Photoproject: 100 visits to Seri Huamark Market (days 51-60)

After completing the first half of my project and passing the 50-days mark, I made my first comprehensive revision of the work up until that point, and this was a perfect opportunity to see the whole project with more perspective, since before it had always been a day-to-day, piece-by-piece topic. This general, holistic approach let me see patterns and evolutions under a different light, and it also gave me more insight into my own process. Besides, since I had been shooting with a telephoto zoom for the last days, I decided to go back to the wider PanaLeica 15mm for the next 10 days, as that was the lens I used to kickstart the project and this felt like a second beginning.

Day 51, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 51b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 51c, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

I have been at the market almost daily for around 2 months now, so I'm able to evaluate some of the cons and pros that have developed throughout this time. Starting with the negatives: with familiarity some people has started crossing the line and has started asking me for things in a casual but direct way, such as my watch, which I wear only when I go there straight from work. Politely and always with a smile, I brought the conversation to other topics and ignored those indirect requests as well as I could.

Day 52, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 52b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

In addition, not everyone has become more friendly over time, since some vendors that were curious towards me at first have grown a bit unfriendly after seeing me there everyday, annoyed at my presence  and my strolls throughout their premises, which I guess is inevitable; in instances like that, I just try to avoid them and be as discreet and invisible as possible when walking near them but I don't let that come in my way, either; I continue shooting as usual but being more cautious and unobtrusive with them.

Day 53, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 53b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 53c, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

The positives, however, outnumber the negatives by a quite some margin: bonds with some of the vendors have grown and they have began to invite me to sit, talk and drink with them while they are having their meals or just gathering with other colleagues in the slow hours. Other times, some of them even brought me stools to sit when they saw me crouching down while taking pictures, and they even went as far as talking to others about me, which made other come to gather around me smiling, greeting me, even posing for me to grab their images.

Day 54, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 54b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 54c, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 54d, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 54e, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

From a technical point of view, I have resorted to manual exposure more and more trying to get the correct exposure in tricky situations in which the auto metering would be unpredictable due to subjects of a different brightness moving across the scene; this way I prevented exposure changes and kept things exposed as I wanted without surprises.

Day 55, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 55b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 55c, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 55d, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 55e, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 55f, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Since I have plenty of images of everywhere around the market already, that has freed me from the need to walk around to discover all its nooks and crannies every day, so lately I have been focusing on just one single scene until I nailed it or until I got what I had pre-envisioned, before moving around or walking some more through the market.

Day 56, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 56b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 56c, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 56d, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 56e, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 56f, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Despite having visited the market for about 2 months already, I keep discovering things on a daily basis, as there are always new things I had not noticed before that come suddenly to my eyes, asking for some attention. This brings to mind the saying "can't see the forest for the trees", that has proven to be absolutely right in my case: when you are too concentrated checking the small things yo become blind to the big, general ones around you.

Day 57, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 57b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

One of the main leitmotif of street photography, if there is one, is "get closer", so I have been slowly but steadily practicing it and trying to get closer to people, taking portraits of vendors and customers from up close and, as a first for me, sometimes even with flash, which has been quite an interesting exercise that I have only started to scratch the surface.

Day 58, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 58b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 58c, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 58d, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 58e, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

In such a short span of time I have already seen changes unfolding in the market that make some of my older images unrepeatable (a new fence built around the shrine, some new patches covering holes in the walls, mirrors removed), which has brought a whole new dimension and weight to my project, since, for once, it appears to me that it is also a way of documenting the place, its flows and changes, its evolution or stillness, and this was never amongst my goals when I started it.

Day 59, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 59b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 59c, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

When a day is cloudy and the light is not good I start to feel bored in the market, and I can't seem to find interesting scenes anymore, but at the same time I don't want to skip my daily visit since it's a commitment that I made with myself, so trying to figure out a way to balance these contradictory forces I have decided to force myself to go sometimes even when the light is not optimal but allowing me some days off to avoid frustration or fatigue.

Day 60, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 60b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 60c, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

Day 60d, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

The number of images I have taken these past 10 days ranged between 21 and 154 (totaling 774) and, all in all, I only skipped 3 days, so I can firmly say that the project advances smoothly despite the usual ups and downs and I'm really looking forward to what's to come.

Photoproject: 100 visits to Seri Huamark Market (days 41-50)

After 40 days and 2 lenses used so far, I decided to change to a new lens that covered new focal lengths, one that would offer me possibilities I did not have before, going long for the first time to try new approaches, so I switched to the telephoto zoom Lumix 35-100mm, a lens I had not used in quite some time and that I hoped would allow me to see things in a different way from the previous shorter lenses.

Day 41, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 41b, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 41c, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 41d, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Recently I realised that I had started taking more pictures every day and I was relying more and more on the motto "later I will find out the best one in the computer", but this approach didn't really work, for I spent more time in front of the computer than in the market taking pictures, so I promised myself to follow a new motto from then onwards: shoot less and more carefully and keep post-processing to a minimum.

Day 42, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 42b, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 42c, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 42d, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 42e, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

It's funny how people approached me more and more filled with curiosity as days passed and started asking me questions about why I was going there every day, what were my intentions and making small talk with me to have an insight into my motivations. The development of my relation with the vendors has followed a very interesting pattern: from disinterest to mild curiosity to open nosiness. We will see where we go from here on!

Day 43, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 43b, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 43c, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 43d, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Having a longer lens allowed me to try some new things I hadn't practiced before, such as a more conventional portraiture with shallower depth of field, or focusing on smaller or more distant objects that were out of my reach before, and it was interesting to discover corners and details that had passed unnoticed to me in the previous 40 days. Even in a relatively small place such as this market there are always new things to find out, and this keep things fresh despite the repetition and limitations.

Day 44, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 44b, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 44c, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 44d, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Even having a new lens and despite the different perspectives that it brought to the table, I felt a bit bored for the first time, a bit worn-out, and a feeling of "I have seen it all already" started to appear for the first time. I had the impression that I was starting to repeat things and that I was not able to find new scenes in each of my visits, and at times this brought my motivation a bit down, but I never let that spoil my mood and I continued ahead nevertheless, trying my best each time.

Day 45, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 45b, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 45c, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 45d, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 45e, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 45f, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

New themes continue to arise organically during my visits, and the latest addition has been textures, details that convey the pass of time and the past life of the market through the stains that are left behind.

Day 46, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 46b, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 46c, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 46d, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Not only the vendors of the market started showing me their curiosity more openly, buy they also started posing for me and even asking me to take their pictures, checking them afterwards, shaking my hands, requesting me to pause my walks to eat with them in casual conversations. One tip that I learnt through my interactions with people during this project: engage with people whenever you have the chance to get a better understanding of them and to establish a bond that will bring more soul to your images, but at the same time stay longer and eventually they will go back to their normal chores, ignoring you, which will give you the chance to capture them candidly again.

Day 47, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 47b, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 47c, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 47d, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 47e, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 47f, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 47g, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

From a technical point of view, I shot in fully manual more and more often and this made me get more comfortable using manual with the help of the histogram, and I can consider this as a personal victory already, since it was one of the goals I set myself at the beginning of the project: learning new things and getting more proficient with the camera.

Day 48, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 48b, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 48c, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 48d, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 48e, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

These last 10 days the number of pictures I have shot have ranged between 64-109; I didn't have any day with a very high number but I didn't have days with few images either, they have stayed quite consistent.

Day 49, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 49b, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 49c, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 49d, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

I mentioned before that, for the first time, I felt I was starting to repeat myself and everyday was harder to find new scenes and arrangements to shoot, but that did not discourage me and I continued visiting the market almost on a daily basis; I only skipped 2 days in total so, despite everything, half-way through the project, the pace has continued advancing at full speed and hopefully I have energy enough for the remaining 50 days!

Day 50, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 50b, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 50c, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 50d, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

Day 50e, GX80 + Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm