One of the best investments I made as far as camera gear goes has been the Olympus Sytlus 790sw. While the camera only has  a depth of about three meters deep, it is more than sufficient to get decent pics of a variety of tropical fish in the waters of Thailand.

Note:  I am way to chicken to dare try to seal my DSLR properly to take even better underwater pics . Since I am rather clumsy, and probably more lax than I should be when checking things like seals and gaskets, I decided I would rather risk losing a camera worth about $250 USD than losing the amount of money I have invested in my DSLR.

While this probably isn’t my best photo from snorkeling at Koh Phi Phi, it was one of those times when I was able to just “hang around” while a bunch of tropical fish were swimming by.

I have to be quite honest in stating that taking pictures of fish is far more challenging than I thought. If the fish aren’t moving away from you rapidly, the tides will often change very quickly before you can even get off a shot. The only way I had any luck taking pictures of the fish was by brute force, which meant that I literally snapped over a thousand pictures to get to the 400 or so snorkeling pictures I have on my Flickr account.

A couple of alternatives to snorkeling in Koh Phi Phi would include Koh Surin and Koh Similan. These islands are only open from November to April,  about two hours away by boat from Phuket, and you will most certainly have smaller crowds present than you will find at Koh Phi Phi (you can even choose to camp there…but you have to book camps/bungalows well in advance).

I’m not sure why I like this picture so much. There’s nothing special about the picture per se, so I guess it is just a matter of personal taste. The figures caught my eye at Phuket Fantasea because they seemed whimsical, if just a tad out of place for a Thai cultural show.

The Simon Cabaret in Phuket, Thailand is a “must see” show if you are visiting Phuket (I probably wouldn’t recommend the show for those traveling with small children).

Most of the performers in the show are Kathoey, or also affectionately known as “ladyboys”. You will often see many of the performers in the show at “Soi Kathoey” later in the night if you’re strolling down Soi Bangla in Patong (and many of the drunk tourists actually mistake them for being originally born as a woman).

Krabi is actually one of my favorite places to visit on a regular basis in Thailand. It was quite windy on this day, with a thunderstorm both just approaching and clearing, so it was one of those times when you had a great mix of clouds and interesting colors coming in from the sunset.

The only post processing I did with this photograph was with Picnik, which included:

1. A slight crop because of some vignetting in the corners.

2. A slight bump in saturation.

3. A slight bump in temperature.

The original is here. As you can see by comparing the two images, nothing too dramatic was done to increase the color vibrancy.

One of the things I’ve got to do better is remembering to use a monopod or tripod. While it may be pure laziness on my part, I generally forget to bring one of these with me to help make low-light images even better.

This is probably one of the few times I will publish a higher resolution picture on the web, largely because it makes seeing the sea snake easier. While I personally wasn’t afraid of the snake, because I know they would have to bite you somewhere fairly “soft” to inflict lethal damage, the guide started to freak  when this snake got a little “too close for comfort”. I basically took this snap with my Olympus underwater cam, then was whisked away a few seconds later.

Update: I found out this is known as a Banded Sea Krait.

I have another picture of this little girl posted in an earlier entry on the blog. She was so cute and relaxed after we stayed and talked to her and her mother for a bit.

I did some minor post processing with Picnik to enhance the colors of her outfit & rings.

These fish obviously aren’t carp (koi). But I thought I could attempt a clever play (or moderately clever) on the term for the medical problem of carpal tunnel syndrome.

This particular photo was taken without using any software to create the focal zoom effect. I did it the old-fashioned way, which included dropping the shutter speed down  & manually zooming the lenss back & forth to create the blurring movement The only editing I really did  after the fact was with Picnik, which included using the “auto fix” feature & then dropping the exposure down a little & boosting the contrast up slightly.

Fantasea is one of the better tourist attractions to see while vacationing in Phuket (see a fire long-exposure picture from a previous entry). If you’re looking for another tourist attraction besides Fantasea, the Simon Cabaret is another one of the shows you should see while in Phuket.

The nice thing about Fantasea is that you can have a picture taken with a baby tiger (yes, I realize that there are bad things about this practice as well).

This little girl was so shy at first (she loosened up after we gave her a snack).. I guess I could understand being on public display all day long for the entertainment of tourists, when a little kid actually probably just wants to play.

From a purely cultural perspective, the Chiang Mai region of Thailand is probably going to be the more “real version” of what Thailand is (or was) historically. If you’re looking for cultural attractions and a very relaxed atmosphere, I would personally recommend Chiang Mai over areas like Phuket or Pattaya. First-time visitors to Thailand should make the following itinerary to get the most out of their first trip:

Bangkok-Chiang Mai-Phuket (I am recommending Phuket because of the world-class beaches & a very modern infrastructure, not to mention easy access to places like Krabi and Koh Phi Phi).

More information about the various hill tribes can be found here.