Today I went to the Muay Thai gym for the second time and shot 3 rolls of 35mm and 30 4x5 sheets. I was a bit awkward using the 90mm lens with Grafmatic backs but today's shooting was fun and it will help when I am in the more foreign environment of the Mae Sot garbage dump.
The Grafmatic backs were fun to use thou I think I did one loading mistake today. The backs are so much lighter and easier to carry, plus I can shoot faster which allows me to be a bit more fluid. It was nice to be around all the boxers again (thou many were new to me) and see all the familiar faces of the trainers and the people who run the gym. I gave them a bit of money as a thank you for letting me shoot in the gym and also helped doing some translating with some new farang (Western) boxers who were training there. The gym only charges 400 baht ($13.59 USD) per session the farang boxer gets lots of personal training from former champion boxers so its a great deal for them, it also helps the trainer who loves his sport but has a difficult time making a living. This place has almost become like a second home for me, I feel very comfortable there now, I will try to visit before I leave Thailand and maybe on subsequent trips.
Off to Mae Sot in less than 2 hours, it will be a 7 hour bus ride, I should arrive at 5am in the morning. The next blog should be about the dump site and the lives of the Burmese people living there.
The Grafmatic backs were fun to use thou I think I did one loading mistake today. The backs are so much lighter and easier to carry, plus I can shoot faster which allows me to be a bit more fluid. It was nice to be around all the boxers again (thou many were new to me) and see all the familiar faces of the trainers and the people who run the gym. I gave them a bit of money as a thank you for letting me shoot in the gym and also helped doing some translating with some new farang (Western) boxers who were training there. The gym only charges 400 baht ($13.59 USD) per session the farang boxer gets lots of personal training from former champion boxers so its a great deal for them, it also helps the trainer who loves his sport but has a difficult time making a living. This place has almost become like a second home for me, I feel very comfortable there now, I will try to visit before I leave Thailand and maybe on subsequent trips.
Off to Mae Sot in less than 2 hours, it will be a 7 hour bus ride, I should arrive at 5am in the morning. The next blog should be about the dump site and the lives of the Burmese people living there.
