If St. Mark’s Square is the “Living Room” of Venice, then Tienanmen Square is the living room of Beijing. Security is very tight, as evidenced by the hundreds of surveillance camera and dozens of police men & soldiers.
I’m not much of a nature photographer. I prefer people & places more than flowers and birds, but there were a few good nature shots from Beijing that came out nice.
Beautiful architecture that’s still timeless. The care-and-feeding of the buildings could be improved to prolong their life span. The crowds are gone and now the Olympic Park is a curiosity for a few visitors.
I went prowling around the village last night with a fast 35mm f1.8 lens to test the low light capabilities of the D3100. Not bad. Some of these shots look like they were taken in the middle of the day because of the amount of lighting in the village and the fast lens.
Some shots from 29 stories above Wan Chai looking towards North Point on the island. The stormy weather was interesting to photograph, then it all blew away a few hours later for a beautiful afternoon.
Everyone’s doing it!! Line dancing at night on the basketball courts and in public squares.
There are miles of these “retail alleys” in every small village in China. Inexpensive retail space for entrepreneurs. The stripped tunnel visual effect can be dizzying.
This is a common scene in the area surrounding a new high tech industrial park being build next to our factory in Shenzhen. The land value has sky-rocketed because of the adjacency to the new electronics factory buildings, so the owners of 5 story apartment buildings are tearing them down and building 8 – 9 story buildings (with a higher density inside).
After spending thousands of hours playing ping pong as a youth I decided to test my rusty skills with some friends here in China. Because it’s one of the national pastimes most people tend to be pretty good. Unfortunately I was not. I got smoked by the “number one lady player” at our factory – along with everyone else.. We had a nice Sunday afternoon reunion lunch before playing.
I went to my first badminton match to watch my friend Mike play some of his friends. Badminton is a national pastime and is played the same way Americans bowl – as a social sport. They were very good, but I couldn’t help but chuckle as one of the girls chatted on a cell phone while playing.
Today while eating lunch, the wife of the restaurant owner (not an English speaker) used “charades” to ask me if I would photograph her daughter. Of course this was a great honor for me, so I came back with my camera gear and started shooting away.
These two happy guys are selling stuff on a stick. It’s actually a traditional Chinese candy called “iced sweet gourd” because the shape is like gourds strung together.
What was once a field growing vegetables is about to become a high tech industrial park. Progress…
There isn’t much nature left in Kowloon, so when a muti-million dollar shopping center was built a few steps from the harbor the developer spared no expense to preserve a very old tree so they could excavate a lower level courtyard.
I’ve known my friend Hanson for about 10 years. His daughter was a baby when we first starting having lunch together. This photo was taken at Hanson’s apartment after we shared a very good hot pot dinner together.
One of the popular “sidewalk snacks” in China is raw sugar cane. It’s sold by street vendors and the outer layer is husked after you buy it. Customers chew off chunks and suck the sugar from the cane – then spit the rest out on the sidewalk.
I bought some “Ugly Girl” brand “Snake Oil Hand Creme” for my daughter. I’m not sure that brand name would play well in the US.
This is the toy lady. She sets up a table at the local open-air market and the kids swarm around her like bees.
Sometimes the juxtaposition of advertising billboards is funny. The jewelry girl is totally checking out the Pepsi dude.
It was cold that day and I think this little guy is layered with his whole wardrobe. He stopped and posed while I was taking shots of his little brother.