More Travels

Evan and I are leaving tomorrow for another two week trip, and I won't be updating during that trip either, so you'll just have to wait for those photos like you did these past few.

I appreciate your patience, all 2 of my readers (hi Mom and Dad!). I know the wait can be tough. But I think these next photos will be worth it.

Day 43 - A Hat

My $1 Cambodian hat goes everywhere with me now. Worth hundreds of dollars in skin damage treatment later on, methinks.

Day 42 - More Cutlery

At Kao San Evan and I like to frequent the food stalls on the side of the road, which have baskets of spoons, forks, and chopsticks for you to serve yourself from. I like to watch the new tourists who choose chopsticks because they want to fit in. Little do they know, Thai people hardly ever use chopsticks, but instead use a spoon most of the time and push food onto it with their fork.

So, now you know. At your next Thai restaurant, don't go for the chopsticks, unless you're eating noodles.

Day 41 - Temples

Temples are everywhere in Thailand, marked by their stunning red pointed roofs. This temple is right next to the tourist area of Bangkok, Kao San Road.

Day 40 - Coke

Despite the fact that it has never been my beverage of choice, people drink it EVERYWHERE. I have never been to a country that doesn't have Coke whenever and wherever you want it, in many different varieties, and I have been to 25 countries so far.

Ah, well. It's not for me, I prefer my caffeine in a brown liquid without bubbles, but I do like the red cans. Very photogenic.

Day 39 - Leaving the Beach

I woke up at dawn on our last day to get a few last photos before we had to leave the islands. Well, actually, I woke up before dawn but couldn't manage to get out of bed, so I missed dawn. Did get a couple of post dawn shots though, and I had a very nice early morning swim.

Day 38 - More Beach

Lensbaby again, f/2 with no aperture disc in it. I like this shot because it gives the rope swing a feeling of motion, and adds a little mystery about the girl out of focus in the background. I know you're all probably getting sick of the Lensbaby, but tough. I am really enjoying its manual focusing goodness, and unpredictable results. I promise to use some other lenses sometimes, though, ok?

Day 37 - Clouds

We went on a boat trip around the island that ended around sunset this day. This was my last shot before stepping off the boat. The sunset was amazing, but even better was the magical blue light happening in the east. And the clouds were phenomenal.

Day 36 - The Beach

It's so easy to take pictures when traveling. I didn't have to think about making sure I took a photo each day that I could post, because when something new catches my eye, I want to capture it. The real trick is getting the things I live with every day to feel new enough to me that I get the same feeling. And that is really tough, probably something I will have to work on forever.

Both pictures were shot at 18mm, with my Canon 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS lens.

Day 35 - More Stars

So yeah, more stars. Don't kill me. They're just so much fun! And I also forget to switch out the aperture disc a lot of the time.

This is a hibiscus on the path from our bungalow to the beach. It was a pretty great vacation . . .

Day 34 - Seeing Stars

Recently I've become addicted to the star aperture in my Lensbaby. And honestly, when I get a result like this, the addiction just grows stronger. I took this on our first full day in the islands. Just outside our bungalow was this little pond with flowers like this.

Day 33 - The Moon

We traveled to the islands overnight, and we got to see dawn on the way. This is a river next to the bus stop where we spent three hours waiting for the next bus, from 5 am to 8 am.

Day 32 - The Delicate Nature of Electronics

I skipped taking photos this day because of the Thai New Year Festival, Songkran. It's basically a giant countrywide water fight that lasts for 3-5 days in April. Fearing for my cameras, I packed them away in their camera bag and deposited that in a large (hopefully waterproof) plastic garbage bag.

It worked. I got completely soaked several times. Numerous water pistols were aimed and fired in my direction, several buckets full of icy water were summarily dumped on both my front and back, but the cameras survived.

However, no pictures. Sorry.

Day 31 - A Legal Addiction

Evan and I were packing for our trip to the islands, and I admit to being less than totally inspired, photographically speaking. So I looked around the house . . . boring boring boring . . . oooh! something shiny!

Pulled out the Lensbaby, popped in the star aperture, and we were in business. Hard to come by fresh milk in Thailand, it spoils in record time, and since I only really like it in my coffee, having milk for my coffee is tough. To the rescue: instant cappuccino!

No, I'm not proud of myself. But a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do, right?

Don't answer that.

Travel Advisory

Hey, sorry for all of my readers who are disappointed with the lack of daily photo updates. Evan and I are traveling now, and will be until May 12th. I am definitely going to be making the most of the photo opportunities that come my way, but with internet as slow as it is, it may be a while until I get caught up with posting all the pictures.

So sit tight for a few days, I apologize for the technical difficulties. See you again soon!

Day 30 - More Lensbaby

I took the Lensbaby into the garden this afternoon, and man! it really reminds you why you need to take a lot of shots to only get a few good ones. It's really hard to nail the focus, unless the light is really good. I did come up with a few keepers, though.

I shot these at f/2, with no aperture disc in the camera. This ensures maximum beautiful blur (in the parts that are supposed to be blurry, natch).



And my last shot, with a more run of the mill lens. The sky was doing some pretty things as the sun prepared to set. That foliage in the bottom corner is a papaya tree.


As you may have noticed, I figured out how to put larger images on the blog. It's a little time consuming, because I have to change the HTML for each after it is uploaded, but this is a blog about photography! Shouldn't you be able to see the pictures?

Day 29 - Who's the Photographer Now?

The above image is mine for today. Lensbaby and beans. Singularly uninspired.

Below is Evan's picture of Mouse.

Who's the photographer now?

Day 28 - When It Rains, It Pours

Today is a fake blog day. I've been spending a lot of time on the blog, and not enough on other important things, so these images are again from yesterday in Bangkok.

Street photography is tough. I would like to get better at it, but to get better I need to practice, and I just don't feel comfortable pointing my camera at people I don't know without their permission. At least here, I was across the street, and I pretended to be shooting the rain, not them.

Day 27 - Bangkok Rain

Evan and I went to Bangkok today to pick up bus tickets for our upcoming travels, and got caught in a downpour. I captured the above image while we were sitting waiting it out in a restaurant.

The below image I took from an overpass. This is classic Bangkok traffic. Rain or no rain, gridlock is to be expected.

Day 26 - The Storm Arrives

Today we had a thunderstorm, with rain lashing at the windows and thunder that threatened to tear down the house. If you're inside, storms are fun in Thailand. However, I like to flirt with danger (not true, I wish it was though), so I went outside to get some shots before the storm completely arrived. The above is a view of our street, the two below I took over our back fence. Neither one is great in terms of composition, I made the best of the bad shots available to me.

Tell me, which do you like better? I personally prefer the second one, even though the first is less cluttered looking.



That's it for today!

Day 25 - Dragons

This super cool building is actually a monastery near our house. We've never been, but I got a good view of it last night, so I decided to take a picture. Someday, I'll be in the right spot to get a picture where the dragon is looking at me.

The end is near! Just kidding. Did always feel like the End button was a little ominous, though.

Some orchids in our neighbor's garden, taken at dusk.

A bangkaew puppy that belongs to one of our fellow teachers. He's just been rolling around in weeds, and has burrs all over his coat.

And finally, a picture of Mouse next to my foot, for size comparison. She is still pretty small.

Day 24 - The Creepy Crawly in Our Bathroom

We went to take a shower tonight and got a rude surprise: this fellow (or lady) in our bathroom. He must have crawled out of the drain.

Unfortunately for our karma, Evan poured some shampoo on him (to immobilize him, because he was moving pretty fast), and washed him down the drain.

We will keep the mesh cover on the drain in the future, that's for sure!

Day 23 - The Green Duo

Today after school it threatened to storm, so we hightailed it out of school, hoping to get home on the motorbike before the flood began. The sky turned an amazing dark gray color, and I begged Evan to stop for a photo, even though neither one of us wanted to get caught in a downpour. He humored me, and I took a few photos from the bridge, but none were any good. Sometimes that's just the way it goes . . .

So, when we got home, the light was still great pre-storm light, and I went out into the garden (sound familiar?) and caught the above shot. Frankly, the light makes it.

I'm also posting a photo that breaks two of my rules: it was not taken by me, and it was not taken today. But it's pretty cute, and rules are made to be broken, right?

Evan took this last night, when he managed to catch Mouse with her tongue out.
See you tomorrow!

Day 22 - Our Window

As many photographers have observed, every photograph at its most basic level is really just a picture of the light. In that spirit, I was drawn by the warm evening light coming through the window and contrasting with the blue curtains, so I decided to take a picture.

Day 21 - In Bloom

I thought today was going to be an unlucky photography day. To start with, at lunch Evan and I popped the back tire on our bike again, so after school he rode it gently to a repair shop while I walked there. On my way I saw a couple good shots, thought I would take them to get a jump start on the photo blog process, but my luck was not with me. The camera was, but sans memory card. The memory card was with Evan.

However, once we got home we took a short walk, and I had plenty of photo opportunities then. This tree is right around the corner from us, and definitely in full bloom.

Here are some of the petals on the ground.

Some barbed wire in a neighbor's yard. I'm a little bummed that the export feature I've been using in Lightroom is doing this to the portrait (vertical) pictures. I'd prefer a small black border and the same orientation, versus this black sidebar thing. If anyone knows Lightroom well enough to give advice, I'd be grateful.

And last but not least, the neighborhood dogs begging some meat on a stick from Evan. He gave them some, and now we have friends for life.