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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Dule Caves – Tourist In Da House
As I begin year four in my adopted hometown of Liuzhou, I thought it might be time to check out arguably the only real tourist attraction in the area. The Dule Caves are located about 20 kilometers south of the city. The guided walk through three separate grottos doesn’t take long and the caves are [...]
Madonna with Child
Three young friends of mine, all of them expatriates living here in China, have recently had babies. I took this photograph a few nights ago in Guizhong Market. God bless the children… For Steve and Mrs. Stevo… For Ryan and Maggie… For Oliver and Keiko… Congratulations. Cherish every moment because believe me they really do [...]
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 [...]
Drama Queen – CNN Travel Photo of the Day
I just got home to discover that CNN has selected one of my photos as their travel photo of the day. “Drama Queen” is part of a photo-documentary from last year about retired folks who perform opera in a riverside park here in Liuzhou. You can see the shot on CNN here and you can see [...]
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 [...]
