A Ferris wheel at night can be a fun thing to photograph.

Bump up the ISO a little and you can get a shot at 1/160th second, enough to just about freeze the movement, but not very interesting:

A sort of a working lunch to discuss a coffee-table book which is to include some of my photographs. Most of the shots have already been taken, so I was able to relax and enjoy the food and the decor. Took a few snaps on the way out; want to go back and take some more some time.

At last we seem to be having some days when it doesn’t piss down; so we jump in the car and head out for a drive, perchance to take a snap or two.

She who must be obeyed has seen some photos taken on Nang Rum beach which appears to have white sand and might be good for a sunset shot. After some diversions, we finally arrive to find that the sand is white-ish, but any sunset would be obscured by jetties and the rusting hulks of the Thai Navy. Never mind, there is no decent sunset to speak of anyway.

But there are some statues on the rocks, so I take a couple of shots of them before we head home.

*Baldrick: Oh, no, I hate hostipals. My grandfather went into one, and when he come out, he was dead.

Blackadder: He was also dead when he went in, Baldrick. He’d been run over by a traction engine.*

I share Baldrick’s concern, if not his approach to spelling and grammar. I hate the idea of having to go to a hospital. In my advancing years, I am aware that many of my age group suffer from ill-health, many to the point that they are no longer with us; and I try and remember how lucky I am to be currently free of serious ailments. Buddha apparently said: “Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.” Amen to that.

Mahadee was driving with his wife and two year old son when they were fired upon by automatic weapons, Mahadee was seriously injured and his young son was killed. In two other incidents in the same area, three other people were killed. Last Friday, a couple on the way to market were slaughtered.

More statistics to add to the death toll from the unrest in the south of Thailand, where more than 4,000 people have been killed in the last six years. 4,000 lives lost to violence; in any other country this would be considered a national issue worthy of serious attention. Not in Thailand. The killings rarely make it to the front page of the newspapers, if you are lucky you might find a couple of paragraphs on page three.

When I retired I owned a reasonably humble camera and accepted that my pension would not support profligate spending on new gear. Then I was lucky enough to start earning some cash with my camera and was able to establish my “camera fund”, whereby earnings would be deposited and retained for future camera upgrades. After all, there was no point in standing in a hot field all day taking photos, followed by days of eye straining processing; just to earn some cash for groceries. There had to be the promise of more gear to make it worthwhile.

And it worked pretty well, such that I could upgrade to a Canon 1D and acquire my monster 300mm lens without having to dip into what I call “my savings” but what other would regard as “loose change”. Once the camera gear was up to date, the name of the fund was changed to “Spike’s toys fund” by a unanimous vote by the fund management committee (me). A Mac Pro followed and I think the iPad was the last acquisition by the fund (bookkeeping is virtual, somewhat foggy and not subject to audit; so I can tell she who must be obeyed that I am buying something using fund resources, when in fact there is bugger all left in the kitty).

Photography jobs have been somewhat sparse of late, so the gear wish list has been growing, awaiting cash to pay for my desires. The sale of some of my Canon lenses recently has topped up the balance nicely. What to do with the cash? Decorate the condo? Buy some urgently needed new underpants? Take she who must be obeyed on a nice holiday? No way; more gear please.

So far there has been the wide angle Olympus lens and the Contax 45mm; but that was just the start. Next on the shopping list was a better flash for the GF1.

Like many cameras, the GF1 has a pop-up flash; but it is rather feeble and will not cast light very far. I needed something more substantial for those times when I needed something more substantial. My Canon had a monster clip-on flash, sufficient for lighting a large area in the dark:

After a brief but satisfactory test of the 9-18 Olympus lens yesterday, I put it in my dry cabinet alongside the equivalent lens I use with the Canon 1D, a Sigma 12-24. It struck me, yet again, what a waste of weight and money a DSLR system can be. Here are the two lenses together:

There are very few people in the world who make a good living from photography. The upper echelons of the industry are fiercely competitive and you have to be very good and geographically well placed to take advantage of opportunities. I am not very good and I live in a small town in Thailand.

I have earned a little from the occasional job, but have also investigated other ways of making money from my photos. One of the options is stock photography. The principle is simple enough. You load your photos onto a stock photography website. Other people come along and buy them. The site keeps part of the sale price and you get the rest. Riches ensue. Except they don’t.