Vancouver Photo Walk!
First of all, I would like to apologize to my eight readers for my absence. A lot has been going on in recent months. I am here now though!
On Saturday July 18th, I participated in Scott Kelby’s World Wide Photo Walk. The Vancouver walk was led by David DuChemin and Dave Delnea. It was a super experience as it was more of a photo walk SLASH Lighting Workshop! They boys had brought out a bunch of pocket wizards, monolight, speedlights, reflectors, ect ect. All the fun stuff to make a photo really pop.
It was a fun time and three hours went by in what seemed three minutes. I did learn a lot about my bad shooting habits though. This walk was also a huge education on lighting. Here is what I learned on the walk:
- Speedlights don’t work against the sun. I tried to light up the shadows with my SB-800 against the high sun. It didn’t work. I still got shadows. If I had moved closer to the subject, perhaps, it would of worked. However, when I shot with the pocket wizard firing the big ass mono light… it was magic! I could put the model back to the sun and use the strobe light to light her face. Wonderful lighting as it was firing through a big soft box! It’s just too bad I had some really bad compositions.
- Composition. I could have been better. When shooting the models, I tended to cut then off at the legs. I had few full body shots and few close up portrait shots.
- Shoot for cropping. I tend to frame the subject as I see it in the final print. I should of raked in the lens a bit to allow for cropping. Many of my original captures did not allow for decent cropping.
- Dress for the event. I accidently booked a social engagement on the same evening as the shoot. I had also rode my motorbike to the walk. Therefore, I wasn’t sure of the best way to dress for all three things. Also, I did not expect the models to be in the water. If I had worn my quick dry clothing as David DuChemin had, I could of got closer to the model and more interesting angles as David did. I had jeans and running shoes.
The walk was great learning experience and inspiration. David and Dave were absolutely delightful to shoot with and learn from. They really made it fun. I can’t wait for next year. Oh and before I go. Check out the great video from the day. See if you can find me.
I am lame
I know, I know. I have disappointed my eight readers. I have not been here to blog in some time. So, I am dropping by to say, “I am still alive”. Between commuting to work, working, walking the dog, make dinner, ect ect. Life becomes quite busy. I have not picked up the camera in a long time, sad really. I do have one decent excuse though.
I am participating in the Ride to Conquer Cancer on June 20, 21. At least, I hope to. I must raise at least $2500 in donations for the BC Cancer Foundation in order to participate. The ride is approximately 260k from Vancouver, BC to Seattle, WA. Therefore, my weekends have been spent on my bicycle. I need to get my butt back into shape for this trip. Anyways, I would greatly appreciate any donations. I have $420 in sponsorship so far. Visit my page to make donation or check out more information about the cause and the ride.
Maybe on my next training ride, I should bring my camera. Maybe grab a few decent shots along the way. I should actually blog about my journey here as the Ride for Cancer blog is really lame. I can’t post pics or video. I can post a link and that is about it. So, see you here!
Chase Jarvis
Ooops! I missed the last Inspirational Monday. This week I am being a good boy. Also, I ended up finding plumbing work in Vancouver. That means I still have weekends to shoot.
Chase Jarvis is a Seattle based ROCK STAR behind the camera. His images are crisp, exciting, fun, and very dramatic. The hair on my neck tingles when viewing his images. Being a verstatile photographer, he can shoot anything from ad campaigns to mountain landscapes.
Chase’s website features stunning photography and a very personable and entertaining video interviews with Chase and his staff. Featuring his all-star staff makes me realize he is a down to earth guy who credits the people around him. This shows his humble character though he is a cutting edge visionary.
Don’t waste any more time here. Check out his site and meet a rock star! Don’t forget to watch his videos.
Heading to Alberta
During these had times caused by the “financial crisis” I had expected to NOT be working for some time. Here in Vancouver condo projects have been shelved. Current projects are already manned up and nothing is coming out of the ground. In Alberta, the oil companies have shelved or post-poned many projects. The low price of oil makes planned projects not financially viable.
Luckily, there is a short but good paying job in Ft. McMurray that are hungry for some plumbers. This is ironic as most pipefitters in Alberta hold a steam ticket rather than a plumbing one. This works to my advantage since I hold a plumbing ticket. So, I will be flying out tomorrow to take a chance of landing a position on Monday morning. If I do land the gig, I should be back in about three weeks.
Of course, money is a huge part of taking up photography. The hobby grabs cash from your pocket from all angles; be it from classes, gear(the sky is the limit), magazine subscriptions, web hosting, workshops, or image storage. I do intend to write an article about the expense of the hobby in the future. Right now, I need to earn some more cash to purchase more camera gear. I have these puppies in my cross hairs PocketWizard Plus II Transceivers 
Looking back at 08
I know it’s quite cliche to do a “look back” at the year that has just pasted. It’s so predictable, the minute after Christmas every media outlet does a special “look back”. Well, guess what? I am going to “keep up with the Jones” and do the same thing! So there!
2008 has been an exciting year for me. At about this time last year, I pledged to take my photography more seriously by more learning through books, blogs, youtube, and old fashioned practice.I must admit that it has paid off. I have seen my images improve over the last year both technically and creatively. Luckily, I had a good year financially to allow the purchase of more gear and an extended vacation.
Of course, there is always room for improvement as I am no where near the calibre of Chase Jarvis or Steve McCurry. Yet, I feel my images have improved a degree. Partly, it was the gear and partly for starting to develop my own ‘vision’. I really get a kick out an image that not just looks cool but tells a story that can put a smile on the viewers face. If I can get a smile, chuckle, or even a tear from the viewer, I know that the image did it’s job. I find satisfaction in that. That is the draw to photography for me.
So what is my favourite image from 2008? Well, I didn’t shoot a million shots this year like some pro photogs do but I have shot much more than I have in the past. Of course, the Thailand trip was like being a child in a candy shop. There I was with eyes of golf balls with camera in hand. I wasn’t just taking snapshots, I BECAME a photographer for four weeks. It was my goal to document our journey in an artsy photojournal way. I think I captured a few interesting shots. The shots below are my favourites of 2008.
OR
What’s my goals for 2009?
- I will learn more about off-camera flash, strobe, speedlight, or whatever you want to call it. I have been looking at many images created with off-camera flash. The effects are dramatic and the gear is light.
- Take more portraits of family and friends. I want to put my off-camera flash and reflector to work. I hear they are even willing to pay me!
- Subscriptions. There is one magazine that I love. I am wasting too much money paying retail price off the magazine rack. Photolife is a Canadian magazine that isn’t loaded up with too much advertising and the articles are indepth and informative. I am also considering a subscription to NAPP, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, as well. I think it’s a little pricey but they offer tons of affiliated discounts and training.
- Portfolio. I should have enough decent images to put together a Flash based portfolio.
- Give this blog a new look to match the new portfolio. The new look also needs to be more browser friendly.
- On the non-photography front. In the financially challenging year ahead, I will upgrade my pipefitting and plumbing skills to offer a wider skill set to employers. I will be taking the challenge test for the Red Seal Steam Fitter ticket. Perhaps, a gas service course to brush up on my furnace servicing skills will be in the works too. I got to keep working to fund this very expensive hobby called, “photography”.
He shoots! He scores!
Today I went to capture some more winter scenery. One place I stopped was the bird sanctuary by Art Knapp’s in Surrey. The wet lands were frozen and had evidence of people skating there. I stopped just in time to catch a few families taking their kids for a skate.
I felt awkward about asking one father to take pictures of him and his kids but my desire to get some ” winter Canadiana” photo’s won over my shyness. He was very open to the idea as I promised to e-mail a few photos to him. I think they turned out pretty good.
There is something special about watching little kids play hockey. The boy, Justin(is think), scores on his dad. You gotta know he loved that. Justin is a Timbit and will be playing between periods of the Vancouver Canuck game and Dallas Stars.
I really should get some cards printed up. Though, I am not a pro photog it would be a more professional way of approaching strangers to ask for photo’s.
White Christmas coming up?
I got out today to capture some snow pictures. It’s not too often we get a good dumping here in Vancouver, er, rather Surrey to be precise. This afternoon, the sky was a brilliant blue with barely a skiff of clouds. Fresh snow had fallen the night before making today truly gorgeous. Though, I don’t think any commuters would agree with me.
It’s been 10 years or so since the last time Surrey had a white Christmas. If my memory serves me correctly(sometimes it doesn’t), when I was a kid winter had guaranteed snow. It was usually cold enough for a few weeks a year to go pond skating. I hear the kids are doing that these last few days. Some people complain about he snow and the cold but I really appreciate having a “winter” during winter. There has been much rain in the last few years. I would rather deal with snow than cold rain any day. I thank the Snow Gods for this season. It looks like we will have a white Christmas this year!
Gorgeous Day!
Yesterday was a fabulous day, regardless of the cold. Many people complain about the cold spell we are having in Vancouver but I actually like it. I prefer it to rain. Yesterday was a glorious, crispy, and blue bird sky day!
Unfortunetly, I had some business errands to take care of so I didn’t get out shooting until later in the day. I did manage to have lunch with my wife and then sneak over to Stanley Park to snap a few photo’s. I didn’t capture anything spectacular as I started to loose light. At least, I witnessed the gorgeous sunset.
I had gloves but shooting with them was cumbersome. They made adjusting the dials and zoom difficult so I ditched the gloves. Then I found my hands getting cold. I think I should try different gloves next time. Oh well, it was just great being out there.
Joggers were jogging. Photographers were photographing. Parents were playing with their children at the playground. I thoroughly enjoyed the short time I had there at Stanley Park. The late afternoon lighting was lovely as was the sunset. I will be going back there today to capture some more magic. Hopefully, I can capture a stunning shot that exudes “winter”.
My final thoughts of Thailand
I would like to sum up my experience of Thailand for those interested in visiting the country.
Thai People
One thing that suprised me about the people is their sense of humour. They have a great wit which caught me off guard at times because of the accent. They may have spoken english slow but that didnt stop their humour from spewing out. They are great fun.
Another thing, they are always helpful. Trish had a flat tire on her scooter one time. A couple of ladies who did not speak english picked her and her scooter up and drove her to the nearest service station. The ladies then explained to the mechanic what was wrong.
Also, the Thai people LOVE to be photographed. This really helped me as I am shy-ish when photographing people. I was afraid to take pictures of people on the street. Sometimes, a person would realize I was taking pictures then they would instantly light up a smile! When I asked a lady if I may take a picture of her, she immediately smiled and started to fix her hair. Once again, that’s their Thai humour spilling out.
Tourism
I am not a scientist nor expert on the effects of their tourism but I doubt it’s all positive. The Thai tourism industry seemed to exploit the wild animals and environment. I think that they would rather NOT exploit the animals or enviornment. Being a poor nation, I assume some people have no choice or at least “feel” they have no choice because they need to earn a living some how. Maybe they need to be educated about preservation. If they don’t preserve the species and environment, their tourism industry will dwindle. I hope they come to realize they must manage.
When we took a snorkel tour, I had never seen so many speed boats filled with tourist. Maya bay was loaded with boats and people. My idea of paradise is not crowded as some places are. I am sure the enviornment is taking it’s toll from the amount of tourists.
Also, wild animals were exploited. In one case, I saw a mama elephant and her baby chained on a short lead. They were charging a fee to feed the elephants. These were not “free range” elephants as I had seen in the elephant consercancy. I don’t think these elephants were as happy as those ones.
As a note, southern Thailand seemed to be more “over tourized” than the north.
Street-hawkers
One thing is for sure. You can find what ever you need. There are street hawkers for everything. It’s the ultimate in conveniance. You don’t really need to go any where because good and services flow to you; beer, trinkets, massages, tattoo’s. If somebody doesn’t have what you need, they will find it for you.
However, after a time I was getting irritated by the people selling suits. They were the most aggressive. I tried to be polite at first but after a while I found ignoring them worked best. If you make eye contact one, they think they have a chance of making a sale so they will start a conversation. They don’t take “no” for an answer very well. If you stop and politely explain why you don’t need a suit to every tailor, you would never get anywhere. An hour on a street in Bangkok is very exhausting.
Chai & Fern
Yet again, I have another PoGo story. This time, we were in Sukatai to visit the ruins of the ancient city. We had arrived by bus in the early evening. As most bus stations, people were there hoping to sell goods or services to the new arrivals. We were greeted by a lady who had a room for rent at her guest house. We accepted. We were transported by a gentleman named Chai. His English was quite good.
The next morning, we ate at the guest house and were ready to make our way to the ancient city. Chai was hanging out with his tuk tuk. He offered us a price for the day that would include a tour of the ancient city and transportation. He even included transportation to the airport which we needed to get to later on in the day. We came to an agreement so we loaded up all of our belongings into his tuk tuk.
He asked if we minded his daugher, Fern, could tag along. We didn’t mind at all. As we soon found out, she was a little darling who made our day. She is about 8 years old.
As we made our way to the ancient city, Chai answered all our questions about Sukatai and such. Fern spoke very little English. The ride was about half an hour to the ancient city.
Upon arrival, we jumped out of the tuk tuk to go and explore the ruins. Fern quickly took the lead. It turns out she was our guide for the day. Chai would stay at the tuk tuk and watch our bags while Fern showed us around. She had obviously been there many times. She spoke little English so she would point at objects and tell my wife, Trish, what it was in Thai. Trish loved this because she is trying to learn the language. Many times, I was falling behind because I was shooting pictures. Fern would soon wave me on. Fern would also takes pictures of Trish with Trish’s camera. There were many sweet moments regarding Trish and Fern.
After several hours of checking out the ruins of the ancient city, it was time for us to go for lunch. We asked Chai for a suggestion of where to eat. He brought us to his favourite restaurant. The place was quite busy. Fern seemed at home there though. She helped the waitress gather us silver ware and such. It was like she worked as a waitress part time after her guide job! Soooo sweet.
After lunch, we needed to head to the air port. Fern was riding on the back of the tuk tuk. She fell asleep leaning against her father. Only children in Thailand can do this as they are on scooters soon after they are born. It was a long day for the little girl. She woke up groggy when arrived to the beautiful Sukatai airport. Before we said our good bye’s, I pulled out the PoGo to give Chai and Fern a little gift.
PoGo
I had heard about this little gadget on David DuChemin’s blog. It’s called a PoGo by Zink. It’s a “Polaroid” on the “Go”. The little printer is about the size of a portable hard drive that connects directly to your camera via a USB cord. Select a picture on your camera with Pictbridge then hit “print’. After a few moments of the file transfering, the photograph starts to emerge from the PoGo. Anyways, I was very fortunate to have a PoGo land in my lap just before leaving for Thailand. I found it to be a great ice-breaker with strangers. One in particular was Velda the scooter rental lady.
Velda had rented us scooters for a few days while in Chiang Mai. I did not get to know her that well when I dropped by for a few days in a row to pay for each days rental. When I asked to take her photograph upon returning the scooters, is when I started to feel more like a friend than a client. She was shy at first because of her swollen cheek. She said was caused by a burst blood vessel. After very little persuasion she agreed to be photograhed. Like all Thai people, she really enjoyed being photographed.
I proceeded to pull out the PoGo and print off a few pictures for her. She was very impressed with the technology. She had a great smile as the print was emerging from the PoGo. This is when she started to open up about herself. I guess most of her clients had no interest in her other than business. I suppose by me taking her photograph and handing her a print made her realize that we were a little more than clients. We ended up talking about her situation.
Velda is fifty years old and was born in the house that her shop was attached to. Her mother was also born in the same house! I cant say that I know anybody in Canada that has that same story. In Thailand most people live where they work. The store front is their shop with their residence attached to the back or top of the shop. This was the case with Velda.
Velda told me about her daughter. I never caught her name but she was twenty-five years old and going to University. Velda was concerned about the fact that her daughter failed a course. Failing this course would be very costly to Velda as the daughter could not get her degree without THAT course. Velda would have to find the money to put her through the course again. Velda did not seem disappointed in her daughter at all. She only seemed concerned about coming up with the money to get her daughter through school. That was very important to Velda. She wants her daughter to succeed regardless of any disappointments along the way. She was very proud of her daughter because she was going to be an accountant.
Velda also spoke of her sixteen year old son. He was doing well in high school and was learning mechanics. He wants to be a mechanic to help Velda with the scooters. I must say, he had a pretty funky scooter too. He took very good care of his bike.
When I return to Chiang Mai some day, I will for sure visiting Velda again to rent a scooter from her. I was told that Thai people have very long memory’s. I am sure she will remember me as I will remember her. Below are the pictures of Velda and the PoGo in action. You can find PoGo at Amazon.com.
Krabi
We took a boat from Phuket to Krabi Province. The scenery was amazing and the weather was hot. A co-worker of my wife had suggested staying in Rei Lei West if we were in Krabi. We took his advice as it sounded wonderful. We read it is a rock climbers paradise with a very nice beach.
We arrived via Long Tail boat after a transfer from the larger boat. Rei Lei West was a picture of paradise upon arrival. After a lunch and a Singha beer, Trish scoped out some accommodation. It turned out that all of the cheap bungalows were already occupied. Only the high-end resort rooms were available and they were WAY out of our price range. Luckily, we had some advice from an Expat in Kanchanburi. He suggested staying in Ton Sai where all the backpackers stay. Ton Sai was a 5 minute Long Tail ride from Rei Lei West so he headed over there.
Actually, I shouldn’t even tell you where Ton Sai is because it is a gem that large 5 star resorts have not invaded yet. From my observations, it’s the backpackers and hippies that find the most beautiful places on this earth. The special places are affordable and have a very groovy vibe as Ton Sai does. Then word gets out and people go there in droves. That’s when the corporations move in to capitalize. Then the vibe is lost and the landscape is changed. So far, Ton Sai is a small village that supports a fairly large number of backpackers without losing the vibe. However, the beach is rather rocky and not as condusive to beach loafing as Rei Lei West is. There is no shortage of Bob Marley at this very rasta place.
Ton Sai is a rock climbers dream. I am not a rock climber but I have done a little climbing. The place made me want to really get into the sport. People come from all over the world to climb the beautiful cliffs that can sometimes be access only from a boat. I heard one guy there had been there for eight months climbing. The bungalows were not dirt cheap but still affordable if you don’t mind no a/c and no hot water. In their kind of heat, you don’t really need the hot water anyways.
I did not take that many pictures there because I was enjoying a snorkeling tour(which is another story) and kayaking. I did manage to capture a few good sunset shots but that isn’t hard to do with the amazing sunsets that Rei Lei and Ton Sai get. I certainly hope to return to Ton Sai one day and stay for an extended period of time. Perhaps, I will take up climbing. That would for sure able me to get my camera to more interesting points of view of the climbers.
Back home!
Well, we are home safe and sound now. We actually got in a few days ago. The jet lag is kicking me hard this time. Everytime I lay down for a nap, I wake up five hours later! Anyways, it sounds like our timing for leaving Thailand was good as there was a riot at the Bangkok airport just a few days after we left. The airport was shutdown. We had known there was some unrest in Thailand before we left for there but assumed we would not be around those areas. Guess we were wrong. Luckily, our timing was good to miss the riot.
I also wanted to let you know that I still have more stories to tell about our journey to Thailand. I have more pics and stories to tell. Stay tuned!
Check the riot news: Here
Phuket
After a short plane ride from Bangkok, we arrived in Phuket Province. We did not have any transfer arranged to get us from the airport to our pre-booked hotel in Karon. We grabbed a mini-bus which is a passenger van, to take us to the town of Karon.
However, the mini-bus made a little detour to a travel agent to “re-confirm” our ticket. This was just an excuse to get a van full of people to possibly purchase a room or tour with the tour company. My wife and another couple were quite perturbed about the little “hijacking”. The tour lady didn’t even look at Trish’s ticket. We eventually got everybody back on the mini-bus and en route to our destinations.
Karon beach is mainly a resort town. Our hotel that was pre-booked back in Canada was quite swanky. My only complaint about it was the construction site right in front of our patio. I didn’t really care for the resort type of vacation. The resorts are lined up across the street from the beach. This makes the blocks very large. When staying in a guest house in a soi, amenities are feet away. In resort/hotel provide amenities but they are extremely expensive. We had a long-ish walk to get to the real Thailand where services were more realistically priced.
The great experience in Karon was the Loy Kraytong festival. It is the Buddhist equivelant to the Chinese New Year. It was an amazing night with so many paper hot air balloons, called “Kom Loy”, filling up the night sky. Hawkers were selling the Kom Loy to locals and tourists alike. Wind that night brought challenges to the Kom Loys. Sometimes a gust of wind would cause a crash. Sometimes the people did not let enough hot air build up and the Kom Loy would crash into the sea. There would be a great cheer when a Kom Loy did make its way to the heavens.
The night was really something special. I captured many good photos while enjoying the magic of the festival. I do believe that I captured some of the magic.
Kanchanburi
Once again, we were in Kanchan some time ago, just trying to catch up! *pant, pant*
We had five days to kill and we wanted to get out of Bangkok. We took a 2 hour bus ride from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi. Incredibly, we arrived earlier than the schedual predicted. The bus driver thought he was Mario Andretti. We got there safe and sound though.
We did a fair amount of site seeing while avoiding the tours. Once again, we rented scooters to get mobile instead of relying of expensive tours. The drawback of trying to find a point of interest on your own is that sometimes you get lost… as we did. We had tried to go see the Tiger Temple which was about 37K out of town. We never made it but had fun getting lost in the rural area. We stumbled upon some sort of festival. There seemed to be some sort of money tree dance. We also hit a road side diner in which there was no English at all. It was the cheapest meal yet the best Pad Thai I’ve ever had.
Another great experience I had while in Kanchanburi was handling a gibbon. We stumbled upon the Monkey School while bombing around on the scooters looking for a war cemetery. We thought the show was a little pricey as most of the tourist attractions are. However, there were two gibbons just before the show’s entrance. The trainer had allowed us to pick up the gibbons and the female gibbon liked to be handled. She was very sweet, however she did “mouth” my arm which scared me and I dropped her. I apologized to the trainer for dropping her monkey and both the gibbon and I were undamaged. Gibbons do tend to “mouth” at times but they never break skin. After we played with the gibbons, we found another war cemetery.
Kanchanburi is a place of historical relevance that I knew very little of until I visited. It is the site of the “bridge over the river Kwai”. That I knew, but what I didn’t know was that it was part of the “Death Railway”. There were many war cemeteries that we visited, which was a first for the both of us. Being near Rememberance Day , it turned out to be a moving experience. Especially, seeing a bus unload many elderly people who were visiting the grave for obvious reasons. I had read several messages to the soldiers brought to them by their families. It was very touching to know that after all these years, families travelled thousands of miles to pay their respects to their fathers and grandfathers. They are not forgotten.
Our time in Kanchanburi was moving, educational, exciting and eye-opening. Our four days there were very enjoyable but we had to head back to Bangkok, yet again, to catch a flight to Phuket. I do have another story about Kanchanburi that I will blog later on when I get back home.
Monkey Business in Lopburi
For the record, this blog is rather out of date. I was in a place of very expensive and unreliable net access for some time. I will now try to catch up in the remaining days of my trip so here it goes…
We arrived back in Bangkok after a flight from Sukhotai. Our second impression is not so good after spending time in the north. The city is a… well, a city with lots of hustle and bustle. People are always in a rush or trying to sell you a tailored suit or a ride in a tuk-tuk. It’s very loud from all the scooters and tuk-tuks. I don’t think they ever replace mufflers, nor do I think they even know what a catalytic converter is. The smell of exhaust wears on you as well.
We had five nights in Bangkok but seemed longer. We managed to get away to Lopburi to see the monkey temples for one of the days. The train took 3 hours. The monkeys were something to see! The damn monkeys had infested part of Lopburi. They were everywhere like rats! They were all over the wires slung from the telephone poles, swinging around like… well, like silly monkeys! People had put up spikes and barbed wire to keep the monkeys off of the poles but that didn’t stop them. I have a photo that proves it. Even the balcony areas were caged off to keep the monkeys out. It was funny to watch them own the town though.
The monkeys also don’t mind people at all. They will walk right by you but don’t seem interested in you at all. Yet, I was still nervous walking through a sea of monkeys. No pun intended. Who knows, maybe a rabid one didn’t like the way I looked. Many monkeys were looking quite weathered. Some had growths on various parts of their bodies. Some had missing patches of fur. Some had missing limbs, like the stray dogs and, more sadly, the people in Bangkok.
After a day of monkey watching, we had lunch and a few beers at a local guest house. There was a rainstorm to wait out and a train to wait for. This is where I captured the woman on the scooter with an umbrella. After the rainstorm subsided, we caught the train back to Bangkok.
Sukhothai
We took a bus from Chiang Mai and arrived in Sukhothai at 7pm. Once again, the arrival time was later than anticipated. The day time offered some nice scenery to pass the time on the bus until night fall. As with everything in the north, it was very easy to find a room or anything else for that matter. There was a lady waiting for the bus to pull in to tout her Guest House to the foreign travelers. After reviewing her Guest House which happened to be in the Lonely Planet guide, we accepted her offer. Of course, she had a tuk tuk for us ready to whisk us away to her home.
The guest house was lovely. It was a basic room but the whole house was very nice with lots of wood and surrounded by plants. We took the lower priced room of $13CAN because we didn’t have time to use the terrace of the slightly more expensive room. We were only there one night.
The next morning, Chai the tuk tuk driver caught us before we left the house. His wife just happens to work at the guest house. They are always related. He made us an offer of his services for the day at about $35 Canadian. I am not sure if it was truly a good deal or if we were “taken”. We were probably taken but we had a wonderful time.
Chai brought his daughter, Fern, who is about 6 years old. They drove us out to see the ancient city, which is now a park. The ruins were great. The whole area was beautiful. There seemed to be a moat and many other man-made ponds. What was interesting is how beautiful the ancient city looked when it’s lower grounds were flooded as they were that day. The flooding brought out reflections everywhere. Also, I thought it to be very cool knowing I was photographing monuments of an ancient city that was the beginning of Thailand.
What really made our day was Chai and Fern. Chai would look after my camera bag while Fern gave us a tour of the ruins. She spoke very little English but we both learned from each other… ok, mostly Trish. I was busy taking pictures. Fern was absolutely adorable.
After a few wonderful hours we had lunch with Chai and Fern. Then Chai and Fern gave us a lift to the most beautiful airport in the world to catch a flight back to Bangkok. Chai had been telling us all about Sukhothai and the area the whole time.. He was very informative about the area and its people. It was a very rewarding experience.
Chiang Mai
We arrived in Chiang Mai at about 9am. The rail ride was 2 hours longer than expected, a total of 13 hours. This did not concern us but a group of Europeans had tour plans hinging on the train being on time. That is one thing that we have learned. Keep your plans loose and expect delays, they happen. That being said, we will leave for Sukhothai from Chiang Mai extra early. We have a flight booked there to return us to Bangkok in four days.
The rail ride was quite uneventful. I slept from 7:30pm till 5am-ish. There was nothing to see anyways since it was dark. I noticed that the train did not go all that fast, maybe 60-80kph and it had many stops along the way. When the sun did rise about 6am, we got to see the beautiful, lush countryside and the small rail stations.
Each rail station was a manicured oasis in the middle of the jungle. When the train pulled into one of these small stations, dogs and chickens would anxiously run to the train. I am assuming they were hoping for scraps of food. Though, I have yet to see anybody feed stray dogs anywhere.
Chiang Mai is a city that is just as busy as Bangkok but with more Thai authenticity. There are no malls or box stores here. Everything is bought at the markets around town. Also, many goods are delivered directly from street vendors. There are still a few Western businesses such as Starbucks, Burger King, and McDonalds to appease the Westerners. These stores are quite expensive when living on the Thai Baht. When the Canadian dollar is converted to Baht, a Starbucks coffee is not that much cheaper than back home. The real money savings is eating at the real Thai food outlets. You can eat a good size lunch for $2 Canadian. A hotel restaurant may cost $8-$10. One thing is for sure; Thais have incredible food and service. I think all people in the service industry from Canada should come to Asia to learn how it’s done before they can work at home.
We have done the un-thinkable. We rented motor scooters to get around Chiang Mai. I was totally intimidated by the traffic and how crazy it is but I have grown used to it. All you need to know is keep on the left, make wide right turns and the rest is “anything goes!” I took everything I know about riding a motorcycle and threw it out the window. Lane splitting back home is considered very dangerous and rarely seen. Here, lane splitting is common practice! It really is a blast bootin’ around a city in this manner. Besides, we needed to get to the Women’s Prison somehow!
Why did we go the Women’s Prison? Well, we thought a Thai massage would be good. Yes, we got a massage in a women’s prison! It sounds quite dirty but it was very nice. Apparently, a large portion of the money earned by the prisoners is held for them upon their release. Then I heard from a local that “who knows” how much they really get. Trish and I both had a foot massage which should have been called, “The foot, leg, hand, arm, head, and neck massage”. While we were being massaged, there was an older Japanese gentleman having the full massage. He was snoring away while the massuesse worked on him.
I could go on much longer about Chiang Mai but I will wrap it up with an observation. The people were amazing. They had little material possessions but they always had a smile on their face. They would help you anyway they could. They had monetary motivation on the surface but if you got to know them on a personal level, yes, they were genuine. The people in the north have been the highlight of the trip so far. We’ll DEFINITELY be back!
PS. Internet here is painfully slow. I couldnt upload pics this time.
One Night in Bangkok
One night in Bangkok!.. so the song goes. It kinda rings true for us; we’re in Bangkok for one night at this time. We need to recover a little from our twenty hours of travel. After “one night in Bangkok”, we do a half -day city tour with a guide then around dinnertime we’ll be on a train to Chiang Mai. That will be a 12 hour night trip. We’re exhausted already!
Anyways, I gotta tell you about our trip so far. First of all, I think the airline Cathay Pacific has a cloning farm located somewhere in the orient. I believe this because all of their Stewardes… I mean, Flight Attendants all look the same! They all are the perfect asian human specimen of the female gender. The ladies are young, attractive, and all have the same hair-do! I swear they MUST be cloning them.
Our travel here was 15 hours from Vancouver to Hong Kong. It’s the longest I’ve ever been on an airplane. We made sure we had some stretches to avoid “Deep Vein Thrombosis”. After that long haul, we had a 2 hour or so lay-over in Hong Kong. I must say that airport is massive compared to the few other airports that I have seen so far in my life. From Hong Kong, the connector flight was just over two hours. I gotta say, Cathay Pacific Flight Attendant clone farm must have had a bumper crop. The Flight Attendant on the second flight looked as ravishing as the first. This just re-affirms my belief in the secret clone farm hidden somewhere in the orient.
So, we finally arrive in Bangkok tired as all heck. Leo, our guide met us at the airport and had a car ready for us. However, we were stimulated with sensory overload. The traffic from the airport wasn’t too bad but when we got close to our hotel, which is located in the shopping district, we noticed the madness! It seems that cars honk when they pass another. Now imagine many vehicles passing each other. Chaos!
Our guide, Leo checked us into the hotel and we went over tomorrow’s arrangements. After settling into our room, we went on a little excursion to a mall across the street from our room. The mall is unusual by what we are used to. It is a “tall mall”. I mean, it’s built in an office tower. It has many floors and escalators. The designers were smart enough to add a parking level to each shopping level. We wa wandered around that mall for a bit and grabbed some dinner. The mall was interesting enough but not as interesting as the insane driving.
The drivers and traffic in this city are INSANE! There are many motorcycles and they use every inch they can find. They bring a new definition to the term “lane splitting”. I can’t really describe it any other way than “barely organized chaos”. Of course, let’s not forget the cars using the on-coming cars’ lane! I consider myself a good driver. I have an impeccable driving record but would I drive here?.. HELL NO!
Another interesting observation about Bangkok is how apparent that it is a Buddhist country. There are shrines on almost every street corner. The people will do what I call a “drive-by prayer”. People will do a quick pray as they walk by. I even saw a woman riding her bicycle by a shrine. She prayed as she rode by.
Today, we had our city tour of Bangkok. We seen several temples most of which I forget the names. They laying Buddha is one that sticks out. That Buddha was HUGE plus it was covered in gold flake. The temples are amazing. They are so colourful and filled with detail. Interior walls are filled with decoration. There is not a square inch that is not painted, carved, or tiled in some way.
We will be travelling to Chiang Mai later in the afternoon by train. It’s an 11 hour ride. We will be in Chiang Mai in the early morning. It’s hard to say when I can get internet access again. There are several hotspots in Chiang Mai that we could access from.
Thailand… here we come!
I am getting a feeling of mixed emotion about going to Thailand tomorrow night. Nerves vs. excitement! We are stoked for the trip! We are currently taking care of last minute details. Anyways, just letting you all know that I will be blogging with photo’s as much as I can. We will be visiting some smaller towns and villages so we don’t expect to have Internet access 100% of the time.
Semi-good news is that I have Lightroom 2 running on the little Netbook. However, as expected, it is painfully slow. I will not do much photo editing “on-the-fly” other than a few for illustrating a blog post. The Netbook’s main duty will be for photo storage and communication. That means, I will have a whole pile of photo edits to do when I get back… UGH! If the “Financial Crisis” allows us, our next trip will probably be to Cuba next year. If so, I will budget for a 13″ Mac Book. They are compact yet powerful.
The next time I post here, I will be in Bangkok!
Night Rock
On the full moon, I went to White Rock to do some night photos. I really like shooting at night because public places aren’t so busy. Honestly, I feel self-conscious when shooting in public. Shooting at night, I don’t have to concern myself with people watching me or asking me questions. It’s not that I don’t like people, it’s just me not feeling comfortable around strangers who may be watching me. I was in a solitary mood and night shooting suited me that night. I really enjoyed the time to myself.
I had figured shooting at night was an unusual pursuit. Ironically, it turns out that there was another night photographer shooting that night as well. It must have been a rare site having two night photographers in the same place! I saw him from a distance so we did not talk but I know his name. Some other fellows had mistaken him for me. So, if Gino is out there reading this, drop me a line as I would love to see your photo’s.
Shooting wise, I did have some challenges with the prolonged exposure as I don’t have a remote for firing the camera in “bulb” mode. The digital cameras these days don’t have a traditional trigger release. I need to look into a wireless solution. Anyway, most of my exposures were 30 seconds or less. To help compensate for shorter exposures, I had brought my SB-800 speedlight and fired it manually several times per exposure at 1/4 to 1/1 power. On a few “bulb” shots I actually held my finger on the button to keep the shutter open for up to 2 minutes. It certainly is not the recommended method for bulb shots since no matter how still you think your hand is, there will still be a small amount of camera shake. Unfortunetly, those shots I took did not turn out very well. There was too much lense flare.
Also, this time I remembered to set the Long Exposure Noise Reduction to “ON”! I am so proud of myself. I usually forget some sort of setting but I suppose that the more I shoot, the more I remember to adjust settings.
Hmmm
On our family Thanksgiving dinner, which we had on a Saturday, I brought my camera hoping to get some decent candid family photo’s.
At first my niece was very shy and made it a game of hiding her face. On a few occasions she let me get a shot. I learned that you gotta be quick and wily to get a good shot of a child.
That night I had played around with the SB-800 speedlight. I really got the hang of bouncing light off walls and ceiling. I even found it better to take the flash off the camera and fire it remotely. This created and even better light distribution throughout the room.
This particular shot of my niece was a pure fluke. She had turned for just a split second as a teaser. Luckily, I got the shot. Timing is everything. I was so stoked after viewing the image on the LCD. I was very happy with the lighting, timing, and her posing.
Holy Chromoly!…Thailand!
Long Tail Boat, Krabi, Thailand
Originally uploaded by Alexander Marc Eckert
Exciting news! My wife and I are going to Thailand in a few weeks. I look forward to the experience for the photo opportunities of our four week tour. I have only been off the North American continent once in my life; I was 10 years old when I went to Scotland. This will be the first time for my wife. I can’t wait to experience a different culture, life style, landscape, and cuisine as an adult.
We will be touring all over the country hoping to soak as much of it as we can. We will be visiting central (Bangkok and surrounding provinces), north (Chiang Mai and Sukhothai), and southern regions (Phuket, Krabi and Surat Thani). Thailand should be an interesting place as it has never been colonized, meaning there is no trace of other cultures left over from a country that conquered it. Thailand has never been conquered! Original Thai culture!
This trip has me stoked for the photographic opportunities, however, it’s brought up some issues. I wanted to try and get away with just using a “carry-on” backpack. This is sufficient for my every day needs but the camera stuff is another issue. I decided to go with the MEC 60L Pangea Travel Pack. I will have to “check it” but at least I will have room for a few extra camera goodies. The 40L version of the pack was small enough as a “carry-on” while sufficient for bare essential items but it just wasnt big enough to fit some extra camera gear. ie. Tripod, dry bag. I will “carry-on” my camera in it’s holster bag.
Another issue that I am unsure of how to deal with is how do I carry an expensive camera around a relatively poor country. I understand that theft may be an issue but I hear you’re more likely to be charmed out of your goods than harassed. I don’t want to flaunt the camera but I don’t have any choice but to strap it to my chest with a Lowepro TLZ AW that I purchased specifically for the trip.
I would love to take all my camera equipment and more. I’d hate to travel so far and find a scene that requires an off camera speedlight or tri-pod and not have the items with me. I want to travel light though. Luckily, I just managed to fit my big Monfrotto tri-pod in my pack. The speedlight fits in the Lowepro TLZ AW holster bag along with a few other smaller accessories.
My wife’s new “toy”, the Acer Aspire 1 Netbook will have to act as storage for the photo’s. I have Adobe Lightroom 30 day trial version downloaded and ready to install. I doubt the single Atom processor of 1.6 Ghz will run Lightroom efficently but I will try it out. Hopefully, it will work decently. If so, I will most definetly be uploading and blogging from Thailand rather than waiting to get home to show off images and tell stories. I know my HP laptop would run Lightroom with no problems but it’s 15″ screen size is a little too big to fit in either of the packs. Not to mention, it is much heavier than the Netbook. Ideally, I would be taking a 13″ MacBook since it’s powerful yet compact but once again it’s about the $.
For a secondary backup, I will bring my 80GB Classic Ipod. I am pretty sure it will act as a storage device though I have’nt tried it out in that way yet. I will also be able to share my photo’s via the slide show or have it entertain me while flying or on railway.
Anyway, I have been slowly packing my backpack for the last week (my wife, longer). It seems that I’ll be able to have the essentials travel with me.
Gear that is coming
- Nikon D200 Camera Body
- Nikon SB-800 Speedlight
- Spare AA speedlight batteries
- 18-200mm Lens with Haze Filter
- One spare camera battery
- Camera battery charger
- Currency Adaptor-for electronics.
- 15GB of Compact Flash memory
- Cleaning tools
- Monfrotto Tri-Pod-remove the head and it fits in my pack!
- 2 Books: D200 Field Guide, SB-800 manual
- Acer Aspire 1 Netbook- My wife will be packing it (her new “toy”)
- Dry bag-To protect camera gear while kayaking the Hongs.
- 80GB Ipod Classic- Slide shows, music, image storage device?
Gear that I wish I could take-but the bank account’s getting low and the backpack’s full.
- Portable Hard Drive to have a secondary back up of images.
- Pogo Printer: David DuChemin is having a good time with it. I can see how it would act as a tool to “give something back” to the local people.
Lessons Learned -so far
- Take your camera to the store when purchasing camera accessories. This way you can make sure the accessory works with your camera at the point of purchase.
- The cost of inoculations hurts more than the shots themselves. Be prepared for the unforeseen cost.
- It’s nice to have a wife who analyzes every detail – she’s a great trip planner. If the planning was left to me, we’d end up in Siberia wearing swim suits.
- Unforeseen costs add up. When going on a special trip you discover other gear and accessories you wish to take in order to make your trip even more worthwhile.
A little recognition
This photo titled “Recycled” is the most popular in my Flickr account. Yesterday, someone had requested to use this photo to be used on another site. It’s probably not a very big deal at all but to me it is a little recognition.
“Recycled” is now used in a photo collection that is part of a news story. The story is about the health effects of olive oil on a site called Now Public, they are “crowd powered media”. It’s no CNN but it’s a nice little pat on the back knowing somebody liked my photo enough to ask my permission to use it on another site. Not to mention, the photo should receive a little added promotion other than Flickr.
You can see the story here.
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