ATA: Day 9 - The Beach

Day 9

Nov 7

We woke up in our beautiful Thai house in a jungle at the beach.  It's going to be a good day in Thailand.  

A walk down the beach to get our iced coffee and roti breakfast.  Just amazing.  

Another day another longboat.  

MeRa took us for a walk/tour around the little town.  We found these langer monkeys hanging out in the trees.

And a Water Monitor making it's way accross the sidewalk.  It's related to the kimono dragon.

We made our way to another beach which was stunning.

We will be back to photograph this beach tomorrow.

These are the naughty Macaque monkeys.  MeRa didn't like us being this close because they are known for being not so nice and stealing phones and cameras.

We had most of the day free and I spent it floating in the ocean.  Around 3 pm we hopped in a longboat to catch a ride to a Chinese Junk boat.  We were going on a fun snorkel/dinner/sunset trip out to the outer islands.

Our first destination.   Here's Blaze jumping off the top of the boat.

And yours truly, as captured by the captain on his GoPro.

I went out for a snorkel. It was ok, not great.  I wasn't so happy these fisherman wanted to fish in our snorkeling spot.   You can see our boat with the red sails in the background.

Chicken Island.

The crew on this boat were all pirates.  But they were the friendliest pirates you've ever met.  I got that shirt for Don.

Charla (or Charlotte) was born and raised in Italy and was a journalist in her country before she started traveling the world.  She speaks 5 languages and is smart and funny and sharp as a tack.  And she loves her sugar glider. 

Teresa was so fun and funny!

Fun was  had by all.

Drinking Rum before 10 am makes you a pirate not an alcoholic!

I was working on getting the shot above with Charla when MeRa came over.  She knows how to work the light and taught me how to capture this amazing shot of her.

Here's her Instagram post on getting the shot.

{journey of the heart} Amy was part of our Portrait of Thailand workshop. She wanted to get better at capturing magical light. While on our sunset snorkeling trip, I had her sit in a specific spot for a shot of magical light. Then I had her recreate the shot using me. We went back and forth as the red sails junk boat glided us home. That’s what I love about our Portrait of the World workshops. There is all the time in the world to get a technique down. Troubleshoot together. Try again and again until breakthrough. But there is another element I love even more. It’s the journey of the heart that I see our group embark on. Each person is looking for a different treasure, breakthrough, exhale, restart and traveling with your camera to a foreign land never disappoints. Some are complete newbies with a camera, some are husbands who unexpectedly got bit by the photo bug while here, and some are searching for refreshed creativity in their work. I think each person got what they wanted and more! I know Brian and I did! Most the group headed home yesterday. And @briantausend and I already miss each person so much. All the memories made, laughter, and Thailand...beautiful Thailand. Are you interested in coming with us in Nov 2019? If so, DM me or send me an email at info@merakoh.com. And maybe I’ll be taking a portrait of you next year in a beautiful red sarong at sunset as we find breakthrough for your photography. ❤️ To our wonderful group that just left #doesthiselephantmakemybuttlookbig 😂 Ladies are looking great in those headbands! Now you’ve officially gone to Thailand with us! Lol!

A post shared by Me Ra Koh, The Photo Mom (@merakoh) on Nov 10, 2017 at 4:19am PST

Beautiful Golden Light out on the Andaman Sea.  

Me in the water shooting Sue shooting the sunset.

I knew it was going to be another amazing day.

We had dinner on the boat as the sun set.  We made 3 stops today and have one more to go.  Before we got to shore we stopped in a spot to do a night swim with the bioluminescent algae.  I don't love the night swims but I had to check it out.  When you jump in and start moving your hands underwater it looks like little sparks in the water.  Very cool!