"Wongwien Lek" Photo Walk

Hiatus. Long. Prolonged. Ended. At least so far as one click means the eye saw and the finger moved. It's not that I was not taking pictures I felt satisfied with lately, it's that I simply forgot I ever held a camera in my hands, and I mean any kind of camera (my phone is one, for all that matters, and it's always mere centimeters from me, yet I always neglect it that function). It's fruitless trying to explain why I found myself again in such a photographic wasteland, for this has not been the first time (and attending to the statistics, neither will be the last), so, rather than going over the void, let's keep things easy, straightforward and simple: I went out again, I took some pictures, and, what is most important, I enjoyed it.

In or out?, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Petals, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

A morning walk, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Catching the sunlight, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Passerbies, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Passerby, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

The fisherboy, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

The fisher II, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Mother's love, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Son's excitement, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Still life, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Still life II, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Bricks, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Poles and circles, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Through the fence, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

The awning, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Photowalks, if you happen to live in a city with them, can be a blessing, since they make it easy to defeat lack of purpose and grant you a great opportunity to discover new areas of your own city besides interacting with like-minded people. No more self-indulgence or lame excuses: just get up early on a Sunday morning, and off you go with the camera in your hands ready for a stroll with a machine that, despite what it could look like, it should be your best friend while out shooting, someone (or something) that brings you joy and not fatigue. How ironic that one should not do more often what he or she actually enjoys so much once things are in motion! Hopefully there will be more photowalks ahead (either in a group or by myself), so I hope the rust in my phalanges will gradually peel off and–who knows?–maybe even bid me farewell, at least for a while.

Geometry, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Good luck!, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Urban arrangement, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

The cyclist, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

On feet and flip-flops, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Pushing, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Striped, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Team work, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Team work II, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

The carrier, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Bangkok's street life

For the most part of the last half a year I have been devoted almost exclusively to my recently completed 100 visits photoproject, except for a few occasional trips where I had the chance to photograph subjects different to the ones I have been so close to in the aforementioned project. However, that didn't mean that I had no time whatsoever to enjoy some other random or casual shooting here and there in my daily life in Bangkok, and that is what this post consists on: these are the images that I have grabbed in the last months in the streets of Bangkok while not actively shooting for my project. They are, therefore, heterogeneous in nature, but all of them have been captured near my neighborhood and have a common 'street' feeling. Without more introduction, here they are!

Cleaning duties, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

Us?, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

4-armed I, iPhone SE

4-armed II, iPhone SE

Afternoon chores I, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

Afternoon chores II, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

Afternoon chores III, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

Bus booth I, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

Bus booth II, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

Bus booth III, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

Bus booth IV, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

Urban pilgrimage, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

On the way, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

Curve I, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

Curve II, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

Team work I, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

Team work II, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

Repair shop I, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

Repair shop II, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

Sunset balloon, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

Bird & snail, Lumix GX80 + Panasonic Leica 15mm

The cloud, Lumix GX80 + Lumix 12-35mm

Photoproject: 100 visits to Seri Huamark Market (days 91-100)

The last stretch of my project was, at last, upon me. 90 visits after my first encounter with the market, so many things have changed, yet so many others have remained stable. On the gear side of things, I have used 2 cameras and 3 lenses so far so, to wrap up the project, and for these final 10 days, I decided to use my last lens, probably the less suited to this kind of photography: a portrait lens with a fixed field of view, in this case the Nocticron 42.5mm, the last lens in my arsenal, so I wanted to give it a try before closing this project.

Day 91, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 91b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 91c, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 91d, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 91e, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 91f, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 91g, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

My visits to the market, as it already happened the last few weeks, have increasingly become very spread out and carefully selected, I went there just in sunny days and I stayed at the place only until I got one shot, then I left and returned home rather than lingered around trying to get more captures as I did before. These last days I left the market as soon as I had one interesting picture, for I feel bored to stay any longer after all this time.

Day 92, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 92b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 92c, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Connections and bonds with the vendors continued to deepen, however, and some of them asked me daily about my progress and even started to countdown with me the last week: 6 days to go! 4 days to go!, they would say when they saw me passing by, smiling.

Day 93, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 93b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 93c, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 93d, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

One interesting development is that I have seen and discovered things from the market while reviewing my pictures in the computer, things that I did not notice while being at the market itself, so, when I went back there, I tried to look for those specific scenes or details and I focused on them  to create new images, which brings up the idea of reciprocity between capture and review as a twofold process that influences each other.

Day 94, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 94b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 94c, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 94d, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 94e, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 94f, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 94g, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

I shot fully manual often with this short telephoto lens to have more success, for the depth of field was too thin at times due to the wide aperture and being in manual control of the settings granted me a higher percentage of success.

Day 95, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 95b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 95c, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 95d, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Since the end was inevitably approaching, I tried to come back to some things that I had tried in the past but failed to get, giving them a second and final chance to become reality; it's interesting how, many times, the images that stick the longest in a photographer's mind are the one he failed to get, not the ones he succeeded in grabbing, maybe because frustration plays an important role magnifying them.

Day 96, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 96b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 96c, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

I have captured a total of 5859 pictures these past 100 days of which I have published in this blog 418 as my favorites in the 10 posts devoted to the project; besides, I have chosen and posted as pics of the day in my Instagram account 162 of those selected images. It's interesting to see that, as days pass, my preferences vary, and I not always agree with my own former choices, but I guess this is absolutely normal and it means that photography, memories and preferences are living, evolving things, and nothing can change that fact.

Day 97, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 97b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 97c, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 97d, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 97e, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 97f, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

When I was about to visit the market for the 98th time and there were only 2 days more to conclude the project, I suddenly felt a rush to finish it, as if I could see the finish line ahead of me and my legs where trying to sprint to reach it as fast as they could after the long race.

Day 98, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

For several reasons, it took me a shocking amount of almost 50 days to complete my last 10 visits, and I took 900 pictures in these last ten days, between 31 and 272, the latter being the highest number of images captured so far in a single day because I was trying to get the perfect splash of water and that took me many attempts with different settings.

Day 99, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 99b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 99c, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 99d, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 99e, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 99f, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

The 100th and final day brought with it a twofold feeling: on the one hand, there was no sadness, excitement or special feeling whatsoever, but on the other hand I had no feeling of closure, either, I just felt as if that was just another day and there would be more to come in the future. So now that everything was said and done, what lied ahead? Only time will tell, but for now I now I'm going to take a break to distance myself from the images and memories and maybe, at a later date, I will come back to them to work on them and give them a proper meaning (if there is one), frame or closure. To conclude, I would like to say thanks to all the people (at the market and through the net) that has showed me his or her support during this long journey, it's always been encouraging and motivating to have you and your fruitful comments there. Thank you and see you again!

Day 100, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Day 100b, GX80 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm