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Yearly Archives: 2013

Heart to Heart

Salaries again

Hillary -
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Dear Hillary, Regards the chap Brian who pays his GF a 30,000 baht salary each month - Brian your first step should be to...
Heart to Heart

Cost of Living

Hillary -
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One respondent asked last week about the cost of living in Pattaya, and this brought out many replies from the readers.  Mark wrote, Welcome...
Heart to Heart

Chasing a dream?

Hillary -
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Dear Hillary, I don’t believe the bar girls are anymore “out for what they can get” than the fellows pursuing them.  They have a...
Heart to Heart

Gender benders

Hillary -
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Dear Hillary, There are lots of theories, but may I ask the thorny question, ‘Are you actually a lady of the female gender?’  Your...
The most photographed subjects for amateur photographers are family members. However, if your family members include some Thai ladies, the most photographed subject is themselves, taken with phone cameras and called “selfies”. You can recognize these very quickly as you get a mis-shapen arm in the photo as well, but I shall ignore that type of “photography” as being not worthwhile discussing. However, good portraits can be achieved by any amateur photographer, with a ‘real’ camera (even a point and shooter), but you need to follow some directions. Here are 10 tips for better portraits. Tip 1. Walk in closer. It is the single most important tip to better portraits. Even with a point and shoot compact, walk in till the subject fills the viewfinder from the chest up. Talk to the subject and click when they least expect it to get a “natural” look. Tip 2. If you have a camera with a “portrait mode” then use it! This is one area where I and the manufacturers agree. The portrait mode with modern cameras does work. It maximizes the settings to produce the most pleasing effect, gets rid of backgrounds and sets the exposure to allow for the best skin tones. Use it. Tip 3. Use the flash in daylight. If you have a fancy camera with “Fill Flash” facility, then turn it on and you will see the final images you get have now got sparkle and punch. If you have not, but have a flash you mount on top of the camera, use it, and turn it to around f2.8 to f4. This will not overpower the daylight, but will give catch-lights in the eyes. Tip 4. Watch for horrible backgrounds. It is so easy to concentrate so hard on the subject that you do not really “see” the background, which can be confusing and cluttered. Try to keep the subject as far away as possible from all backgrounds and if you have manual mode or aperture priority mode, then set the aperture f stop at around f 4. Also get the subject to stand/sit at an angle to you - not straight on, and only then to look at the camera. Tip 5. Shoot in the early mornings or in the late afternoons. At both of these times the light is more flattering than it is at mid-day, when you will get harsh shadows cutting across the face from the nose. Tip 6. If you have a zoom or a telephoto lens then now is the time! Using around 135 mm, this is called by some people the ideal ‘portrait lens’, then you again flatter the face and help throw the background out of focus - particularly if you have followed Tip number 4. Tip 7. Turn the camera on its side so you have the viewfinder in portrait mode as well. People are taller than they are wide, so it makes sense to have the maximum dimension vertically, doesn’t it! By all means, take a couple of shots in the so called horizontal “landscape” view, but the majority should be verticals. Tip 8. The nose is not the central point of any portrait. In the center of the viewfinder there is generally a small area which you can use for getting the focus point. After you have set the focus, move the central point off the person’s nose! The more likely central point will be the mouth or chin. Tip 9. Super trick! Use a gold colored reflector to give the skin that healthy glow. Just glue some gold wrapping paper to a piece of cardboard about 1 meter square and get an assistant to move it so it reflects “golden glow” into the subject. This is particularly flattering for pale skinned folk. Tip 10. With older subjects stretch a piece of nylon stocking tightly across the lens. This will act as a soft focus filter and smooth out many of the wrinkles we like to pretend we haven’t got! Follow those ten simple hints and you will soon be taking shots as good as, if not better than, the local neighborhood portrait photographer. After all, he’s only following those 10 steps as well.
Photography

10 tips for better portraits

Harry Flashman -
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The most photographed subjects for amateur photographers are family members.  However, if your family members include some Thai ladies, the most photographed subject is...
Modern Medicine

Prostate Cancer – demystified – and – is the PSA worthwhile?

Pattaya Mail -
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The male child is born with a subconscious fascination for the anatomy in his nappy.  Watch an infant learning his anatomy.  As the boy...
(L to R) Baki Colpam, reservation and contracting manager of Pegas, presents a souvenir to Robert John Lohrmann, general manager, and George Kenton, EAM-rooms of Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort Pattaya as the favorite hotel chain of its Russian and Eastern European clientele.
Travel & Tourism

Russian tour operators Pegas rates Centara Hotels & Resorts best

Pattaya Mail -
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Tour operator Pegas Touristik has rated Centara Hotels & Resorts as the favorite hotel chain of its Russian and Eastern European clientele. ...
Antonello Passa at the Award-winning Royal Cliff Hotels Group.
Travel & Tourism

Royal Cliff Hotels Group warmly welcomes new General Manager

Pattaya Mail -
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The Royal Cliff Hotels Group is pleased to announce the recent appointment of its new General Manager Antonello Passa, an Italian national with over...
Dr. Sorajak Kasemsuvan (5th left), THAI President, presided over the opening ceremony for the two new destinations. Also participating at the ceremony were Chokchai Panyayong (3rd right), THAI Senior Executive Vice President of Commercial; Woranate Laprabang (3rd left), Managing Director of THAI Smile, Aphinun Vannagkura (4th right), Executive Vice President, Aeronautical Radio of Thailand, Flying Officer Chaturongkapon Sodmanee (4th left), General Manager of Don Mueang International Airport, and Group Captain Samai Chanthon (5th right), Vice President Aerodrome Standards and Occupational Health Department.
Travel & Tourism

THAI launches inaugural flights to Chongqing and Changsha, China

Pattaya Mail -
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THAI Smile, the sub-brand and business unit of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI), held a simultaneous launch ceremony at Suvarnabhumi Airport for...
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Latest Stories

Депутаты требуют реформы закона о развлекательных заведениях, указывая на нелегальную ночную жизнь и коррупцию...

Паттайя Мэйл -
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ПАТТАЙЯ, Таиланд – Депутаты партии People’s Party призвали правительство ускорить реформу закона о развлекательных заведениях, заявив, что большинство ночных заведений в стране работают без...

Угроза штормов нависла над Паттайей после дней изнуряющей жары

Паттайя Мэйл -
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ПАТТАЙЯ, Таиланд – Жителям и туристам Паттайи рекомендовано сохранять бдительность после предупреждения Thai Meteorological Department о летних штормах, которые затронут большую часть верхнего Таиланда...

Пожилая супружеская пара погибла в Краби после того, как внедорожник врезался в опору линии...

Паттайя Мэйл -
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КРАБИ, Таиланд – Пожилая супружеская пара погибла в результате аварии в провинции Краби, когда их внедорожник врезался в опору линии высокого напряжения. Пара направлялась...

Пьяный китайский турист задержан в Паттайе за домогательства и конфликт с охраной ночного клуба

Паттайя Мэйл -
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ПАТТАЙЯ, Таиланд – Китайский турист был задержан после того, как, по сообщениям, домогался двух молодых женщин и вступил в конфликт с охраной ночного клуба...

Betrunkener chinesischer Tourist in Pattaya festgenommen – Vorwurf der Belästigung und Auseinandersetzung mit Sicherheitskräften

Pattaya Blatt -
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PATTAYA, Thailand – Ein chinesischer Tourist wurde in Gewahrsam genommen, nachdem er in den frühen Morgenstunden des 22. April in einem Nachtclub in Süd-Pattaya...
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