August 02, 2023: Every month Alamy.com asks its 95,000 contributors to submit images to their monthly Picture Of The Month (POTM) competition on Twitter (X). This month’s theme was Street Food so I sent them two shots from the Ramadan Nights Festival in Lakemba, Sydney. Both shots were selected which was very nice. If you live in or visit Sydney and have never been to the festival I strongly recommend you go. The food is both a feast for the eyes and for the mouth and despite the crowds, I have never met so many smiling faces. 

It is also a great place to practice your night time photography. Shooting at night has a bunch of challenges, not least the huge range of light values. As you can see from the above shot there are lots of shadows along with a great big high-pressure sodium street light. I avoid using a flash because its both harsh light and very unpopular with the people I am capturing. Instead, I set my ISO up high and put on my best smile as I ask people can I take their photo. On this night not one person said no!