Thailand is one of the best places to take your camera. Why? Because Thailand is bustling with life. Thunderstorms appear and disappear in moments, festivals are practically a daily occurance if you know where the next one is going to be, market places popup seemingly out of nowhere, and general street life is played out in a way that lends itself to the camera’s eye. There are unlimited opportunities to take photographs in Thailand.

Thailand is a rough and ready place - full of friendly people, hazardous drivers, markets on every corner, and dogs everywhere. Even So, hotels give you a service that’s a couple of stars about what you pay for. In fact, no matter where you go, anticipate a friendly and professional service.

So who’s been there already? You want to see such photos from Thailand? Then check our photo gallery on thailandimpression.com. Our website features photos from all different types of settings in Thailand : from countryside photos, beach photos of Thailand, to sunset photos, photos in Bangkok and other urban photos, as well as more traditional photos of Thai temples. We show you our view of this wonderful country, not only via the lens of a photographic camera, but in manipulation of the resulting picture via photographic software - to twist the reality into sometimes subtle, sometimes fresh new views of what the camera saw. Maybe after seeing the photos on our website, you’ll think about taking a holiday in Thailand?! Even if for some unexplainable reason you felt you’d exhausted all the possibilities Thailand has to offer you, there are the neighbouring lands of Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia to travel through too!

It was widely reported in the press (15 September 1997) that a British tourist, who stole a lump of stone from the base of the Great Pyramid five years earlier, returned it to the Cairo Museum with a letter saying that ‘it had brought him bad luck ever since’. The Museum authorities were not surprised; several such items had been returned by people who felt cursed {When the Luxor Casino was built in Las Vegas it moved on its foundation so the elevators had a lot of re-engineering to be done, while I lived in Las Vegas. The death toll during its construction was nine. Do you think a religious and spiritual force knows when it is being improperly sullied?} after stealing them. A good reason for caution is the largely bogus story of an Egyptian coffin lid - or fragment of a coffin lid. It was told to Arthur Weigall, author of ‘Tutankhamen’ (1923) by its one-time owner, Mr. Douglas Murray who purchased the coffin some time in the 1860s: ‘no sooner had he done so than he lost his arm, owing to the explosion of his gun. The ship in which the coffin was sent home was wrecked, and so was the cab in which it was driven from the docks; the house in which it was deposited was burnt down; and the photographer who made a picture of it shot himself. A lady who had some connection with it suffered great family losses, and was wrecked at sea shortly afterwards…The list of accidents and misfortunes charged to the spirit which is connected with this coffin is now of enormous length.

The presence of an Egyptian mummy on board is sometimes blamed for the loss of the ‘Titanic’. It was said to have been shipped to New York on the supposedly unsinkable liner. Its coffin, no.22542 in the British Museum, is associated with the curse, and Museum authorities caution people who propose to photograph it.” (2)

Negative self-fulfilling expectations are a difficult thing for people to deal with in conjunction with the sorcerers’ art. This is the concept of the ‘War Bottle’ that turns your idiosyncrasies into more unbalanced certitudes that makes a strength become a fatal weakness. It is also the nature of energy that caused a large number of early North American Indians to forego the vanity of having their picture taken. Some of them listened to their wise men talk of the soul being frozen in the minds of those who would see the picture, and thus their spirit would not grow with them. There certainly is truth to the fact that our thoughts impact others. Our thoughts are energy and the thoughts of many people who thought negatively about the ’stupid savages’ may have had just the impact the shamans and witch-doctors were certain would happen. The curse of humanity is that our soulful energy deceives our ego into thinking we are powerful. The ego doesn’t understand. ‘WE’ is not ‘me’!

CANDLE MAGIC:

Reversing candles are a great thing to protect yourself from the intent of people sending negative energy at you, but talismans and mandalas galore have been most reliable for the minor flare-ups. The cross is a mandala with four entry points for the assimilation of the four primary forces to become balanced at the ‘center’. What you choose for faith in your goodness has much to do with your actual protection. In many ways a ritualistic process opens you through your own energy to the very things you project. This is true in the macrocosm of humanity as well as in the insipid little parcels of power-mongering flesh that think they deserve more than the numerous other life forms that have soul and ethics.

One person (or persons) sought to make me suffer and there were some disturbing physical responses. The individuals involved were gay and they had hit on me numerous times. My response was a joke or a simple ‘not my style’. One of them was in charge of three covens of witches and fancied himself the meanest ‘SOB’ in the Las Vegas Valley. He had a lot of good knowledge about Biblical origins and history and I enjoyed talking with him. The more he tried to impress me the less he succeeded. I made it clear I did not fear him or anything.

The day my penis started to bleed was when I actually thought I might need more than my usual ‘mirror and cross’ visualization. I used a reversing candle and within a day the place where Lord Gandolph holed up when he was in Las Vegas was burned. His boyfriend (who had enjoyed my leather pants and boots) lost all of his belongings. This caused me to leave the teaching of the Wiccans after six months of ‘Perfect Love, and Perfect Trust’! About a year later I discovered the high priestess had thought I was a ‘Machiavellian Prince sent to overturn her Temple’ and Lord Gandolf was one of her Temple Elders. There are many actual reasons why I know such things occur and I will relate them as it seems pertinent from time to time. The pursuit of ’siddhis’ (powers) is a quest that robs one of their actual potential according to Alcyon who rejected his Messiahhood at the age of eight; later he became honoured even more for his truth. You may have seen or heard about this great man who recently left our physical place of reference - his name is Jiddhu Krishnamurti.

Author of Diverse Druids
Columnist for The ES Press Magazine

Guest ‘expert’ at World-Mysteries.com

I have a photo quality ink jet printer that can print very good colour photos, on photo style paper. I was intrigued when a number of well known retailers started offering to print digital photos for less than it costs me for the paper alone.

So, I ordered a group of 4×6 prints from one of them, by uploading the files to their website. If a store that does this is convenient to you, you can pick them up. If not, they will ship them for a small extra charge.

I ordered mine on a Tuesday, after supper, and they were delivered via regular mail that same Friday. I was impressed. That same store now has a walk-in 1 hour service for the same price.

To test the effect of extra pixels, I sent them the same photo 6 times. The only difference in the photos was the resolution:
- 150 dpi (600 pixels x 900 pixels)
- 200 dpi (800 x 1200)
- 250 dpi (1000 x 1500)
- 300 dpi (1200 x 1800)
- 350 dpi (1400 x 2100)
- 400 dpi (1600 x 2400)

The photo was a picture of a couple I know. One of them had highlights in their hair, and gel had been used, so hair was sticking out somewhat. When I looked very closely at the photos (naked eye only, no magnifiers) at fine details like the hair, I could detect a minor difference between the 150 dpi and the 400 dpi, (actually, there was even a bit of a difference noted between 150 and 200) but if the photos are destined for your photo album, you would never know the difference, in my opinion.

On a 4×6, lets say you go with 200 dpi just to be sure. That is 800 pixels by 1200 pixels. That is about 1 mega pixel. If you go to your local digital camera reseller today, you probably cannot buy a serious camera that is less than 2 or 3 mega pixels. A 2 mega pixel camera gives you almost 1200 x 1800, which at 200 dpi lets you print a 6 x 9 print. At 150 dpi, you can get an 8 x 10 easily from a 2 mp. (p.s. the store I used will NOT print anything less than 150 dpi)

Based on my tests, a 2 mega pixel camera can print a fair quality 8 x 10 print. If you just need 4 x 6 prints, you will get great prints from even a 1 mega pixel. Need I remind you that the current pricing is less than I pay for the paper alone.

Do I use my fancy photo quality printer anymore? Not very often.

Richard Killey is an amateur photographer who shares the love of his hobby with readers of his website. Visit http://www.photosbyrichard.ca to read other articles of interest.