Yangshuo Winter
Last week Lily and I were able to take make a quick weekend trip to Yangshuo with a few friends. A world renowned travel destination, Yangshuo is an unapologetic tourist trap bordered by stunning karst mountains on one side and the Li River on the other. Sometimes a tourist trap is just what the doctor ordered. [...]
10 Minutes – 李水旺 (Li Shui Wang)
I met Li Shui Wang earlier this month in Kunming. He was sitting on a bench in a small park intently watching me as I struggled with two lenses, a camera and a bag while attempting to change said lenses. Mr. Li, recognizing my dilemma, invited me over to share his bench. He immediately started [...]
10 Days in Kunming – Perspiration Free
Welcome to the land of no humidity… That was the first thing I noticed about Kunming… the weather. During the 10 days I was there the temps topped out each day out in the mid to low 20′s with lots of sunshine and no humidity. It was nearly perfect. I had gone to Yunnan to [...]
Yangshuo Weekend
Yangshou is a picturesque tourist trap of a small town located in Guangxi Province about two hours south of Guilin. I’ve been a few times now and despite the touristy thing it still works for me on many levels. The scenery is the big draw. The rivers flowing though Avatar-looking karst mountains have enticed artists [...]
Three Hours In Sheung Wan
I had a meeting in Hong Kong this past Saturday and had a few hours to walk around Sheung Wan and Central before catching the ferry back to the mainland. I’ve never managed to spend enough time in Hong Kong to really shoot all I want. I’d like to go back and actually have a [...]
One Night in Nanning
I posted a short series of photos last night featuring Nanning’s dough-tossing pastry chef, Mr. Zhiang. Those images were taken during a photo-walk with young friends Vern and Suri. The couple spent a large portion of their weekend showing me around the streets of Nanning and despite the overwhelming heat and humidity, I’d do it all again. [...]
10 Minutes – Chef Zhiang from Hunan
I was in Nanning last week and in my free time managed to get out for a few photo-walks with some Flickr friends. Flickr is particularly great in one aspect, the ability to meet up with fellow photographers from around the world, knowing beforehand that you’ll have at least one thing in common. Over the [...]
Two Nights In Boao
During our short visit to Hainan we were able to get out a couple of nights and mingle with the Boao locals as we scoured about looking for dinner. We were usualy welcomed with big grins with an occasional curious stare now and then. As I mentioned yesterday, this place is friendly. The sidewalks were full [...]
Beijing Nights
Last week I attended The 14th China International Photography & Electrical Image Machinery Fair. It was an interesting event with pretty much anything and everything to do with photography represented at the show. Amazingly, I was able to get out of there without buying either my coveted Leica M9 OR a medium format film camera OR [...]
The China Photographer Interview Series – Chan On Ki 陳安琪
When she was 15, Chan On Ki surprised her father by asking him for a camera… she’s never looked back. Nearly three years later she still has that Canon 40D, but her camera collection, not to mention her lens collection, has grown exponentially. That collection includes some classic vintage film gear with exotic names that [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The East Side
Well the move is complete. The move is. Unpacking and getting settled will take weeks yet. I loathe moving. There is always the unexpected this or that to deal with as well as all the stuff you know you’re gonna’ have to do. I was thinking about chronicling the experience but I’m pretty sure nobody [...]
Photo of the Day – Glass Bottle
I had a photo shoot yesterday with a local grunge/metal/punk/rasta band, yes they have a bit of an identity crisis. We spent a few hours in Liuhou Park and then later went over to their makeshift studio in the city centre. The kids below are not in the band. They followed us around the park [...]
