Yesterdays Adventures

Was so tired after yesterdays shooting that I could not get down to the cafe to type my blogs, so the ones that follow are a day old.

I had hoped to get the Klong Toey gym  the night of the previous blog entry but when I got back to the room I just felt really tired, maybe it was the jet lag catching up to me, I went to bed at about 330pm and woke up at 3am the next day! After all that sleep I had no headache from oversleeping I just felt much better. I decided since I kind of started out slow I needed to work harder that first real day of shooting. I loaded up my 2 Leica M6 bodies with 3 lens (21mm, 28mm and 50mm) and 20 rolls of film. I was out of the room by 545am even thou it was still dark, the light started coming up as I was in a taxi and it was light enough to shoot at slow shutter speeds at about 610am.

My first destination of the day was an area of Bangkok that had flooding. It took me about a 30 minute ride and plenty of walking to find flooded areas to photograph. I walked around in the flood water (changed my long pants to short pants and wore plastic flip flops), for about 4 hours. There was not much of interest to photograph where I was, did the cars through the water thing, but no real portraiture as their were not many people in the water, more like floodscape photos shot from under and on top of a highway overpass plus some stuff floating in water shots, front gates of homes flooded, nothing really to exciting. I shot mostly abstract photos that did not have any real human interest/connection.

After I photographed this flooded area I decided to spend the rest of the day in Klong Toey where I could also visit the people at the Muay Thai gym. The boxers and othes at the gym were glad to seem me, there was lots of waiing all around along with smiles and small talk. I did a few more photos of the boxers in available light but only with the faster 50mm and the 28mm lens because of the very low light.

I ended up getting back to the room at 615pm so I was out walking and photographing for about 12 hours and 30 minutes, I was exhausted washed the flood off me, and then just collapsed into bed, I wanted to sleep a short time before going to the Internet cafe but could not get up after I had fallen asleep. I went to bed at 7pm and did not wake up till 4am.

Today I have my 4x5 gear ready but because my bag problem with China Airlines (still do not have it) and a late opening Internet cafe (10am waiting for an email form China airlines) I cannot get a full photo day in.  I think I will get up very early again (my friend Larry influenced me here) tomorrow and make a full day of it with the 4x5 in Klong Toey. After I write these blog entries I am going to go down to an area where there is lots of bus travel, I want to photograph (with the Leicas) Thais looking out of bus windows, and also possibly photograph people in the buses, they are sort of hot oppressive places (non air con buses) and a good place to do some portraiture. I might also make a short trip down to the Nana bar area to do some day shots. The trick is getting home early enough so I can get to bed early enough and have a good full day with the 4x5 in Klong Toey tomorrow.

Today is partly a lost day but tomorrow I plan on kicking ass again, putting in a full long day, I will try to shoot 48 sheets of portraits in Klong Toey.