David M. Byrne
Well-Known Member
Hello again to all,
Already it is day 14 of the trip and all is going well. There has been a change in scenery from the last time I check in with you all 7 days ago; I left the jungle of the northern of Thailand and are now on one of the beaches in the south (Railay beach in Krabi on the southern Andaman Coast to be precise). Needless to say it’s quite the contrast. I spent a lot of the last 7 days backtracking my course of the first 7 days which included, & as only a mad Irishman would do, spending the guts of 21 consecutive hours on two different Thai buses, all as part of a (successful) bid to get here to the beach in time for Saint Paddy’s Day. It has been a quite week for pictures, or it has at least been quieter than week 1 was. That said I still have 7 images to share with you all. Oh, and I’ve also opened a Photobucket account to store these images so with a bit of luck the displaying-the-images teething problems I had with my 1st entry of last week will be a thing of the past (& thanks to Hamish & is patience for helping me sort those out).
Picture 9, Day 7 – Jungle Stream, Chiang Rai Province, Northern Thailand. March 12th 2012.
The dense jungle & waterfall found further upstream of this point was the perfect fodder for my wide-angle lens; I didn't feel the need to switch up once during the few hours I spent sweating in this jungle as I was clambering over fallen tree trunks. The above picture was taken at full wide-angle with the camera resting on a rock. A slow shutter was used (0.6/sec) to get the silky look in the passing water with the camera compensating by closing down the aperture to f/22.0.
Picture 10, Day 8 – Traders in Chiang Mai Night Market, Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. March 13th 2012.
One of my very favourite travel pictures over the years is a picture similar to this that I captured of rooftop activity in Varanasi, India. So I guess I’ve always liked this overhead-perspective-of-a-scene type of image. This image was captured leaving a bar, the entrance of which overlooked a small section of the buzzing Night Market in Chiang Mai.
Picture 11, Day 9 – Tiger Kingdom, Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. March 14th 2012.
Day 9 of the trip saw me in a cage petting real life tigers. It was quite the experience. We paid a visit to Tiger Kingdom on the outskirts of Chiang Mai and stumped-up the guts of €10 to spend about 10-15 minutes in an enclosure with 5 adult tigers (1 male, 4 females) & twice as many handlers armed with verbal commands & little bamboo sticks (help, just in case). Rumours were abound that the tigers are sedated to allow snap happy, clueless foreigners like me to pet them without losing a limb (or worse). Not true; the tigers are born in the sanctuary, hand reared and are thus, unlike their brethren in the wild, accustomed to human interaction. That said, you still have to sign your life away before you hand over any cash & climb into an enclosure with them… and just before you do you’re presented with the following heads-up:
‘Do The Tigers Bite?
The tigers at Tiger Kingdom are hand reared & very well trained. But they are still wild animals and so need to be respected. The tigers are often playful and may want to play with you. They do play rough though and so could bite when they are playing.’
This picture, taken at full zoom on my 28-75mm Tamron lens, was the very first of about 160 I took of tigers in total (in about 30-40 minutes of shooting) & it turned out to be my favourite of the lot.
Picture 12, Day 10 – Tuk-Tuk Reflections, Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. March 15th 2012.
I took this picture when playing around with sunglasses reflections on the streets of Chiang Mai. My girlfriend, Mel, and I were waiting to cross the road when I noticed the reflection in Mel’s sunglasses. I asked her not to move, waited for the right subject - a tuk-tuk - to approach (we didn’t have to wait too long) and 1/125 of a second later I had this image.
Picture 13, Day 10 – Streets of Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. March 15th 2012.
I took this wide-angle shot out the back of a sawngthaew, a Thai open-backed pick-up that doubles as a taxi, on the way to the Chiang Mai bus station to get the bus to Bangkok, the 1st of the 2 buses needed to take to get here to the beach. I played around with settings here, deliberately employing a slow shutter (1/10sec) in a bid to show motion. Pixel peepers won’t approve but I like the results, made all the more appealing thanks to the late afternoon shadows.
Picture 14, Day 12 – Long-Tail Boats, Hat Rai Leh West Beach, Krabi, Thailand, Thailand. March 17th 2012.
Another sunglasses shot, this time of long-tail boat activity on the shore of Hat Rai Leh West Beach, Krabi, Thailand. This is one of my first pictures having just arrived off of a long-tail boat from the Thai mainland. I’ve taken this through-sunglasses picture before (a March 2012 version of this picture is currently one of my images for sale on Getty Images) but this is probably my favourite to date. As for long-tails. There is no vehicular traffic access to Railay beach so these boats offer the only access to and from the beach from the Thai mainland (& it can be quite a challenge getting in and out of them with a large backpack on your back).
Picture 15, Day 13 – Kids Frolicking in the water off Hat Ton Sai Beach, Krabi, Thailand. March 18th 2012.
I’ve always found kids playing in water photogenic so I like this image of kids playing in the water around a long-tail boat just off shore. I particularly like the reflections of the boat hull in the water which dominate the lower half of the image.
What’s Next?
In the coming days I’ll be saying goodbye to Thailand & continuing south into Malaysia. Beach time in Malaysia wasn’t ever really on the cards but 2 successive cloudy &/or rainy evenings here in Krabi thus far (the days have been glorious weather wise) means opportunities to capture a nice sunset picture, one of the reason I wanted to come to this particular beach (my guidebook advertises them as being ‘orgasmic’), have been few & far between. But there’s always tonight, my last night here in Krabi.
I hope you’re enjoying the entries so far and again all & any feedback received would be much appreciated. And don't forget you can follow my latest travel progress on the dedicated travel page of my photography blog.
Until next week. Regards from the beach!
David M
Already it is day 14 of the trip and all is going well. There has been a change in scenery from the last time I check in with you all 7 days ago; I left the jungle of the northern of Thailand and are now on one of the beaches in the south (Railay beach in Krabi on the southern Andaman Coast to be precise). Needless to say it’s quite the contrast. I spent a lot of the last 7 days backtracking my course of the first 7 days which included, & as only a mad Irishman would do, spending the guts of 21 consecutive hours on two different Thai buses, all as part of a (successful) bid to get here to the beach in time for Saint Paddy’s Day. It has been a quite week for pictures, or it has at least been quieter than week 1 was. That said I still have 7 images to share with you all. Oh, and I’ve also opened a Photobucket account to store these images so with a bit of luck the displaying-the-images teething problems I had with my 1st entry of last week will be a thing of the past (& thanks to Hamish & is patience for helping me sort those out).
Picture 9, Day 7 – Jungle Stream, Chiang Rai Province, Northern Thailand. March 12th 2012.
The dense jungle & waterfall found further upstream of this point was the perfect fodder for my wide-angle lens; I didn't feel the need to switch up once during the few hours I spent sweating in this jungle as I was clambering over fallen tree trunks. The above picture was taken at full wide-angle with the camera resting on a rock. A slow shutter was used (0.6/sec) to get the silky look in the passing water with the camera compensating by closing down the aperture to f/22.0.
Picture 10, Day 8 – Traders in Chiang Mai Night Market, Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. March 13th 2012.
One of my very favourite travel pictures over the years is a picture similar to this that I captured of rooftop activity in Varanasi, India. So I guess I’ve always liked this overhead-perspective-of-a-scene type of image. This image was captured leaving a bar, the entrance of which overlooked a small section of the buzzing Night Market in Chiang Mai.
Picture 11, Day 9 – Tiger Kingdom, Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. March 14th 2012.
Day 9 of the trip saw me in a cage petting real life tigers. It was quite the experience. We paid a visit to Tiger Kingdom on the outskirts of Chiang Mai and stumped-up the guts of €10 to spend about 10-15 minutes in an enclosure with 5 adult tigers (1 male, 4 females) & twice as many handlers armed with verbal commands & little bamboo sticks (help, just in case). Rumours were abound that the tigers are sedated to allow snap happy, clueless foreigners like me to pet them without losing a limb (or worse). Not true; the tigers are born in the sanctuary, hand reared and are thus, unlike their brethren in the wild, accustomed to human interaction. That said, you still have to sign your life away before you hand over any cash & climb into an enclosure with them… and just before you do you’re presented with the following heads-up:
‘Do The Tigers Bite?
The tigers at Tiger Kingdom are hand reared & very well trained. But they are still wild animals and so need to be respected. The tigers are often playful and may want to play with you. They do play rough though and so could bite when they are playing.’
This picture, taken at full zoom on my 28-75mm Tamron lens, was the very first of about 160 I took of tigers in total (in about 30-40 minutes of shooting) & it turned out to be my favourite of the lot.
Picture 12, Day 10 – Tuk-Tuk Reflections, Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. March 15th 2012.
I took this picture when playing around with sunglasses reflections on the streets of Chiang Mai. My girlfriend, Mel, and I were waiting to cross the road when I noticed the reflection in Mel’s sunglasses. I asked her not to move, waited for the right subject - a tuk-tuk - to approach (we didn’t have to wait too long) and 1/125 of a second later I had this image.
Picture 13, Day 10 – Streets of Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. March 15th 2012.
I took this wide-angle shot out the back of a sawngthaew, a Thai open-backed pick-up that doubles as a taxi, on the way to the Chiang Mai bus station to get the bus to Bangkok, the 1st of the 2 buses needed to take to get here to the beach. I played around with settings here, deliberately employing a slow shutter (1/10sec) in a bid to show motion. Pixel peepers won’t approve but I like the results, made all the more appealing thanks to the late afternoon shadows.
Picture 14, Day 12 – Long-Tail Boats, Hat Rai Leh West Beach, Krabi, Thailand, Thailand. March 17th 2012.
Another sunglasses shot, this time of long-tail boat activity on the shore of Hat Rai Leh West Beach, Krabi, Thailand. This is one of my first pictures having just arrived off of a long-tail boat from the Thai mainland. I’ve taken this through-sunglasses picture before (a March 2012 version of this picture is currently one of my images for sale on Getty Images) but this is probably my favourite to date. As for long-tails. There is no vehicular traffic access to Railay beach so these boats offer the only access to and from the beach from the Thai mainland (& it can be quite a challenge getting in and out of them with a large backpack on your back).
Picture 15, Day 13 – Kids Frolicking in the water off Hat Ton Sai Beach, Krabi, Thailand. March 18th 2012.
I’ve always found kids playing in water photogenic so I like this image of kids playing in the water around a long-tail boat just off shore. I particularly like the reflections of the boat hull in the water which dominate the lower half of the image.
What’s Next?
In the coming days I’ll be saying goodbye to Thailand & continuing south into Malaysia. Beach time in Malaysia wasn’t ever really on the cards but 2 successive cloudy &/or rainy evenings here in Krabi thus far (the days have been glorious weather wise) means opportunities to capture a nice sunset picture, one of the reason I wanted to come to this particular beach (my guidebook advertises them as being ‘orgasmic’), have been few & far between. But there’s always tonight, my last night here in Krabi.
I hope you’re enjoying the entries so far and again all & any feedback received would be much appreciated. And don't forget you can follow my latest travel progress on the dedicated travel page of my photography blog.
Until next week. Regards from the beach!
David M
