Thursday, October 25, 2007

Bangkok Colors: Pink

Though I'm not generally a huge fan of pink, I chose it as the first color for my Bangkok Color series because it says so much about the city. Pink is the color of plastic ambition, of taxi traffic and neon fashion accessories. But it isn't all shallow: it's the color of faithful devotion, in bottles of Strawberry Fanta and pale lotus blooms left at spirit house altars.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I will have to come to Thailand during my vacation in March. Your eye for beauty, great photographs have me sold. The pink lotus blossoms are heavenly. Thank you.

Prêt à Voyager said...

Truly stunning! You have such a great eye!

Anonymous said...

PINK is one of my favourite colors especially around others like lime, orange and red.
stunningly beautiful.

Maryam in Marrakesh said...

Really wonderful collection of pinks. It may be the color of plastic ambition but I love it!

The flower petals...so lovely.

Sarah said...

I love your pictures. I'm headed to Vietnam for 2 weeks at the end of November. Your pictures make me even more excited to go. I am planning on taking my small digital camera and leaving my SLR at home. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated. I'm a beginner photographer. Thanks!

Alexander Santillanes said...

Hey Sarah- I'm so jealous that you're going to be spending two weeks in Vietnam! I've been to Ho Chi Minh City, but I really want to see more of the country- it seems amazing!

I have mixed feelings on the camera issue. My first question would be, is your slr a digital camera, or does it take film? Before I got my Canon digital slr, I had a film slr and a small digital camera that took pictures with 4.0 megapixels. I used to travel with the film slr, and though I got some very good photos, I was always a little frustrated by the hassle of carrying not only the heavy camera, but also extra batteries, the second lens, and a dozen rolls of film. I would also get paranoid of running out of film, thereby limiting myself from taking photos sometimes. When I got my little digital camera, I slowly phased that slr out. It was so much lighter to carry, the batteries were easily recharged, and it fit nicely into my daypack or pocket. And most importantly, I felt liberated from the expense and use of film- I could take hundreds of photos, and delete the ones that didn't come out well- allowing me to be much more spontaneous and experimental. However, I didn't have as much control with photo settings, focusing etc- and unless I set the pictures on a very high quality setting (which quickly filled the memory card) the pictures were never as good as with film. I was moderately satisfied with the results, but to be honest my pictures were rarely that spectacular. With that said, smaller digital cameras have improved a lot since then (4.0 megapixels was pretty impressive when I got mine), and I have no doubt you could take some great photos with it. If you're mainly going to be in urban settings, it should probably suit your needs well- I wouldn't recommend taking it on a trip where you would be trying to photograph wild animals (which, sadly I did). My advice would be to think about what type of photos you want to take, and let that influence your choice. The digital camera might work better for more spontaneous shots, particularly since Vietnam will be such a visual onslaught that you could likely fill dozens rolls of film every day. If you're mainly going to be taking more composed, planned, epic style photographs, the slr would probably suit you better. Then again, if your answer to the first question was that its a digital slr, definitely take that.

I hope that really long, convoluted answer helps at all. I'm sure whichever camera you use, you'll get some great photos. And I hope you post them online and send me a link when you return- I'd really love to check them out! -X

Sarah said...

Wow! Thanks for all the info. All of the cameras are digital. I think I'm going to bring it. I'll let you know when I get back and get some pictures up.

All of your travels and photos are inspiring. Thanks!