quiksilva

I have only checked with my regular pond, Pilot 111, which so far has escaped the flooding. Best thing to do is call them.

I have looked into it a bit more and it appears that Bangphra doesn't allow any boats that use oil but electric trolling motors are fine.

BTW your boat looks ideal.

Nice thanks for sharing, I'm looking at boats too as I regularly go snakehead fishing. However I have heard that many reservoirs prohibit motors

Hopefully the DSD will offer better skills than the repairs and massage courses currently on offer...

Define accessible and best.

I live in Nonthaburi but regularly drive 2-3 hrs to fishing spots getting up in the middle of the night (I was bitten deep by the fishing bug). I fish freshwater spots all over the country but mostly within a few hours drive of Bangkok, but occasionally get up to Kanchanaburi too. I get my saltwater fishing fix by chartering boats out of Pattaya to fish the Gulf of Thailand.

IMO Bangkok, Hua Hin, Pattaya & Phuket are all good. The first three probably have better access to freshwater fishing (although there are some fine spots in Phuket too) but Phuket has by far and away the best saltwater fishing in the Andaman sea.

I can see the argument, higher wages will lead certainly to redundancies and less recruitment, but if those who have lost their jobs are given the skills which industry is currently short of it and requires, it could help move Thailand further up the value chain.

The fact is Thailand's not insignificant manufacturing sector is still mostly low skilled labour intensive assembly work, even in the high tech sectors, where the real magic happens overseas.

You can't just turn this around overnight, sure they could bring in more automation but manufacturers had that option in their home countries before they left to set up their factories here.

Also even if it happened who exactly will be doing all this training, who is training the trainers, where will this happen, and how much will it all cost?

Hughden your right about that Voigtlander, my colleague has one for his EP1 and I must say the bokeh is brilliant. A bit pricey mind.

There are a ton of decent lenses for m4/3rds. I have been considering getting that Panasonic 100-300mm lens which is equivalent to 200-600mm, now sure its quite big, I have held it, but there's nothing smaller with this much reach.

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/panasonic_lumix_g_vario_100_300mm_f4_56_mega_ois_review/sharpness_1/

Looks pretty good, just wondering how it compared with the 45-200mm

This thread is not only deserving of a bump but it should be stickied, very useful. Thanks Garry

Pretty much any body of water is likely to be home to the striped snakehead (Pla Chon) so you could try lure fishing for those

I think these outlandish ideas highlights, supports, and yes sometimes even mocks the argument that any medium can be used to create Art.

Art to me has a concept that the artist is trying to portray through a chosen medium, whether its one of beauty, comfort, terror, humour or even nothing (Zen), I can appreciate all of it as Art but I still only like what I like.

I do however resent the notion that you can go so far as to assign only those photographs that meet a subjective artistic standard with a special designation e.g. "Photography with a capital P".

I think to do so is arrogant, because whilst technically and artistically some photographs can be better than others, this does not and should not earn that photograph a special designation.

Photography can be used as a medium in applied art or fine art, and as such may then have more (albeit subjective) value, but it's still just photography. The added value is in the Art, not in the medium per se.

Thanks you, yes it was a really nice evening, and it certainly made up for a slow days fishing.

All these shots were taken at around the same time, i.e. just after 6pm, however the second pic was facing East with the setting sun behind me hence the daylight and pink colouration of the clouds in the sky.

The light facing East was still nice so I wanted to try and capture it but as you say, it was not as dramatic as the sunset, and yes I see how a crop could improve 2 & 3.

Thanks you, yes it was a really nice evening, and it certainly made up for a slow days fishing.

All these shots were taken at around the same time, i.e. just after 6pm, however the second pic was facing East with the setting sun behind me hence the daylight and pink colouration of the clouds in the sky.

The light facing East was still nice so I wanted to try and capture it but as you say, it was not as dramatic as the sunset, and yes I see how a crop could improve 2 & 3.

I read the book and haven't smoked for three weeks, barely think about it now, and am delighted to be a non-smoker. I'll never look back.

I see what you mean, thanks Svenivan!

The fact that rare photographs of high artistic value can fetch large sums at auction is as equally obvious as the points I made in my post.

Although quite how those particular images fetched those sums is beyond me. It's not scarcity alone, and I'm quite sure it's not aesthetics.

Would you pay US$3.8m for this?

or US$ 2.7m for this?

Is it just speculation? Or is it truly a case of beauty (and hence value) being held in the eye of the beholder?

I agree that

"Art is a subjective term used in our society to determine the quality rarity and worth of a created object."

But Art does not determine rarity for that is determined by supply. I'm not sure that I even fully agree that Art determines "worth" either, as the value of a product (as measured in fiscal terms for what else is there?) is determined by what a willing buyer and seller will transact at. Art does however affect desirability of a product and therefore influences demand.

Photography however is not art, but it can be. It is the science of capturing images on photo sensitive material.

In my view scribbles of a pencil, dribbles of paint and a collection of words also do not automatically qualify as art.

I'd disagree, but if you were so inclined you could argue the counter point that all photography is art regardless of the quality of the aesthetics.

But you can not ever reasonably claim that the process of capturing images which in the viewer's subjective opinion are neither suitably creative, imaginative,beautiful or significant is not photography, for all of it is, every single print, snapshot and accidental shot of the inside of a lens cover.

In my opinion only some images will ever be art (to me) and of those that are, some will be of more artistic value than others.

I took these shots last night after a hard, hot, day's fishing which eventually saw me catch three Giant Snakehead and one, small, Barramundi. This meagre haul is half of what I'd normally expect to catch, but the sunset just about made up for it.

I know its usual to post one pic, but I cant decide on one, rather I was hoping that by inviting comments on several shots of (mostly) the same subject with different compositions, it would help me frame better shots in the future.

I have heard that children being raised in a bilingual household can suffer delays in speech development.

Our 2 / 1/2 year old son is coming along quite well, can count to 10, knows many colours, and know the names of most letters. He follows (or at least understands instructions etc) uses two word sentences, but most of his speech consists of one word and there's still a fair bit of gibberish in his language, and is long way off from being fully understood.

What's your experience? When did your bilingual child start talking in complete sentences?

Catch and release is always important, but especially so when fishing for Giant Snakeheads as these are often caught when they are defending their fry, who are left defenceless when anglers take these home for bragging rights. Apparently they don't even taste that good.

They are great sport however, but just take your pic and release quickly at the place of capture.

Agreed, you need an experienced team and good tackle for these monsters. I understand that the Bangpakong River, in Chachoengsao is also home to the Freshwater Giant Stingray

Light tackle is all about bait presentation so I think it makes a big difference when using lures, but am not so sure about baitfishing.

In some ponds at Pilot 111, finesse fishing for Barramundi has started to come into fashion with guys using very light setups with 4lb line and texas rigged soft baits and the like, due in part to the pressure on some of the ponds, and it certainly seems to produce more hookups. Guys using bigger baits and heavier tackle are not catching as much.

But when the bait that you are presenting is a basically a hulking great softball of lum which just sits/floats there and disperses, what aspect of the presentation do you think could be improved with a lighter rig?

I couldn't care less what the fish weighs. A quick photo to savour the memory is all that's needed, and only then if :-

1. its big
   
2. fought particularly well, or
   
3. its a new species (to me)
   

Oh interesting, just checked out some videos on youtube, looks like it could work great for the cats at BSR

Robblok, I'd be keen to learn more about that Burma deal you got that sounds great PM me if you could

Also quick tip for fishing in the reservoirs at Kanchanaburi, or some sure fire action from Pla Krasoob get hold of a gold, bronze or silver spoon (gold has always worked best for me), you should be able to get them in most tackle shops for about 50 Baht each, oh you'll want light tackle though for the best fun.

Interesting, perhaps those baitholders could be tweaked a little. In fact have you heard of Furry THaNGS? They make them in the US for the stink baits used for their catfish, but are a little too small for our purposes. A much bigger one might help keep a softer bait ball on..

Hmm I might experiment with a loafer or something similar, a large surface area (vs a coiled tube) should enable it to hold on to a softer bait.