Cover Project Photo by Tan Yoke Ling

Visiting Thailand for the 45^th time, it had been tough planning where to visit this round. After considering for a while, I have decided to do away with the “over-visited” Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn), Chao Phraya (Phraya River), Floating markets & the hoards of “factory visits” meant for the regular tourist. So I had planned something, slightly off the beaten tracks for this visit, as well as to bring my wife, Ling – to some of the places that I had not visited for a long, long time. Making this visit more interesting, I have decided to leave behind my DSLRs and instead, I have with me an Olympus E-P3, an Olympus XZ-1 & an Olympus TG-620 TOUGH. These great cameras were kindly sponsored-loaned from Olympus Singapore. With that, “My.Happy.Photo.Graphy.Olympus.Thailand.2012” begins.

My.Happy.Day One:
On purpose & planning to relax, I have nothing planned for the day except to run some errands. These are some of the things that I always do whenever I visit Thailand. After breakfast, we set off by walking towards the city central. The street scene in Bangkok, Thailand never fails to interests me – the contrasting cityscapes, the colorful city & the people. With the E-P3 on my hand, I was pleasantly surprised that I am able to cover the various scenes easily.

Olympus E-P3, 2 seconds, F20, ISO 200

Olympus E-P3, 1/125 seconds, F7.1, ISO 200

Olympus E-P3, 1/100 seconds, F8, ISO 200

Olympus E-P3, 1/500 seconds, F10, ISO 200

I decided to pick up some purchases at MBK before heading out to Wat Hua LamPhong (Hua Lam Phong Temple). This is the temple that many locals as well tourists visits to donate monetary gifts for the poor & unfortunate. Over here, one can donate a coffin for the deceased who cannot afford a proper burial even after death due to extreme poverty. The temple is filled with people (as usual) when I got there. As the scene is constantly changing here, the E-P3 responded fast whenever I need a confirmation “beep” and I managed to capture all these snapshots – at the right time, at the right moment & with the right exposure of course.

Olympus E-P3, 1/1000 seconds, F10, ISO 200

After loitering at the temple for a while, we moved on to Wat Erawan to pay our respects to the Four-Faced Buddha. Devotees from all over the world come here to pray for anything, everything you can think of. This time, I came to offer my thanks as my wish of marrying Ling, made 4 years ago finally came through (we got married the day before this trip!). The mid morning sun was blazing hot when we got there. Without a CPL or ND filter, I decided to shoot everything at super small aperture  just to “compensate” the overwhelmed brightness.

Olympus E-P3, 1 second, F22, ISO 200


Olympus E-P3, 1/125 seconds, F7.1, ISO 200

Lunch was next on the plan. We headed back to MBK to another of my regular lunch haunt. Fifth Food Avenue– a Thai-replication of Marche, offering over 100+ choices of food from all over the world set in an up market ambience.

Olympus E-P3, 1/80 seconds, F5.6, ISO 400

Olympus E-P3, 1/2000 seconds, F8, ISO 200

Olympus E-P3, 1/200 seconds, F8, ISO 200

Olympus E-P3, 1 second, F20, ISO 400

After lunch, we headed back to our hotel to avoid getting fried in the sun, we decided to hit the pool to cool ourselves a little. This seems like the best opportunity to play with the TG-620 and we went to the pool armed with this camera and another underwater cam for some splash & underwater photography.

The TG-620’s “Hi2” mode was amazingly fast. When coupled with (SCN) “Underwater” mode, this camera is a monster in water and under water. We tried shooting the other cam under water, shot a boy having fun in water and I even did a little cam-whoring of myself while under the water at depth between 0.82m to 2.2m.

Photo shot by Olympus TG-620 TOUGH.

Photo shot by Olympus TG-620 TOUGH.

Photo shot by Olympus TG-620 TOUGH.

Dinner was simple affair. We settle it fuss-free by the road – literally! We were eating at a roadside stall and vehicles were passing us as near as 3 inches. Oh wow! After dinner, we decided to go to “Mambo”, a “Trans” show. I will attend the nightly shows every time I am in town as this is one musical show that gets updated from time to time. Every time I came, there’s always new songs & dance added. After the show, we decided to call it a day.

Olympus XZ-1, 1/100 seconds, F5.6, ISO 400

Olympus XZ-1, 1/40 seconds, F4, ISO 800

To be Continued……………………………..

For the full album produced by all the Olympus Cams for Day One, please visit here.

To read Part 2, please click here.

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Behind-the-Scenes Photography by Tan Yoke Ling.

Special Thanks to Olympus Imaging Singapore for making Project “My.Happy.Photo.Graphy.Olympus.Thailand.2012” possible.

Sponsor: Olympus Imaging Singapore Pte Ltd.
Travel & Review Editor: Allan J Lee.
Review Photographer: Allan J Lee.
Behind-the-Scenes Photographer: Yu ling (Yoke Ling)
Project Courtesy of Shutter Journey (Singapore) Photography Group. (SJS)
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