24/02/2019 Shutter Island. Something is missing

I had been getting some good results with the lenses that I had been using, but I still feel like I was missing out by not having the kit lens (28-79))with me on this occasion. This was a lens that had served me well previously when in this part of the world and this time I felt it would have nicely filled the gap between the 24mm lens and the 50mm I am carrying. The kit lens (despite its criticisms) I personally found to be sharp as anything at the 28-35 range which is where I utilised it, but it's Achilles heel was low light. It had a variable aperture of 3.5 - 5.6 which meant it was definitely better suited to daytime situations where it did really well.

I had looked into getting a replacement whilst in Bangkok but there wasn't much that was jumping out at me and grabbing my attention. Brand new the Sony 28-70 was still around the £450 mark and second hand versions were proving to be elusive. Previously listings had shown used lenses to be going for around the 160 mark which I would be happy enough to pay if I could find one.  Frustratingly this is also around the price that Sony charge on top of the body to include it brand news as part of the kit. I'm sure that if they sold it for slightly more as a stand alone unit rather than over double the cost, then maybe more people would pick one up and realise that it's actually got more merit to it. But with a tin hat on, you could probably find an argument to say that maybe Sony just want people to buy the more expensive lenses out there anyway.

Looking at alternative options there were a number of cheaper solutions, The cheap cheap way would involve buying a 28 or 35mm manual lens for around 4000 baht, but truth be told if I was going to get hold of anything I would rather it be autofocus. The 50mm that I have I love to bits, but in a fast moving environment such as Bangkok, it can be frustrating when you miss something that the autofocus might have caught. Speed obviously isn't everything, but the nice thing about having an autofocus lens is that you can always switch it to manual. The reverse scenario just isn't so.

A slightly more expensive solution was the Samyang 35mm 2.8. I had looked at these when I was considering replacements for my kit when it broke, but ultimately plumped for the 24mm as time at that moment was of the essence and I needed to pick up something quickly before getting some protest photography in London. I knew from the reviews that I had read at the time that this was a lens that optically wise at least was held in high regard, but missed out on some features that a more expensive lens might benefit from. Namely these are weather sealing and perhaps a tougher shell. The advantages to this cheaper construct though are a lesser price and lighter weight, and both these things are beneficial. The Samyang weighs less than 80 grams and is, it has to be noted very, very compact.

The Samyang has a retail price in Bangkok of 11900 baht (£284.16), making it ever so slightly more than the £279 price point back in the U.K and this the price across the board. Which ever camera shop you go in here prices do not tend to fluctuate greatly, 11900 baht in one is 11900 baht in another and 8390 in another. This was new. I had checked this shop only a couple of days before and this was a fresh drop in price as indicated by the hand scribbled figure under the previous price that had been struck through. A quick conversion of this price brought it in at £200.34, this was around the price you could expect to pay for a second hand copy back at home. It was now at a price that I thought was worth paying and after a quick check with the waiting assistant who allowed me to look over the lens itself and take some sample shots, I brought the lens. I presume that this was the ex-display model as the one on view is what was packaged up for me to take away, but it had been kept inside a glass case away from fingers and the store itself was deep inside one of the malls, so it was unlikely that it had been exposed to any elements during its short life. I hope that this can just get me a little bit closer that the 24mm would allow in some of the tighter spaces that I have been photographing in and maybe capture some of the images that I have been missing out on with the manual 50.

First impressions is that it seems like it's something that I will enjoy using and will be able to get good results from. I probably can't really ask for, or want anything more than that.

22/02/2019 - Lumphini Park

As with the case in a lot of places, you sometimes need to revisit more than once to get images that do it justice. To see and record what wasn't visible or present on the previous visit.

I have been many times to Lumphini Park, one of the larger parks in Bangkok which sits just outside of Silom and is bracketed by 3 busy roads. despite this it is still a place of calm, and in places can be a visual treat.

I got here i the late afternoon an hour before sun down to give myself a little time wandering and looking for lizards. In the heat they can be quite illusive but as the intensity drops I suspected that they may become more active, and so it proved to be.

As the both the light and the temperature dropped down a level or two, the park once again came to life with joggers, cyclists and all other manner of people from young to old seeking activity either on land or water. But despite all this, the star of the show is often just the park itself, the nature, the green scenery against it's stunning city backdrop. Something which I am more and more convinced is appreciated by almost everyone that visits or uses the area.

Monitor lizards perhaps less so, but I'd be lying it I were to say that i don't find them fascinating, even if I am wary of getting too close, These animals of a seemingly bygone age can be found in good numbers in Bangkok, and they are particularly visible here in Lumphini. Thankfully, unlike their big brother the Komono Dragon, Monitors are a bit smaller and seemingly not particularly dangerous. They still look cool though.

A bit later as the sun dropped further you could here the bass heavy sound of music emanating from elsewhere in the park and by following this audible trail to it's source I was faced by the spectacle of a mass aerobic session taking place. It was seemingly open to everyone I would guess that there was in excess of 200 taking part along the wide path from left to right. There's only so much you can say about this, to witness it in action is much more awesome. Lumphini Park is something special and so are the people who use it. They have an energy that is infectious as I found to my detriment 3 years ago (I ran 3 miles when I wasn't really in the condition to do so). I will return here again I'm sure as every time it is a pleasure to be there. Next time however I will only do 1.5 miles...

maybe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn6j7kyBp4U

22/02/2019 - Asiatique revisited

The images from the night before hadn't been as bad as I first thought.  Lightroom had been taken it on itself to over sharpen my images on import and the result was images that were disappointing at best, unusable at worst. However after realising that this was the case, I was able to reprocess the  the images that I had taken previously, and bring everything back under control. It's easy to miss the obvious sometimes, especially when you are tired.

I was convinced there was more still to get at this location however so I decided to return. This time I would forgo the 90mm and the 24mm and instead go with the 50mm Voigtlander 1.5 which has always proved itself at low light, and for the first time this trip I dusted off the old Carl Zeiss Jena 135. This latter lens has also managed to get me some images of incredible quality in the past, but with low light not it's forte, it would have to remain to be seen exactly how it fared. 

As with the night before, it wasn't until the sun began to dip that the waterfront came to life and even then, initially, it wasn't providing me with the type of imagery I was after.  It doesn't take long for the sun to drop in Bangkok so the time to get these kind of shots is pretty limited, but even so I still came away with enough to make the trip again worthwhile. before the sun had gone completely I had jumped back on the ferry and was on my way back up the river to make my way back to the hostel  My energy levels were dipping severely over the days and I was spending as much, if not more time at the computer editing and writing as I was exploring and photographing. I love Bangkok but for some reason it does tend to drain me a little bit more than I would like and I'm not sure if it's just the heat, the pace or the air quality. Whatever the reason I began to think that perhaps it was coming to a time where I would be better served taking a week out somewhere and getting re-organised. 

It's worth noting here that both lenses performed well in the conditions, and I may comeback to Asiatique one more time to see if I can capture some more of the place away from the waterfront area. 

20/02/2019 - Asiatique

Asiatique is an attraction. It is a relatively new one that sits on the main river that runs through Bangkok and offers a mixture of shopping and food outlets as well as scenic views over the south of the city. It is a popular destination for both the Thais that live here and a good number people visiting the city and I was hopeful that this would provide me with the opportunity to get some images that could be used on my ongoing project. Rather importantly also, it is really, really easy to get to from where I was staying, and therefor really easy to get back from late at night.

http://www.bangkok.com/shopping-mall/asiatique.htm

There is a free ferry service that is operated from the ferry point directly under the Saphan Taksin BTS station and from my Victory Monument locale this would be about a 15 minute train ride with a simple switch over at Siam. The ferry point when I arrived in the late afternoon had a small number of people waiting for the boat to arrive, but it was nothing like the elongated queue that greeted me when I visited here 3 years ago. I started to wonder at this point whether this visit was going to be productive or not. I had decided to visit mid week in order to avoid the worst of the crowds, but perhaps this decision was going to prove to have been a mistake. Only time would tell, and if it turned out to be such, it would be something I could put into the "learnt something" bag and I still had time to come back and re-shoot anything if necessary. The ferry ride took maybe 10 minutes from leaving to putting us back ashore, a welcome trip that also had the benefit of providing some much needed cooler air that danced off the water.

As I had feared the place wasn't exactly teeming with people, but it was early and I decided to have a little walk around the area, wide avenues littered with shop units and restaurants, but nothing that I found inspired me. At the back of the premises I found a few small shrines and sat by some fountains watching the visitors come to them and interact. Some took time to take a moment in silence by one, others visited each in turn as they took time to worship in their own personal way. Some made small offerings in appeasement, and then others ate said offerings and threw their contents on the floor. Pigeons it seems are anarchic wherever they are to be found in the world.

Walking back the the riverfront as night fell, I walked up and down looking for images that might work in line with the themes I was working towards, I had the Tamron 90mm and the Samyan 24mm at the ready but as much as I wanted to get my game on, I just felt I wasn't firing on all cylinders. Sometimes this just happens. I depend on my mood a lot of the time to direct me, to motivate me, but if that fails to spark then as much as I may try, there is a chance I won't be satisfied with anything I get.

But then there is usually something that you can take from somewhere.

As the sun dipped away over the city skyline, and over the bridge that spanned the river, I was struck by the colours and the majestic nature of the scene before me. There is something about scale that always grabs me and it's something that perhaps isn't fully transferable to a picture. I found it the first time that I was confronted by Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, and here I was undone my a similar effect. It wasn't the type of shot that I had come out to get, but it was something that I did my best to confront and capture. The magic however might not just be that it visually magnificent to witness. It was perhaps this moment that I decided that it would be no great hardship to come back on another night and try again.

19/02/2019 - Parks n' markets (train night)

Getting from one place to another is rarely as straightforward as it would seem to be on a map. There is always things in the way, roadworks, diversions, floods, traffic and things of that ilk. You can plan around these if you know they exist before time and one of the things I was getting used to in the city was where the places were that may cause either a challenge or frustration. Talking to the receptionist in the Hostel I enquired as to whether there were any good night markets within easy reach for the evening and she pointed me towards either Asiatique on the river, or for a more local experience, Rachada Night Market, also known as the Train Market. I chose the second option.

Looking at a map it's apparent that the shortest route to get to Rachada by public transport from my location at Victory Monument was to take the sky train down and around to Asok. Here I could change to the MRT subway system and then catch the underground train a couple of stops up to Thailand Cultural Centre. The problem is that Asok is at a very busy section of town, and as such, at the time I was going to be travelling, it would be an absolute nightmare to navigate. The alernate route was slightly longer by distance, but potentially less of a hassle at the interchange  between BTS and MRT. I would head up from Victory Monument to past Phaya Thai to Chit Lom before changing and completing the arc back around to Rachada. The other benefit to do it this was that I could stop at the park at Chatichak and see if there was anything there that could help tell a visual story.

The Bangkok parks I have found so far are pretty peaceful places. In this often hectic city,  they provide a needed escape from the hustle and bustle and it's quite noticeable how quickly the sounds of the city are absorbed almost as soon as you get inside the parks grounds. You have to wonder why whether he grass and the foliage are acting in the same way as carpeted walls might in a recording studio, or whether the large lakes that feature prominently also have some kind of sponge like sound filter. Whatever the reason, it's not really that surprising that so many people want to spend time in the, At Chatuchak park the runners were again out in force, engaged in running around said expansive lake in a clockwise fashion. The lake was spanned by 2 bridges and between the water and the runners lay a good amount of grass for people to sit on, talk, read, sleep or take time to photograph the pigeons, feed the fish or watch the squirrels as the go about squirrelling. The amazing thing for me is why we expect Bangkok to be so different. From what I gauge, we as a nation seem to hold a very narrow view of what Bangkok is like, and these views are often different than what I find here. There's always going to be differences between different countries, and of course different cultures, but what may be surprising for some is how much of what you would recognise from the way things are back home. Some of these similarities can be welcomed, other, unfortunately, less so.

Today I noticed a Jamie's Italian restaurant had arrived in Bangkok.

Pukka

I stayed at the park until the sun had set and I was roundly stewed before I embarked on the trip to the night market. The main road outside was busy, with barely enough space on the pavements to allow people to pass in both directions. The one thing that can trip you up in Bangkok is the pavements, usually quite literally. You will see people often trip and stumble forwards as a pavement either dibs away under its foundations subsidence, or has been pushed up for reasons unknown. It might be a reason why people shuffle as with smaller steps you are less likely to come undone. I shuffle because I'm knackered. It still doesn't stop me tripping.

The first couple of avenues I explored were unerringly quiet. As I walked down past clothes and apparel many of the sellers were sat just back a little, consumed by whatever entertainment was being provided on their phones. This wasn't the Bangkok I remember from a few years ago, and it wasn't how I remembered night markets being in general. Where were all the people, the vendors engaged with their potential customers? Was it just that I had come on a week night rather than at the weekend? It turns out I wasn't a million miles away from the truth however. That lay just 2 aisles away, as soon as I hit the food stalls.

It can be quite unerring for a westerner who finds themselves in these kind of situations. Space can be at a premium and if you leave an extra step ahead of you when things get tight, inevitably it will either be filled or you will be pushed forward.  I was aghast at how often someone could catch my elbows when they were tucked right in, or someone would just barge his way through with a face full food, concentrating more on getting his carbs than navigating the crowds. This is however how it is, and you either roll with it or you don't. I hadn't travelled 6000 miles to not roll.

The first couple of passes through the crowd was tough going. Shooting in manual mode on my 50mm gave me very little time to get my shot in, and even if I managed to react in time and get my subject framed, more often than not no one was going to stop to make my life easier. I adapted the best I could, framed things in a way that the constantly changing environment would either allow for or even be enhanced by. Sometimes it's the coming together off all these elements that make a shot worthwhile. You can't always control perfectly the situation in which you are photographing, but sometimes you can use and incorporate said situations into making a picture worthwhile.

Whilst the 50mm was always going to be tight in the narrow spaces in which I was found, the 24mm provided me with the opportunity to get back in amongst everything with the AF allowing me to  photograph the situations that were practically impossible with the manual lens, rarely having 2 hands free. Whilst the type of shots were different than those that the longer focal length and slower overall process allowed, the provide perhaps a more truthful interpretation of the situation at hand. Whilst the shots with the Voigtlander can often be still with a deceptively still quality, this would not have been common place in the market itself and is a result of how I was having to slow everything down during my process. The 24mm allowed my to react quickly and capture a situation almost immediately as it unfolded before me reulsting in images that were much more "now", prehaps much more immediate.

Personally I like both sets of images and I have to deem the evening there as a bit of a success 

I just with I hadn't spent so much time looking out for a certain British chefs Italian stall.

18/02/2019. Drying out some equipment - a short interlude.

The problem with the MacBook had returned again. Occasionally intermittent "Z"'s permeating through my string of misspelt words, occasionally a string of "Z"'s instead of any words at all. This was something I knew I had to try and sort properly. If it was moisture that was causing it either through the humidity in the natural environment or condensation through air-conditioning, it was kind of urgent to get on top of it. With personal experience I can testify that some electronic devices don't tend to cope well with the wet. Whether I was imagining it or not I'm not sure, but many of my things from the camera to my bag everything was in had that feeling of being a little bit damp.

I started a little research into where I could get a suitable silica gel packets in Bangkok without having to eat my way through several tonnes of baked snacks. There were several places on line and private adverts on local listing sites, but as I considered time to be of the essence I wanted to try and find a place where I could buy them in store. I googled "Silica Gel camera shop Bangkok" and found a link to World Camera, a chain of stores that can be found in some of the malls in Bangkok, but knowing that this was something that camera shops here might stock I wandered into a branch of "Big Camera" at the MBK, near where I was located.

Using a picture of some Silica Gel packets as a visual aid complete with thai text next to it, I asked the shop assistant whether i was something that they might have available and she took me and showed me a selection of packets locked inside a glass cabinet. With the options available all written in Thai I asked her what the difference was between the items and it came down to whether I wanted single or multiple packets of the gel. With camera, lenses, the mac and other electrical items that I had travelled with potentially in need of respite, I opted for a multipack at 369 baht. Now I know where to get them if I find that I need to get more then this isn't going to be a problem, unless there is such a thing as a "Silica Gel Junkie".

As soon as I got outside the store I ripped open the package and put one of the 3 sheets that had been inside in along with my Mac that I had in my backpack. When I returned to the hotel some hours later I places the other 2 sheets inside a airtight, waterproof bag that I had also brought with me to Asia. In here I also put my 2 camera bodies and 3 lenses and later my computer also, leaving everything sealed for the evening.

In the morning and up until now (13:40), the MacBook has been working perfectly. There has been no false keystrokes in between my letters being pressed or any moment where strings of "Z"'s fight against what my fingers are typing. Any mistakes are now of my own making and that itself I can work with. It's too early to say for definite whether the problem has actually been completely resolved, or whether as last time this is a moment of only temporary reprieve, but this time I feel a little bit more positive than the last. The damp feeling that has been perceivable is no longer so, so fingers crossed, we're home and dry.

Well, dry at the very least.

16/02/2019 - A days photgraphy at Chatuchak Market

Chatuchak Market (or JJ Market) is a place I have been before. Billed as Thailand's biggest market and also as one of the biggest in the world, its sheer scale is sure to impress those that aren't used to such places. Its website states that it is set over an area of 27 acres that has been divided into 27 sections with over 15,000 booths and stalls.  It perhaps isn't a place for the tired, weary or faint of heart. I was starting to wonder whether I should be leaving it for another day.

http://www.chatuchak.org

Whilst the market on the weekend opens at 9am, I didn't arrive until just after midday. The benefit to this is that the market was in full swing by the time that I arrived and being that it was nearly lunch time, there was going to be plenty of food to choose from. The negative side however is that by this time it was also 33 degrees c. The outside loops is a long, wide oval where it is easy to get disorientated and think that you are at a different point then you actually are. Venture inside at any time and you are faced with a confusing warren of maze like corridors meaning your chances of accurately predicting your position based off your own sense of direction is even further reduced. At each juncture there is a marking point giving you a location reference, so if there was something you were desperate to get back to you probably could with a little bit of map reading, but I have wandered around here several times in the past, and there's still sections that I am sure I haven't seen yet.

The first few moments with the camera are always a bit slow. I find it takes me time to zone into what it is I want to capture, a challenge perhaps that is a little bit amplified by my now familiarity with the place. There was little of that sense of wonder that I often feel on my first visit somewhere new, somwhere that you don't know what is coming next or what to expect. The other side to this is that this familiarity does give you the experience to ignore a lot of the side shows and distractions, the bombardment of sights, sound and smells all vying for you attention. Being able to detach from these things even a little maybe might lose you some of the energy that is sweeping you along, but it can also allow you to focus your attentions on finding the details in the chaos that you might otherwise miss.

I was asked by someone recently what kind of photographer I am, and oddly It's one of the toughest questions I have been asked of late. I consider myself a street photographer really, reacting and capturing snippets of information as I try to tell a story of a place visually. Street photography may be sneered at in a professional sense, and whilst I wouldn't want to limit myself to just one field or discipline, I have to be truthful and say there is still that part of me that when I am out, just wants to take over. Sometimes you need to suppress it a little and focus on the task at hand. Other times I just have to allow myself that little indulgence, otherwise I will go insane in a place with so much going on. With that particular itch scratched, I could then can carry on to other things.

Inside the market I looked for things to focus on, something that would show the details, capture a mood or essence. There were rows upon rows of tiny units an booths, with different amounts of lighting or lack of it, but there was very little that I felt would help tell a cohesive story. Nothing that could make a good picture or series of images that could be a interesting way to define and capture the place that I now found myself in, until I saw a mannequin staring menacingly down at me. Then another one, and then another. I decided today this would be my hook and i spent the next period of the day just wandering around looking for more. As a kid I remember finding Dr Who a little bit scary. If I had witnessed some of the things here during the same period of my life, I can only imagine how i would have reacted. I started to find these things a little bit fascinating and I make no apologies for ending up with what is a wealth of images based off of these curios. I filled my boots until I had literally exhausted all avenues.

Back outside in the blazing sun I was approached by a bunch of school kids who asked me if they could do a video interview with me as part of their school project. As always I was happy to oblige. As they set up and started rolling, they asked me a series of questions about why I was in Bangkok, how I knew about Chatuchak Market and whether I was going to be buying anything in particular. The easiest question they asked however was what I thought about Bangkok. "Hot" I stated, "yes, hot" they cheerfully agreed. It was a short 5 minute period out of my day and it's moments of interaction like this that can really add so much to a trip. It's too easy to brush off approaches in places like this as just someone trying to sell you something and if you take this dismissive approach to anyone that talks to you, you risk missing out. Incidentally buying and selling in Thailand is treated as something of a game. It's not one that I am any good at to be fair, but engagements with sellers even when you are saying no can be done in such a way that in enjoyable for both parties. It's something that everyone can have a bit of fun with and by refusing to engage with it, you have to wonder what you have actually experienced.

I left the market in the late afternoon and the station for the rail line was heavily packed with a long queue to get a ticket to ride. I then decided, rather foolishly, that as the temperature had cooled a little I would walk the 3 miles back to the hostel. Now, I like walking, especially in new places. It allows me time to take in the surroundings and notice things that I wouldn't ordinarily see. By going straight from "Point A" to "Point D" I would potentially miss out so much between, however my feet were telling me they were tired before I even started off. During the next 2 hours they forced me to stop several times, to rest and ease the burning sensation in them just a little before moving back on. Points "B" & "C" both provided moments to capture and I could have caught a train easily enough at these points but I always want to explore a little more. By the time I finally got back to the hostel decided to leave the editing of the days photographs and the write up of my experiences for another time. Besides I could do without having the mannequins of the day invading my rest and recuperation. 1970's Dr Who had nothing even close to the visual impact of these things.

Absolutely Nothing.