Fish market

[GrahamH]

Basic fish market, straight in off the sea and ready for cooking.
I wanted to buy some, but it was my first place to visit and fish sitting in a hot car!!!
Either cooked or rotten, not good either way - the smell ......

Graham

[Donald]

That, I think, is a very good image. Thge particular strength is, for me, the composition. Great angle.

[Mike Buckley]

On the one hand, the car and people in the background show the setting as does the dirt floor. On the other hand, I think I would prefer a tighter crop in the camera (I almost always do perhaps to a fault), but only if doing so doesn't require eliminating the interesting angle on the fish.

[GrahamH]

Thanks Donald and Mike,
Space was limited and I was shooting with a 10mm (15m eq, man I love that lens, and now I want to go even wider) so composition was really tight. As you can imagine, I was within a few inches of the nearest fish. Visually the place was very busy and I did the best I could to eliminate as much as I could, or at least reduce the impact of the extraneous.
Here's another couple of angles I tried. I also tried a couple as BW but just didn't do it for me (also need to get to grips with Silver Efex, so much to do and so little time to do it).
I saw this place just after I moved here (really should update my profile) and have been wanting to shoot it for the last two months. They bring the fish in off the boats, descale them, gut them and otherwise prepare them. Some great opportunities and I hope to be able to explore them as time goes by.

I really appreciate your comments as to composition, I know so many people who find one vision and then stick with it, I want to be able to explore wider options (and get good at them as well as 'the one').
Here's a couple more from the same venue that didn't quite work as well.

Graham
1.

2.

3.

[rpcrowe]

I like these images even though I am not a great fan of UWA lenses because I often feel that I have lack of control over my frame. The bright BG is somewhat distracting to me. I wonder how a fill flash might have allowed you to balance the exposure of the area under the canopy with the ambient light outside. That way the BG would not be so bright.

However, direct fill-flash can be problematic when using a UWA lens because of vignetting but, I will sometimes bounce my 430EX into a Joe Demb Flash Diffuser Pro when using flash fill outdoors with my 12-24mm f/4 Tokina. Tilting the FlipIt portion of the Demb Diffuser 45 degrees forward will direct a goodly portion of the light forward but, will cover a wider area. If memory serves me correctly that combination provides fairly even light over the entire area of the frame and does not vignette.

Of course, carrying a hotshoe flash is just one more piece of equipment to weigh you down when doing walk-around vacation photography...

[Dave Humphries]

Graham,

I have been hankering after (in my case) the Nikon 10-24mm for sometime - this is not helping me be 'good' with my finances!!!

An interesting series, certainly good for starters, you are still in the learning curve, so well done,

[Mike Buckley]

I like the first one in this latest series best of all. There is an immediate connection for me between the fish's eyeball, the vendor and the guy grinning in the background. It's as if the fish is saying, "Please take me" or "Please don't take me" (not sure which). The vendor just wants you to buy and the guy in the background is laughing about the whole situation. Seeing this written explanation makes me think that I'm over thinking this simple image, but that's what instantly went through my mind.

[Mike Buckley]

I forgot to mention, Graham, your use of the term, descale. In my neck of the woods, to remove the scales from a fish is to scale it, not descale it. One of the things that I love about participating here is to learn the different approaches to language throughout the world.

[GrahamH]

Hi all and many thanks to you for your comments.
Scale descale, I have no idea what it is called, your term sounds right so I will change to that.

The second series, you note the difference in processing between the first and second. I deliberately highlighted the eye in the first image exactly for the effect of connection. A lot more processing went into that one as you can see in the second picture, the girl overlapped the guy in the background, so I had to reconstruct his right arm. The tent roof I had to clean up as I found the writin on it distracting as it was only partially visible, so it got removed in part to clean it up.
I thought about using flash and will try next time. Direct flash may be an issue due to the reflective nature of the wet fish (they keep throwing water over them as well), and bouncing may not be powerful enough (58 metz) to significantly reduce the background light. If only I had a battery for my studio lights . More money, not available.

Good ideas you've given me, now how to implement cheaply/adequately/timely .... ?

Graham

[Shadowman]

When I see that many fish for sale I want to see lots of ice or lots of cooking oil. Nice images.

[GrahamH]

Morning John,
As you enter the fish 'market' (actually around 4 stalls is all) there is a sign saying that you can choose the fish there and go next door to the restaurant (Hammerheads) and have it cooked for you.
Straight from the sea, into the restaurant and onto your plate.
Pretty fresh I guess.
Does anyone know how fast fish goes off in 30C+ temps?
Graham
I'm going to try it one day, probably when I take down a couple of prints for the guy, just before I buy, see if I can get a good deal .

[dubaiphil]

Nice images, Graham

I think you scale a fish, and descale a kettle