Faces, Places, and Something that rhymes with ‘ces.
Since Sunday, things here have been a whirlwind of new ideas sprouting into new projects. That isn’t the only thing happening around here, however. Updates on Essays and Gallery, the past week, have been a retro week for me- going back to life in the US, and the people, places, and events I photographed there before coming to China in 2007. Here’s a list of the stories and photographs that published since the first of May. (more…)
More landscape photos added to Landscapes
While going back through the 2007 catalog, I came across a few more photographs worth including in the Landscapes section on Gallery. Head over to the gallery for a look. (more…)
Early Buddhists may have run out of paint- 50,000+ Buddha statues carved into cave walls.
Sixteen kilometers outside of Datong, a northern border town between China and Inner-Mongolia on the Chinese side, there sits, carved into the cave walls of the Yungang Grottoes, over 51,000 statues of Buddha and Bodhisattva. The Yungang Grottoes, or Yungang caves, are one of the three most famous ancient sculptural sites of China, aside from the Longmen and Mogao caves.
During my ’round China’ vagabond in the summer of 2009, Datong and the Yungang caves were my second stop. The first stop was Xi’an.
I didn’t count the number of statues I photographed. (more…)
Really Pretty Flowers Prefer Fresh Water in China.
It’s true! It must be true because the largest field of the most beautiful flower of Asia, the Lotus, is in China’s largest fresh water lake, Baiyangdian. Every summer in August, the lotus reaches it peak blossom. The lake is vast and the fields are only accessible by boat. In August, 2009, I visited the lake and it’s precious flowers. Head over to the gallery to have a look for yourself. Or wait until August and make the trek to see them in person. (more…)
Goin’ Back to Thailand. To Thailand. To Thailand. Goin’ to Thailand. To Thailand. To Pattaya.
Yep, that’s right. Vay-cay time again. It’s Sunday. The weather is perfect. The chores are all done. Work can wait until tomorrow. Now let’s take a quick hop across the water to sunny Pattaya, Thailand for a little beach time, a little nightlife, a little boogie. Did I just say ‘boogie’? Are those crickets I hear from beyond the audience? Hmmm
Oh well, I’m off to boogie! (more…)
It’s another pretty landscape
Here to wrap up a three-day post-by-post addition to Landscapes in Gallery is this cover shot of Gantang lake in Jiujiang, Jiangxi, China. I call it a cover shot because this photograph of a temple on Gantang lake became the cover for my thesis on contemporary life in China- Jiujiang: 9 Rivers. (more…)
Sunset pictures are relaxing
There’s always something about a good sunset photo to ease your tensions away. Hopefully having a look at this photograph will help ease some of the week’s tension from your mind. Or try yoga. I hear that is still a pretty popular way to inner-peace. But still, have a look at the photos. Oh! I know, look at the photos while doing yoga. (more…)
Thailand strikes a pose- knows just what adventuresome travelers crave and brings it… for the camera!
Imagine this- January: cold, dreary, snowy, wet, … miserable, right? Not if you live in Thailand. Well, I guess the same could be said for living in the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, or anywhere near the equator, but let’s focus on Thailand since that’s where this lede is going.
In January of 2008 I was invited to attend the wedding of my great friend’s sister in Bangkok, Thailand. I was already in China so getting to Thailand was just a quick few hours flight from Guangzhou. Before and after the wedding, I took a little time to visit some of the country and photograph as much as possible. (more…)
Psst! read ‘In the Land of Whispering Sand. – A Photo Essay’ in your quiet voice.
It sounds mysterious and exotic, right? Whispering sand. I can almost hear Hidalgo galloping in from the heat hazy horizon. What? You didn’t like Hidalgo?
OK. Well, if a brief escape to far away sunny places is what you need today then I have just the ticket.
In the autumn of 2008, a group of Chinese outdoors enthusiasts hiked a three day through hike of the Kubuqi desert in Inner-Mongolia. I went with that group. This is the story from that hike. And the photographs too. (more…)
Take a Walk… On the Great Wall of China.
The Great Wall of China remains one of the world’s seven wonders to be seen. The physical wall, originally erected roughly 200 BC, winds its way across some 5,000 miles of China from east to west. That is a [blankety-blank] long wall. I visited two sections of the wall in August 2009- Goubeikou, and Jingshanling. Both sections are relatively close to Beijing without being so close as to be trampled by the millions of tourists that visit Badaling, the most famously accessible point of the wall. (more…)
Two thousand, two hundred year old warriors look really great for their age.
In Xi’an, Shaanxi, one of the greatest archeological digs is taking place attempting to uncover the vast Terracotta Army of the Qin Dynasty, 221-206 BC. In 2009 I took a trip north from Jiujiang to Xi’an to see this great spectacle for myself.
Xi’an is one of China’s oldest and most famous cities of China. It is one of the countries four ancient capital cities. The Silk Road leads west from here. The cities great wall surrounding its original city limit has been restored and today visitors can walk the perimeter or rent bicycles to tour the wall. (more…)
Lushan Mountain, a UNESCO cultural heritage site.
I love the mountains. There, I said it. No, it’s true! Lushan mountain was the backdrop from my balcony view of Jiujiang and arguably one of the best views I’ve every had anywhere I’ve lived.
The mountain is not only lovely to look at, it has a long and noteworthy history in China. Some of the countries greatest names in history lived here, worked here, traveled here, hid here, wrote here, and taught here. Today, the movie theater in Lushan village hold the Guinness World record for (more…)
Something Arguably Greater than China’s Rare Earth Minerals
Until I lived in China, I had only known Chinese porcelain as a fine ceramic. I wasn’t aware of how intricate, supple, fragile, strong, thin, translucent, delicate, and beautiful fine porcelain could be. Yes, that’s a lot of adjectives. With a better vocabulary, I’d press on.
I also didn’t know how close I’d landed to China’s greatest resource of the finest porcelain material, when I arrived in Jiujiang. As it turns out, Jingdezhen, the home to the finest bed of kalonite which is the mineral at the base of fine porcelain, is just a couple of hours east of Jiujiang in eastern Jangxi province.
Like all great discoveries or revelations, it took time to realize my full appreciation for this fortunate accident of proximity. Thanks to my friends at the Jiujiang University Foreign Advising Office who took time to schedule a trip to see the home of the worlds finest Chinese porcelain. (more…)
Redo: Jiangxi Provincial Government Sponsors a Photography Tour of Hot Tourist Spots.
On the weekend of April 10th [2010] a group of foreign visitors, workers, and experts living in Jiangxi, China were invited on an all-expense-paid tour of tourist spots near Jiujiang. The weekend trip began in Nanchang, the capitol city of Jiangxi province, Friday morning with a bus ride to Jiujiang, a walking tour of the city, and a 5-star western dinner in downtown Jiujiang. On Saturday, the group traveled to Hukou to tour a portion of Poyang lake and the Yangtze river by boat and walk through Stone Bell Mountain temple. After touring Hukou, the group continued on to visit an orange plantation and finished at Lushan Xihai. Inclement weather on Sunday limited the tour to just boating through the small islands on Lushan Xihai. A scheduled trek up the mountain was cancelled. (more…)
Take a Brief Tour of Beijing.
Without even moving from where you are now, you can take a small journey through some fine points of Beijing. Well, you may want to shuffle a bit and settle into a comfortable position because these photos are going to whisk you away to the capital city of China. I hope you’re not hungry because a part of this journey documents the exotic snack food on Wangfujing, the famous snack street. (more…)
See more of the World. Visit Shanghai…right now.
In August 2007 I traveled more than ten thousand miles from the central part of the United States to eastern central China. The trans-pacific flight took roughly 14 hours. A month later I took my first trip inside China, from Jiujiang to Shanghai. The distance- less than 1000 kilometers. Mode of transportation- train. Time it took to get there- 15 hours. Ooof! (more…)
PhotoWalk 3b – Baiyun Mountain
On December 26th the photo group and I set out on our third photo walk together up Baiyun mountain. Only a mere 3 months later we finally were able to come back together again and talk about the photographs we took on the walk.
Two of the ‘walkers’ made it and a lot of new faces were there as well. Just about everyone brought some photos to share from the past three months. (more…)
PhotoWalk 1b – Liwan area of Guangzhou
We wrapped up the first photo walk last Wednesday evening, November the 3rd, by coming together for the second night of PhotoTalk. This, by the way, was a much more successful display of photographs than the first evening, thanks to much better display hardware. Instead of piping pics onto a 32″ television screen via an iPod nano, as we did on our first night, we projected lovely, larger than life images from a 50-something inch flat panel display with audio. (more…)
Light Show at Huacheng Square HDR #1
Friday night, October 29th, I went into downtown Guangzhou intending to photograph the light display at Huacheng square with some of the photojournalism students from Baiyun University. I wrote about this in the previous portfolio post- Man Walking His Bike in Huacheng Square.
Man Walking his Bike in Huacheng Square.
I like when things go well. I enjoy happy accidents.
Who was it that said “Photography is 90% being there.”? Maybe it wasn’t that exact phrasing but I remember the gist. I do remember that it was Weegee who coined the phrase “F/8 and be there.” when asked how he got such great photographs. Well, I wasn’t at f/8 but I followed the second part of his advice. (more…)
PhotoWalk 1a — Liwan area of Guangzhou
Saturday was forecast to have heavy rains and high winds- the outer bands of typhoon Magi. Fortunately for Guangzhou, the typhoon took an easterly change in course. Instead of rain, wind, and generally poor weather, we had a sunny, balmy, pleasant day. It was the ideal day for being outside. I mention this first because, like so many things in photography, a little determination is often rewarded with a little luck and the result is nearly always one or a few great photographs. (more…)
Shi min jian Waterfall
Images from the trail.
During the height of spring, I hiked a section of Lushan, an international visitor’s destination at the outskirts of Jiujiang in Jiangxi province, which is home to one of the regions tallest and most stunning waterfalls.
The purpose of the hike was to test the abilities of two smart mobile devices to solely support an international traveler. You can read my findings on a page from the TravelersBlog- Sony Ericsson Xperia x10 and Vivaz U5i…Replacing the traveler’s goodies-bag. Page four has image and video comparisons. (more…)
