Picnic at Suan Luang Rama IX Park

Saturday afternoon. Nice, sunny day outside. Three good friends spending the weekend in my place. We are starting to feel hungry, and the conversation develops like this:

－Any suggestions on where to go for lunch? 

－Why don't we buy some food around here, pack it in a backpack, along with a blanket, grab some drinks, and take a cab to eat relaxingly in Suan Luang Park?

－Do you mean a picnic and some beers?

－Exactly.

－Let's go!

Metallic roots, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm

The traffic was terribly slow, so we almost ended up eating our precious picnic food inside the taxi, but patience triumphed and, in the end, we reached the park. In the early afternoon, any park in Bangkok is quiet and unpopulated, so we just found a nice spot under a tree that we liked, extended the blanket over the grass, and starting devouring our meal without any trace of manners.

The sentinel, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm

There was nothing but a soft breeze and the sound of birds around us, a perfect retreat mere kilometres from noisy downtown Bangkok, but, unknowingly, our presence woke up the discreet, almost invisible inhabitants of this green realm: the smell of food was calling, and a few animals started to approach, cautiously, evaluating how to catch some of our fallen crumbs.

The rascal, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm

Once we finished our lunch, my three Thai friends wanted to doze for a while in the comfy blanket, while chitchatting in their beautiful, indecipherable language, so it was my perfect opportunity to take the camera with me and go for a lonely walk around the park grounds. We agreed to reunite at that same spot in two hours, so off I went, ready to enjoy the beautiful scenery. But the first thing that struck me in the eye was a bright, yellow glow that was moving slowly between the foliage, coming towards me. Soon I realized what it really was.

Yellow rounds, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm

It rained last night, so the park-carers were patrolling around, cleaning the paths and lanes from fallen leaves, emptying the bins from garbage, and cutting off the branches that were dangerously bent or slightly cracked from the storms. They did their job careful and meticulously, while advancing elegantly in their yellow truck amongst the green. Yet they were not the only ones taking care of the cleanliness and beauty of the place, for other, more humble workers, were doing the same job on their feet.

The couple that fills the sack, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm

Last night's rain had not disappear completely yet, as there were still small puddles, here and there, offering the viewer beautiful, lush reflections full of color, and the plants and flowers still showed the mist of water drops over their leaves.

Romance of plant and water I, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm

Romance of plant and water II, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm

As I continued walking, I past by a beautiful shrine that was erected on top of pillars, in the middle of a pond full of water lilies; the contrast of the blue sky, green foliage, golden columns and red tiles was a beauty on its own, and any picture taken of it was easily going to be beautiful without much photographic effort. I guess there are places that are difficult not to get a good picture of!

Unreachable shrine, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm

It really is a pleasure to walk leisurely, at your own pace, alone with yourself, enjoying beautiful sights around, caressed by a soft breeze, and being able to capture some of those tiny, subtle moments with a camera. I strolled around the lonely paths, no clear destination in mind, just following the shades, until I caught a glimpse of the tip of a tower between the branches. Now my road became clear, and I walked in that direction.

 The peak, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm

Ratchamangkhala Pavilion is the biggest, most recognizable landmark in the park, and it can be seen from pretty much everywhere in the area, its pointy roof tower standing way above any of the trees. Located in the bank of the biggest lake of the park, it has an harmonic, beautiful shape, and its white and golden figure contrasts sharply with the lush, colorful surroundings.

Ratchamangkhala Pavilion, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm

It was getting really hot, so I started looking for a thicker shade where I could walk unperturbed by the sun, when I found something that was even better than that: a quiet, solitary Chinese pavilion that offered me not only the cooling shade that I needed, but also a peaceful place to sit and rest for a while, accompanied by lovely little structures and architectures. I enjoyed the small, relaxing break sitting in a wooden bench by a little pond, I drank a lot of water, and grabbed some pictures.

The Chinese retreat, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm

The Chinese retreat's roof tiles, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm

The geometries and shapes of the Chinese shrine were all whimsical, delicate and pretty; from the tile arrangments to the railings, paths and benches, all was meticulously designed following regular patterns that pleased the eye. Symmetry and improvisation was combined in a very balanced manner, which gave the small place an aura of rarity, but of delicacy at the same time. This careful distribution of elements worked very well in conjunction with the shadows of the surrounding trees and bushes which, all together, created a vivid mural of blacks and whites, perfect for some monochrome captures.

Another kind of Chinese shadows I,  GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm

Another kind of Chinese shadows II,  GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm

When I resumed my walk, I realized it was almost time to reunite with my friends, but there were still many areas of the park that I hadn't had the chance to visit, so I decided to walk back to the starting point following another path, bordering the opposite bank of the lake, so I could see different  gardens. And that's how I discovered the charming, elegant music pavilion, all fringed by trees, and bathed by puddles of light and shadow. Even though I was running out of time, I still made a bit of time to sit down in the grass for a while, and there I met a very friendly boy, amateur photographer like me, who was experimenting with stop motion with his Fuji camera. Nice to meet you, and let's have a photo walk together soon, Fluke!

Waiting for the band, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm

Unfortunately, there was no more time for idly conversation, and I had to hurry back to meet my friends. But I didn't have to walk all the way back, for I met them on the way, as they were walking by the lake banks, still chitchatting of all things past and future. As I joined them, we bough some ice creams in a nearby kiosk, and decided to sit by the water for a while, and enjoy the fast approaching sunset. It's been a nice weekend from beginning to end, thank you guys!

Ratchamangkhala Pavilion at sunset, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm

New lens: personal review of the Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm

This morning I finally bought my third lens, the one I had been longing to have since I bought the camera a few months back, the one that now covers the longer focal lengths that I could not reach before: the new Panasonic telephoto zoom, Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm f2.8. I'm quite confident that the kit that I have built so far (the wide angle to normal zoom, the portrait prime and now this medium telephoto zoom) is quite complete and versatile and I will be shooting with it, without needing more lenses, for quite some time. So, having the glass in my hands but, more importantly, in the camera, how does it feel and how does it behave?

The hot spot, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm @35mm

I started testing the wide end of the lens, 35mm (which, in FF terms, equals 70mm, having micro 4/3 cameras a 2x crop sensor). I am very comfortable with this focal length, as that is the longer reach of the wide zoom that I have been shooting with during these months and that, not surprisingly, has been my most usual focal length, much more than the wide end. Speaking in a very personal and subjective way, I see not much difference in the performance of both lenses at this same focal length: both render equally sharp images, with plenty of detail and latitude to get a wide dynamic range after some post-processing (I use Lightroom). I'm not into scientific tests and rather into real use of the cameras and lenses and, from this perspective, both are excellent. You can compare the above shot with the ones at this past entry here, sharing subject and tones, for a better idea.

Triangles, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm @35mm

I have spent today's late afternoon at a small park that I discovered by chance a few days ago while passing by on the bus, because it is nearby my apartment and because it was unexplored ground, which fitted perfectly the purpose of my visit; new land for a new friend makes sense, I guess. But I didn't want to shoot just benches, bridges & branches again, and it was still early for people to venture into strolling, so I focused my attention in the few buildings that could be spotted through the fence in the outer perimeter of the park. One in particular caught my attention for its modern style, which was quite out of place in an environment like this. I took various stills of it from different perspectives and at different focal lengths, to see how all of them looked like.

Lines & curves, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm @44mm

Pyramids, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm @62mm

Bending, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm @100mm

All in all, I felt the zoom performed effortlessly and beautifully across the whole range. There is no perceptible distortion at any focal length (I didn't apply andy perspective correction or cropping at all), and they all render very pleasing images, sharp, detailed and with very minimal vignetting at the corners. I have applied a slight vignetting myself in some of the previous frames, so to judge this point see the two pictures below, again showing how crisp and detailed the images from this lens turn out at different focal lengths (vignetting is slightly more visible at f2.8, but definitely nothing worth mentioning). Being 35mm my most used focal length in the wide zoom, it is no surprise that more than half of the pictures that I have grabbed today belong exclusively at 100mm.  

The Reconquest I, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm @68mm / f4

The Reconquest II, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm @100mm

Finally I spotted some people, but they were outside the park, not far, but I couldn't simply jump over the fence to approach them or, in this case, jump into the water and approach them swimming, so it was the perfect opportunity for me to test how far I could reach with the lens, and also how well the autofocus and the O.I.S. (optical lens stabilization) performed at the longer end, where it is most needed. Note that all the pictures are handheld but, in such a sunny and bright day as it has been today, that is not an issue, as the shutter speed is quite fast most of the times, anyway. But still, how was the ratio of sharp images I could get?

Fisherman I, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm @100mm

Fisherman II, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm @100mm

The images were consistently sharp and the focus very accurate, considering it was one point autofocus and we both were moving around. I had some misses were the subject turned out a bit soft, but I had a very high percentage of sharp images, and the O.I.S. did a very good job in stabilizing the image in the viewfinder, which helped a lot, even if I yet have to try manual focusing with magnification at that focal length. 

Any downsides? Every tool has flaws, and in my first hands on I have encountered mainly two: one is not a proper flaw of the lens, but of myself: starting at 35mm, I wish the lens could reach a bit further than 100mm; the change throughout the range is not that big and sometimes I wished I had more reach in the tele end, as I could not get closer with my feet and I was not able to catch small details of distant subjects as I wanted. But in the range that it covers, it is truly a very nice lens, nicely built and quite portable and light considering its nature.

Fishing net I, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm @100mm

Fishing net II, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm @100mm

The second flaw? This is indeed a problem of the lens, specifically of its O.I.S., but it only affects the video capture, not the stills, and that's why I have not seen many comments about it around the net. I thought it could be just my copy, but I have found a few videos of other users with the same problem and, after going back to the shop and checking a second copy of the lens in another body, the issue remained there, so I guess this is a widespread problem that not many have noticed yet, as it is not that visible at first sight: the matter is, when you shoot video handheld with O.I.S. ON, the stabilizer vibrates very minimally, trying to compensate for the movements, but does so in a very jittery, unnatural way, that is more noticeable in the corners (still present in firmware version 1.1.). You can see one example in this video here, but that is slow motion footage, therefore in 24fps the jitter is faster and more nervous. If you turn O.I.S. off, this jitter disappears completely, and only camera movements remain, magnified, of course, but logical. I really hope Panasonic pays attention to this issue and addresses it through a firmware update, as they did for a similar problem they had with the twin lens, 12-35mm (not my own, tough). 

The ascent I, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm @100mm

But, all in all, at the end of the day, how does my first contact with the glass feel? Definitely, instant crush. I foresee a long friendship in the making here. Just look at that bokeh!

The ascent II, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 35-100mm @100mm

A quick visit to Benjakiti Park

The plan was to go to the cinema to watch Park Chan-wook's latest, his Hollywood incursion Stoker; however, we were a bit early so, in order to kill some time before the movie started, we went to the nearby park for a short half an hour stroll. Benjakiti Park is a medium sized park next to the Asok BTS station, but in such a high-rise, developed area of the city, any small oasis of green is more than welcomed. Surrounded by skyscrapers and occupied by a large lake in the center, Benjakiti Park is a peaceful retreat for the urbanites who need a short break from their busy lives.

City palette, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm

Most of the people come to this Park in the late afternoon and early evening, once the weather is more bearable; the scenery is very well looked after, there are colorful flowers all around, and the grass looks always green and fresh, the perfect place for a bit of silent reading, for a walk, to take some pictures or, of course, to do some healthy exercise.

Taking turns, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm

There were plenty of kids playing in the playground areas, mothers in circles chitchatting nearby, lone walkers, timid couples and fast bikers passing me by but, in a quiet corner, suddenly I could feel how the activity and liveliness of the environment had faded, how the calm was surprisingly pleasant and the motion of the city had completely slowed down to its bare minimum; in the midst of this retreat, some people were praying at a small shrine in utter silence.

Recess, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm

There are a few constructions in the park, apart from the shrine, such as some small fountains, a few gazebos for occasional concerts or as refuges agains the usual monsoon rains, a public toilet's stand, and, scattered throughout the gentle slopes and winding walkways, some sculptures and adornments of different kinds.

The elephants & the wheel, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm

Even though the park is by no means big, and it is located very near the city center, it actually gives a high sense of isolation: the trees are tall and, when you are walking under their branches, all remains of urban life fade away; only a few concrete sights appear between the leaves, every now and then, to remind us that we are just mere meters away from civilization, after all.

Beyond the fence, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm

We had roughly time enough to complete the walk around the whole perimeter of the park in 30 minutes, walking at a photographic speed, which means, as you can guess, slow (the camera would be the substitute of the shell of the snail, in this analogy). The movie would start soon and night was already growing, so we hurried a bit at the end, and left the park exactly when the lamps were being turned on.

Receiving the baton, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm

As soon as we left the park gates and entered the underground cave leading to the trains, colors shifted drastically and greens were replaced by grays, sedated breeze replaced by metallic noises. Thats the kind of sharp contrast this city offers to its guests. One of many. 

The circle in the land of lines, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm

The circle in the land of lines II, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm

Oh! And the movie was not bad, by the way!

Benches, bridges & branches: Seri Thai Park

Today a friend of mine and I planned to visit a rather secluded and mysterious place, but luck was not on our side, as we only found locked doors blocking our way. Therefore, while we wait for a future opportunity to try and enter that world again (of which I will not talk more yet, to preserve the surprise), we decided to just stroll at a nearby park and grab some pictures there. The weather was just perfect for a walk and we both had our cameras ready, so we took a taxi and a mere minuets later we entered Seri Thai Park, or should I call it BBB Park, for all we could see at first were benches, branches and bridges. Lets begin with the first B.

A seat with views, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm

It was still a bit early and the sun was merciless and fierce, so most of the park remained quiet and empty, only the occasional bird or fountain bringing some movement and sound to the ambient. We walked along the shadowy lanes meeting none, the lonely benches bathed in light and silence.

Stonerest, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm

Every time we passed one of the stranded benches I couldn't help but imagine how the park would become at a later hour, once the sun would recede and people would go out of their shells and gather around. It surely would be much more lively and busy, but I kind of enjoyed the lethargy the afternoon hour was offering us.

Warmth, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm

The same iron filigrees in different colors, either brown or green, matching those of the tree trunks or the leaves and the grass, a mimetic game between architecture and nature. But not only the tones resembled one another, for even the shapes and figures looked alike as if made by the same hands, thus bringing us to the second leitmotif and B of the day.

Mimesis, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm

Twisted and stretched, thin and thick, countless roots and branches spread all over the park, impossible to define the place where one lead to another, intricate tangle of living arteries covering every inch of land, above our heads and beneath our feet.

Roots, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm

Like a parade of uniformed, organized soldiers, the big trees stood by the lake, one after another, proud of themselves, masters of the park, shaking their limbs with the faintest breeze, letting their leaves drop in an unhurried, almost invisible dance.

Under protection, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm

And the third B of the day soon became apparent to us: the park is not that big, but we were enjoying our walk and didn't want to leave that early, so we decided to walk around its perimeter a few more times and, in order to do so, we had to cross multiple bridges, big and small, solid and precarious, always unique and different.

Robust bridge, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm

Dubious bridge, GH3 + Lumix G Vario 12-35mm

Sunset was getting closer, and so was the flow of people; the weather was more benevolent now, and the stream of legs and wheels started to increase. What an hour earlier were only deserted walkways and vacant spaces were turning by the minute into animated lanes and spirited groups of people walking, talking, practicing sports.

Amusement, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm

The focus of our attention shifted naturally, and after an hour long spent looking at the scenery, we centered our cameras on the people who were increasingly occupying all the park in their different activities. Young and old, on their own or with some company, quiet or in high spirits, the atmosphere gradually became human.

The eldest steps first, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm

The game, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm

Today was Monday, yet the modest park swiftly grew more and more populated, and faces of all kinds appeared in every corner, granting the sunset a scent of humanity. In these last beats of daylight, I decided to slow down my walk and observe carefully the eyes and expressions of the people around me. My last captures were, therefore, the spontaneous glances and smiles of a few people who totally grabbed my interest.

The curious, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm

The shawl, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm

 The hat, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm

The smile, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm

With a warm feeling we left the park, each one ready to follow its own path back home, but just outside the fence, next door, the sight of the abandoned hut struck me as an omen. Nature always finds its way, but humans must carve out our presence day by day, or the smallest laziness ends up in immediate oblivion and extinction.

Unshelter, GH3 + Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm