This was my third trip to Beijing.  Each time I see the same sights, so this time I was prepared to get some decent photos because I’ve already done the scouting.  I actually bought a new telephoto lens specifically for this trip to get the compressed depth of field in the photos of the soldiers in front of the painting of Chairman Mao in the Forbidden City.  I’m still blown away by the crisp image quality of this relatively inexpensive 50-230mm lens.

The photo below is a one-in-a-million shot that has some interesting significance.  I took it at 7:02am in front of the Forbidden City.  I had just finished photographing the soldiers and I turned around and saw this boy and his mother walking towards me.  I still had the long lens on the camera so I framed the image and got one shot off as they walked by me.  I checked the camera after they passed and realized I had actually grabbed a selfie perfectly framed in his glasses.  On top of that, behind me is Tiananmen Square and the Tomb of Chairman Mao. This is a full frame image at 114mm with no cropping.  I rarely shoot street photos with a long lens, but this photo was pure serendipity.