Little Dancers

On Friday after dance class, some of Aleena's dance classmates came over for some photos in their performance uniform. One of the moms had missed the school scheduled photographer, so I offered to take some photos. I extended the offer to a few others, and we ended up with nine or so little girls.

It was a bit hectic with all the girls in the room. A few of the girls weren't dancers or didn't have costumes, so we had them wear some of Aleena's and Nalin's dresses.

Here are a few photos of Aleena and her friend Emilia. I'll post some more photos later.

Lots of Photography

I've been taking a lot of photos in the last two or so weeks.  I've taken photos at three kids track and field events, the gymnastics competition, and a kids triathalon.  Additionally,  I made use of my new "studio" in my living room to take photos of Aleena and her friend McKayla, six girls from Aleena's dance class in their costumes, and Sine and her friend Nam.

I'm guessing that I've taken about 6,000 shots in that time.  Digging my way through them takes time.   A lot of them can be discarded easily, but even the ones that I like require a little editing in Aperture or Photoshop.  I could share them as is, but I'd rather spend a little time and make a good shot even better.

Nasty Woman

We went to Central (the mall) today with the kids.  TIm and I were going to see the movie Thor, while the girls and their friends were going shopping with Yaow and Meow.  Jacob was still at his Boy Scout campout.

We were walking from the parking lot to the store when a car just barely stops in time from running over one of the girls and lays on its horn.  This is a place where people are supposed to cross, and it is twenty feet past a guard station and maybe fifty feet after a sharp right turn.  Tim and I were actually five or ten seconds ahead of the girls, so it wasn't like anyone jumped out in front of the car.

Tim and I both look at the car, thinking "what the hell".  We didn't flip the driver off or even say anything, just looked at the tinted windows and in obvious displeasure at this driver's actions.  The car stops, and down goes the window, and this woman starts yelling at Tim.  Tim is a pretty laid back person, but she is now pretty pissed, so she starts to shout back.  This goes on for a minute or two.  I just start smiling and waving "bye" to the woman, hoping it might piss her off a bit.  She is ignoring me and just screaming at Tim.  At one point I heard her say the word "falang", which I was pretty certain referred to me.

There was a security guard there who was just watching, not really wanting to be involved.  I was between the car and my family, and I took a step towards it while I was waving.  I was still ten feet away, but the security guard started to motion for me not to get closer.  I think he was afraid that I was going to escalate things.  I raised my hands and said "mai ben rai" (no worries), and he relaxed.  I'm sure this guy just wanted this to be over.  Finally after a minute or so, I kind of ushered Tim and the rest of our group into the mall.  Meow started to join in the yelling after Tim had walked inside, but I calmly escorted her away from the car as well.  

Tim said that the woman had used some really rude terms, basically the equivalent of saying "f" you and some other really rude things.  Tim kept her language clean, but she gave as good as she got.  When Tim used the word "you" to the woman, she used "kuhn", which is the polite way people talk.  The woman referred to her as you would an animal.  

My favorite part was when I asked Tim was the woman said about me.  She said that the woman said "Do you think you are better than me because you are married to a foreigner?"  For some Thai people, marrying a falang might increase their social standing, but not for Tim.  I told Tim that her being married to me was just one of the many reasons that she was better than that woman.  

I've never seen Tim yell at someone like that.  She is usually pretty good at keeping her cool, but I don't blame her after how this woman drove and then started yelling.  Truthfully, I'm glad that I was there.  If I had not been there, perhaps the woman would have gotten out of the car and started a physical confrontation.  She was kind of heavy, and looked like what Thai's refer to as a "Tom".  My understanding is that a Tom is a lesbian who dresses and acts like a man.  Tim is actually in great shape, but I'm not sure that she's ever fought anyone.  Plus there is no way something like that can happen in front of the kids.  

Nalin seemed a little worried about it the rest of the day.  We explained that Tim had done nothing wrong.  She kept referring to "that bad woman", which was both accurate and cute.  

Book Sale

Today was the 5th grade book sale at ISB.  Every year the 5th graders collect and sell books, with the proceeds going to help underprivileged children in Thailand to get an education.

I stopped by and picked up Aleena from her classroom to walk her over to the book sale.  She had brought 200 baht (a little less than $7).  The books are 50 baht each, so she had planned on buying four.  As we were getting her money out of the bag, she said that she only wanted to spend 100 baht, because she was going to pay for a book for two of her friends, Nyla and Suhani, who had not brought any money.

It was very nice of her, so I went back into the classroom and spoke with her teacher who allowed me to take Suhani and Nyla with us.  The book sale was just down the hall from their classroom.  When we were talking over, her friends had big smiles.  They were talking about how when the teacher called their names to come up, that they thought they were in trouble.  It was so cute and funny.   

B&W Girls

On this shot, I had the girls bend over and make faces. The problem was that it changed the lighting. At first I didn't like the shot because the exposure was off. I played around with it a little, and I like how it looks as a black and white.

Aleena & McKayla

Late last week I bought a photo backdrop stand so that I could take some portrait photos. With all the photos that i took over the weekend, I didn't get a chance to use it until today.

Aleena and her best friend McKayla have many matching outfits. I photographed them in some of their matching outfits.

Apparently McKayla was not very happy with the idea of taking the photos. When she got to our house, however, and saw the backdrop and the lights she changed her mind.

Third Day in China

On our third day we flew to Huanglong.  There are more Tibetans living here than anywhere except Tibet.  Our 8:50 a.m. flight was delayed a couple of hours.  Fortunately  we weren’t on the 6:40 a.m. flight, which took off only a few minutes before ours.  Getting up at 4:00 a.m. to sit in the airport for hours would have been much worse than getting up at 6:00 a.m. like we did.

The highlight of this day was to see multi-colored lakes behind a temple at the top of a mountain.  We took a cable car part of the way up, and then went on a 2.5 kilometer walk to the temple.  Aleena was really tired, so I ended up carrying her on my shoulders for a good part of the walk.


We were as high as 4,000 meters on this day.  The air is a lot thinner, and we had some oxygen bottles in case someone became short of breath.  

Our tour guide Michael was very enthusiastic.  He taught himself English, learning from backpackers over the years.  Overall he wasn’t bad, but I was pretty frustrated him at one point.  When we got near the temple, it was a three hundred meter walk up some steps.  Michael said that we could go up, and that he would wait for us.  

Tim and I didn’t realize that there were the colored waters behind the temple.  We walked up and saw the temple, and then walked back down.  The kids were really tired at this point.  When we got back down to Michael, then he told us about the waters.  I really didn’t want to take the kids back up to the top, as we still had a 4.5 kilometer walk down.  Our flight delay meant that the cable car was closed by the time we were ready to go back down.

Tim really wanted to go back up, so I started the trip back down, while she, Sine and Michael went up to the top.  I probably should have had Sine stay with the kids and went up with Tim, but it wasn’t a big deal.  The kids were actually pretty good on the walk down.  Before we got to the bottom, Tim and the others had caught up to us.

The worse part of our whole trip was the van ride to the hotel.  It was snowing, the roads were winding, and Tim and Aleena had really bad headaches.  They may have been suffering from altitude sickness of some sort.  The ride was three hours, and we felt ever second of it.

By the time we got back to the hotel at 9:00 p.m., everyone was exhausted.  Only Sine and I went down to eat dinner.  We stayed in the Intercontinental Chengdu, which I believe has a thousand rooms.  

Here are some photos from our adventures that day.  

A Second Day in China

On our second day of our China trip, we visited the Golden Summit in Sichuan Sheng.  This World Heritage site boasts a golden temple on mountain with a giant golden Buddha statue.

To get to the site, we took a two or three hour bus ride to the park entrance.  You generally cannot take your own car up to the top, so we transferred to a park bus for the forty-five minute ride.  We then hiked a few kilometers to the top.  Later we found out that for another $200 or so, we could have ridden our van all the way to the top.  Even if we had known, we would have made the hike up.

Our timing was actually pretty good.  The guide told us that it is cloudy and overcast 300 plus days a year.  It was pretty cloudy when we first made it to the summit, but after a few minutes, we had the sun and blue sky peak through for a while.  As we made our way down, it started drizzling a little.  Fortunately, we had lunch near the top, and by the time we were done, the rain was done as well.

The view at the summit was nice.  There was a lot of riding and walking that day, and Tim ended up carrying Aleena part of the way up.  

We ended up staying in the Holiday Inn in Chengdu.  It was the second hotel in the second day.  

Little Gymnast

_MG_2438, a photo by ebvImages on Flickr.

As I think I mentioned, the lighting inside the gym wasn't the greatest. I took a few photos outside the gym where the lighting was a bit better. I liked this photo of Aleena.

Easter Sunday

This year, we celebrated this Easter with an Easter egg hunt and going to a brunch buffet at the restaurant in the Swissotel restaurant. We did the egg hunt at school and had ten kids participate.

It was a couple of kids first Easter egg hunt, so it was nice. I also hid two small eggs for a couple of Thai mothers who had never participated before. I made their eggs much harder to find. I had to play the colder/warmer game with one to help her find the egg.

I felt a little bad for Jacob, because he was the only boy. Most of the girls were Aleena's age, but Nalin had a friend there as well.

After the egg hunt we went to brunch where we ate entirely too much. The food was pretty good and pretty inexpensive because they had a special where kids under 12 ate free. We had six adults and ten kids, so it worked out pretty nicely. The restaurant had a clown who made balloons, a Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse character, and Easter egg hunt, and a magician to entertain the kids. It was really nice for the adults, because we could sit and relax. We ended up at the restaurant for almost three hours.

Overall it was a really fun day. By the time we got back home, everyone was pretty tired and ready to rest a bit.

Panther Paws

Friday night was the start of the Panther Paws Track & Field events. For five Friday evenings in April and May, elementary students at ISB have the opportunity to compete in track and field style games.

I signed all three kids up. Jacob and Aleena were thrilled to participate, while Nalin was less than happy. She let me know that in no uncertain many times leading up to Friday, and at least three times on the ten minute bike ride to school. At the end though, they all had a lot of fun. Nalin would only admit that it was "ok", although I suspect that she enjoyed being with some of her friends.

All of the parents of participants are required to help in some way. Its really necessary because it takes a lot of people to coordinate so many events. I was lucky enough to be cast as the photographer. I had fun too.

Here are a few photos from the event.

Gymnastics Competition

On Saturday and Sunday, ISB hosted its first gymnastics competition. Aleena competed on Saturday in the level one girls level. She did a nice job, and I think that she had a lot of fun. She and her friend McKayla were in the same group, so they were together the entire time.

Aleena competed in four events. The final event was the balance beam. During her scored competition, she saw our nanny Yaow and McKayla's nanny Meow and stuck her tongue out at them. There she is walking on a balance beam and she sticks her tongue out at someone in the audience.

Aleena and McKayla ended up playing together after the competition. All in all I think they spent about eleven hours together on Saturday.

I was asked to take some photos of ISB gymnasts. There was also a team of professional photographers there photographing the event. They had a team of at least eight photographers plus another seven or eight support staff. I saw some of the books that they put together, and they are pretty slick.

Indoor sports photography presents some challenges because of the lighting. The lighting is generally is dim and often has a yellowish tint. The dimness is exacerbated by the fact that they are moving which means that a slower shutter speed can result in subject blur. To compensate, I shot in a high ISO. The advantage of higher ISO settings is that they require less light and allow you to shoot at a faster shutter speed. The disadvantage is that higher ISO shots introduce more noise into the photo.

I shot between 1600 and 3200 ISO. On my old 40D, 3200 would have been completely unacceptable, but with the 5D Mark II, it isn't nearly as bad. I took over 2,000 shots, so I'm working my way through them. Below are a couple of Aleena, including one of her sticking out her tongue.

Kid Notes

While on our China trip, Nalin started saying hello in four different languages. She says "hello, bonjour, neehow, sawadee ka" over and over. She doesn't speak any other French (or Chinese for that matter), but she just really likes saying bonjour.

During breakfast on our last day in China, I was talking to Aleena and Jacob. Jacob was speaking to Aleena and said "I put milk in honey". Not able to resist a play on words, I said, "Jacob that is nice that you called your sister 'honey'". Usually Aleena doesn't pick up on those things, but she just got a big smile on her face and said "oh, the kind of honey you eat and calling someone honey." It was one of those moments that just made me smile.

That is One Big Buddha

On our first day in China, we visited the Leshan Giant Buddha statue in Sichuan. The seventy one meter high statue sits at the intersection of the Minjang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers. Construction finished in 803, taking 90 years to complete.

The statue was championed by a monk who sought to build this to protect the local people from flooding. After his initial attempts at getting the project started, he removed his own eyes. This dedication apparently moved the Governor at the time to undertake the project.

We took a boat ride to view the Giant Buddha. You can actually go there, but we just viewed it from the boat.

Its amazing to think of a project that lasts 90 years. Its very likely that no-one in the area who was alive at the start of the project was still alive at completion. The fact that this was completed over 1,300 years ago is even more astounding. In one sense it was interesting to see it, but I don’t know if it was really worth the time. We were probably in front of it less than five minutes.

I’m not sure why, but for some reason I took most of my photos in portrait (taller than wide) mode. That would have been okay, but I should have taken a few in landscape so that I could get all of the carvings on both sides of the statue.

New Years Travels

Songklon, the Thai New Year, is the biggest holiday of the year here. While the official holiday is three days, many people take off the entire week. A great many of the people who come to work in Bangkok go back to their home provinces to celebrate with family.

The Thai schools are still off for their summer break. ISB, the school our children attend, is closed for the week, so we like to use this time to go on trips.  Some years we have stayed in Thailand, while others we've gone abroad.  Its a tough choice because Songklon is probably the most fun time of the year here in Thailand, yet the nine days off makes it a good time to fly somewhere.

We stayed in Thailand last year, so this year we planned to visit Japan.  The recent events there caused us to cancel that trip. Instead, we booked a six day trip to South West China. Our destinations included Chengdu, Jiuzhaigou National Park, and Sichuan. We wanted to include Beijing in our itinerary, but had trouble finding a flight due to the last minute bookings.

Overall we had a pretty fun trip. The beginning was a bit rough, but it definitely picked up at the end. Instead of one long blog, I’ll break it up into smaller bits.