Photography Fun in Night Chinatown

Bangkok Chinatown is a perfect location. Always busy in the evening, colorfully decorated and illuminated, with people somehow understanding they are not just visitors and vendors but part of a performance.

There are mobs of foreigners there but Thais like visiting the area too, and, for that reason, probably, Bangkok Chinatown haven't lost its authenticity.

All these diverse people - locals, farangs, South and Eastern Asians - create an amazing visual kaleidoscope. Solo travelers, travel mates, couples, families, groups, all in search of the life's marvel.

Eating is the main activity there - night Yaowarat Road is, first of all, famous of its foods.

I know Thais who believe Yaowarat is a nice place to eat something special but I personally never tried there anything too special I had never tried before in other parts of Bangkok.

And, for sure, I have never tried much to do so since I visit Yaowarat to take images, not to pay for the same food more. 😄

That farang family impressed me, with their charming goslings.

I love taking images of passing tuk-tuks since they often have colorful illumination in the cabin like in the image below and people often have interesting mood there:

In Bangkok, not only people eat fish but fish eats people too (fish pedicure):

Taking images of people's napes - why not?

Every time I look at this image, I try to imagine their face and decipher who these people are.

Unexpected turns also happen.

I noticed this guy in the dense crowd, and he noticed that I glanced at his direction with my camera ready. As we got closer (moving in the crowd), he asked me “do you want to take a picture of me?”

As it turned out, he was from Moscow, an optimistic, friendly, and sociable person.

So I answered I wanted to photograph him and the guy started posing me in glamor photography style that surprised and confused me.

That was the opposite I was doing right before meeting him - I had tried not to involve, and I had been observing and searching for photo opportunities. So, I needed to quickly switch my mind to at least avoid street pillars growing from the head and cars crashing into the face 😄

No, it's not street photography, neither authentic nor candid, and this naked torso in the middle of the metropolis looked too bizarre. But this happened to me and it was fun.

More images and stories from Southeast Asia are ahead! Check out the previous ones on my personal Pinmapple map.

I took the images with a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G on a full frame Nikon D750 in Bangkok, Thailand.