An Amateur's Point of View

November 28, 2012 marks the day where Thais go to the temple to pray to their gods to offer of respect to the water spirits. Loi Krathong  takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional  Thai lunar calendar . In the western calendar this usually falls in November. Loi  means 'to float', while  krathong  refers to a usually lotus-shaped container which floats on the water. The traditional krathong are made of the layers of the trunk of a banana tree or a  spider lily  plant. Modern krathongs are more often made of  bread  or  styrofoam . A bread krathong will disintegrate after a few days and can be eaten by fish. Banana stalk krathong are also biodegradable, but styrofoam krathongs are sometimes banned, as they pollute the rivers and may take years to decompose. A krathong is decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, incense sticks, and a candle. A small coin is sometimes included as an offe...

About a few weeks ago my faculty had their Integration Party together with all Thai and International students. This is also to introduce the new students who joined the faculty early this semester. The program starts with traditional dances by the Thai students and then we had our dinner together. The food was good as usual. After that we had the International students perform some songs as well as some games by the faculty members.

One morning I was walking to a friend's house. Since early mornings are my favorite time to take pictures I brought my camera wondering there'll be some photos that I can actually take. I was passing some flowers and trees and I got to see how the sun rays was passing through the trees and flowers. At that point, I switched my camera to take 5 exposures so I can make it into HDR image. However, just as I was about the complete the last 2 exposures, my camera's battery went dead. Oh man... Now I can't make those photos into HDR. When I came back and checked them on the computer, the looked kind of nice. I immediately edited them in Lightroom since it's faster with using the presets I've done before. I changed the colors into black and white to give it a more classic look.