Our Trip Thus Far (the quick version)
August 22nd, 2007 by Benji Mast
After about sixteen days in Asia, and almost 1400 pictures on my hard drive (that’s after going through and deleting a healthy chunk of the pictures), putting together a post or series of posts that do justice to even a small portion of the trip would be enormously time consuming. Which would make little or no sense, considering I’m now in my second favorite city in the world, Chang Mai, Thailand.
Washington D.C. is still my favorite of course.
A quick summery of our time:
Arrived in Bangkok, Thailand and spent two nights there
Flew to Chang Mai
Went to a Night Safari, Wildlife park, and light show with the IGO students for their end-of-semester/term banquet.
Traveled to a gorgeous resort about an hour and a half away from IGO, and spent one night there
That evening we left our bags at the resort and visited the Compassion Children’s Home.
Fell in love with the kids
The next day we went to a Karen village with our English-speaking, native Karen guide/translator/missionary, the exuberant Gee.
Arrived late afternoon and spent some time in the rice fields before a wonderful meal
Had a service in which I was asked to speak. I never realized what a challenge it would be. I had no knowledge of their language, or of my listeners education level or spiritual maturity. Then, I had to trust Gee to translate my message.
Slept in the huts on the rice paddies
Ate breakfast, visited some of the people of the village, helped a bit with their new church.
That night we ate on top of Chang Mai and visited the night bazaar.
The next day we saw rode elephants and saw a show in which the elephants played soccer and painted pictures, among other things.
The next day most of the IGO students and myself took motorbikes and rode around a mountain, and soaked in the the incredible vistas. Never can I remember feeling more alive then flying around that mountain, wind in my face, a beautiful sun filtering down through trees and fluffy clouds, leaning into curves, and accelerating out of them.
That evening we flew to Shen Zhen, China.
The next day we went to a tourist trap and learned about the different historic sub-cultures of China.
We left that afternoon and rode trains to Hong Kong.
The next day we went on a boat ride within the harbor on which I was very frustrated by the combination of the the incredible skyline of Hong Kong and the inability to capture on the boat satisfactorily.
Because of my frustrations, I determined to get up, before dawn and shoot again, getting the magic hour.
After I rode the taxi back to the hotel that morning, I realized, to my despair that I’d left my camera in the cab. I did everything possible, including filing a police report, get it back but have very little hope. After briefly considering jumping out of my hotel room, I went on to experience some very negative emotions regarding the situation. 
That day we took a tram up Victoria peak and visited some gorgeous gardens and temple. We then rode a boat one hour to Macau. From there we flew to Singapore to Chang Mai.
We caught a Sung Tou (sp?) to our house close to IGO.
I took my laptop upstairs and begin to type and resize pictures
That would bring you up to present
The facts, especially concerning the order of events, are not completely clear to me so the accuracy of some of the above statements may not be 100% true, even though my best efforts were put forth to an effort to give you the facts.
I do have a few pictures to share and some wisdom regarding portraits.
I have recently been convinced that a portrait photographer should chose his light first, and location second. At the resort I told you which went to, they had some thatched pavilion things. They produced some gorgeous open shade. So Heidi and I took some pictures of each other.
Our Family in the Rice Fields
That night we slept in a couple of the huts on the rice paddies.
Sounds like such an interesting and wonderful experience! (The green eyed-monster is rearing his ugly head) I like the broad lighting on Heidi’s face! Well done! Your family picture is very cool.
PS I’m looking forward to the long version!
You will need to do a long version sometime. I’m very, very, sorry about the lose of your camera. I guess this gives you a good excuse to upgrade to the new 40D.
I like the picture of the old man.
totally rotten about losing your camera!!! I would be bummed! But you got some nice shots before. I’m really glad you got to go to the rice paddy village. We loved it there! Gee is the bomb!
Aaron: Ah yes, hopefully the 40D is in my future. I had been waiting for it anyway for some of the features the I was hoping show up in the 30D, primarily dust reduction. I had also hoped to get some money for the XT.
By the way, I only lost one lens, the Tamron 17-50 2.8, because the 70-300 IS 4-5.6 and the 50 1.8 were in my backpack.
I too would like to express my symapathies at the loss of your dear freind. I would also like recommend (quite strongly) that you never get rid of a previous camera, I regret it and I know of others that regret it. You never get you money’s worth out of it and it’s always wise and good to have a back-up, esp. when doing weddings and important shoots. It’s also really handy to have 2 when doing photojournalism, just put a shorter lens on the one and a telephoto on the other. (Makes you feel, and look, really important too, with 2 camera’s hanging from you shoulders.) Sorry for the lengthy comment.
Thanks for the long comment. No apology necessary.
So, if they’re not worth the money you get from a sale, than why not buy a used one on ebay or somewhere for less than it is worth? I’m not trying to be difficult, just wondering.
So, do you think I should get a used 300D or 350D, along with a 40d. Wouldn’t the $350 I spend on another body be better spent on a lens, like an 85 1.8 USM?
I’m not set on a 40D, I would consider getting something lower down on the line, used or new. I need a new wide-to-normal zoom as well, so I’m not sure how my money would be spent best.
Because people learn the hard way, as I did, or they aren’t serious photographers, or they need the money. I’d say it’s up to you, but if you are going to be doing weddings a back-up camera is extremely valuable. If something happens to your normal use camera, a wedding is quite likely the place it would happen. (Murphy’s Law=)Also like I mentioned previously having 2 cameras while PJing is quite awesome, no frantic switching lenses and than kicking yourself for missing the shot. It’s up to you of course, I don’t know how serious you are about photography as a “career” but you seem quite serious and very talented. I’m sure you won’t regret buying the extra camera, I’ve learned that it’s possible to wait for lenses, hard though it may be. My mom once gave me some very good advice, use what you have, be content. Hard, how very well I know! So pray about it and if you have anymore ?’s you can email me.
Awesome shots. I subscribe to your photoblog via Google Reader and I must say, I read over other blogs fairly quickly until I get to your shots. Would you consider doing a post on your photo management workflow (keyword tagging, storage, etc.) once the dust settles from your trip? Who set up that shot of your family? That’s one great family photograph IMHO.
Keep up the great work!
I love the last shot!!
They are all great, IMHO, but when I saw the last one I thought I had to leave a comment. :]
I’m so sry about your lost camera. That’s no fun!
thanks for updating along the way regarding your travels..praying for you all! Great family photo