Hello Bangkok!

Hi there folks,

 we’re glad you made it here in the first place and we would like to welcome you on our blog. We will start right away with our first post, we have been spending 4 weeks in asia as our yearly vacation and that involved being in Bangkok for about two weeks which was also the perfect place to test our new Sony a6000 camera.  Since this is a blog mostly about photography, some gear and a few traveltipps of locations and stuff we found worthy to visit and share we will jump head-on into this post.

We arrived half a day behind schedule due to a missed connecting flight in Abu Dhabi and made our way to the city centre with one of the always present taxi’s. Our driver was hardly able to understand us let alone finding our final destination but after some instructions based on google maps screenshots we managed it to get to our apartment without to much further loss of time. By the way, having screenshots on your phone available comes in quite hand to brief the taxi guys, since most of them speak hardly a word english. We set camp in one of the tidy yet small apartments at the Surawong City Apartment complex. The building is set quite nicely near silom which made it a great starting point for exploring the city on your own with taxis everywhere and connections to the BTS and MRT (bangkok’s metro and skytrain equivalent) right around the corner.

The streets around the Apartment give you a good insight into daily streetlight so we started walking around the other morning exploring our nearby area.

Street in Bangkok with women. By Marie Baersch
All the little alleys leaving away from the main roads offer a great insight into the daily life
of the mega city along with some amazing opportunities for street shots.
Marie Baersch,  Sony a6000 – Zeiss Touit 1.8/32mm

 

Skytrain stretching through the city streets making great subjects for architectural studies - Marie Baersch, Sony a6000
Skytrains stretching through the city streets making great subjects for architectural studies.
Marie Baersch, Sony a6000 – Zeiss Touit 1.8/32mm

We spend the next days with a mixture of exploring, visiting some of the lesser known temples scattered across the city and some shopping. When you not want to be stuck in crowds with asian tourists taking selfies in front of every stone, wall, street and flower you should get up early and avoid the well known tourist sites. And since we have already seen all the usual places like the Wat Arun and the Grand Palace last year we left them to the side this time. There are plenty of beautiful temples and religious sites where you’re sometimes the only one apart form the locals and the monks. Here’s a short list of places we visited:

– Wat Prayoon

– Wat Ratchanaddaram

– China Town

– Wat Prasri Waha (a very nice indian temple, unfortunately you are not allowed to take photos, nice place though)

Even though it is a tourist spot, make sure to visit Wat Saket, Golden Mount. It is one of the best spots to see Bangkok’s skyline.

Awesome view from the memorial bridge after visiting what prayun
Awesome view from the memorial bridge after visiting what prayun.
Alexander Waetzel, Sony a6000 – Sony 2.8/16mm
Nice view from the street where our taxi dropped us. This is quite a nice area to capture some more scenic shots of Bangkok.
Nice view from the street where our taxi dropped us.
This is quite a nice area to capture some more scenic shots of Bangkok.
Marie Baersch, Sony a6000 – Zeiss Touit 2.8/12mm
Get your wide-angle ready, Walking to the top of Wat Ratchanaddaram gives you a great view to shoot bangkok's skyline!
Get your wide-angle ready, Walking to the top of Wat Ratchanaddaram
gives you a great view to shoot bangkok’s skyline!
Alexander Waetzel, Sony a6000 – Zeiss Touit 2.8/12mm
Its always nice to have a ultra wide angle lens with you for some very dramatic city shots.
Its always nice to have a ultra wide angle lens with you for some very dramatic city shots.
Alexander Waetzel, Sony a6000, Zeiss Touit 2.8/12mm
We made our way back into town with taking a walk through chinatown, a great place to snap some streetshots.
We made our way back into town with taking a walk through chinatown, a great place to snap some streetshots. Alexander Wätzel, Sony a6000, Sony Zeiss 1.8/24mm
A shot from the top of the Golden Mount. Make sure to visit close to sunrise or sunset to give your city panorama that extra bit of drama.
A shot from the top of the Golden Mount. Make sure to visit close to sunrise or sunset
to give your city panorama that extra bit of drama.
Alexander Waetzel, Sony a6000, Sony 2.8/16mm

When you got all the temples covered or just can’t stand them anymore bangkok still has a lot to offer. The zoo is also quite nice to spend a lazy day and watch some animals up close. And if you’re in for some shopping as is the female part of us the Rama I Rd. got all it needs to make you spend days wandering through the shopping lined up all around the Siam BTS station. A shop definitely worth a visit is LOFT located in SiamDiscovery. You can get all sorts of fancy goods, from notebooks to smartphone cases, aswell as camera leather straps (we got ourselves a pair) and pretty unique jewelry. Sometimes it’s nice to leave the BTS behind and take a walk between the malls. It will give you plenty of opportunities to dine on the street with stalls offering local food aswell as some nice motives to fill your camera’s SD card.

Spend a day in Bangkok's zoo. Better go early to avoid tourists crowd.
Spend a day in Bangkok’s zoo. Better go early to avoid tourists crowd.
Marie Baersch, Sony a6000, Zeiss Touit 1.8/32mm
A woman waiting to cross Rama I Rd. Crossings in Bangkok always giving us an adrenaline rush, since absolutely no one is actually paying attention to traffic lights.
A woman waiting to cross Rama I Rd. Crossings in Bangkok always giving us an adrenaline rush,
since absolutely no one is actually paying attention to traffic lights.
Alexander Waetzel, Sony a6000, Sony 2.8/16mm
If you're in for something special Lofft is always a good adress to find something nice.
If you’re in for something special, jewelry made
by Good After Nine (www.goodafternine.com) is giving you a unique option .
Alexander Waetzel, Sony a6000, Zeiss Touit 2.8/50mm Macro
Yes, even girls get tired from shopping eventually!
Yes, even girls get tired from shopping eventually!
Alexander Waetzel, Sony a6000, Sony 2.8/16mm

Spending several days walking around bangkok really shows off the strength and reliefs of our new Sony systems. I can remember last year where i was having two full frame DSLRs in my bag. This year it was just the a6000 and a few lenses in our Ona Bags, which enables us to spend more time walking around and shooting without actually compromising image-quality, allowing to give a few of the shots to our agencies for licensing.

The mirrorless relief for the travelling photographer! The Sony a6000, packed in style in ONA's beautiful camera bags (www.onabags.com).
The mirrorless relief for the travelling photographer!
The Sony a6000, packed in style in ONA’s beautiful camera bags (www.onabags.com).
Marie Baersch, Sony a6000, Zeiss Touit 2.8/50mm
Having a light camera enables you to always have it with you.
Having a light camera enables you to always have it with you to snap some casual shots.
Marie Baersch, Sony a6000, Zeiss Touit 1.8/32mm
Sometimes it's nice to use lower shutter speeds to give your streetshots that extra bit of movement. Marie Baersch, Sony a6000,  Zeiss Touit 1.8/32mm
Sometimes it’s nice to use lower shutter speeds to give your streetshots that extra bit of movement.
Marie Baersch, Sony a6000, Zeiss Touit 1.8/32mm

With some desperate need of fresh air we decided to take on a day trip offered by Green Mango (www.green-mango.net) to escape Bangkok’s buzzing streets. It’s a nice way to relax a little and see some more of the country and the people even though most of the places are covered with tourist. But we definitely enjoyed our time on local markets, a boat trip with a very intense monkey encounter and a typical thai meal on a floating house.

A local food market directly around and on the rails. quite crowd and touristy but definitely nice to visit.
A local food market directly around and on the rails. quite crowdy and touristy but definitely nice to visit.
Marie Baersch, Sony a6000, Zeiss Touit 2.8/50mm
Remember to put yourself in the frame from time to time to prove to your family you really have been on all the dance places you tell them about :D
Remember to put yourself in the frame from time to time to prove to your family
you really have been on all the fancy places you tell them about 😀
Alexander Waetzel, Sony a6000, Sony Zeiss 1.8/24mm
A trained through the outskirt villages around bangkok give's you another great opportunity to take some unique travel shots.
A train through the outskirt villages around bangkok give’s you
another great opportunity to take some unique travel shots.
Alexander Waetzel, Sony 6000, Sony Zeiss 1.8/24mm
Floating Market
A merchant on the river around the Amphawa floating market.
Marie Baersch, Sony a6000, Zeiss Touit 2.8/50mm
Ape encounter.
The tour takes you on a boat trip straight through a part of a forest inhabitatet
by very curious and hungry apes. Get your tele lenses ready, but grab them tight!
Alexander Waetzel, Sony a6000, Sony 1.8/35mm
Floating fisher house.
The trip on boat also shows you the living conditions of the working fisherman.
Alexander Waetzel, Sony a6000, Sony 1.8/35mm

To finish our trip to bangkok in style we checked in a night at the Lebua State Hotel. This is actually the place where THE HANGOVER II has been made and with the highest bar in the world and rooms with balconies up to the 60th floor it gives you a great view above bangkok. We have been assigned a suite at the 54th floor with a hell of a view. Having one rather cheap apartment as your basecamp checking in with several different hotels for just a night gives you great opportunity to capture unique cityscape shots, spend some quality time on your vacation without stretching your wallet too much.

A cityscape shot taken from the Lebua State tower.
A cityscape shot taken from the Lebua State tower.
Alexander Watzel, Sony a6000, Sony 2.8/16mm
The same scene just a few minutes later. Make sure to spend some time after you set up your gear. The light might get better than you have imagined!
The same scene just a few minutes later. Make sure to spend some time after you set up your gear.
The light might get better than you have imagined!
Alexander Waetzel, Sony a6000, Sony 2.8/16mm
Cityscape shots in the morning always have this hazy feel to it!
Cityscape shots in the morning always have this hazy feel to it!
Marie Baersch, Sony a6000, Zeiss Touit 2.8/12mm

All in all Bangkok is definitly a great place to spend your holiday’s. Whether you’re just in transit to a beach in southern thailand or if you are on your way to the mountains in the north make sure to spend at least a few days here. It’s just great for exploring thailand’s daily live and culture, some shopping and definitly a great place to take photos.

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7 Kommentare auch kommentieren

  1. Butch sagt:

    Awesome photos. I live here yet haven’t been to many of these places you’ve photographed. I’ve also recently switched from Nikon full-frame to Sony alpha 7 M2 and love it. Love your site!

  2. karol sagt:

    Hello

    I have nex 6 with samyang 12mm. I know I will upgrade body to a6000 and I start thinking what lens to buy.
    Zeiss 24mm 1.8 or Sony 35mm 1.8 oss
    18-200mm or 55-210mm
    And some tripod and backpack/belt to protect this gear.

    What is yours suggestions?

    1. AlexWaetzel sagt:

      Hi there,
      both of the primes you mentioned are great in there own rights. I own them both and prefer the 24, but that is mainly because i love the 35mm focal length. It is very versatile and the image quality is amazing. I use the 35 mainly for some casual filming these days since it has the OSS built in. So in the end it’s down to what you prefer or what your budget is, since the 24mm doesn’t come cheap. Unfortunately i can’t say anything about the other lenses since i Haven used them. But i would recommend getting the 35/24 and then maybe the 55-210 for the tele range! For traveling I have a meFoto tripod:

      http://www.mefoto.com/products/backpacker.aspx

      and put all my stuff in a ONA-Bag or my Langly Backpack. Both are not cheap but look great and keep your gear save!
      Hope I was able to help you!
      Best,
      Alex

  3. Patria sagt:

    Awesome post, I’m now super excited and looking forward to my trip to Bangkok this month! I’m really planning on visiting non-touristy places in the early morning, is it safe to use the trains/tuk tuk around 5-6AM? By the way, do you still use your A6000 kit lens while travelling? 🙂

    1. AlexWaetzel sagt:

      Hi there Patria, have fun at Bangkok then! I can’t really tell you how it is in the morning since we just used the trains during the day! I would advice maybe sticking to validated taxi’s and the skytrain just to be sure.
      We never felt unsafe though!
      We actually never bought the kit-lens in the first place but im sure they will do a decent job while travel.

  4. Young Den sagt:

    Awesome shots and play by play! Really enjoyed it and just bought my first prime in the 24mm which I am excited. The touit 32mm was a really nice lens that I rented awhile back but the focus took awhile in some cases. Again thank you for your site with A6000 lens combo

    1. AlexWaetzel sagt:

      Hi there, thank you for your feedback. The thing with the touits is, that they not using the phase detection af from the a6000. The only one that is, is the 50mm. There were rumors about a firmware update but unfortunately I do not know if Zeiss realized that by now! Have fun with the 24 pal!

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