JANUARY

Bistros with the word “Wine” in their names

Wine I Love You at Crystal Design Center opens to long queues and kicks off the trend of ridiculously named restaurants: Wine Me Up, Y Wine Y, X Wine Z, Wine Republic, Wine 33, Tell Me Wine, Wine Fusion, etc.

FEBRUARY

Thai Football

As the Thai Premier League Season kicks off, the local football scene continues to grow in leaps and bounds, with better stadiums, more fans, and growing media coverage.
Online Korean Shopping on Facebook
It’s all the craze: clever entrepreneurs are opening Facebook pages selling imported K-fashion.
Mono-Food Restaurants
Hot on the heels of BonChon Chicken, BKK Bagel Bakery opens, a sign of a growing appetite for mono-dish venues that do less, but do it right. Later in 2011, Bangkok Burger Company and Din Tai Fung also open.
Preah Vihear
All eyes were on the Khmer temple in February, as escalating tensions led to border clashes between Thailand and Cambodia.
Flood Prevention
Sukhumband announces a five-year plan to add three new drainage tunnels, with work set to begin in 2012. Right.

MARCH

Oskar

With comforting French food, a busy bar in the middle, and Bed as its neighbor, Oskar proves perfect for late dinners and pre-club drinks.
Planil Temban
After “Kid Dee Dee” climbed to #6 on the Fat Radio charts the band become one of 2011’s most exciting new arrivals.
Rich Kids Who Can’t Drive
First a hi-so 17-year-old, Orachorn Thephasadin na Ayudhya, runs a minivan off the road, killing nine of its passengers. Then a 19-year-old Rangsit student chops a Lao girl in half with daddy’s Porsche. The compensation police suggested he pay? B200,000.

APRIL

Songkran Titties

“It hurts the image of Thailand, in particular Silom,” says Bangrak District Office Director Surakiat Limcharern of the two teenagers who showed off their breasts during the water wars. Perhaps Surakiat was upset that no ping pong balls were involved, as Silom’s “image” would have warranted.
Maroon 5
After a string of old geezers (Scorpion, Eric Clapton, Santana), Maroon 5 was a slightly fresher inter band to grace Bangkok.
Income Gaps and Food Prices
While just 5.1% of those making under 15K per month saw their income increase in the first quarter of 2011, 24.1% of those making more than 75K saw their income rise. Also, 56% of those under 15K said they are actually making less! Meanwhile street sellers are complaining that ingredient prices have nearly doubled recently.
99 Rest Backyard & Café
It takes Ian Kittichai and a really cute garden setting to make a place out on Rama 9 this hot with the hi-so crowd.
Fujifilm Finepix X100
A beautiful object that takes compact cameras to a whole new level thanks to its fixed lens (no zoom) and larger sensor.

MAY

Reya

Seems like we like bitches. Or we’d like to be bitches. Or we love to hate bitches. Whatever it was, Reya struck a nerve.
The Drums
A genuinely hot young indie band took us all surfing at Muse.
Hangover II
Apichatpong show monks playing the guitar. And girls can’t take off their shirts in Silom. Then suddenly, monkeys are giving monks blowjobs while ladyboys do drugged tourists in the ass. Not that we cared. Or laughed.
Herbie Hancock
Here’s one old geezer we were happy to welcome. The granddaddy of electro funk is not only a virtuoso, but also a genuinely warm performer. Bravo!
Funny Campaign Posters

JUNE

Pop-Up Restaurants

WTF opens up a space across the street, Opposite, which soon plays host to pop-up restaurant nights. Later, Chef McDaeng also hosts a pop-up in the achingly hip Warp 54 Studio. The trend hasn’t exactly picked up steam since, but we’re still hoping it will catch on.
Campaign Promises
Remember the tablets, B300 minimum wage and B20 BTS and MRT rides? OK, that’s all Yingluck, but the Democrats too had some goodies: 12 high-speed rail lines and a 25% minimum wage hike.

JULY

Yingluck Wins

Thailand elects its first female prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra. This marks a return to power for the Thaksin clan since he was ousted by the military in 2006; and a massive vote of no confidence for the Democrats.
Kylie
The diminutive Aussie pop icon returns to Bangkok with a fabulous (and fabulously gay) extravaganza. Come back any time, Kylie!
Community Malls
As more shops open at City Viva, it’s clear that 2011 is taking the community mall trend to new heights. The tally for 2011: The Circle (although it soft-launched in 2010), CDC Phase 2, Seenspace, City Viva, Portico Langsuan and The Nine.

AUGUST

Preppy Vintage

Checkered shirts and rolled up chinos, to be worn barefoot with loafers, were 2011’s obligatory look.
The On Nut Extension
After years of delays, the BTS line finally extends all the way to Soi Bearing (Sukhumvit 107) with instant success.
The Bangkok Burger Company
Despite mixed reviews (patty falls apart, buns not homemade tasting enough), BBC remains one of the rare noteworthy restaurant openings in 2011, a pretty bad year on that front if compared to 2010.

SEPTEMBER & AUGUST

Singapore’s Hot!

It’s not just the Formula 1 and the big-name concerts with cheesy inter stars, but Marina Bay’s 2011 openings from the Louis Vuitton shop and the ArtScience Museum to new club Avalon, have given us reasons to go back.
Heavy Rains
We were just about done erasing the 2010 floods from our memories when it started raining again, the September death toll quickly reaching 100.

OCTOBER

Casino Busts

Following up on Chuvit’s clips of illegal gambling dens, Chalerm seizes this golden opportunity to reshuffle the police force’s top brass. What about the casinos? They seem to have mysteriously disappeared when police show up.
Authentic Bistros
Screw Le Normandie. With the recent openings of Le Petit Zinc, Chez Pape, Surface and D’Orsay we now have more cheap and cheerful French options than ever.
Terminal 21
Just as the floods are starting to affect the capital, Bangkokians show that nothing can stop them from shopping, especially if it’s at a 9-story themed wonderland with plenty of cheap, no-brand shops.
Bangkok is Flooded
It won’t. Will it? Oh wait, it has? Yes, Bangkok did flood in the end, mostly in the West and North.

NOVEMBER & DECEMBER

Headshot

Pen-ek’s much anticipated noir has its moments, but the convoluted plot leaves no space for its characters to come to life.
Ikea
Hot on the heels of Terminal 21 comes another shopping marathon that packs in throngs of Bangkokians. Located in Bangna, the massive Ikea warehouse also signals the rise of the suburbs, where many recent community malls have opened, in part thanks to better public transport.
Electro Heavyweights
First Fischerspooner bring their exciting visuals and virtuoso electro sound to Bed; then its Brian Eno’s darlings, Ladytron, with an admittedly lackluster performance at LED.
Leaked Clips and Pics
From Sek Loso doing crystal meth to Utt showing off on his webcam, celebrities still don’t understand that they should avoid digital recording devices.
Primitive
pichatpon’s exhibition on the themes of his Palme D’Or winning Uncle Boonmee finally comes to Thailand.
 

DECEMBER

Supoj Saplom Robbed

They took 700,000! One million. Three million. 10 million. 20. 120! 120? Going. Gone! (Note to Japan, next time you lend us money, don’t give it to us in cash.)
Rooftop Parties
With the New Year's eve celebrations and cooler weather, rooftops are the place to end 2011 in style (see page 32). Happy New Year everyone!

Cassoulet

The French like to slow cook. Boeuf Bourguinon, pot au feu, cassoulet—all that stuff ends up in a pot where you cook it for hours (and even then it always tastes better the next day, reheated). Cassoulet is made with white beans (ideally from the small town of Tarbes) and chunks of meat: lamb, duck confit, Toulouse sausage. Although a Southwestern dish, it’s a heavy winter food: rich, fatty and filling.
Have it at: Chez Pape for B430. 110/1 Sukhumvit Soi 11, 02-255-2492. Open Mon-Sat 4pm-midnight, Sun 11am-10pm.

Cold Cuts (Assiette de Charcuterie)

You can probably get better ham in Spain and Italy, but France does do marvelous prepared pork specialties called charcuterie: rillettes, terrine, saucisse and saucisson. What does it all mean? Rillettes is pork slow-cooked in its fat and served cold, as a spread. Terrine (and pate) are similar, but usually using chunkier cuts of meats, and not quite as much fat. Saucisse and saucisson are dry, cured sausages that one cuts in thin slices, like salami. Have them before a meal, with red wine.
Have it at: Le Petit Zinc’s assiette de charcuterie is B290/550 (small/large) and includes Serrano cured ham, saucisse seche, rosette de Lyon (a kind of saucisson), rillettes de porc and some duck or pork terrine. 110/1 Sukhumvit Soi 23, 02-259-3033. Open Tue-Sun 11am-midnight. Closed Dec 23-Jan 3.

Croque Monsieur

This is comfort food for the kiddies but the difference between an American cheese sandwich and French fast food is the sharp Emmental cheese from Switzerland. Toast the bread, slather with butter and béchamel, add a slice of proper ham, top with the cheese, and finish browning in the oven. Fried egg optional for the protein-hungry.
Have it at: Café Tartine for B190 (B215 with an egg). G/F, Athenee Residence, Soi Ruamrudee, 65 Wireless Rd., 02-168-5464. Open daily 8am-8pm. BTS Ploenchit.

Steak Tartare

This is a classic, a favorite and a deceptively simple dish. You take raw ground beef (snobs hand chop it) and mix in a bunch of stuff (chopped shallots, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, capers, an egg yolk). But because it’s so simple, the seasonings’ proportions are a high-wire act, and because it’s raw, the beef has to be perfect.
Have it at: Le Bouchon for B580. 37/17 Patpong Soi 2, 02-234-9109. Open Mon-Sat noon-3pm; daily 6:30-11pm. BTS Sala Daeng.

Confit de Canard

Confit de canard is becoming pretty ubiquitous on Thai menus. It’s made by slow-cooking a duck’s leg in the duck’s own fat. Snobs complain that local ducks are too lean, not free-range or not fed the right stuff, but honestly this is one dish that a lot of places get surprisingly right if they can resist the urge to overcook it.
Have it at: Oskar has an unusual presentation for its confit, serving it as morsels layered with mash potatoes and then oven-baked. Duck parmentier, B250. 24 Sukhumvit Soi 11, 02-254-6357. Open daily 6pm-2am.

Moules Frites

To the rest of the world, mussels and French fries are as Gallic as Gallic gets. But even the French will admit this stuff is really from Belgium. The dish is a shockingly simple, but dazzling, combination of mussels (usually cooked in white wine) and fries. The problem is that in Thailand most places serve green mussels, which aren’t nearly as good as the kind growing on the northern shores of Europe.
Have it at: Bouchot, where a pound of blue fin mussels is B620. 110/1 Sukhumvit Soi 23, 02-259-3033. Open Tue-Sun 11am-midnight.

Why do an exhibition?
It’s always related to the films or short films I’m doing. It’s a kind of rough sketch, or an opportunity to do something abstract that I can’t do in a movie. For Primitive, there’s Uncle Boonmee [the movie], a book, short films—many fragments. And sometimes it’s almost a performance when I collaborate with the people [in Nabua]. But since there’s less money here, this exhibition is more intimate [than the Primitive exhibitions abroad].

You’re dealing with the memory of people killed by the Thai army. Do you ever self-censor?
Even though the work is political, I don’t feel a need to censor myself. I don’t want to make a heavy political film. The installation should represent yourself, your take, your shared memories of the people there, with the hope that afterwards people can go back and talk about what happened or look it up on the internet.

Still, it is very political.
It’s impossible not to talk politics. The education system is just an illusion in Thailand. The way I grew up, the education I received, the history books of my nephew, they’re full of lies, full of propaganda. What Thailand has been going through is lies, many lies. We went to listen firsthand and record many hours of conversation with the older generations [in Nabua], to reeducate ourselves, even if it’s rather late. There are certain key institutions involved, like the army and... Something is still there. It’s about the fear, the cultural fear. Faith and fear. You worship something and, at the same time, you can’t step out of line.

You don’t worry about getting in trouble?
This exhibition is very mild. It’s not political at all. It’s very personal. It’s a journey with these kids to a spaceship. It’s about escape and all that. It has a reason behind it but living in this country, I know what I can say and what I cannot. I don’t want to be too direct anyway.

Is that the goal, though? Do people have to dig deeper to figure it out?
It’s like my film. When I make it, it’s for me, my curiosity for the place. When it’s shown, it has a life of its own. So it depends on the individual viewer, whether he or she wants to dig, how much you want to know about the background. If you don’t care about it, take it all in visually, it’s OK. For me, I have my own references but again, like other artists, I don’t mind other interpretations. That’s what art is supposed to be.

Why Nabua? Why is its past so important?
I want to know myself. Like when I make movies, I always select actors that have a lot of experience that I don’t have. People say, they are not professional. But for me they are very professional, professional at being human beings. They’ve gone through so much. But for me, my life is so simple, so I want to learn. Making movies is a pretext, a path to that. Being in Nabua has really allowed me to share and understand better, through new friends, how as a country we became what we are now. Communism was a big turning point for Thailand, how the Americans came, how people felt left out until now.

Has your art changed Nabua?
I don’t know. I’ve sent them DVDs but I haven’t gone back. I’m going back next year with the Jim Thompson Foundation, when we plan to host the exhibition in the village. I didn’t want to change their lives. I wanted to be there, not as a tourist, but not as an inhabitant. It is sensitive. Sometimes you treat them simply as subjects, and it’s like taking advantage of them.

Has funding for your art improved since you won in Cannes?
In Thailand, it’s always on and off that you don’t really have much hope in the government. Sometimes it’s coming, sometimes not. I tend to be cautious about government funding. They want you to do certain things. If I have a choice, I prefer not to have funding from them. If you look at art from countries with funding, it’s very academic and boring. Maybe the artwork would be more interesting with less money.

What’s next?
I’m finishing one very romantic film of a hotel on the Mekong, in Nongkai. It’s a one-hour film called Mekong Hotel. My crew go there and my friend, who is a guitar teacher improvises and plays guitar for an hour. My crew is trying to rehearse a movie about this ghost who goes around eating innards. It’s like a documentary but every scene is shot in a hotel room.

And will the movie in the movie ever exist?
I hope so. This is almost to find out, what is this movie? The fun part is shooting it in a hotel. It’s full of melancholia. And then I’m doing a film festival in March with Tilda Swinton, in Yao Noi, next to Phuket. It’s very snobbish and by invitation only but we’ll do a more public one in Bangkok. Then I’m doing a short film with her and writing a feature film, hopefully to be shot in 2013.

I had a place in Beirut, but I just let it go, because I hadn’t been there in a year. A four-and-a-half-hour flight is just a bit too far. It’s not the city’s fault. It’s more of a lifestyle issue. Beirut is a great place. If Beirut was where Rome was, it’d be great.

I think all the time which architect I would commission to have a place in Tokyo or somewhere else in Japan. [But] I would really find the climate a struggle. I really would.

Aviation sites, New York Times, FT [Financial Times], Der Spiegel online—those are my daily online diet. But then there’s enough of us now [at Monocle] that I get pointed in the right direction. A lot of things are links or photocopies that are brought to me. So my media diet is broadened by the fact that I have the research desk bringing me things.

It’s more passengers than crew who recognize me. And it depends on the airline. On Swiss, because of all the work we did with them. Sometimes on B.A [British Airways], ANA. The Japanese are very discreet so it’s a knowing nod. Sometimes with Swiss it can be a bit of both ways. I worked with the airline so I’m seen as staff. So I’m viewed with contempt as well.

Europeans and North Americans suffer from airport space out. You take the same aircraft, same number of people, and it takes them four times the time to board the plane at Heathrow than it does at Haneda. No one is prepared for travel, no one is considerate of their fellow passengers, no has taken their jacket off—simply have your passport open, at least.

It’s interesting to see how quickly people started saying, “Oh this is so Monocle.” When you launch a brand—when we launched Wallpaper, and certainly when we launched Monocle as well—it has to be very top down. I’m always amazed, because we consult with a lot of other magazines—or maybe that’s why we’re called in, because editors just aren’t strong enough. And you go into these story meetings and there’s no leadership. There’s no one saying this is what our story is, this is what it isn’t.

I look back at how I’ve co-edited with Andrew [Tuck] since we launched [Monocle]. The first 2-3 years, 70% was commissioned out from the top. Now we’re on year five and maybe it’s only 40%, and 60% proper up flow. Maybe that’s part of it: it’s the vision of one creative director… and it’s maybe four people really driving it. Now that I’ve consulted with other publications, I’m surprised how leaderless [they are]. It gets put into one big stew.

Bangkok was definitely one of the cities we looked at [for Monocle’s roundup of desirable cities with poor livability]. It has every opportunity to be there next year. Bangkok is slightly hidden and unknown and everything just seems so multi-layered, from the overpasses to what happens on the street.

It’s very hard [to improve such cities]. It’s very hard to do what, let’s say, Mayor Oh did in Seoul. And I think it’s debatable whether he succeeded. He certainly improved elements of the city but he certainly didn’t make Seoul cozy. Because you can’t really rethink the scale. The grid is the grid and that was prescribed a long time ago.

Winkreative is a business of scale now. There are so many designers from different backgrounds. None of them are skiing too off-piste. They’re all largely on the right slope and know where they’re going. But it’s fine. Sometimes some people might weave in and out of the trees a little bit. That’s good. It pushes the design at the edges, as it should. But they’re very separate [from Monocle]. Actually I wish there was more crossover but there’s a very healthy rivalry between them.

The only problem heading both is that clients of the agency think they’ll get a preferential ad rate or something. But those issues can get dealt with rather swiftly and diplomatically.

If you want something gothic with skulls, you’re probably at the wrong agency. It’s not in our DNA; it’s not what we do.

From doing Wallpaper, I learned cash flow. God, I was 25 at the time. I hardly had a bank account. I went to Barclay’s and just got a loan. There was no magic in it. Whereas now, businesswise it’s a very different setup. And I’m very happy that it is much more of a family structure that we have now.

Invest early in creating a sound environment for people to be in. It took four years to get to the dream office at Wallpaper. And there is a part where you have to be able to live the brand and host people. That’s a challenge. People have such high expectations. You put yourself out there and it better be pretty good when they come to see you.

Interview by Gregoire Glachant with the kind support of TCDC.

Masatomi Patisserie

3/F, 02-652-1977. Open daily 10am-7pm (until all the shops open in the mall, around Oct 2011, the shop will not be open on Sundays)
Chef and owner Tommy Rungnoppakunsi quit his job in marketing to take a patisserie course at the Cordon Bleu. Assisted by his co-chef, Busarin Itsarachai (also a Cordon Bleu alum), they blend their very classical French training with Japanese influences. For example, their Mont Blanc (B90) is made with sweet potato instead of chestnut puree. But what’s most exciting at Masatomi is the carefully crafted macarons. The lavender and white chocolate one (B45) is infused with real lavender, bringing floral notes to the sweet treat. As for the citrus cream cheese macaron (B35), it is made with yuzu, an East-Asian fruit with both lemony and orangey notes. Definitely a notch above the usual buttercream and jam fillings.

Pisila Lee

2/F, 02-650-4701. www.facebook.com/pisilalee. Open daily 10:30am-8:30pm
Fed up with fashion stores in community malls that try to impress you with cheap clothes from Platinum Mall? Well, here, the owner designs all the pieces, including the shoes. Made for ladies only, the style is urban vintage, with looks ranging from earthy printed t-shirts to charming, pink strapless dresses. As for the décor, the place looks retro with its white walls, painted with cute, colorful pastel patterns. Prices start from B1,290 for a printed t-shirt and around B3,000 for a dress. They also have a small selection of stationery and hair accessories.

Talk about i.T.

2/F, 02-652-0002. www.talkaboutit.in.th. Open daily 11am-9pm
Just like at iStudio, this shop offers geeky gizmos such as screen protectors (B100), iPad cases (from B1,700) or B22,900 speakers from Monster Beat Box. The real difference is that they are not shackled to Apple, and stock Motorola, Samsung and HTC tablets. One of our favorite discoveries was a line of retro handsets called John’s Phone, which reminded us of a simpler time when phones were used for talking rather than for Angry Birds (B3,600-4,100). On the whole, you can tell they’re really trying to stock products to differentiate themselves from iStudio and iBeat, which is a commendable effort in our book.

The Portico Langsuan

31 Soi Langsuan, Ploenchit, 02-652-1968. BTS Chitlom.

Spoonful Zakka & Café

2/F, 02-652-2278. www.spoonfulzakka.com. Open daily 11:00am-7:00pm
Standing right next to Pisila Lee, Spoonful is a concept store selling products for daily household use including stationery, kitchen items, home decoration pieces and a little bit of clothing. The main idea comes from the Japanese zakka culture: functional items with a kitschy, handicraft or retro touch. Apart from the cute, multi-purpose masking tapes, rubber stamps, notebooks and ceramics, the shop designs its own bags and garments from time to time. There’s also a mini-café decorated to blend in with the shop’s lovely atmosphere. Try their signature scones at B120 for two pieces or a piece of homemade Japanese cake at B125 with fruity tea (B90 for hot/cold).
 

Freelancer Discovers CCTV Cameras are Empty

Wisan Medsai, 51, a freelance photographer, exposed the truth about the empty CCTV camera cases in his neighborhood by posting pictures on the Pantip webboard.

Bangkok’s flood walls are 2.5 meters high. In Oct 2010, the terrible flood that ravaged much of the Northeast and Central regions came dangerously close to that limit, reaching roughly 2 meters, despite Governor Sukhumband’s fears that it would reach 2.3 meters.

The Odds

Pornthep Techapaiboon, Deputy Governor of Bangkok, told BK: “Bangkok is at risk from floods from three sources: localized rain, floods from the North and rising sea levels. We have levees on the Chao Phraya River that can withstand up to 2.5 meters of water above sea level—that’s for floods coming in from the North. We’ve also completed seven giant new drainage systems, which can drain 155.5-cubic meter/sec—that’s almost four standard swimming pools emptied in one second, stretching around town from Phaya Thai to Ladprao. These drainage pipes are 20-30 meters below ground level and can drain off water from flooded areas in eastern Bangkok directly to the Gulf of Thailand. Based on past data and our budget, this is the most we can do. But irregular things can happen—and tend to happen more and more these days—so we don’t really know what we are facing in the future.”

The Plan

Again, Deputy Governor Pornthep: “There are three more giant drainage pipes to be built with the total project scheduled to be completed in 2016. Normally the amount of rainfall in Bangkok is at around 1,900mm per year while the system is designed for an amount of 2,500mm per year or 60mm per hour.”
Ironically, New Orleans’ levees were scheduled for completion by 2015. And there is also the question of rising sea levels. Pornthep says, ““In the last 10 years, around 5,000-rai of space have been eroded by higher sea levels and waves. For now, we’re working on the bamboo project. Sticks of bamboo are lined along our coast so when waves come in these sticks will retain soil, sand and mud before the water goes back to the sea. These muddy spaces will later turn into mangrove forests. Bamboo sticks can stay for around five years so for the long-term, we need to cast t-shaped concrete barriers to be dropped along the coast. The budget for this is now being finalized.”

The Case Study

In the August 2005 Hurricane Katrina, the levees protecting New Orleans broke, flooding the city with as much as 4.5 meters of water in some parts. 1,464 people died and one study estimated the total economic damage at over US$150 billion. Although caused by a hurricane, it does give some notion of what damage a massive flood in a densely urbanized area can wreak.

If your home is sinking, do this:

• Shut off the electricity at the main circuit breaker.
• Collect a survival kit (see box).
• Don’t drive, don’t try to escape. Just move to the top of your building.
• Avoid water. Swimming in flooded water puts you at risk of electrocution caused by damaged electric wires.
• Beware of animals like snakes or scorpions which will also try to move to dry areas.

Thanks to iStockphoto, a microstock photography provider founded in 2000, your pictures are now worth money—or are they? We went through the process of submitting pictures to the online photography stock agency and all we can say is, it ain’t easy. You have to read through a tutorial that takes hours, pass a test, wait for days to get your first pictures inspected, and there’s a 95% chance your picture won’t even get accepted. And did our beautiful pictures of Thai food ever get downloaded, after weeks on the website? Nope.

iStockphoto is not the only micro stock photo agency, though. And with some patience, originality and yes, some hard work, micro stock photography can be a rewarding hobby. We spoke to Bangkok-based commercial and travel photographer Marc Schultz, 44 (www.marcshultz.com), who is exclusive with iStockphoto, and derives a substantial part of his income from microstock. Schultz also believes in helping his fellow photographer and founded Photographythailand.com, a forum to get advice on the best gear and the best places and tips to shoot in the kingdom. Here, he tells us how amateurs can hope to makes sales through microstock photography.

THIS PICTURE SUCKS: Why iStock Will Reject this photo

1. Chromatic Aberration: Red and blue fringing on the edges.
2. Over-sharpening. Crisp white lines on the contours of the building.
3. Sensor noise, over-compression. Grainy, blotchy colors.
4. Sensor dust. Dark specks, usually appearing on bright skies.
5. Copyright issues. This building is private property, and you may not have rights to its image.
6. Poor composition. The building is off to the side, with a cropped tree in the frame. Not a very strong image.

CAST A WIDE NET

“It’s very difficult to be exclusive with iStockphoto [and get the higher commission that comes with exclusivity]. You now need 500 downloads; it used to be 250. That could take you 2-3 years. So submit photos to at least 4-5 stock agencies at a time. A lot of these other sites don’t have serious inspection criteria like iStock. You’ll have a much better chance of getting your pics accepted. Try www.alamy.com, www.shutterstock.com, www.dreamstime.com, www.fotolia.com, www.bigstockphoto.com and www.123rf.com."

STEP UP YOUR GAME

“It’s not that tough to get a picture into iStock. They give tutorials and when they reject your image there will be some sort of wiki explaining the reasons. Sometimes you can fix it, sometimes you can’t, such as when it’s poorly lit, not sharply focused or if there is too much noisy (too grainy). But things like chromatic aberration and contrast can be improved. You do need some command of Photoshop, though. You can’t be so amateurish as to just dump your pics into the stock website.”

HEAD FOR THE OUTDOORS

“There is some demand for editorial stock: pictures that are not technically perfect or aesthetically beautiful but illustrate a thing or situation. Maybe somebody needs a picture of a crossing guard helping children across the street. Maybe you took that picture on an overcast day and it’s not perfect. The light isn’t great but it illustrates something and there aren’t a lot of pictures like that, so it has a chance of selling. Amateurs might have a better chance of selling those grab shots.”

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

“The bigger demand is for commercial-type images. One of the biggest best-selling image-genres is corporate groups of multi-ethnic people. You could shoot a mix of black, Asian and white men and woman all giving the thumbs up and giving big smiles, all in a row. These are in high demand. Medicine is another popular subject, as is food, senior citizens, lifestyle and boyfriend-girlfriend shots. But once you go into where the real demand is there’s a huge amount of competition of high quality work. Also, you will need model releases and people expect to be paid for this. So the more people you put into a shot, the more expensive it gets.”

BE DIFFERENT

“There are so many images out there; it’s difficult for your photos to stand out of the pack. Try to look for things that haven’t been done before. In the beginning I tried to copy what was successful. But if you do a beautiful picture of an apple, no one will find your new picture of an apple [out of the thousands available]. Now you don’t want to go for things that are too obscure either. If something is obscure, there is less demand, and you won’t get downloads. So shoot that apple in a way that hasn’t been done before. Go online and see how others have done it and come up with a new angle. With stock photography, you can really test your creativity.”

KEEP YOUR DAY JOB

“Every day there are new agencies. The pie will get sliced up thinner and thinner. But there will always be some opportunity as a hobby. It just depends on how much you want to make and what you consider worth your while. For an amateur, just getting a picture downloaded is a validation. For a hobby, you don’t have [high] expectations. When you want to start making some money, that’s when the pressure builds.” 

READ MORE:
Online Seller: Can’t write, can’t take pictures? Be an online seller.
Blogging: Can blogging still generate revenue with a content-saturated world wide web?

What’s the biggest challenge when serving 14 courses?
Switching gears and doing something we don’t do regularly. We have the staff and the facility to do it but it’s a real change from a la carte.

What’s the course you’re most excited about?
The fact that we’re going to have monk fish with veal sweetbread is kind of sexy. It’s something you don’t see a lot in Bangkok, and it really is a delicious product that more people would enjoy if they could get over what it is [the thymus gland]. When you treat it right, they’re like the best chicken McNuggets in the world—crispy outside, soft inside, a very mild taste.

You’ve got a chocolate flavored duck jus in a test tube at one point.
Well, I think for 14 courses, we could just do straight food, and the at level that we’re doing it, it would be a fine meal. But I really want to push some things that would make people remember it and talk about it. The chocolate water is a challenging flavor profile, but it comes at the midway point of the meal. Hopefully we’ll have won some trust from the guests and they’ll be enjoying themselves with the wine by then. And they’ll be able to suspend their preconceived notions. If not, it’s just one course out of many.

Is this a new direction for Panorama?
Within the restaurant we have a private room that can seat up to 10 and it’s got a private kitchen. For the larger space, we’ll be offering chef’s menus that will be short 4-course tasting menus and wine pairings within the same pricing point, and simple, straight food—no duck chocolate water. But the private room is where these kinds of things can happen. People can just tell me how many courses, what they like, their budget, and we’ll make something for them.

What about the wine?
The most exciting are the three Bordeaux we have back-to-back. It’s an interesting showcase of very different styles of wine from the same region. One big fruit-driven one, one animal, earthy, almost rustic one, which is why it’s paired with truffles, and then a Chateau Haut Brion which just has great finesse and is a much more balanced wine. Gregoire Glachant

B3,499, Sep 23-24, 7pm onwards. Panorama, 23/F, Crowne Plaza Bangkok, 952 Rama 4 Rd. 02-632-9000.