Playing with HDR Photography Ayutthaya

HDR Photography or High Dynamic Range Photography is the process by which multiple pictures are taken at different exposure levels and then combined afterwards on a computer.  The aim is to create a picture that contains a higher level of contrast than would be possible by taking a single picture.  The result looks somewhat surreal, like a ghostly painting.

The day I was taking pictures happened to be very overcast with a gray sky which is not ideal for taking pictures in general but especially, as I've now learned, for playing with HDR photography but here's my results.

Here are the three pictures at different exposure levels.

And here's the tone-mapped HDR imaged.

Below are four more HDR images of Ayutthaya, just for fun.

Ayutthaya

Here are some pictures I took on my day trip to Ayutthaya, the capital of Thailand from 1350 to 1767.  The site is well preserved now but still lays in ruins from it's destruction at the hands of the Burmese army and more recently by the flooding in Thailand.  In some of the pictures the water line is visible towards the base of structures.

The man in the picture above is Jeremy from France.  I met him in my favorite restaurant in Bangkok, Ethos.  All the tables were full so he ended up joining me at mine and we had a delightful meal and then decided to meet back for breakfast in the morning and do a day trip to Ayutthaya after (a little over two hour train ride from Bangkok).

Jeremy used to manage a restaurant in London that from what he told me, sounded too hip for words, complete with four projectors pointed at each of the walls playing artsy student films.  He said he had to take a break because the job had turned him into a vampire, going to bed at 11:00 every morning.

When we got off the train in Ayutthaya the first thing we did was eat some pad thai (always the first step), and then rented bicycles and ferried across a river to the historical site and began exploring.

...should have taken the extra minute to get perfect framing.  I was so close!

Some very apparent damage due to the recent floods.

Some very apparent damage due to children.

A temple housing and absolutely massive golden Buddha.

May Kaidee's Cooking School

Before leaving Bangkok I knew I had to take a Thai cooking course.  I decided on May Kaidee's cooking school after eating at one of her restaurants.  Simply amazing.  I was surprised to find so many vegetarian Thai restaurants in Bangkok, a special breed I had thought to be reserved for California.  A word to the wise about taking a cooking course: go hungry.  I mean really hungry.  By some lucky chance I was the only one who signed up for a group course on this particular day so I actually got a private lesson with two teachers.  The one to my left is May Kaidee.

The first thing we did was make a green chili paste from scratch.  Below are all the fresh ingredients which I ground together using a mortar and pestle.  This paste would be used later in some of the other dishes.

Here is the kitchen set-up.  I hadn't known before that if you have all the ingredients prepared (like they are below) then every Thai dish takes a maximum of 5 minutes to cook.  Under the wok, the fire is either off or blazing hot, no slowly cooking over a medium heat in a Thai kitchen.

Below are just some of the dishes that I prepared.  Essentially, on this afternoon I ate a 14 course meal.

Green Thai Curry.

Isaan.

Pad Thai.

Ingredients for making fresh spring rolls.  I had done this a few times back in California but all the ingredients were bagged and the rice paper was dried and had to be soaked in water before using.  Here, I watched a woman make the spring roll wrapper in front of me.

Grinding up ingredients to make a pumpkin hummus?  Definitely not traditional Thai food but absolutely astounding nonetheless.

Pumpkin hummus is best with sticky rice on a mint leaf and then dipped into a dipping sauce made of soy sauce, chili, garlic, lime juice, rice powder (uncooked rice roasted in a pan, galangal or Thai ginger, lemon grass, and kafir lime leaf all smashed together), and coriander.

A green papaya salad that I devoured before remembering to take a picture.

And finally a dessert of black sticky rice with sliced mango and banana resting in boiled coconut milk.  By this time I was so full I didn't even know what to do with myself but then I had one bite of the dessert and had no choice but to continue eating.  After the course I stayed at the restaurant for a few hours more, partly because they were really nice and fun to be around, but also because I was 80% certain that I couldn't walk.

The next day they invited me to come back and go to the market with them in the morning and then learn how to chop the vegetables that had been prepared for me the day before.  Below was my vegetable chopping coach.

And for my work chopping vegetables I was allowed free reign over the kitchen to make myself whatever Thai dish I pleased.  I went with a Thom Kha soup.

And as an added bonus, there was a man from New York living upstairs that was helping May Kaidee to establish an online presence and film some cooking lessons.  You can check out their work here: 

http://www.maykaidee.com/

After chopping vegetables and eating lunch I went upstairs with him and got to see some of a documentary he's working on about Afghanistan as well as play with his cameras, a Canon 7D and a 5D Mark II.  Whoa mama, what beasts of machines they are.

A very delicious two days.