Liuzhou Metal
As part of an ongoing photo-documentary I’m doing on China youth, I went to see a thrash metal band last night at a new outdoor concert venue here in Liuzhou. My friend A Quan plays bass in the band and I’ve been following him and the other boys for well more than a year now. [...]
Confucius’ Birthday Bash
We had a big party here this past Monday and I somehow managed to snag an invitation to the grand opening of Liuzhou’s new Confucian Temple, staged to coincide with Confucius’ 2,561st birthday. It was a much bigger deal than I’d imagined. It turned out the celebration was a nationwide thing, as for the first [...]
Mikey Goes To Kindergarten
In China we celebrated Teacher’s Day last Friday. It’s an annual semi-holiday here and there are always some activities for the students to show their appreciation to the teachers. Each year I’ll get a few cards or flowers and about 100 text messages. Since I don’t have classes at the college on Fridays, I decided to [...]
The Derriere Affair – Drama on the MTR
Day 4 (continued): Hong Kong to Tai O to Hong Kong Our Hong Kong adventure continued on Sunday afternoon with an unplanned and subsequently not very well thought out trip to Tai O. Tai O is a small fishing village popular with tourists and photographers on the far western side of Lanatu Island. It’s an [...]
Hot Hong Kong
Day 4 : Hong Kong Sunday morning dawned and a very hot, humid day was developing in Hong Kong. Able to stay in our hotel room until noon, we pushed that envelope to the limit. We stayed at the Wharney Guangdong Hotel in Wanchai and I’d say that while it was not a stellar hotel [...]
Morning Prayer – Xilai Temple
Xilai Buddhist Temple Liuzhou, Guangxi, China – August 17, 2010 I met Ken (Liuzhou Laowai) at Xilai Temple this morning and we arrived in the middle of morning prayer. Not being Buddhist and not being able to fully communicate with everyone it’s difficult to know how and when it’s cool to shoot at temples, so [...]
Guizhong Market
I took a walk through the sprawling Guizhou Marketplace tonight. It’s hard to tell how long these unregulated outdoor markets will hang on, but for now, they are big business in Guangxi Province. You can find just about anything in the way of fruits, vegetables, meat and fish. There are also a variety of restaurants [...]
Planet Earth Daily Photo – 20 Minutes In Monotone
This photo is being featured today on the Plant Earth Daily Photo website. As the name suggests, the site features one photo each day from different spots around the globe. This is a shot from a photowalk I took last spring with Jeremy Breningstall. We cut through Jian Bin Gong Yuan (Riverside Park) and at one [...]
Scenes From A Chinese Restaurant…
I’ve been helping a group of young engineers prepare for a 2 week trip to America. They are on there way to Detroit and Houston to learn the latest about air flow cooling systems and radiator design for heavy equipment. Yeah, that is some exciting stuff. Translating symbols and equations? I mean what’s not to [...]
Night Walking – Photos From Liuzhou
I’ve actually been out two nights in a row with the camera. Well, more accurately I went our last night and then had the camera with me on the way home tonight. It’s been good to get back into the saddle. I’m not totally happy with what I’m getting just yet but I’m hoping that [...]
So there was this motorcycle….
Yeah… so for those that hadn’t heard or otherwise might have been wondering where I’ve been, a while back I had an encounter with a motorcycle. I was walking home after a trip to the grocery and as I crossed the street near the complex where I live a guy ran me over going about [...]
Coffee Break – Star*ucks
Three migrant workers walk through a construction site near my home in East Liuzhou. The signs you can se here in the background are fake, mocked-up advertisements of retail businesses that supposedly could come to the complex under construction. There are signs for Haagen Daz, a Pizza Ranch, a Disney store and a 7-11, as well [...]
Photo of the Day – Non-Comformist
I’ve been spending a lot of time with young Chinese people lately. Of course that’s not unusual, I teach English to college students after all. No, I mean aside from my students, I’ve been hanging out with and getting to know a fairly broad cross-section of young Chinese between the ages of 20 – 30. [...]
Hi Ho
Yeah… it’s off to work I go. I finally returned to campus this week after a 7 week break. To be fair, it’s not much like work, especially this term. I only teach two and a half days a week and it’s not like I’m pounding nails for a living. I’m not sure how much [...]
Photo(s) of the Day – China Nights
I’ve been getting some email about low-light and night-time photography. It can be intimidating, but shooting at night is nothing to be afraid of. In fact, with today’s digital cameras, it can be quite easy if you know some of the basics. I’ve been thinking maybe I’ll post a quick tutorial here in the next [...]
The Candy Shop
I was able to meet a lot of people during last week’s 24 hour photowalk. This old fella’ was easily one of my favorites. Mr. Wang owns a candy shop in the mall off Fie ‘e Lu. He was understandably in good spirits when we met. New Year’s Day and Valentine’s Day both fell on [...]
Lion Dancing
The Chinese lion dance has a long and colorful history, with some saying it originated more than 2,000 years ago in India. The lion dance is most commonly seen during festivals, such as this month’s Chinese New Year. I’ve witnessed the dances at weddings and business openings as well. The lion dance is yet another [...]
10 Minutes – The Tailor
I met a lot of people during the course of the recent 24 hour holiday photo shoot. I was able to introduce some of them in the photo-essay but wasn’t able to share very much and no more than one image. I thought it might be nice to share some more details about some of [...]
Get Yer Asian Baby Fix Here
During the course of the 24 hour holiday photo shoot, I came across hundreds of kids. Here is but a small collection. Beautiful children are everywhere here and I often have to fight the urge to shoot photograph them or I would fill up memory cards, even hard drives, with nothing but kids. Still, some [...]
Xin Yi Bao – The Out-takes
Good morning from South China, where the overnight din of exploding firecrackers is just now dying down as the sun rises on February 18. My neighbors aren’t taking any chances with evil spirits or bad luck this year. Their dedication to driving away the demons is killing me. The little dog has been hunkered down [...]
A Walk With Jeremy
Spring Festival continues here in China. It’s a photographers paradise with seemingly something to shoot around every corner. I had the pleasure of meeting one of my Flickr friends face to face today. Jeremy Breningstall is a Shanghai-based photojournalist. He and his wife Lisa are in Liuzhou for the week visiting relatives and, as you [...]
Xin Nian Hao! – Welcoming The Tiger
With the Spring Festival break and the warm weather we’ve been having, the local brats darlings are out in full force, raising as much Cain as humanly possible. Yesterday the cacophony began just past 7 with a volley of firecrackers and the accompanying shrieks of joy. Yeah that would be 7 AM. Directly under my [...]
Say Hello To The Neighbors
It was crazy warm hot here again today… 86 on my balcony this afternoon with a nice helping of humidity to boot. It’s weird. Two years ago Liuzhou had it’s coldest winter in 50 years. It won’t last of course, the forecast calls for temps to return to the 50′s by the weekend along with [...]
Movin’ On Up…
… to the eastside.” I went to a housewarming party yesterday. My friends Mr. Zhao and his wife Ms. Lu have quite literally moved across the river to the prosperous east-side of Liuzhou. Zhao, 75, and Lu, 72, pretty much adopted me when I first moved to China. They were neighbors and befriended me (and [...]
