>Some lovely photos in your gallery, particularly of the
>family. How long have you been in Thailand? I visit
>occassionally but less often nowadays. I enjoy all of Southern
>Asia and not that I have gotten back into photography after
>decades of film, I would love to go back for an extended photo
>journey. The D800 sure is a good motivation to reshoot so many
>regions I first did with film 30 years ago.
>Stan

Thanks for the nice comments about my pics. I really want to get back to Africa for same more big cat pics. It's been almost 5 years since I spent 10 days their in the bush taking animal pics. My favorite is the one of my group and I reflected in the eye of the wild king cheetah. If you go about 100 picture back in the "My Life section of my gallery you'll see the Africa pics.

If you get to Thailand, look me up and you can drink some of my Scotch in the clubs in return for giving me a chance to practice my Russian. I used to be able to pass for Russian despite being an American. Actually, I'm mostly Thai after 13 years of living here in Thailand mostly. I read and write Thai. My Russian doctor friend doesn't get to many of the local ham radio meetings, so my Russian is going down hill fast. Need a trip to Italy too to get my Italian back up to speed. There are a lot of Russian tourist in Thailand now and they hear me speaking English or Thai and are almost shocked when I switch to Russian. But, I've forgotten most of it. My Russian is REALLY bad now, I think.

I own a software company with centers in the U.S., Thailand, and Lithuania. Lived in Lithuania for 5 years most of the time starting it up and got around speaking Russian. I got so good at saying I don't speak Lithuanian IN Lithuanian that no one believed me.

SE Asia IS a great place for taking pictures. I need to get back to Cambodia again with the D800E. I get to see a Thailand that tourist just can't see. I drive all over the country and take pictures. Speaking the language and being able to read the road signs in Thai, helps a LOT, when you get off the beaten path. Having extended family here, also gets you to places and pictures opportunities that tourist don't have. I like my Thai country kitchen pics and those of the rest shed in the rice field in the morning fog. I need to get backing to taking underwater pics and videos and do more scuba diving again too. I have a video of 12 sharks circling me in Burma that really impresses the girls.

And, AAHHH the Thai girls. I think the most beautiful in the world and with good hearts too. VERY sweet and caring. They make great wives too. But, you have to be careful. I always joke the that MOST beautiful girl I ever saw, was a GUY in Thailand.<G> I think maybe half the guys here are gay, so the women here are a little desperate to find a good husband. As a result, many if not most wealthy Thai guys have a palaiya (or senior wife), 2 or 3 mia noi's ( or minor wives) AND a few fan (girlfriends). I was 60 and had no kids. Now I have a 5 year old daughter and a 4 year old son. Even a fat, old guys like me gets chased by beautiful 20 year old girls that look like they should be Victoria Secret models when they hear you speak Thai and see you as a prospect. They are also really smart and have advanced degrees, so they are interesting too. This accounts for all the pictures of beautiful Thai girls in my gallery.

The international schools here for kids are great if you have the about $10,000 per child for the yearly tuition. By 10 years years they will read, write and speak with native proficiency Thai, English and Chinese for that money. It fun to watch my kids switch languages like that at 4 and 5 years old. So, they are the joy of my life and lately I've only had time for pictures of them.

But, your right again. The my D800E is a good reason to take a lot of pictures again. For low light and action, I still prefer my D3 or D700. But, most of the other stuff is a reason to travel here and go to all the old spots and see what I can do with the D800E. But, it is VERY unforgiving. You have to have perfect technique. But, when you nail it, WOW! I'm getting competent again with my DSLR's.

Nicole is my favorite model right now. I take pictures of her about every 3rd day. I'll try to post some shots of her followed by tight crops of her beautiful eyes to give those that haven't made the D800 purchase yet and idea of what you can do with it.

D3, D700, D300, D2X & D200
New 14-24 F2.8 too!
If your not shooting Nikon your doing
it WRONG!

My Nikonians Gallery