When the morning light hit my face in the motel room, I just have to get up because window of opportunity is slim. There is a dilemma, still or video camera. I take Nikon D70, take some shot and then run back to the room to get Sony HVRZ1P. At that time Stilgherrian is getting and figuring out what I am excited about. Sunrise is a bless and it is a good day for it.

We do not have much time to explore the town, just some shots from the car on the way hunting for breakfast then we go straight to the location. The sight of vast wheat field on the roadside is rewarding. The countryside looks different when it rains. Hopefully, the long drought is over.

After the documentary shooting, we get a chance for a brief visit to Japanese Garden then the lookout and stop at Blayney Wind Farm. Unfortunately, all of that no photographs from me since I am too exhausted for and stressed about the post-production to get the work for the class presentation plus another assignment deadline which is due on the same day.

By the time, I write this blog, those class works are done.  This project lets me see how intensely I work as a producer. There are things that come back to me and things that I have to learn more. I feel coming down while having to deal other issues right away.

On the way to dinner in Khao Sarn Road area, I decided to get a tuk tuk from Pratunam. It was not the best decision to commute around Bangkok at the time when everyone was stuck on the road but it was quite perfect for the shooting, I found. To get a tuk tuk in that scenario was a tricky task. Some drivers simply said no to the destination or called incredibly high fair price

When I hopped on the first tuk tuk in at least six year, my camera was ready to shoot. Few test shots were taken as we slowly crawled in the traffic. I found the best shutter speed setting was 6 second at f14. The variation of 192 images were shot throughout the ride until the last shot when I was getting off the vehicle.

The idea was to stay with the sequence of the shots so there was no hard work of editing these image. Digging the right sound was more important at this phase. Initially, a world techno track from Rama IV was laid as the background and quickly arrange the images as Sticky Tuk Tuk. I left that work for a while until I decided to create the original track for it to avoid copyright issue and enter the local art exhibition. In Mac-ready audio editing software, GarageBand, I found some good royalty free samples to loop and put them together.

Sticky from ApostrophePong on Vimeo.

This work is awarded as Commended in Marrickville Contemparary Art Prize (MCAP’08) for CALD category (artists from Indigenous of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse background). And I will be at the Artist Talks on Sunday 21 September (last day) at At The Vanishing Point Contemporary Art, 3-5 pm and the following Sunday at Chrissy Cotter Gallery, 2-3.30 pm.

After Stilgherrian and I celebrated the King’s 80th Birthday, the journey in Thailand came to the end and we were set to leave the Kingdom on the next day. For the first time I could explore Thailand’s new gateway, Suvarnaphumi Airport, in daylight. We made the most of the afternoon with imported drinks while I took snap shots in the terminal.

Bangkok departure was more overwhelmed than I expected when I was sending text message to friends and family. Sunset as we are approaching the plan. It turned out that we were the last ones on board. No matter how long we set to get away, it would never be enough. Good-bye my homeland.

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This is the last music slideshow about commuting in Bangkok and the second last of Thailand trip series. I already have done on the Express Way, a tuk tuk, walking around the neighbour and a boat service along Chao Phraya River.

One day, for the first time in the trip, while Stilgherrian and I were walking on Sukhumvit Road, I realised that the camera bag were left in the hotel and did not bother to fetch it. That meant there would be no decent tool for the day. On the other hand, I still had the camera phone with me and made the most of the limitation.

Watch Your Step from ApostrophePong on Vimeo.

I believe every big city in the world has uneven and cracked footpath. Urban environment is a like any other living thing that changes all the time. A street that has perfect footpaths could be read that it is brand new or no one lives there. I am interested in the traces of human behaviours left on the surfaces of the pathways they walk on everyday.

This Watch Your Step music slideshow features music Step by Stylish Nonsense.

Number for Sale – a mobile reseller in MBK Centre

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Bangkok’s SkyTrain or BTS has provided remarkable perspectives of the city to the commuters. My original plan was to explore the urban landscape from its stations in music slideshow presentation like when I travelled on the Express Way, a tuk tuk, foot and a boat. However, since many pictures I took from BTS stations were included in some posts on urban landscape, I decided to make it simple.

These two shots were taken 22 seconds apart at Sala Daeng Station on Silom Road, the very heart of business district. It was easy to find contrasts in a big city, no exception Bangkok.

Tuk Tuk

Housewife

 

Cleaner

Making Kanom Thuay in a local market

African tourists in a tuk-tuk on Silom Road

A market in Pak Kred, Nonthaburi, north of Bangkok

Security monitor in a subway station

Operating a ferris wheel at a night fair

Something weird happened while transferring files from the memory card. The backup hard drive did not display the errors but the files were definitely corrupted and could not be retrieved. Anyhow, I liked how it rendered the misinformed pixels. This only keeper of the three fault images was taken at a night fair for Loy Krathong Festival in Bangkok.

Rama I Road, Bangkok

Seriously, this is only abandoned chair I found in Bangkok in my Thailand trip last year. No wonder why I was amazed by dumped furniture on the streets of Sydney when I moved to Australia.

To me, the most enjoyable transport in Bangkok must be Chao Phraya Express Boat Service. Chao Phraya River is the bloodline of Bangkok. All sort of activities happens along the waterway, creating a vibrant livelihood unlike the enclosed views you get from the road. You can capture people and their relationship with water as well as amazing abstract urban landscape while feeling the fresh air.

Go with the Flow from ApostrophePong on Vimeo.

Go with the Flow music slideshow starts from the trip from Central (Sathorn) Pier, which is conjunct with the end of skytrain line at Taksin Station, to Wang Lang (SiriRaj) Pier.