Place: Wat Phra Keow, Bangkok

Details from Wat Phra Keow

f/8, 1/200s, D80

I love this photo from Wat Phra Keow, Bangkok, otherwise known as the Grand Palace to the tens of thousands of visitors who gawk and marvel at it each year.

The Grand Palace has been visited so many times, seen by so many people, and photographed times over, sometimes even I get bored looking back at my previous photos from there. I'm sure most of you have seen photographs from Wat Phra Keow, if you haven't been there yourself. Personally, I've been there at least half a dozen times, if not more (I basically stopped counting).

The challenge with visiting a place so many times is that you sometimes get the same angles, and end up taking photographs looking no different from your previous visits. This visit, I made a point to look for unusual angles, and to find different points of view through the lens.

Also, since I visited Wat Phra Keow with my girlfriend, the danger is that we could both end up with similar looking photos, a common occurance when you have a group of people photographing together. I was quite determined not to have that happen to me.

This, as well as the photo on Wat Arun, represents my seeking different angles to common places. After all, when you put a lens between your eyes and the subject, there is no limit to how differently you can perceive the subject.

Additional Note: I didn't really mention why I love this photo so much. Visiting the Grand Palace leaves most people awestruck by the scale and majesty of the place. However, it's the small parts that make it all up. The whole facade is constructed tile by tile, one piece at a time, and this photo captures so much of those tiles which collectively is the beautiful facade.

Place: Wat Arun, Bangkok

Wat Arun

Bangkok holds a special place in my heart. It has plenty of subjects for photography, and is one of my early learning ground for photography.

I recently had the good fortune of visiting Bangkok again, this time, sharing my love for the city of Angels with a loved one.

This picture of Wat Arun from close up sums up Bangkok as I know it: looks great from afar, but is much more complicated once you get near it; and it's the small pieces that make up the great city of Bangkok - just like how the small colorful tiles all add up into becoming the glistening facade of Wat Arun glittering in the sun !

And no, no plans to close this blog. It'll be going slowly while I adjust to the additional workload, but it'll be around. =)

Place: Bangkok

Wat Phra Keow by Night

Olympus mju 410, Night Mode

This photo started it all. It was this photo which got me hooked up to digital photography for good.

Wandering around Bangkok on the day after Songkran in April 2005, I was quite disappointed when all the partying that was supposed to have happened had already died down, so I was walking about near the Rattanakosin area in Bangkok taking random pictures.

I've always been told by friends I have an eye for photos, but this one triggered a desire for me to learn more, to understand techniques and to cultivate photography as a hobby, not a mere way to capture my travels.

I really didn't have any tripod - I was putting my old Olympus mju on top of a traffic signal control box at the intersection across the street from Wat Phra Keow, and used the wireless shutter trigger, while using Night Mode to get this photo.

I really had some idea how this shot became what you see, but I couldn't reproduce it, and it got me interested in learning the techniques.

The light is from a couple of passing buses and the Bangkok traffic. The steady background really is a result of putting the camera on the traffic control box, which is just like mounting it on a tripod.

I hope you all like this photo as much as I did. I was hooked to digital photography since.