Continuing the extremely occasional 2012 movie reviews, this post considers some of the big budget offerings, plus a couple of movies based on books that pundits reckoned could not be filmed.

Big budget “blockbusters” are meant to be seen at the cinema; and we have caught three of them in the last year.

The Dark Knight Rises< - Obviously a shameless Christopher Nolan fanboy like myself would have to see this, but to be honest the first time I saw it I was a little disappointed. Perhaps nothing can top The Dark Knight, but this last film in the trilogy seemed a little flat. Then I went to see it again on an IMAX screen and was sufficiently blown away for my Nolan man-love to remain intact. There is nothing to match the appeal of Heath Ledger as the Joker; but Anne Hathaway has her own set of completely different attractions as Catwoman. The ending sets up nicely for a sequel; but it will be a brave man that follows Nolan.

We were joined this morning on our macro outing by a gentleman sporting a massive Nikon DSLR. We forgave him this because he shoots for Getty, is a fellow of the royal society of extremely good photographers (or similarly named), does take the most extraordinary photos, and he offered to provide a post-shoot breakfast. After breakfast he treated us to a photo slideshow which had us reaching for the “format card” buttons on our cameras; not a lot of pointing taking photos when you see what he can do.

Confusingly, he is also called Nick, but with a ‘c’; so the attendees were Nik, Nick, Ian and Spike; and our gear was two Nikons (pah!) and two Olympus OM-Ds (yay!). I thought it best to lay down some ground rules for the event:

1. For those still employing antiquated flappy mirrors in their cameras, a carry-on baggage limit of 15 kilos will apply.
2. Any attempt to smuggle Scottish music on board will result in the continuous playing of Slap My Bitch Up by Prodigy at high volume for the entire duration of the journey.
3. Ditto any attempt to recite poetry in a Scottish accent.
4. Complimentary cocktails and canapes will be served on both legs of the journey to those traveling OM-D class.

Unfortunately I forgot to ban Tai Chi demonstrations, so we had a bit of that from Ian; but mainly we were too busy taking photos to be distracted. The recent rain seemed to have brought out the bugs and there was plenty to point a lens at. A good outing in fine company.

People who know me, know that I like to dabble with cameras. From this they assume (the fools) that I actually know something useful and can help them with their photographic problems. Well, I do try and help and sometimes I can; but I refuse to become involved too far with a conversation that starts along the lines of:

*My shots are all blurry. Have you tried increasing the shutter speed? How do I do that? (staring dumbly at camera)? RTFM. What’s that mean? Read the manual. (Pause) What does the F stand for? (Pause) Oh. *

What to do on a Sunday in Pattaya?

Well, today you could have attended the second day of the air and boat radio controlled shows, or there was a ladies international petanque competition, if ladies throwing balls is your thing; or you could attend the first day of the ladies open tennis, if ladies hitting balls is your thing. Me, I went to watch the bed race.

Due to conflicting polo photography commitments, I have missed the bed race for the last two years, so it was good to have a chance to go today; although fate decided it would rain for most of the event which was rather unpleasant.

The afternoon started with some general posing around, followed by a parade around town.

I have previously noted my interest in radio controlled model aircraft, so it was no surprise that today saw me heading for the Pattaya R/C Airshow.

There were many stalls selling an assortment of aircraft and I was sorely tempted to indulge, but then I remembered I have had to borrow money from my wife to see me through this month after my latest camera purchase. I was also reminded that although I was reasonably competent at making an aircraft go up in the air…

Left home at 0730 with Nik for yet another macro shoot. For the first half hour or so we found nothing. This may have been because we were both half asleep and in need of coffee, or because the bugs were also half asleep and in need of some sunshine, or both. Either way we agreed that future outings would start a little later.

My initial efforts were hampered by my first use of the OM-D for macro; I kept finding settings I should have changed in preparation for the shoot, but hadn’t. That, plus general unfamiliarity with the camera meant I was less smooth than usual; and I am usually not very smooth.

As well as playing with a new camera, there was also the issue of a pair of macro lights, which seemed like a good idea to throw into the purchasing mix, but in practice seemed to do little more than add light reflections and drain my battery at an alarming rate.

I often receive strange requests via the contacts page, and this week I got this:

*I’m an HSBC account holder and been using my ATM card to obtain cash here in pattaya Thailand, the card stopped working today, how can I continue to have access to my money? *

My correspondent had obviously thrown “HSBC” and “Pattaya” into Google and come up with one of my posts, and from that decided I was exactly the person he should contact with his problem; rather than, say, HSBC. Naturally I was my usual magnanimous self and provided him with extensive, helpful, instructions which could be summarised as “phone your bank”.