I consider that this qualifies as a ‘shadow’ in two senses. Firstly, it is all in the deep shadow of a valley as the sun is setting. Secondly, the building itself is a shadow of what it should have been; a failed attempt at grandeur. Its a flimsy interpretation, but it is as good as it gets for now.
Just about the most creative thing I did with this shot was to try my first attempt at basic HDR techniques. I created two copies of the shot; one with the terribly exciting (but in-focus) rock properly exposed and the other with the blurry boat properly exposed. I overlaid the two images in Photoshop and then smart selected the rock on the second shot and deleted it, so that the first shot showed through underneath. Voila! – Instant HDR. About as impressive as the rock, really.
After a short drive, I found Bangrak Tourist Pier. There were some fishing boats tied up along the sandy shore, with locals making repairs to engines and nets. I quickly found an ideal angle, with the Big Buddha in the background, the fishermen’s huts along the shore on the right, a boat pulled onto shore in the foreground on the left and the sea still as a millpond, reflecting a vividly blue sky with a few fluffy clouds.
As the waves were still washing in on a regular basis, I wasn’t able to get down to the coconut’s level. I had to effectively shoot blind (my old Canon 500D has live view, but the screen is fixed, making it difficult to use if the camera is a lot below or above my head), snapping a total of 20 shots, of which only a few really worked.
Saying “this is the real Pattaya” would be like me filming a two-minute video on Bangla Road and saying “this is the real Phuket”, or going down to Soi Green Mango and saying “this is the real Koh Samui”, or Patpong and saying “this is the real Bangkok”, or Soho and saying “this is the real London”, or the Reeperbahn and saying “this is the real Hamburg”. The list goes on. And on. And on. You can’t judge an entire city by its seediest part, is my point.
Project52, in case you’re unaware, is simply publishing one photo every week. This forces you to take more pictures – at least 52 more per year, obviously – and that gives you practice. Photography is one of those arts where you noticeably improve the more you do it, which is why comparing my first ham-fisted flailings when I was first learning to the work I now get paid for is really quite embarrassing.
In the process of planning an inspection tour of Koh Samui, I needed to select three hotels – one each in Lamai, Bophut and Chaweng. I had a budget no other specifications. All I needed was for my accommodation to be in a location convenient for checking out the nearby town. So, I selected Manathai Koh Samui as the first one purely for its location and cost. That is exactly the story I told the staff there when they asked.
Lucy Hill is a 21-year-old Brit from Bury, travelling around the world for her gap year. As is often the case with such people, she ended up in Thailand; in Chiang Mai, specifically. As is also often the case, she was involved in a motorbike accident. She was badly injured when a car hit her hired motorbike, causing her to lose a significant amount of blood. Unfortunately, for her, the blood she lost was of type A-, which is rare enough generally, but particularly so in Asia.
As with all things, experience makes air travel easier. You begin to recognise the patterns and see where you can exploit them to make your journey more comfortable. I’m not going to say that this is any kind of comprehensive list of tips and tricks; this is just the few little pieces of advice that I have picked up, mostly as a result of bitter experience or pure dumb luck. As more occur to me, there may be a ‘part two’ in the future.
One of the toughest times of the year for me and many of the expatriates I know is the holiday season – Christmas and New Year. The former is not a Thai holiday (though many will happily get involved in the Christmas spirit), but the latter is and most Thais will go back to their home towns and villages in the far-flung regions of the country. The same goes for the foreigners – a large number fly back to their home nations to spend this special time of the year with their families.
