Having recommended the Nik plug-in suite to my valiant readers, I felt obliged to buy it myself; or at least that is how I explained the expenditure to she who must be obeyed.

What I really wanted to get my hands on was Silver Efex Pro, the black & white converter; but I started by offering a photo of a Bangkok noodle seller to Color (sic) Efex Pro.

Here’s the original photo:

You will no doubt be delighted to know that this last weekend saw the final tournament of the polo season; less delighted to know that I have a load of photos to process so there is still a risk I could drop some on here for your delight; or otherwise.

Due to circumstances entirely beyond my control, Saturday’s games started late and finished in almost total darkness. Complete idiot that I am, I kept on shooting. Normally I use 1/640th second for head-on shots, 1/400th or 1/320th for sideways panning shots; and I will sometimes go down to 1/200th for some extra-blurry loveliness, although the failure rate is fairly high. A 300mm lens does not really enjoy being used at such low speeds on a moving target.

But as the time headed towards 1830 and dusk arrived, I had little choice but to drop the shutter speed even further. At 18:28 I was forced to use 1/60th second and a high ISO. Most shots were a mess; but the occasional one worked quite well.

I am of course referring to the slice of orange I dropped on the floor this afternoon.

And in other news, Baroness Thatcher has died. It’s hard for me to express how upset I am about this news, although “not very” might serve as a summary. Still, no doubt the debate will rage between the “best prime minister ever” brigade and those who would prefer to have seen her shot several decades ago, and that will be worth observing from a distance.

As you will no doubt not have known, the 2nd of April marked the Thailand International Marching Band Festival. Apart from a few posters around town, there was no publicity; and the poster provided the date but not the location or the time. Some rooting around with Google provided a timetable, and sticking my wife on the phone to City Hall provided the location, Beach Road.

Most (maybe all) of the bands came from schools, and most of the schools were from Thailand, although Malaysia and Indonesia were represented. I played trumpet in a school band and we were bloody terrible, partially but not entirely because I couldn’t actually play the trumpet. But this lot were excellent. Every band played well and marched well; I was much more impressed than I expected to be.

Difficult to photograph with spectators lining the streets; the bands are approaching from a distance and then suddenly right next to you. So I took the GX1 and E-M5 and used the 7-14mm, 25mm and 75mm (most of my favourites came from the 75mm), swapping between cameras as the band came nearer.

Out on Beach Road this afternoon to take some photos of a marching band festival, and good fun it was too. Have a few shots to play with and will share later; but one in particular stood out.

Well, that’s April 1st out of the way. Somewhat disappointed that my post was not met with howls of outrage and derision, how could I sell up all my gear for for a German toy etc. etc. But you lot are far too smart to fall for such nonsense. Unlike the idiots on Thai Visa.

The forums on Thai visa seem to be mainly populated by grumpy, Thai-hating, sad arseholes who wait by their keyboards in order to pour scorn and vitriol over every post that pops up. Although there is some useful information available, and some helpful people, it is mainly a depressing place to visit.