Time and Motion with Video

What a week. I’ve been working long hours and today Saturday still here on the job site. Some of the quieter moments have been put to good use and spent on learning the basics about Sony Vegas. It’s a superb video editing programme which compliments my Handy Cam 100%. I have been looking for a free copy for ages. Currently sells for about US$ 550. Ouch!! Went on ‘YouTube’. Whow!!!! Loads of advice and tutorials and, yes, directions and source for a free download of Sony Vegas Pro 8.0a.
Doesn’t mean you’ll get better vid’s from me but I’ll enjoying doing them. Bear with me. The next point was what to make, subject, style etc for a movie. Creativity is definatley the main the word in this regard. I tried out several of the tutorials about merging videos and effect etc. And tried for a 'lightening effect' on my opening page of this one. Then I just cobbled together some footage of Wanna and I at a local restaurant, taken a few weeks back. You can see it does not have much forethought about sequence etc so story board for next one. I’m going to have to do a lot better planning for future ones. So if anyone out there reads this Blog, and would like, and can offer some advice please do help. Thanks.

Chinese Temples

Seems I've been doing a few temples recently. Well Wanna wanted to visit the local Chinese temple and offer up some sugar water?.. Well sugar water is readily available on the roadside so off we went. Armed with the water and visited a temple in north Pattaya. It was very hot and few people about. Still it made for an interesting visit. Plenty of incense and smoke along with a various statues. A few people were buying birds in cages to then release them.. Seems it is good for the spirit. A friend tells me that if you release an animal or bird to freedom it should bring you good luck. Same with putting fish free in the river or pond. :) Nice idea. The statues were very intricate. Although to be honest I think a few are quite grotesque but then it's a matter of personnel taste. What works for me might not work for others.

Temples and Monks

Did he just move? We recently went up with friends to Chang Mai. Beautiful place. It could be the subject for several Blog entries but… While thats for later. While there we visited several Wats. As one does in Thailand. Nearly all are so elaborate and generally quite magnificent. Each has its own atmosphere and sense of purpose.
Going into the compounds and the temples themselves seems to surround me with a feeling of calm and somehow an added feeling that life has a lot more to offer on the spiritual side than I am normally aware of.
Imagine my surprise when I set off to do some photos and video because as I entered one small annexed building I was scrambelling around for a few moments unaware there was a Monk sitting calmly in front of me. He looked directly at me without any movement, just continued his meditations. I felt really stupid and rude, almost as if I had entered like a thief into someones home. So immedieately I bowed to him to show respect. And then in as polite a fashion as one can when setting up a tripod and camera, got on with taking a few shots. Still he didn’t seem to mind and remained still. Did I interupt him or was he go engrossed in his prayers that he simple ignored me. But really did he move? Just slightly? A blink perhaps? Amazing composure. Check out the video below.

If you watched the movie you can imagine how stupid I felt when I realised exactly what he was doing. And this after my being on hands and knees and shuffling around for about 30 minutes…Fooled me and no doubt, a lot of other visitors.

Butterflys and Ants

I’ve been going through some of my recent video shots. Amazing some of the things that you click away at. A couple of ‘off the wall’ ones caught my attention. I’d snapped a few frames of a butterfly. Quite good even if I say so myself, considering the shot was hand held!!!

But also I have filmed some ants moving a shell. It really is fascinating just how they communicate and manage to coordinate moving what to them is a massive load. I suppose we could relate to it in terms of moving a double decker bus of something similar….

The Visitor ตั๊กแตน

We had an uninvited house visitor last week, who decided to make himself at home. A Praying Mantis no less. We started off by ignoring him but noticed that every so often he had relocated to a different part of the place, either the ceiling or a new section of walling.

Later I sat down next to him to take a few closeup shots. He seemed again uninterested. Taking no notice of me, that is, until Wanna joined me. He then did a few tiny movements and then without any warning, jumped straight onto Wanna’s face. She got what at best can be describes as a big kiss. She did not seem to mind. Thank God it wasn’t me. I’d have jumped a mile, beautiful thing though it is. It's also the second time one has ‘latched onto us’. Earlier, a few years back we were going over on a ferry boat from Ban Phe to Koh Samet. One joined us there for the journey over. Climbed all over our shoes and legs. Can’t find the photos though.

Their colour is amazing and they can remain stationary for what seems like ages then just jump. Not sure what they eat or what they do but seem to spend most of their time just sitting around.

By the way the Mantis is the green one !

Rayong Motors

After a great evening out in Rayong we set off home, back to Pattaya. Imagine after a late night seeing early next morning a couple of car parts on the side walk!! All facing the shops. My first reaction was "what a night they had, glad I'wasn't driving!" But they weren't smashed up or anything like that.
Car Parts is possibly not the best way to describe them. More a bunch of 'half cars' in assorted colours. A sort of mix and match. Quite amazing and even more amazing was me, I seemed to be the only one taking any notice. In fact as I got out of our car to take the photos I seemed more the object of interest to passers by than the car bits on offer.

That was interesting enough but further down the road we came across some major transportation. Look closely at the second picture to see the size of men relative to the truck. That was a big beast to be moving through a town even for a quiet Sunday morning.