After getting shut out of China for almost a year and a half, I was finally able to travel to Shanghai for some street photography and vintage camera shopping with my Ningbo friend Barry. We got very lucky with the weather (except for a few hours on the first day) and spent a couple of nights shooting with a flash. We took our ritual trip to the Shanghai Camera Mall, but I was disappointed they didn’t have a Bessa R2 that I wanted to buy, but after a quick online visit to the equivalent of Chinese eBay, Barry found a local guy selling a mint condition Bessa who could meet us in a few hours. The exchange went smoothly and we now have a new Urbex photographer friend in Shanghai to shoot with. My new camera setup shares M-mount lenses with my Leica M6, so I can shoot with two compact 35mm film cameras that have different types of film (color + black and white) and lenses with two different focal lengths. A little extravagant – but definitely cool.

After the first day in Shanghai, we learned there were new cases of Covid popping up nearby so we decided to stay away from using the subway and visiting large shopping centers for fear of wandering into a potential lockdown zone. We had to get Covid tested every day in Shanghai in order to enter the hotel. It was like being in a scifi movie.

At the end of the three days, we had walked over 18 miles and I had shot 6 rolls of 35mm film – including one roll on the first rainy night that I blasted through in about 10 blocks.