The visitor statistics for the first day of this blog are lost in the foggy mists of time; but I would guess the number to be 5. Two of those would be people I encouraged to take a look, the remaining three would be as the result of typos.

I was pretty much expecting similar from my new enterprise, Micro Four Thirds Info. In fact I didn’t even bother configuring the statistics gathering tool until late yesterday morning. Most surprising, and encouraging, therefore to discover that the visitor numbers for the (half) day were 667. Most of these came via the 43 Rumors (sic) site which is an excellent source of M43 gossip, and also provides links to other reviews, like mine.

News from the home country has been interesting this week, with an increasing number of retail outlets reporting that a percentage of beef in their beef products is actually horse.

Personally, I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. Horses, cows, sheep, pandas, they’re all just food on legs; kept in appalling conditions that we would rather not know about before being slaughtered in a concrete room awash with blood and then neatly packaged for our consumption. Yummy.

Where? I hear you ask. Or more likely: Oh shit, not another one of his tedious reviews.

Be still your beating heart gentle reader, for today is a momentous day in the expansion of the Pattaya Days™ empire.

Not many of you were around in March 2008 when we first opened our doors and the initial, tentative post dropped onto the unsuspecting wide wide world of web. And now here we are, a zillion posts later, and thousands hundreds several readers per day. My how we have grown.

The Pattaya Days Oscar preparations continue with a look at a couple of films nominated in the documentary category, plus one that hasn’t been nominated for an Oscar but is a worthy watch anyway. Five Broken Cameras - Emad Burnat is a Palestinian farmer who bought a video camera in 2005 to record the birth of his son. He then used the camera to record life in and around his village. Illegal land seizure by the Israelis and the building of a security wall which divided the village’s land, became a focal point of protests. Burnat recorded these protests, and continued to do so over a period of five years; using a succession of cameras after Israeli troops destroyed them; once by firing a bullet at Burnat’s head, which luckily hit the camera instead of him. One of Burnat’s friends is not so lucky, killed by troops from the other side of a security fence during a peaceful protest. Burnat himself is harassed, beaten up and imprisoned; for the crime of using a camera on his own land.

Thailand has a reputation as being a centre for the sex industry. There, I said it; because it’s true. And the reputation is well-founded; not just for the obvious sex-for-sale areas targeted at foreigners such as Pattaya, Patpong and Soi Nana; but also for the even more massive industry that supports the Thai male’s requirements for horizontal recreational activities.

Naturally enough, this is not something that the Thai government would want to emphasise on tourist literature, but it is there, everyone know it is there, and many people are making a great deal of money out of it.

After breakfast and coffee with she who must be obeyed, I met up with Kevin and his brother who are pointing a variety of lenses at Thailand for a month. Unfortunately, they are all Nikon lenses, but forgive and forget is my motto (not really).

Kevin is the real deal. Wedding photographer, wildlife photographer, a man who actually makes a living from photography; as compared to someone who just ponces around with an ever-changing collection of kit (that would be me). As befits his status, he doesn’t travel light.

Real photographers shoot RAW and then massage the output in the software of their choice. But I’m not a real photographer, so when I get a new camera which offers a selection of effects filters; then I am going to have a play.

Not something I would use every day, but I had some fun taking some snaps using a selection of filters, including Dramatic Tone, Key Line and Pop Art; although I have no idea which was which in these images: