities around Pai (street photography, caves), at the Doi Inthanon NP (landscape), at Chiang Dao (temple) and in Bor Sang (umbrellas). You can see some of my pictures taken around Chiang Mai on my homepage: <a href="http://www.wild-places.homepage.t-online.de/html/thailand.html">http://www.wild-places.homepage.t-online.de/html/thailand.html</a><br>

Boris</p>

<p>Guys, DON'T GO INTO Boris Buschardt's homepage.. my Norton Security warns me that there are security threats there. You should get it checked out Boris. Jun</p>

<p>Hi Jun, thanks for the information. You are the first one who reports this. I'm using G-DATA Internet Security and it doesn't report any threats. Are there any experts here, who can check, whether there is a real problem with my homepage?<br>

Best regards,<br>

Boris</p>