Wow, I'm back again guys! Another new post!
Im loving my new found motivation for photography. The urge to write and create content is really strong again, which feels fantastic. So, I won't waste much time with post and jump straight in!
My wife (@ashcarter.blog) and I have planned a road trip to Khao Yai, a national park 2 hours north of Bangkok, and this got me thinking. I need a telephoto lens! There is a very high possibility that you will encounter some amazing wildlife in Khao Yai so a 200mm lens would be an absolute minimum, 70mm just wouldn't cut it. The idea of seeing an elephant in the wild, crossing the road of grazing in the fields or trees, and not being able to snap a worthy image of that makes me terrified. I quick message to my cousin @schogn_lee and he let me borrow his old but very lovely Nikkor 80-200 F2.8.
Having picked up the lens from Schogn earlier in the day, I wanted to get out and familiarise with the quirks of this old beauty. Its a manual focus lens when used with my Nikon Z6 and FTZ adapter, so this really does require a little practice to get used to focusing precisely. The focus peaking and focus confirmation that the Z6 has really helps, but the physical movement of focusing a lens is somewhat alien to me, so I needed to improve on that!
Living in Bangkok in 2021, I didn't have any elephants to practice on, maybe I would once upon a time, but now Bangkok is well and truly embracing the modern way of life. So what was the next best thing? Thats right, city scape photography. Huh? 'How does that help at all Arran?' I hear you ask. Well, it doesn't really, but it definitely gets the lens on my camera and allows me to play around with F-stops and focusing in and out with the old lens.
I made my way to Benjakitti Park. This is located very close to Asok BTS station on the Sukhumvit line. I quickly snapped some shots of the trains, but didn't get anything special, no real light or sunset to speak of, the images lacked interest. So I walked down on the road level and snapped a few shots whilst waiting to cross the road. I had switched to the 24-70 F4 lens, knowing that the 80-200 would be far too long for walking the streets and taking snap shots.
Once I found myself in the park I walked along the lake to get to a position that I could use the long lens on my tripod and snap some shots of the very nice buildings that are located close to the park. It turns out, I really like these images actually. Im not the biggest fan of city scape photography, but I enjoyed the process of figuring our how to shoot some interesting images.
Please take a look through the shots below and don't forget to head over to my IG for much more frequent posts and images. Plus, I will be making some more YouTube videos very soon, documenting our travels in and around Thailand.
Thanks as always guys!!!
Arran
