The Top Five Places to Photograph in Macao

On Lauren Bath’s (@laurenepbath) trip to Macao, she discovered the best places to capture your Instagram worthy photos or the epic shots to add to your holiday photo albums. Check out her tips below as she gives us the inside scoop!

Macao is a photographer’s and instagrammer’s paradise! Whether you love landscapes, architecture and cityscapes, cultural precincts or food, you’ll find a subject to train your lens on in Macao. During my five day stay I shot a dozen different locations, but these are my top five:

Coloane Village

Coloane Village is a laid-back coastal village, famous for its distinctive colourful houses and architecture. If you feel like escaping the more populous areas of Macao, Coloane Village is a wonderful place to sit and watch the world go by! However, if you’re a photographer this is usually obsolete advice as our kind like to ‘shoot’ the world going by.

Although the coastal views definitely drew my eye, I found myself gravitating towards the colourful buildings. Well, after I had demolished three egg custard tarts from Lord Stow’s Bakery nearby. And surprisingly, despite the popularity of Coloane Village as a photographer’s hot spot, I found I wasn’t really competing for shots at all.

Best shooting: Architecture, landscapes, custard tarts. 😉

Top Tips: Try a selfie in front of your favourite house or building. Set your camera or smart phone up on a tripod, set a timer and jump into frame.

Rua da Tercena

Rua da Tercena might be a single street in all of Macao, but it’s a street bustling with life. From the colourful walls and busy hawker food store fronts to the locals going about their day, there’s a lot to keep your trigger finger busy.

When it comes to street photography, I tend to find a composition that I like and wait patiently until the right person wanders into my frame. Further to that you can usually achieve great results by sitting patiently in a photogenic corner and shooting scenes as they unfold. And the best thing about Rua da Tercena? There’s a lot of nearby alleyways to keep you further occupied.

Best shooting: Candid street photography, architecture.

Top Tips: Look for light and shadow. Nothing improves street photography more than bold use of light.

Macao Peninsula

This might seem extremely broad, but I actually achieved some of my favourite shots simply by wandering around the Macao Peninsula looking for interesting juxtaposition between Portuguese and Chinese architecture or nature and city.

You don’t need a lot of equipment for this kind of work, even a camera with 1-2 lenses and a good pair of walking shoes will do. The main skill you’ll require is the skill of observation. Avoid sticking your nose in your phone and concentrate on taking in your surroundings so that you don’t miss a thing.

Best shooting: Architecture, street photography.

Top Tips: Bring plenty of water to hydrate so that you can stay out shooting for longer, there’s lots to see.

The Wynn Palace

The Wynn Palace actually has so many photogenic outlooks but my favourite place to shoot was actually the current art exhibition – ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’. If art isn’t really your thing check out performance lake or even the insane entrances to the property. When I was there, they were decked out with carousels and thousands of fresh flowers.

Best shooting: People, people interacting with art.

Top Tips: Whenever I shoot art, I always wait for a human element to include in my composition, I love shooting people’s reaction to art. Look for backs of heads and silhouettes to maintain privacy.

Long Wa Teahouse

Perhaps another unusual choice but possibly my favourite shooting happened at the Long Wa Teahouse. Not only does it serve up delicious food and culture in equal measure, but the entire restaurant is a smorgasbord of potential shots. I obviously photographed the food, but I had a lot of fun also shooting the views, framed by the worn down windows and clutter of a traditional Chinese Tea House.

Best shooting: Cityscapes, food

Top Tips: Get high and get low! Typically, my favourite food shots are flat lay style, which requires getting above the ‘scene’ and shooting straight down.

These amazing photos have us rushing to book a trip to Macao! Interested to find your own perfect blend of Macao? Discover more of this stunning destination here.