Sawadee Khrap

Did a quick visit to “The Sanctuary of Truth” and got some prelim shots.  A little pricy, 500 Baht, but worth a visit – quite the carvings  - the entire place is covered with them and and new ones are being prepared to fill in the empty spots.  I will need to go back and do some real HDR work to properly photograph the place.

Make sure you have sufficient time as the slideshow is 133 photos.

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But don’t miss it when you are here – worth the time and money.

Ciao

Sawadee Khrap

Just got back from “The Million Years Stone Park and Pattaya Crocodile Farm”.   I went to check it out and take some quick shots to see if it was a good place to do future shoots.   Nice.   But, today was very hot and I got back soaked with sweat – so the shots were just from the hip and not centering in on any specific subject. – next time when it’s cooler I’ll go again and take someone with me to model.  but at least I’ll know where to go.

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I did like the group of young monks that were there and here is a panorama of the entrance path.  You’ll

Sawadee Khrap

Just meet a new friend, Ga, another fellow photographer here in Jomtien – Check out his Facebook Page  He told me about a great location called the Batman bldg. This abandoned building is about 12 years old and has great graffiti on it’s walls.  It was built to be a Disco house and said to have the upper portion as a short-time rooms – but the place never opened.  I took a trip to see the place before I try to do a any photo shoot there – IT IS Great.

I have another friend that wants to have some shots of his new motorcycle and himself and done in a flashy way –

Sawadee Khrap

Tai and his American friend Jim visited last week and we went to the Bang Pra No-Hunting Area in Chonburi.  Jim is an avid “birder” and this was my chance to check it out too.   The last photo is Jim walking away and Tai in the beached boat – This is the first time I have ever gone “birding” and the place is amazing – Jim, with his binoculars, said he counted over 35 species the day we went and when he and Tai went back the following day, they saw over 50 species and one flock of over 500 birds.  The place is rated as the best birding in Thailand.

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Sawadee Khrap

Just took a short trip about 40 KM North from Pattaya to Bang Saen Beach area to visit my friend, Don, in his new digs.   Great beach, clean, little or no farangs there, and so the locals are very friendly.  This family style beach is normally used by the folks from Bangkok, rather than going down to the Pattaya (sex) area, and by the students from the local schools and University.

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As you can see in the slideshow there are some great walking only areas and tandem bicycle  rental places there.  Food everywhere and the vendors area is not in your face.  Ample chairs and huge long beach to wander about.

Looks like a wonderful beach to go to and relax --

From here we went to visit the “Monkey Mountain”  actually Khaoi Sam Muk and San Chao Mae Temple.

Sawadee Khrap

Adobe’s Lightroom is a must have program for any photographer – or traveler who takes photos for that matter.  And if your camera doesn’t have a built in Geo Tracker – then you can use your smart phone to record the tracklog and have Lightroom sync the photos.

I used GPS Essentials (free) with my Galaxy II to record my trip today and took 84 images with the Canon D7 (no GPS) around Pattaya Beach and Walking Street – loaded the images and tracklog into Lightroom and above is the results – in blue is my route and each of the photos have been set to the correct location automatically. – and very accurate too.

The route, shown in blue, also shows the car route I used to get there and back ( no images tagged).   I store the tracklog in the same directory as the original images, so I now have a permanent record of the trip.

Here is a      *******  SLIDESHOW *******  of some of the images taken during the walk.

I am going to plan more excursions and will use this system to record each trip – and put a copy, like above, in each slideshow -

Sawadee Khrap

A good way to start the new year is with a Merit Making Ceremony – giving to the monks for merit for future life – good karma.   So at 8:30 they started setting up and at 9:30  the monks arrived – they also had food for everyone – lasted about 2 hrs in the parking lot right below my condo.

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I like this shot – the young monk spotted me on my balcony with the camera – only one down there that I could see that looked up.

Ciao

Sawadee Khrap

Just went to the “Venue Christmas Show” – little darker than usual and the new LED background display is really bright and causes some problems for the camera.  But still I think I got some good representative shots of all of the acts.    Always something.

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This is big slideshow – 307 photos

Sawadee Khrap

A friend, Ton,  was in Pattaya to celebrate his birthday, and as a gift I took him to Nong Nooch to see the Garden and Culture Show. We arrived about 10AM but I’d forgot about it being a Saturday and the place was well packed. – buses of tourist already there.  We went and got some drinks and at 10:30 went to the 10:45 Culture show, by that time the bleachers were filled and only a place high and in the back was available.   Oh well – next time down front.   I’m very glad I always carry the  200 mm lens on the camera – regular camera’s would take such tiny photos you would have difficulty seeing what was going on.  I did have to shoot about ISO 5000+  so there is a lot of grain in the shots but I think you

Sawadee Khrap

Just got back from exploring “Art In Paradise” a 3-D art gallery designed so people can become part of the art. Amazing place and great paintings and illusions. The museum features ten galleries – the Camouflage Room, Under the Ocean Room, Wildlife Room, Classical Art Room, Civilization Room, Surrealism Room, Dinosaur Room, Waterfall Room and the Scenery Room.  Tickets are reasonable and no pushing to speed you out.

I didn’t take any time to adjust for lens distortion or perspective – just ran in, got some samples, and out.

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For example – these two people (photo #2) just happened to be trying out this scene – I was on the second floor looking down so the illusion is not the same but you can get the idea – would look natural in the shot below - What possibilities are possible, especially when I can combine Photoshop to replace the models with more erotic and personal poses in the studio that could not have been done at the

Sawadee Khrap

Since I went to the ?-Mark and Bondi last night I thought I had missed the “Venue” Halloween show – but thankfully they also had another planned for tonight – off to the Venue  - Jontiem Complex.

As usual the show was excellent – you will have to pardon the graininess in the photos but this was a very dark lighted scary event and I had to shoot at 6400 iso

Sawadee Khrap

Let’s see, this year’s Halloween , October 31st, started out at the “? Mark Bar – Jontiem Complex”  and was also their 9th anniversary.

Degs, Ted, Mark, & Don all showed up about 7:30 and the party began: The bar was starting to fill up and the entertainment was live.

Here’s a small  *******SLIDESHOW********

I stayed till 9:00 and then went to the “Bondi Bar” on the Dongtan beach for their party and weekly  - Wednesday Bingo Night.

Sawadee Khrap

Here is my second   ******** SLIDESHOW ******** of selected photos from Thailand.  Mostly flowers.  Hope you enjoy.  I will try to look for more landscapes and other subjects.  Landscapes might require a special post as these are usually best as panoramas.  If you have any special request for selected topics, drop me a comment and I’ll try to post what I have.

Ciao

Sawadee Khrap

Just going through some of my old photos, culling the ones I don’t want to keep to save space on the hard drive and thought I would post some of the ones I like best.   I hope you do too.

So I made this  ******* SLIDESHOW ********

Ciao

Sawadee Khrap

I didn’t realize what a great photographer’s venue this is, I see what Victor was talking about in his comment on the last Nong Nooch post.  Pat and I went in the morning and concentrated just on the area as you drive in.      Here is the lower entrance gate with the ants – and then the lower orchid area and clay pot sculptures and the tigers area, they wanted 100 Baht for a photo with them – we passed this up and went on to eat at the lower restaurant – great cooks and food – prices were also very affordable.