Day 122 (July 11) - Our Puppet

Did you know we have a puppet? Well, we do. We spent all of 15 dollars on him in Myanmar, which for us seemed like a fortune at the time, given that we had brought only a finite amount of cash into the country. He's pretty scary, don't you agree?

In other news, I think the autofocus on my 50mm f/1.8 Canon lens is broken. I'm not sure where to go to get it fixed, but I love that lens. I need my 1.8! It was working just fine in Chiang Mai, but today, no bananas. It gets close to focus, then just keeps searching. I'm pretty sure it's under warantee, but figuring that out is going to be a big headache.

Anyway, the manual focus still works fine, so that's what I used for this picture. But I'm lazy, and I like my autofocus!

Day 119 (July 8) - Panning

Any photographer will tell you, panning is no easy trick. Basically you make sure your shutter speed is relatively slow, and then you move your camera with a moving subject. If you're lucky (and talented, too :)), your subject will be (relatively) in focus and the background will be blurry. This is a great way to show movement, because a shorter shutter speed often makes the subject look like they are standing still.

Anyway, Evan went to the go-kart track our last day in Chiang Mai, so I practiced my panning skills. I had nothing else to do! I don't know if you've ever been to a track, but it can get kind of repetitive, the round and roundness of it all.

Out of some probably 50 pan attempts I took, only a handful were decent. But I did notice that I got better over time. At least it's now another trick in my arsenal. Check out our other blog for a couple more pan shots that turned out ok.

I apologize for the noonday sun and harsh lighting. Sometimes that's when the pictures happen, though.

Day 118 (July 7) - Recovery

Maybe that should have been the title of my last post, given the image's amazing recovery in Lightroom.

But actually, it's my own recovery I'm mentioning, if only because I'm so grateful to be feeling like a normal person again. As soon as we got to Chiang Mai I developed a fever, and basically camped out in bed for the next three days. Evan was amazing and supportive until he got sick too on day three, and then we moaned about together and complained about how difficult it was to walk to the restaurant next door to get sustenance.

Anyway, all of that came after almost four weeks of unrelenting colds and coughs cheerfully provided (I can only assume) by the cute but contagious urchins I teach at school.


All of which to say, I was extremely happy to be able to go out and do a day trip on day 4 outside of Chiang Mai, and capture this little fluffer. He's a caterpillar, and some of the village children were playing with one and throwing it around (poor thing), so I venture to say, not poisonous or dangerous in any way. For another shot of him, see my Chiang Mai post on our other blog.

And by the way (I almost forgot!) I have been visited by the blogging fairy. Please check the comments of the post below for a rather post modern take on blogging. I promise, you won't regret it (unless you happen to be Idiot #1, in which case you might feel a bit foolish).