Paddy Fields

A traditional Chinese rural landscape I've given a bit of visual treatment as the light was a bit boring in the original. Viewed large (click on image) and this is ok, but small, well I'm not happy with the spotlight effect. Think I might need to soften that some. 

I very nearly fell off that small concrete wall into the paddy field while following this chap and trying to take his picture at the same time. 

Calm & Frenetic

Another two opposing views of China. A calligrapher shows off his skills in a small art shop, while not far away the youth of China enjoy drinking beer and dancing the night away in noisy pole-dancing clubs with invites from the likes of this chap below. 

Although why he thought someone as old as me would want to go inside his ear-thrashing dive I've no idea. But by the look on his face, the same thought must have been crossing his mind.

The New Empire

These two are Chinese tourists visiting their Olympic park. The fact that they can now have fun with wearing tourist hats of the Red Guard era is good to see. The old guard is still in control, however. But for how long?  

D90 with 50mm 1.4

Close, But No Cigar.

I don't usually enter competitions but I thought I'd give this one a go. Over 10,000 entries were received internationally and just 2600 were accepted into judging, which amounts to about a 25% acceptance rate. The pictures above left are from the talented photographer Terry Donnelly with the most acceptances in the competition with six. As I managed to get five of my pictures accepted, I'm claiming totally unofficially, to have come second. And my name is in the book, if not the pictures! Same as the phone book really...

The Farmer's Wife

Chairman Mao's influence lives on strongly in the rural areas of China as you can see. Lovely old lady, who was proud to show off her coffin in a side room, all ready for her demise.  

Beijing Nights

For such a large and modern city, it was strange to find many streets without any lighting. Find yourself in this sort of gloom in any UK city and it would feel oppressive, even dangerous. Not so in Beijing, but that could be my ignorance of course. Yet I don't think so. People were wandering about quite happily and even some large groups were dancing on the pavement, all in near darkness. I have to say group dancing in the dark appeared very strange, yet at the same time, delightful. The only lights were from the shop windows themselves or from floodlights the shops themselves had erected, yet here were groups of shadow people twirling in graceful steps to distorted music from a battered portable tape player. Extraordinary. 

China's Venice

Sailing along this canal in Souzo, which is about two hours out of Shanghai, was curious. At the village shown in this picture, all the Chinese started photographing the small band of Westerner tourists on the boat. We were more of an attraction than the locality. This didn't stop here. 

In Shanghai itself, which is an ultra modern city, people would come up and stand next to me to have their pictures taken. In a subway, one family tried desperately to get their shy nine year old son to come and have his picture taken with the strange looking Westerner. I did my best to encourage the young lad, but he was too scared of this particular white man. 

China is still a closed country to Westerners in many parts, and I think it's the people who come from out of town rather than the sophisticated city dwellers, that are the most curious. In a small way I had a glimpse of the way celebrities must feel, constantly having their pictures taken wherever they go. Fun, but in a weird kind of way. Perhaps they believed me when I pointed at myself and said, 'David Beckham'. After all, we all look pretty much alike to them.

iPhone Cam

This old man was shuffling along a busy and very modern Beijing street and looking very out of time to me. I can imagine him as maybe an ex-red guard. So I sneaked up behind to take a back view of him walking along as I didn't really feel he would approve of me 'getting in his face' photographing him. Just as I pressed the iphone camera button, he turned around, but didn't really notice me shooting and just wandered off into the crowds. I think he has some stories to tell. 

It's an old iphone with only 5mp resolution but still, I do like this shot. For every day snapshots of no consequence apart from recording where you've been, its fine and very handy to use. Here are some more.

The cattle truck awaits the arrival of the scum class shepherded into the rear confines of the plane. At least I get to scowl at the first and business class gits as I shuffle towards my reserved wooden bench at the back.

 Nobody told me the Great Wall is paved with broken and uneven flagstones and is often bloody steep and hilly. At least there was no Big Mac fast food joint along the wall. 

I was surprised to see that Chinese wedding gifts on dinner tables include these coffin nails. 

Here I am trying unsuccessfully to not trip over the broken bricks that pass for a floor inside the Forbidden City.

That little 'man-bag' slung around my neck managed to hold the D90 with 50mm, the Leica with 35mm and a Nikkor 16mm lens. Traveling light as a photographer is the holy grail and this package did the trick.

Silk worms!

Old & New

Two views of China, with the new thrusting skyscraper skyline that is becoming the norm and the old low-rise town that will soon be swept away. Both, in the right light, can look beautiful. 

The old town is Yangshuo in Guilin, about a thousand miles south of Shanghai.

In the middle of modern Shanghai however, you can still see and experience something of the old. Here, a woman cleans out her fish, leaving them to rot in the gutter outside her restaurant. Full of character, yet suddenly a Big Mac becomes much more appealing...

And not far from the 'fish restauraunt' is the very swish French Quarter. You could be in Paris.

Shanghai Life

Well, I needed a holiday before I left, but I need a holiday even more now. 12 days and three internal flights around China with each day filled by tours to all the 'must see' places is interesting, but not exactly relaxing. My feet have almost stopped aching and I've only just started sifting through the images taken, most of which are just snapshots around the usual touristy places. The jet lag this time was bad.

However, the top shot I feel does capture the atmosphere of a local market. It came about due to at last escaping the tour guide who, in the end, reluctantly had to admit the government would rather tourists never visited such places. Shown all the fancy new shopping centres I could take, I just walked off into the back alleys in frustration and found a bit of real life for myself. He came running after me but seeing he couldn't persuade me to not go any further, came along and even brought the others in the small group we were traveling. So all six of us got to sample a bit of the normally hidden side of Shanghai everyday life. 

The second shot is of 'The Bund' the historic side of the river opposite all the new skyscrapers. This was another time I jumped the official tour and escaped into a night blustery and rainy. Perfect! No tripod with me, so had to rest the camera on a wobbly stone ledge and hold it still. These and other images can be seen in Hi-Def over at my page at 1x.com

Leica M9 and 35mm Summicron.

Holiday Needed.

Events this week have conspired to show me, if I needed showing, that I'm nowhere near as tough as I once was. Professional confrontation with a colleague at work, something that I wouldn't normally think twice over, had me in emotional and physical knots. I hadn't felt as physically bad since 'that day'. The tension and upset triggered inside me from any confrontational events these days is a physical fact I can't ignore. I really can't afford to get angry. I found myself battling with myself internally, balancing reason against panic, telling myself it's just the upset, nothing more serious. I'm still here, I didn't worry anyone else but myself, so I guessed right. I don't want to experience that again, so the answer is clear: distance myself from such sources of stress. I don't need it. Time for a holiday.

Wedding Shoot

My in-law's daughter asked me to photograph her wedding so that's  what I was doing this Friday. I can't accept money from them so it's really more a wedding gift. They were lucky in that the weather was perfect, blue skies and warm. Shooting over five hundred pictures on my own took it out of me. That's one of the values of having an assistant, getting all those other shots you can't while you're busy organising all the groups and also to remind you of any shots you've missed. I've featured the wedding on our web site HERE.

I was sorely in need of a drink by the end of the day. My son-in law bought me a pint at the hotel reception bar and so did my youngest (who was one of the bridesmaids) and I enjoyed chatting with them sitting outside in the sunshine before they all went in for the evening meal in a beautifully outfitted room. Lots of nice photographic details here made for some nice atmospheric shots. I hadn't been invited for the meal, which meant I didn't have to stay and photograph all the speeches and dances deep into the night. Phew. I'd started shooting at 10am that morning, so by 5pm my feet were barking yet my voice was all but gone. 

Of the two shots above, the bottom monochrome shot was taken as a grab-shot using available light on the 50mm at f1.4 as she was having her hair done at home. It could be a studio shot, couldn't it? I've added a touch of grain for smoother tonality which I guess can only be seen in high definition. So why not go HERE to view this in HD? Hint: If you have a large screen, drag the browser window to fill the screen. They haven't seen this particular shot, I'm keeping it as a surprise wedding gift for them.

The top shot worked the best of the day's shoot because by then they were feeling pretty relaxed and it clearly shows. Taken at the hotel away from friends and relatives and beneath some beautiful cherry blossom, don't they look a picture? View this shot  in HD HERE. 

All shots taken on the Nikon D90.