I have been back in Thailand's capital for 5 whole days now and it would be accurate to say that I haven't bedded back in as quickly as I had hoped. My initial hotel stay which I had booked for 3 nights until Monday quickly got extended to Wednesday as I realised I was taking longer than I anticipated to adjust back to the pace of life here. On Monday night I extended this further until Friday by which time I would have been here a week. a nice round figure on which to move on. Unfortunately I have felt much the same way I did the first time I travelled here. Fortunately I have the experience to know and expect that this will soon pass.
It hasn't been a complete waste of time so far. I have ventured to a few places to try and get myself familiar with things once again. In Lumphini and Benjasari Park there were the usual runners doing their thing and on streets, in and outside of buildings I found small temples and shrines which I may use as the background theme, the thing that runs through this Bangkokian photo project. Just by walking around and being back here I am still getting ideas about what I can photograph and ways I can do it. So as long as I am thinking about ways to capture and portray the life that goes on here, something is going to happen. Eventually the Baht will drop.
The food in Bangkok is still amazing and whilst I am still yet to fully regain my appetite since arriving, the bits and bobs I have sampled have not disappointed in the least. I am aware however that my with my medical condition I need to ensure that I eat and drink regularly. My blood sugar levels have proved themselves to be adequately robust and stable, so sooner or later I'm sure that everything will fall into place nutrition wise.
I have been using a combination of 24mm, 50mm and 90mm focal lengths and the 24mm Samyang in particular is a funny little lens. When reviewing the images in camera you can easily be misled into thinking that it isn't doing a good job, and if I was basing the quality of the images solely on these in camera previews then I wouldn't be using it. It becomes clear however when post processing the images, that they may be far better than the previews would have had you believe. With the 2.8 aperture it can be a useful low light lens and when combined with the focus tracking in the a7ii it is a net little compact lens for street photography also. I have however found myself missing the old 28-70mm kit lens more than I thought I would. It was a lens that travelled with me extensively before it developed a fault some months ago, and for that reason it isn't with me here. Despite some peoples negative perception of it because it has been sold with Sony bodies as a kit lens, I found that the 28mm end of the lens could provide me with outstanding results. Extending the range slightly to around 35mm led to no noticeable degradation in performance or quality or image, and it was a focal length with which I became quite comfortable. I have been looking for one here but as yet, unfortunately, I have had little luck on that front.
The 50mm and the 90mm have also provided a mixed bag of results, although any faults with the images are more likely down to my mishandling of my gear that anything else. I have yet to get that "hell yeah" moment that I have had in the past. That feeling where you know everything is clicking into place, I really start enjoying myself and everything just comes together. If I'm not being wowed by what I'm taking, it's probably fair to assume that other people aren't going to be either. This is just a period I have to work through and I half anticipated something like this might happen. It was why I allowed myself more time, a little contingency planning to allow for such occurrence's and allow for time to settle in and sharpen up. Now I just need my images to do the same and let any negativity jog on.
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