Motorcycling in Thailand
This photo is from a trip to Thailand in 2007. Meghan and I spent a few days in Bangkok and then went up North for a bit of an adventure through the hills of Northern Thailand. We rented some motorbikes (OK.. scooters) in Chiang Mai and then spent the next 4 or 5 days circling around the ‘Golden Triangle.’
One day in particular was memborable for the scenery and roads. On this day we drove through small villages and on these small roads that twisted through the steep hillsides. We saw some amazing sights and beautiful scenery.
I had a few cameras with me on this trip (which I usually do). In addition to my SLR, I packed a smaller point and shoot camera which was handy for walking around at night or quick movies or action shots.
In this case however, I had my SLR (a Nikon D70) slung around my neck. I snapped away happily while driving along. During stops I’d look at the exposures and decide what to change for the next stretch of road. In this series of photos I opened the aperture a bit so that I’d get a bit of leeway on the focal range and also to slow the shutter speed so that I could include a little blur. In doing so, I was able to capture the feeling of motion as we wind our way through the narrow roads.
I love the way that the road blurs, the lean of the motorbike (granted, Meghan’s not scraping any knees here*), and even the over-exposed section of the road out there in the distance – it’s like we’re driving into the unknown – which of course we were. We were driving along pretty small roads here, and we never knew what would be around the corner – a village, a truck, a pig or a chicken?
This was definitely a highlight of our trip and both of us are looking forward to our opportunity to do it again.
* as an aside, Meghan did do some knee-scraping earlier on the trip.. (though not the good kind)
