Lantern Festival – 2011
The Year of the Rabbit is officially in full swing now. With last night’s Lantern Festival, The 2011 edition of Spring Festival is over and it’s time for all of us here to go back to work. Lily and I took a walk down to the Liuzhou People’s Government complex where there were lanterns and [...]
Liuzhou Goes Live (almost sorta)
I’ve been feeling much better of late, so much so that I’ve actually been getting out a fair amount over the past week or so. A couple of days ago I had the great fortune to be invited to Liuzhou Television’s first ever Spring Festival Gala. Government officials put the live show together, hoping that [...]
Tribute To A Dog
After more than a month of inexplicably wasting away, our little dog Chewy died on the 9th of January. She was still young, having just turned four. None of the “vets” here in Liuzhou were able to determine exactly what was wrong with her, nor could they figure out an effective course of treatment. Of [...]
Natty & Nick In China (Day III Xi’an) – The Muslim Quarter
On Saturday morning we said goodbye to Jia and Beijing and headed to Xi’an. Packing, the taxi to the airport, check-in and security were all uneventful, as was the 2 hour flight. I’ve had a few folks ask about where we stayed, as well as more specific travel questions about transportation and the like. I [...]
Natty & Nick In China (Day II Beijing) – The Wall, The Acrobats & The Olympic Village
I forgot to mention that our first day together in China was actually Thanksgiving. After our walk through Tiananmen and The Forbidden City, Natalie, Nick, Jia and I wrapped up the day with a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner at The Union Bar and Grill in Sanlitun. Brother, did I ever have a lot to be thankful [...]
Natalie & Nick In China (Day I Beijing) – Tiananmen Square & The Forbidden City
The kids arrived safely very early last Wednesday morning and we’ve been going at it pretty hard since. Everything has been going fairly well, with just a minor hitch or two. We’ve made it *home* to Liuzhou, after touring Beijing, The Great Wall, Xi’an & The Terra-Cotta Warriors and Guilin. Our accommodations have run the [...]
10 Minutes – Card Sharks of Que Shan Park- 雀山公园
One thing I really like and admire about the Chinese is how the older generation stays so active and engaged with one another. Excluding all but the coldest of days, I can visit any park in Liuzhou and find groups of retired folks dancing, singing, playing music, performing plays, practicing Tai Chi, or taking part [...]
Taken Down… by Kindergartners
I left the house today for the first time since last Sunday. A week ago Friday I visited the kindergarten again and almost every one of those little brats angels had a runny nose and almost every one of them wanted to touch me. Seriously, there were kids snotting and sneezing and crying everywhere. Way too [...]
Aquabike World Championship
I spent the summers of my youth working at my grandfather’s Kentucky River boat dock near Ford, Kentucky. I probably swam in that river nearly every day it was warm enough between the ages of 8 and 14. If I’d had one of these things, I’m not sure I’d be here today. The Aquabike World [...]
Liujiang Sunrise
Goodbye Summer… The weather is slowly changing. I recently mentioned the good fall weather doesn’t last long here and sure enough today has been cloudy with a little drizzle and oh-by-the-way the humidity has returned. I was fortunate to get out very early yesterday with a full crew and we managed some decent shots before [...]
10 Minutes – Yan Qiang
I was fortunate to get out with the camera for a few hours everyday during the National Day Holiday and both the weather and a few of the resulting photographs have been memorable. The fall season in Liizhou is far too short, but when it does finally come it is seriously nice. Reminds me of [...]
Beauties… by the beast
Historically, I haven’t taken many of these “glamour” type shots, but it seems I’m being asked to do so on a fairly regular basis now. This kind of photography, doing it right, doesn’t come easy to me but over time I’ve gained enough confidence to feel comfortable in at least sharing some of the work. There’s [...]
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!
I want to thank everyone who took part in the September giveaways by registering for the RSS feed here on the website. It was a fun way for me, and I hope for you as well, to kick off the launch of the new site. We had 382 official entries either here via the blog, [...]
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 iPad Giveaway…
There seems to be some confusion among some folks as to exactly how to register for the September giveaways, so with the middle of the month nearly here I thought it might be best to try and explain everything a little more clearly. I launched the new site on September 1st and I wanted to [...]
Baby Layla
I am having an unbelievably frustrating day working with this new website and the later it gets the more mistakes I make so I am quitting and going to bed. I’ll leave you with this photo of Layla. 3 weeks old and already a heartbreaker… Hopefully I can get back on-track tomorrow night in getting [...]
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 [...]
Hong Kong Baby!
Day 3 – Shenzhen to Hong Kong The plan was to take the 11:30 ferry from Shekou to Hong Kong which would put us in the city around 12:30, more than enough time to get settled into the hotel before meeting friends for a three o’clock photo walk. Already hot and humid when we left [...]
Starbucks & Burritos
Day 2 – Shenzhen We’d arranged with Robert Lio and his lovely wife Xiao to stay at their apartment in the Nanshan section of Shenzhen for a few days. They are in Montreal for the summer and assured us that we were more than welcome to use their place . After the long ride we [...]
14 Hours – Riding The Train In China
Day 1 – Liuzhou to Shenzhen With summer fading fast and the new school term about to start, Lily and I decided to get out of town for a week. Much as I love Liuzhou, it can wear on you and bother I was worn proper. The only objectives… take photographs, see friends, and eat [...]
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 [...]
