Articles & Blog

The following is a collection of articles I’ve written over the years. They consist of my personal opinions about things, some reviews on technology, poetry & literary pieces and ‘day to day’ things that pop up in my life living abroad.

Ben Barling

Golf Shoot – Burapha 26.01.2020

I get to do a lot of Golf photography. One of my clients runs professional golf tournaments for international schools and I get called along to shoot regularly. Going to a new course, for me, is a great opportunity. It’s always refreshing to play with a new back drop. And what a great change of location it was too.

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Ben Barling

A Day in Nagoya, Japan

When your wife asks if you’d like to join her on a work flight to Nagoya, even if only for 24 hours, you go. Anyone who even pretends to know anything about me knows that I absolutely adore spending time in Japan. It’s just such a nice place that is so different to the hustle & bustle that is life in Bangkok.

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Ben Barling

The awakening; a message delivered.

It was raining. It always seemed to be raining. The library’s court yard was lit by lanterns swinging in the wind. The light, although artificial, threw heavy shadows across the scene. Water dripped from the lanterns and pooled on the meticulous pebble paths and flower pots. A gasp of exclamation could be clearly heard from a distant alcove and a set of sturdy looking, wooden doors burst open.

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Ben Barling

Poem: Delicacy

A risque poem about the pleasures of man and the all too desirable things that reduce us to slaves. This was originally posted on my Medium.com account. While not very long I’ve tried to paint a suitable graphic image in the reader’s mind of both the appearance of the woman and her rather blunt motives.

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Ben Barling

Thomas Amberside

Brother Thomas didn’t know much about the various planes of existence. He didn’t even know much about the world of man outside of the monastery. Inside these protective walls, however, was the complete opposite. Thomas knew exactly who he was. He was a true disciple of Chauntea; goddess of agriculture, he was a ‘versed farmer’.

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Ben Barling

Poem: A Warrior’s Passing

A poem I wrote for my medium.com account. This piece showcases the agonising, yet gratifying demise of our gallant warrior; struck down as a;l warriors would be; weapon in hand, defending their beliefs.

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Ben Barling

Flickr Catches Up

Finally Flickr, one of the leading (and probably the oldest) online sharing sites for photography, gets a much needed visual upgrade. Like many Flickr uses I recently received an email notice from Flickr advising me of their new interface. I haven’t had too much of a play with it yet

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Ben Barling

Canon 70-200 f2.8 L ISii

And other L Lenses… This is not a review, just a bit of proud gloating. lol I have recently bought a new, somewhat expensive, toy. This month I became the proud owner of a Canon 70-200mm 2.8L IS lens. This is one of the big boys from Canon and my

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Ben Barling

Duane Pandorf – Pilot & Photographer

Hi everyone, just a quick update this morning. I like to check out the ‘In your bag‘ updates on Bellamy’s Japan Camera Hunter photography blog from time to time. Everyone knows photography is about the gear you own (more on that in my next update) rather than the pics you

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Ben Barling

Introducing Ginny

A special day as we introduce the newest member to our family; Ginny. She is a lomng haired chihuahua and is as fun and crazy as you might expect.

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Ben Barling

Film Photography – Analog Fun

A couple of months ago I picked up a very used & abused Minolta XG9 35mm Film SLR Camera from ebay. It was only $15 and even with shipping etc, it was a very affordable purchase. The minolta range of cameras (now bought out by Sony) offered some of the

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Ben Barling

AWD – Talk about a busy start to the year

I can’t believe January 2013 is almost over already. Where has the month gone? Where did 2012 go for that matter? One of the girls in the Perth office sent an email out reminding everyone there was only 11 months to go till Christmas 2013. Funny; while being a stark

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Ben Barling

Adding Insult to Injury – Shattered Wrist

I’d made a personal promise to myself that I was going to get at least one blog entry up per day to document the events of the flood and our forced move to Bang Saen. Unfortunately this wasn’t to be. After everything this year had already thrown at me (car

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Ben Barling

In Preparation of the Floods

We have spent the last couple of weeks getting ready for the impending floods. Everyone (well very nearly everyone) in our housing estate have done their part and pulled their weight. The ladies have set up camp at the 6 liam sala (community area) at the end of our lake

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Ben Barling

Dwarves of Golarion – Pathfinder Companion

Last night I got home to a new delivery from The Books Depository (online book store with free international shopping) which always makes my day. This time I just had a small A4 sized supplement for Pathfinder sent out to have a look at. We’re starting up a new Pathfinder

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Ben Barling

iPhone 4s – It’s been released, now what…?

OK, so the iPhone 4s has finally been ‘Keynoted’ (yes; I just made up a word) and the specs etc, for Apple’s upcoming iPhone are out. They seem pretty good. Not as great as some of the “it’s going to be wafer thin and have a 48 hour battery” rumours

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Ben Barling

Moving Office

I’ve been a bit busy lately. After some serious downsizing and a shift of administration work from Thailand back to London; we’ve had a fairly extensive downsize. Where before Jarno and I had about 350 square meters between the two of us; we now have about 25…! To be honest,

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Ben Barling

Busy but Fun…

I seem to have less time than ever to do things. Either that or I am discovering heaps of new things and trying to dip my toes in all of them. This Saturday just passed we managed to have quite a large game of L5R War of Honor. Why it

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Ben Barling

L5R – A New Era is Almost Upon Us

L5R.com is really pushing out the flavour text and fluff for the new arc of our 9 favourite clans. After several years the very successful Celestial Edition arc is coming to a close and a new arc is commencing called Emperor Edition. The story of Emperor Edition is going to

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Ben Barling

Paizo’s Answer to the Red Box?

Among other things; Paizo have recently confirmed rumors they would be releasing a starter’s box in the same tradition as Dungeon & Dragon’s Red Box. For those that don’t know TSR (and Wizards of the Coast) have been releasing a stand alone starter’s kit providing an affordable means to get

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Ben Barling

Whirlwind Holiday to Canberra

I have just come back from a very short trip back home to Australia. I popped home to see mum & dad and to catch up with folks back home. It’s been about two years since my last trip home so it has been a long time in the coming.

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Ben Barling

Getting ya Nerd On – Pathfinder RPG

Ok, it is official; I have really been getting my nerd on lately. On top of the usual L5r card games, occasional game of Malifaux and ever-growing collection of half painted miniatures I have now stepped back into the world of Role Playing Games. shock horror 🙂 The collection has

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Ben Barling

New Old Books

Today I had a very nice visit from the post man. He was kind enough to bring me two books which I had recently ordered from the UK. The two books in question were the newly released ‘Dragon Lance: Chronicles‘ omnibus and a new Harper | Collins reprint of ‘The

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It may not be Shakespeare or the BBC but I do like to write from time to time.

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