As well as photographing butterflies, we had intentions of capturing loads of other macro subjects; but a quick inspection of nearby trails indicated that there was not much on offer. And anyway, it was hard to tear ourselves away from the butterflies.

On the way back to camp our guide asked us if we would like to photograph a couple of birds. Yes we would.

The first was a conveniently placed nest just off the road, where an egg was getting warmth from both a male and female of the species whose name I was told but immediately forgot. They would take it in turns to sit on the egg and I was instructed how to tell the difference between the male and the female; but I immediately forgot.

Although the location was convenient, it was very dark; not helped by an approaching storm. So I was forced to use ISO 6400. Given that, I was quite pleased how well the shots turned out.

Kaeng Krachan National Park is a popular spot for bird photography, and clumps of patient men with long lenses can be found hanging out in the undergrowth in the hope of a passing tweet.

Most of the butterfly shots that I took on our recent trip were with the Olympus 60mm macro. However, I did take along the Panasonic 100-300mm; just in case there were any birds to snap (there were). When I saw this butterfly perched high up in the bushes, I used the long lens and got this:

The original plan was for a photo trip to Kaeng Krachan National Park with neighbour Nik. A couple of days of hardcore insect hunting, free from distractions.

Then she who must be obeyed discovered she had a three day holiday and decided she wanted to come. Then Nik’s girlfriend decided she wanted to come too, and that she had a friend living nearby that she and Nik could visit after the park.

The upshot was two cars, four people, and a nagging concern that the ladies would find a day stuck in a national park to be a bore (which turned out to be unfounded, they had a great time).

So off to Kaeng Krachan National Park with my wife, and all goes well until we turn off the Bangkok bypass and head south down the coast on the opposite side of the Gulf. The traffic slows to a stop; which always seems to be the time when she who must be obeyed decides she needs to pee.

I need a pee.

We are in the outside lane of a three lane jam, with a further two lanes, also jammed, in the adjoining road. So that is five lanes to battle through before we have a hope of getting to a petrol station.

I need a pee.

Sigh.

So I forced my way through the traffic until finally we made it to the roadside lane, and then finally made it to a garage where she who must be obeyed left the car in a hurry making squeaking noises.

Back on the road and nobody is going anywhere, thanks to roadworks in the left two lanes. It is some time before we regain anything that could be regarded as flowing traffic.

We passed the salt fields where flooded salt water is allowed to dry and then the salt is extracted. A much relieved she who must be obeyed was in a pensive mood.

I have a good idea for a photograph. Take a model and cover her in salt, and then take her photo.

Yes, the would look unusual.

(Thinks for a while) Then afterwards you could deep fry her and eat her!

My wife’s brain works in mysterious ways sometimes.

Of course, thoughts about food, however strange, led to the inevitable “I need a pee, and food”; so we stopped for lunch.

Reached the park late afternoon and were pleased to discover that our resort was just a kilometre from the park gates. Rather than check-in, we decided to check out the park. Entry was 200 baht for a farang and 30 baht for a Thai; but as I can actually see the point of double charging in these places, I happily paid up and we made out way up the hill into the park.

After a few kilometres we came across a couple of ponds with butterflies along the edge doing their mud-puddling thing. In our previous macro outings we have been lucky to see a single butterfly, but here were hundreds sitting on the ground and sucking up the mud.

A day of driving to get to Kaeng Krachan National Park. A day of driving to come home again (just arrived). In between, a day spent in the park itself in the company of more butterflies than I have ever seen in one place. Some of them were photographed, here is one:

Adobe; if ever there was a company deserving of a love/hate relationship with photographers….

We love Adobe for Lightroom. It is elegant, powerful and compact; the perfect companion for managing and processing photographs. For what you get, and you get a lot, it’s competitively priced and I could not function photographically without it.

We hate Adobe for Photoshop. We appreciate that Photoshop is an industry standard for graphics; but we like to use just little bits of it for doing things that we just can’t manage in Lightroom. To use Photoshop we need to spend many months working through endless tutorials to get a grasp of what we might want to use to process our photos. By the time we have finished the last tutorial, we have forgotten the first one; and so must spend the rest of our life re-learning the product (although I will concede not everyone is as dumb as me). Oh, and Photoshop is a big fat application that hogs your disk drive.

Regular readers (if any remain) may have noticed a sharp drop in output this month. Maybe it’s something to do with May, last year saw a similar drop in activity in the fifth month.

Blog posts require time, motivation and subject matter. From yesterday’s post it seems evident that subject matter is not really a problem, I am even prepared to write about sticking coffee up my bum. But I have to be in the mood to do some writing, or take some photos, and that motivation has deserted me a little the last few weeks. The other issue has been time.

One of the casualties of my new diet has been coffee. I wasn’t planning to stop drinking it; I just lost the desire for it after a few days of juicing. I still may have an occasional latte when out and about; but the daily morning brew has gone and my gorgeous coffee machine will be going up for sale. But fate decreed I had not seen the last of coffee….

No, not a Mac operating system, this: