I meet Valeria through a travel friend here in Medellin.  He’s been gone for a while now but he had asked me if I would submit some photos for his new online magazine for the upcoming issue.  I said sure but I didn’t have a lot of content because I had two hard drives crash and one stolen since being in Colombia (long story).  He said ok to it only being photos of Medellin but had a request for certain photos.  One photo being a shot, framed landscape, of a true Paisa chica.  We talked and came up with the idea to use his old girlfriend for the shot.

I got a hold of Valeria and she was excited to do a photo session with me but we needed to agree on a date and location for it.  She suggested we go to her farm (in Spanish called a “finca”) just outside of Medellin.  When I got there it was more like a resort then any farm ever could be.  It had a paintball course, a soccer field, fruit orchard, huge swimming pool with jacuzzi and a pavilion BBQ area.  The house could sleep 40+ people easily, had a 4 car garage and the best part were all the animals walking around on the property (birds, dogs to large turtles).

A friend, Oscar, went with me to help assist and we couldn’t of had a better day for weather.  We spent from 11am to 7pm shooting different shots in different outfits for her.  I just needed one good photo for the magazine and anything after that was just for fun to see what else we could get with the light set  Below is what we captured that day.

Photo Credit: Oscar Zamora

Photo Credit: Oscar Zamora

Photo Credit: Oscar Zamora

I’m not a fan of spot coloring but I thought why not on this photo since it’s not a serious one and is just for fun.  This parrot was insane for the chips we were eating.  He also wanted some of my beer but sorry about his luck it just wasn’t in the deck of cards!

If you wan to see more photos from this session, check out my Facebook Fanpage for more!

I often get people that ask me how I get the shots that I do when traveling.  Honestly it’s nothing fancy and usually just involves a flash inside a softbox.  When I first started out doing photography one thing I did was devour photography websites for set-up shots (and I still do this, as you never stop learning).  It’s one thing to see a photo but it’s even better if you can understand how it was made.  Not always easy with photoshop and other tools out there these days but a set-up shot can explain so much in just one visual picture.

So below you’ll find the finished product and the set-up shot of how I captured it with details about the shutter speed, aperture exc.  If you want to see the original photos larger (plus others) with a description about each photo, click “Street Photography: 4 Paisas & a Gringo, Plus One Mad Goat.”

This photo is straight out of the camera with no post-edits

This year for Halloween I was in Medellin, Colombia.  I missed Halloween in Colombia last year by only a few weeks because my visa was finally up but I made it a point to be here this year for it.  Colombians LOVE Halloween and they go all out for it.  So much that there was three full weekends of Halloween in Medellin (weekend prior to the 31st, the weekend of the 31st and the weekend after).

My roommate (Wilson, see top photo) normally always has a big party for Halloween but for some reason he decided to have it 06Nov this year.  Yes I know, Halloween parties in November doesn’t make any sense but when you’re in Colombia you just go with the flow and enjoy!

I hate to admit it but I didn’t dress up at all (haven’t since I was like 13. Yeah I’m a party pooper I know) but the 15 people who did come to the party went all out for it.  I decided I was going to try and snap a few shots of each persons costume.  What do you think?

The Comic Book Heroes and Villains

The Blood Seekers

The Pirate, Angel and Baby

The Ladies

The party was GREAT and we had way to much food and drinks for it.  I think just about everyone was borracho (drunk) by the end of it, as I didn’t go to bed until 3:30am.

I had a great time but I won’t lie taking these photos kicked my butt!  It wasn’t a hard set-up to do but took a few things in order for it to work.  So if you are wanting to know how I took these shots at a party on the fly, I decided to lay it all out for you below.

→ Camera Gear Used ←

• Canon 5D II
• Off-Camera Flash Sync Cord
• 8′ Lumiquest Softbox with Canon Speedlite 580EX II
• Note: You might need a flash light as well to shine on the person face to get your Auto Focus to lock

The gear used is simple stuff most should have anyways if they like to do off camera flash work.  If you don’t have a sync cord then wireless triggers work as well, just the sync cords are super cheap (about $10-$20 for one).  I also had to use a very small flash light to shine it on the closest eye to get my cameras auto focus to lock.  Without it I would have had to keep a light on, which I didn’t want to do.

Some of you might think I used a backdrop for these photos but I didn’t.  I wanted just a portrait of each person so I decided I would kill all the lights in a bedroom, then fill flash the model with my speedlight.  I sat on the floor looking up at them and had them lean over in front of me about 3ft-4ft away.  I would then kill the lights and have a friend stand behind me with the flash light shinning it into the closest eye of the person.  Once I locked the auto focus, I normally started out with the softbox below my camera.  Then I would move it a foot to the left, take a few more photos, then move it to my right a foot and snap a few more.

To be honest the photos I took with the softbox right below my camera seemed to come out the best.  It almost made a ring light affect on them and the shadows your seeing are on the ceiling, as I was seated looking up.  What made this so hard was trying to speak in Spanish with the guy who had the flash light, then the person who was modeling but the worse part was trying to hold my camera with one hand and my flash in another hand.  By the end of the 8th person I couldn’t hold them both up and take a photo.  So I had someone else hold the flash… which I should have done at the start.  You could also just put it on a stand of some sort but since my sync cord is very short I had to hold both.

I shot most of these at f/5.6, ISO 100 with a shutter speed of 200 sec

I shot most of these at f/5.6, ISO 100 with a shutter speed of 1/200 sec

Ok, I know this is a very bad set-up shot but it was the only thing I knew how to put together to show you how I was taking the photos.  It is important to note that I didn’t have them stand close to me and look down for the shots.  I had them bend over keeping there heads up and just looking down to create the affect.  If they stood over me and just looked down I would have given everyone double chins (not a flattery look still).  So the shadows your seeing are actually on the ceiling more then the wall behind them.

What do you think?  Not bad for an on-the-fly portrait session.  Any tips or questions, leave a comment!

Would you believe I shot this during the day?

When at the Flower Parade in Medellin, Colombia I was standing along the street snapping photos of people going by when a police helicopter flew overhead and started throwing flowers down onto the parade.  While snapping a few shots of the helicopter I noticed the moon was out already and it was still daylight.  I had a 70-200mm lens on my Canon 5D II camera and I wondered if I took of photo of it, if it would turn out any good.  So I snapped a few and hoped for the best.

I got the photos loaded onto my computer and started playing around with this shot, trying to see if I could turn day into night with it.  It was rather easy after I cropped the photo down, to turn the shot in a Black & White, then raise the blacks up a lot and increasing the contrast and highlights.  There you have it, a shot of the moon taken on a lens most wouldn’t have thought, at daylight hours.  Which brings me to an old rule of never trusting a photo, you never know which side it stands on.

While in Goa, India this last year I met a couple street actors who were game to let me photograph them.  One of them is actually a part-time porn star in France (you can read the article here, it’s safe for work don’t worry) and he was up for letting me photograph him in his different costumes for street performing. 

So I spent a day on my motorbike scouting some locations.  This is the first thing needed to be done after deciding what type of shots you are wanting to photograph.  I found an old water tower near the beach town of Arambol and I knew I wanted to be there when the was sun setting the next day.  It offered more then one place to photograph with different backgrounds, so I would have a few different shots then just one to help mix-up the portfolio.

I packed up the light kit and the next day we took off for a day of shooting.

Canon 5DII with a Canon EF 24mm-70mm f/2.8L USM lens @24mm

1/100 sec at f/3.2  ISO 100

The above photo depicts the lighting set-up for the sunset shot. The sun was already below the horizon which meant I had about 30min of “magic blue hour” left before I lost the ambient light from it.  I used a Westcott 28″ softbox with a Canon 580EX II Speedlight to add fill flash on the model.  Without the fill flash, the only thing that would have came out correctly would have been the sky leaving the model in darkness.  By adding a flash back onto the model I was able to highlight him and preserve the detail of the subject.

Note: when working at sunset you have to work quickly with your model to be able to capture the blue in the sky.  The light conditions at this hour is wonderful for giving you a blue sky, that the naked eye would only see black.  If it starts to get to dark and your auto focus won’t set, shine a flash light onto the models face to give you enough light to lock your auto focus.

The whole time it took to set-up the light and photograph the model took about 20 minutes total.  By using one light to fill flash you can get a completely different photograph versus without.  Having more then one light source is always better, I think!

With the torches on fire and without.  Using props, something this little can make a BIG difference in your photo.

What the original shot looked like straight from the camera and what it looked like with post-editing.

Comments and questions are welcomed below.

The Portrait Project I did on the streets of Medellin, Colombia is now finished.  It was a lot of work and I learned some very valuable lessons doing it.  The first question I always got from people was how I went about photographing the people (the set-up that is).  I thought I would list out in detail the process I went to get all 253 different portraits and lessons I learned from it.  I hope this will encourage people to maybe start some kind of portrait project themselves.  It has been a learning curve for myself but by listing the steps out in detail for you, hopefully you won’t make the mistakes I made along the way.

 ~~~  The Gear  ~~~

The four things you will need for this style of street portrait is:

1) Camera

It doesn’t have to be a big fancy DSLR, you can do this with any camera.  Point-and-Shoot cameras work great for this, so don’t let that be an excuse.  To see what kind of camera and lenses I use, click here.

2) Board

To keep the photos consistent at different location your going to have to create you’re own backdrop of sorts.  I knew going into it that all the photographs would be edited into B&W, so I went to the local Home Center here in Medellin and looked for something black.  I thought at first a white foam board would work best, then paint it or cover some kind of material over it, but I thought it was to delicate and was afraid of breaking it.  So I wanted something a little more durable then just foam because I knew I would be taking this to many locations and having to transit with it.  What I ended up selecting was a black ceiling title made of plastic.  You know the ones that are in offices, about 4ft long by 2ft wide.  This costs me about $5.00 USD.

Note: Only draw back I found with it was it was not wide enough sometimes.  Next time I will find something at least 3ft wide, as I found it a little hard sometimes with getting people to stand exactly in the middle without getting the landscape background bleeding in on the sides.

3) Book

If you’re going to be getting peoples information (name, age, email exc) then you’re going to need a way to record it.  I found it best to be old fashion and write it down.  You could also use a video recorder or voice recorder but I think people might get turned off more by this and found using a notebook and pen the fastest and easiest way.  You have to remember that you’re going to need to then to go through all that information later, so it needs to be easy for you to access and understand quickly.

4) Scrim

Any scrim will work.  The bigger the more area you can cover, plus these things are cheap (like $20-$40 max for one) so don’t be a “scrim” and not have one!  I used a 22″ 5-in-1 scrim.  I used the white diffuser to soften the harsh afternoon light.  These things pack up real small and liked that I only used a 22″ scrim versus a bigger one that was 36″.   I liked it because it would only cover the face and not the backboard.  This created an almost back-light effect around the head.

Note: if your to cheap to get a scrim, then just shoot in the shade (a natural do-it-yourself scrim)

~~~  The Set Up  ~~~

The set-up is pretty simple, as there isn’t much to it.  The hardest part will be finding something to put the backboard against.  You have three options: Hang it, hold it or prop it up against something.  Hands down the easiest method was hanging it on a fence or wall.  I did this by putting a D-ring clip at the top with string connecting them.  If the wind was against it, you might need to secure it at the bottom as well, otherwise it will flap around.  If we were in an area where we didn’t have a place to hang it, we would hand hold it.  We wanted to stay away from having a light stand with it hanging from it because that could cause problems with local laws with photographing in public.  Some places might require a permit if you have a stand of sorts, so beware of that.

The Set-Up in Action

With the backboard in place, I would have the person stand about 3-4ft away from it.  I did this to make sure the background was blurred when shooting at the highest aperture as possible (I shot at f/2.8mm).  I’d then have my assistant stand on the camera side the sun was and hold the scrim over their head, adjusting it to only cover their face.  I’d stand back just enough to fill the frame with them centered in the backboard.  Don’t be zooming here people, take a step forward or back to adjust.  I would snap two shots at a time, doing that about 3-4x for a total of 6-8 photo per-person.  This was in-case they blinked, were looking off to the side exc, making sure I got at least one good expression in the group.

~~~  Getting The Information  ~~~

Writing Down the Information Per-Person

Before we could photograph we had to find people willing to pose.  I had an assistant that I found in Medellin that spoke great English and could translate for me.  If you’re in a country where you don’t speak the language then you might need to do this but don’t feel obligated that you HAVE to.  I only had one because I knew the high volume of people I needed for this project and because I would be getting some detailed information from them… that and my Spanish sucks so bad still.

So my assistant would hit people up while they were walking bye.  Rules for this were as followed:

• Never approach someone from behind.  It scares people and reduces your odds for them to say yes.
• Smile… it goes a long way!  Being friendly and approachable is a key with building a connection with people.
• Never little kids alone.  It just looks weird to locals and will make you stand out with people around asking questions. If their with their parents, then it’s cool.  If they are 10 years old and alone, pass.  You don’t want to seem like Michael Jackson or something, know what I mean?
• ABC (Always Be Closing).  Getting them to say yes is the hardest part, once that’s done it’s easy. So tell them the basic idea of the project, show a few examples on your camera from before and make it clear that you only need 1-2 minutes of their time, that they don’t have to do anything but stand and be themselves.
• Groups of people are great, because you can get 3-4 people photographed with one approach.  If you get one person to say yes, then odds are you’ll get the rest of the group to agree as well.
• Cell phones are a no-no! If someone is talking on a cell phone forget about it.  Don’t interrupt.
• Everyone has something to offer.  Don’t just photograph beautiful ladies walking by (unless that is what the project is about).  The more the mix the better the project will be.

~~~  How To Catalog The Information  ~~~

The system I came up for making sure I knew what persons photo went with their information that we had written down was to make a code at the top of each persons page.  It can be anything, doesn’t matter but for an example I would use the first three letters of the metro stop name then add 001 to it.  So if I was at the Itagui Metro and was photographing the first person, it would look like this “ITA001″.  The next person would be “ITA002″ exc exc.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: The first photo I would take of the person was with the notebook in front of their face.  That way when editing the photos later I could clearly see the persons information with their face next to it, making it an easy reference back to my notes on them.  You will have to have some kind of system like this if you’re going to be getting any kind of information from them.

~~~ How To Photograph The Subject  ~~~

I always tell anyone who asks “What’s the best trick to photographing a portrait” is to make sure you get the nearest eye in focus, if you do that everything else will be ok.  So focus on the nearest eye, lock it and snap a few shots.  Then do it again 2-3x.  If I can count the eyelashes on the eye, when post-editing the photograph, then I know the photo will work.

A trick to get people to stand straight when posing is to have them stand with their feet together.  This will cause their back to be more straight making their head and shoulders face you straight on.  I’d also point at the camera lens just before taking the shot to get them to stare straight into it.  Some people just won’t stare into a camera no matter what you tell them and are always looking off.  If I seen this happening I would say “Hola” or something to get their attention just for a second then would snap a few photographs off.

~~~  Before & After Photograph  ~~~

This is the big difference with using the scrim and not.  The afternoon sun can create harsh shadows on the face and the scrim will balance that out and cut it back some.  It’s also one of the cheapest light diffusers you can get on the market and they can be picked up at any camera shop selling anything more then just cameras and memory cards.

Above is a photo not edited, straight from the camera and one I edited into B&W for the finished product.  I will be writing a post later about the post-processing technique and software I used for this project.  I wanted to include it here to show you what the final product looks like compared to what it would have looked on the street.

~~~  Other Tips & Tricks  ~~~

You can also have your subject sit down.  This is good way to make them more relaxed and to sit straight up for the camera.  If they are a very tall person this is a good technique as well.  If they are tall you can either have them sit or bend their legs to lower themselves.

Having a gorgeous assistant helps a LOT!  Serious on this one people.  When it was just me and my male assistant we did good.  Then one day it was me and two other male assistants.  That worked even better!  Then I tried it with my male assistant and a female assistant and you know what… it worked even better.  Some people warm up faster to a female versus a male and vise-versa.

That’s it people, it’s really that easy and the only thing separating my from you is that I went out and did it.

If you have any questions on how to start your own portrait project or just need help, let me know in the comments below.  If you completed a portrait project yourself we would love to see your work as well.  Leave a comment below with a link to the portfolio or article on it.

Special thanks to Daniel for helping me throughout the project everyday with a great attitude and work ethic.  To Gerard for assisting one day and taking a few shots of me in action and to Carolina for being fun, beautiful and helpful.  Without you guys this project couldn’t have happened.

One of the main reason for me returning back to Medellin, Colombia this year was to relax and get some work done on the website.  That being said I also wanted to do some photography projects that I have been kicking around in my mind.  One project I had in mind was a way to feature the people of a city with a tied in theme for it.

I thought it over for a few weeks and after being back I realized that one of Medellin’s biggest icons is it’s metro system.  It’s the only metro in Colombia and one of the newest and most efficient in all of Latin America.  Using the metro as a guide for finding people, I thought “Why not take portraits of the people who use it everyday?”

The idea is simple yet vague.  How do you show people who have not yet visited a place what the city is like?  Tourist sites will only tell you so much but to me it’s the people that make any city good/bad.  People ask me all the time what Colombia is like and for me I guess you need to understand the people a little before you can really fully know a place.

This is my attempt at showing the world Medellin through a simple process of visually seeing it’s everyday normal people, who walk around the city in their everyday lives, through simple mugshot photographs.

I counted how many stops there are on the Medellin Metro ‘Blue Line’ line and found out there are 19 total.  My plan is simple; everyday during the week, go out for three hours and take people’s portraits along two metro stops at around the same time everyday.

I have an assistant now that is helping me translate and work some of the gear for me.  It’s a small production and set-up, which I will be explaining in detail how I got these photographs and how you can do it yourself as well in the next post, but the results are exactly what I wanted.  I only ask the people to stand straight and look into the camera, the expression they make are completely their own.

To see current photographs for this project, check out my Facebook Fanpage where I will be posting them daily.

What do you think of this project?  I really do want to know actually.  Have you ever tried a big project like this?  If so comment below what it is and leave a link to it if possible.

Remember the days of the photo booth?  Personally I can barely recall them myself but it doesn’t mean I have forgotten how cool and nostalgic they were.  Putting that hard-earned dollar into a slot and ducking in for a few photo bombs, guaranteed to come out like crap but whimsical, you might have found yourself spending $10 in a matter of minutes trying to get that perfect shot.

I was up late last night and I found a website that now lets you create your own photo booth photos by doing it yourself on your own computer threw your own webcam… and who doesn’t like to “Do-It-Yourself” these days?  After testing it out the first time I quickly realized eight sessions later that I was hooked and knew that there were a couple lessons to be learned from this.

One: Vintage Is Still In Style

It will never go away and why would it?  Everyone loves that new tech toy and even though new digital cameras have been coming out at the speed of light lately there is something to be said for old, poorly exposed photographs.  Like the Polaroid camera, photo booths have pretty much died out for practical reasons but the ambiance of them have not.  Your new fancy DSLR camera can’t replace a simple photo booth because it can’t create the same environment.

Lesson Learned: Take time to enjoy the old things!

Two: You Are A Model

I admit I don’t like having my photo taken that much.  Yes I know that is bad because I do photography but to be honest I think I have a crap smile, a boring look and in general assume people would rather look at photos of a bamboo monkey versus me (self esteem issues, you be the judge?).

But guess what, in a photo booth everyone feels like a model.  Example: The wedding photographer walks up and asks you for a photo.  You might shy away or be hesitant but in a photo booth you could care less, why is that?  It’s because of the environment!  Throw a big camera up in someone’s face and odds are their going to run away but in a photo booth that camera is only a few feet away but you don’t care because it’s personal, your alone with people you know (or should know anyways) and you know what is coming after the beep and the best/most important part… you know your going to get a product at the end to keep.

Lesson Learned: Everyone will be a model for you if you can provide the above.  Create the environment of the photo booth and you will succeed at getting the people shots you hoped for.

Three: Be Dumb, Be Creative, Have Fun

Below are 32 photos I took of myself.  All were taken under the influence of drugs and alcohol.  Every one of the photos I tried to do something new, most came out with me looking fully retarded.

Lesson Learned: I know I went full retard but guess what, by doing so I was able to get almost 30 different photos using the same set up.  Some photos are a little scary, a few are funny, maybe just maybe I looked cool in a few others.  All I had was my shirt, a cigarette and a pair of sunglasses.  By acting a little dumb and just having fun I was able to create something pretty much out of nothing.  If you think your photos suck because you don’t have a $5,000 dollar budget for props, your wrong.  They suck because you suck and your not allowing yourself to have fun and be creative.  Get back to your childhood and be dumb, rewards await you.

So if you want to have some fun, create something nostalgic, then check out the website The Photo Cabine.  It was easy to use but you will need a webcam for it to work.  You can share photos on Facebook, Twitter or by email.  Using the software you can take 4 photos at a time and the deiced on either a vertical strip or a square block.  You also have the option to choose a red tint or black & white tint.

If you taken any photos yourself, please share them below in the comments with a link.  Would love to see what you were able to get and remember BE CREATIVE!

1/10 sec @ f/14, ISO 160

While in New Delhi I was able to shoot with another photographer. He gave me some tips about lighting and showed me a few tricks on the camera and I showed him some info on Lightroom and post processing.

One of the tricks he showed me was an old one I had forgot about and hardly ever used.  When done right, it can create a striking photograph that will be different then your normal stuff.  It takes some practice and a little luck to get it right but this is what you need to do:

• Use any lens that isn’t a prime lens, something that you can zoom in and out with, like a 24-70mm lens.
• Find a subject that is still, either it be a person or item.
• Set you shutter speed on your camera to 1/10s or a slight higher.  You will need a slow shutter speed to get the affect.
• Compose the shot (zoomed out) and when you press the shutter release to take the photo, zoom in with your lens.  Try holding as still as possible with it to, a tripod works even better if can use it or have one.

The affect should look like above.  It’s kind of like the panning technique I wrote about except it isn’t moving (though you can still do it on a slow moving subject).   It will take practice and a bit of luck to nail a good shot, as every shot you take this way isn’t going to come out great but maybe if your lucky you will get one out of 20 that’s a keeper.

If you have tried this technique before leave a comment with a link to an example photo you took.  I’d love to see what others have come up with it!

1/20 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 100

Add a flash and get an even more different look!

1/20 sec @ f/18, ISO 100

Waiting in traffic with our driver, I snapped this one off real quickly.

Jai Mahal

f/8 at ISO 100, 4.30 minute exposure

I arrived in Jaipur late in the evening at 11pm.  I made my way from the terminal to the luggage pick-up carousel, hoping like everyone else that was standing two inches apart from each other, that my bag was going to be there.  After waiting for 20 minutes and seeing the conveyor belt stop and everyone leaving happy with their bags in tow, I admitted defeat that India had won.  Just as I was about to leave to report my missing bag I just happened to see it circulating around on the other conveyor.  Guess I was standing with the wrong crowd!

I get outside the airport and pay for a pre-paid taxi.  I show the driver my iPod with the three maps I had downloaded to it from Google maps (I know smart, right) and off we go.  Little did I know that it would be another two hours before I finally found a place to sleep for the night.

We get to the neighborhood where this hotel is suppose to be and I realize this guy knows nothing about this area.  He’s friendly and trying his best but has no clue how to read the map or figure it out.  Time after time he would stop and ask someone on the street where something was and time after time we’d end right back where we started.  I only paid 430Rs ($9.60 USD) for my 30 minute ride but what I was getting was a two hour city night tour in an area that didn’t offer much.  Joys of traveling I know.

I finally tell him I’m done, that if this place is that hard to find, I don’t want to stay there.  He keeps trying to find it and I begged him not to anymore.  I think it became a challenge for him in a way, so I finally just told him if he could find this other hostel I had wrote down as a backup I’d pay him another 200Rs.  He agreed and off we went back towards the center of town.  He actually found this place with no problem and after I checked in, I stumbled into the room and crashed.

I slept in so late that by the time I got up it was late afternoon.  There was no use in trying to visit any sites now as most of the places would be closing in a few hours.  I asked the hostel owner, who is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Indian Army, if he knew any places that would be good for night photography.  He gave me a list of three places: Amber Fort, Jai Mahal and a museum called Albert Hall.  Asked if he knew any rickshaw drivers and he said yes and called for one to come pick me up.

While waiting for the driver to show I asked two girls from Hong Kong, who were staying at the hostel,  if they wanted to join me for a night tour.  They both said yes and thought it would be cool to see the sites during the night, as one of the girls was into photography as well.  We spent the next three hours driving around the city looking for locations that would make great night shots.  Our rickshaw driver charged us 400Rs (split 3-ways) and found this to be good value for what I got back in return on photographs.

Photography Lesson:

I tried a new technique with the camera that night.  I wanted to shoot the building in the top photo but couldn’t get the auto focus to work because it was to dark.  So I exposed on something in Auto Focus Mode to get it to focus and lock and moved it from AF to Manuel.  I spun the camera around after locking the shutter open (I was in Bulb mode) for a 4.5 minute exposure.  It came out great and I have to thank Joseph from Bangalore on this little tip he gave me.

• ISO: low as possible, try 100 and work your way up.  Remember the higher the ISO the more noise you will have in your photo.
• Aperture: you don’t need to go big but something in the middle should be fine.  Try from about f/8 to f/11
• Exposure: just because you can go longer doesn’t mean you should.  Remember that light coming from the city will show, so do a test of 30 seconds first and if the photo is to dark, expose longer and work your way up till you find something that works.  Anything after five minutes will start to show star trails, so if that’s what you’re wanting go longer but be careful to watch out for excess light (car lights to security lights exc) because it could blow out your photo.  There is no set rule on this, it’s trail and error.
• Mode: set your camera in “Bulb” mode to be able to shoot longer then 30 seconds.  If you don’t have Bulb mode you’ll be limited to only 30 second exposures, so drop your aperture down and raise your ISO to compensate.
• Equipment: A tripod and remote are a must but if you don’t have one, try this: lay the camera on a rock or step, anything that won’t move.  Then without touching anything but the shutter release button click to take the photo but be sure not to shake the camera in anyway.  Once you have it timed and want to end the exposure, click it again but remember not to bump the camera.  If you do you’re going to get a lot of blur in the shot.  Just to prove to you that this work, the photo “Amber Fort Lit Pp with Colors” was made without a tripod.  I sat it on the ground and did the above.  Can you tell a difference in it?

I actually just came to Jaipur to shoot one photo of the City Palace and then leave shortly after but I’m finding it hard already to not stay longer.

A Side Note:

While at the Amber Fort the second night, I was standing by the road trying to get more night shots when two police men rode up on a bike and informed me I couldn’t shoot “still photographs” (ie; I couldn’t use a tripod) of the fort.  I asked why and that I had the night before without any issues, that I wasn’t on the fort complex property and that it was a freaking tourist site and that’s what tourist do, take photos.  All that did little and the response was “cease and desist” sir!  They stated I needed permission from the government to do so.  I did so not happily and took one more shot (Amber Fort Lit Up with Colors) and moved on where I wasn’t going to be imposed on.  My rickshaw driver said they were no good, that it was wrong.  I asked my hostel owner (the retired Army officer) and he said it wasn’t right either and that they might have been just looking for a bribe.  Either way, they never came back but it ruined my second night shooting and left a bad taste in my mouth.

If you plan to do what I did, try to stay in the shadows and not be seen or have money ready to pay a bribe.  That or contact the Rajasthan tourism board before hand and clarify that you do need permission (which I doubt) and if so get a written letter with contact info from them.  That way if you do get hassled you can throw that in their face and tell them to f-off!

Amber Fort lit up halfway

f/8 at ISO 100, 4.30 minute exposure

Amber Fort lit up with colors

f/8 at ISO 100, 6 minute exposure

(Note: no tripod was used on this photo, as I sat the camera on the ground)

Jai Mahal Palace

f/8 at ISO 100 for a 25 sec exposure

Albert Hall Museum

f/9 at ISO 100 for a 60 sec exposure

Jai Mahal semi-color

f/8 at ISO 100, 1.5 minute exposure

Jai Mahal blacked out

f/8 at ISO 100, 5 minute exposure