The weather has returned to a state of misty boredom; really not ideal conditions for taking photographs, especially photographs of subjects that are a long way away and half-shrouded in mist (I exaggerate slightly).

But I poked my lens into the gloom this afternoon and ended up with 1,299 shots; each of which will require my attention. Meantime, these caught my eye:

Battle for the ball:

Life with she who must be obeyed is sometimes like watching a David Lynch film; it’s an enjoyable experience, but you don’t have a fucking clue what is going on.

And so it was over the last week or so, with many calls to her mother and other family members to discuss a matter of great importance which had yet to be revealed to me. Eventually it was announced that the family was to make merit by donating a large Buddha statue to a temple in their home town. It had also been decided that Phitsanulok was the world centre for the purchase of Buddha statues and that she who must be obeyed would drive my truck to collect the statue and then deliver it to the other end of the country.

Had done little with the 734 polo photos I took last weekend. Decided I better get stuck in and process them today, before I shoot a couple of thousand more this coming weekend.

This has meant a day in front of Lightroom, which means that I missed some wind and my eyes are now bleeding. But all the images are now processed or, more likely, deleted.

I never know what I am going to discover as I work through them, but I usually find a few that would be suitable for printing and hanging on a (toilet) wall. Like this one:

The French are so annoying; not least because they are annoyingly stylish, even in areas where function should reign supreme. Camera lenses for example.

The rest of the world makes mundane-looking lenses in black or grey with a plastic body. After all, it doesn’t matter how they look; all that matters is the photos they produce.

Pah! say the French; and lots of other words said with much shrugging of shoulders and waving of hands. If you are going to make a lens in France, it better look good. Like this:

I know many some none of you have been waiting eagerly for the promised photograph of a “green Chinese thingie made of wood”.

Me too. Unfortunately, the Spike photography studios were closed this weekend due to the visit of a passing Granny, and it was not until this morning that I was able to play with my lights again. But I didn’t want to play with too much light. The official role of the beastie (which I believe to be called a singh, as in beer, as in the Sanskrit word for ’lion’) is to guard Nik’s front door. But I envisaged a less benign calling for the faded object and wanted to shoot it dark, with a sinister glow. I thought I had succeeded, but she who must be obeyed declared that it looked like it was in a disco. Another failed aspiration then; and it’s only Monday.

No, not a post about my genitals.

A call from Nik this morning. Did I have a macro lens for my GF1 he could use? Our lens collection is expanding such that we do not know what each other has acquired. Indeed, I have to look into my lens cabinet on a daily basis to remind myself of current stock.

And I do own a macro lens; but it isn’t quite here yet. In fact it hasn’t started the journey to Pattaya; a journey that starts somewhere in the Ukraine so it may take a while. My future macro lens solution is an exotic mix of an ancient Russian lens made in a tractor factory, some plastic tubes, and an adapter, the total cost of which is less than $70. I fear the resulting image quality will be more amusing than impressive; but you can never get enough of amusing.

So, no macro, but I could offer him my LX3 which takes stupidly excellent macros, even though it did not originate from a tractor factory. After a couple of hours he returned it, suitably impressed, and it seemed a shame not to point it at something. A rummage in a drawer revealed a bag of tiny Buddhist statues, the purpose of which was not clear, but they could be photographed.

….go out in the midday sun. But Englishmen don’t have to worry when they are equipped with the latest in fan cooling technology.

She who must be obeyed was sorting through some vegetables this evening and discovered a piece with a worm sticking out. Was her reaction:

1. A cry of disgust?
2. A call to me to come and deal with it?
3. A call to me to ask me if I wanted to photograph it?

Number 3 of course, and I didn’t; or at least I couldn’t because I have lent my little LX3 macro machine to Q’on. But she knows what is important. The first consideration of any object must always be “can you photograph it?”, followed closely by the Thai sentiment “can you eat it?”

I have similar “can we photograph this?” conversations with my neighbour, Nik. Today he has been developing an advanced lighting systems made out of LED lights, bubble wrap, kitchen roll and cardboard boxes. I think it is fair to say that it has not been a complete success. His test subject of choice was a chunk of amethyst crystal, not the easiest of subject matter; given that the light source is going to bounce off some of the crystals and straight through your lens. Having failed to snap it successfully with LED lights wrapped in bubble wrap; he let me have a go. I don’t think I did a better job; perhaps I should have used more bubble wrap.

I make no apologies for constantly banging on about my Panasonic GF1. It’s a wonderful photographic tool which takes fantastic photos. I should therefore be excited about the prospect of a successor, but noises from the rumour mill have not been promising.

The problem is the Sony NEX, a tiny, interchangeable-lens camera which also takes fantastic photos; albeit with crappy controls and rather feeble selection of lenses. It’s selling like cakes which have been heated beyond the warm stage, and Panasonic feels the need to respond.

And so today they announced the diminutive GF2.

Monday afternoon, and the little blue light that tells me that I am connected to the wide wide world of web starts to blink and die. More than a little annoying, because I was in the middle of uploading a large number of large files to a photo stock site; being snaps of she who must be obeyed’s sister in a variety of poses, all designed to catch the attention of the world’s media and earn me vast sums of cash.