吉姆 JIM HOFMAN | Photography Faces & places in China
Really great shots
Stop – Thief!
I’ve decided that being a street photographer is like being a thief. Most of my subjects don’t realize I’m taking their photograph, and before they know it – I’ve stolen a moment of their life. Approximately 1/200th of a second of their life is captured on a sensor about the size of my thumb.
Hazy Hong Kong
Holy crap, there was a ton of smog on this trip. There was a dense cloud hanging over my stops in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. While I was in China the pollution in Beijing was off the charts.
Yangjiang Kite Festival – Kites
This was my first kite festival so I wasn’t sure what to expect. My only assumption was there were going to be lots of kites. I was right about that.
Yangjiang Kite Festival – People
I estimate there were probably 5,000 people at the annual Yangjiang Kite Festival and after walking around the place for three hours I concluded I was the only non-Chinese person there. This made me a bit of a freak that earned me a 10 minute photo session with half of the Chinese school girls attending.
Temple Parade
Sometimes you have to go out and find great shots and sometimes the great shots find you. We were driving back to a factory after lunch and a few blocks from our destination we got jammed-up by a parade on the way to the village temple.
Art in the Chaos
Street photography is like a scavenger hunt. Sometimes you’re rewarded with the gift of an amazing image. A small slice of the temporal continuum is captured by a few million pixels. Someone’s ordinary life frozen in time for others to see. They may not consider that particular moment precious, but when removed from the context of their everyday existence it can become special. Perhaps art?
Shanghai I
Shanghai is huge. REALLY huge (23 million people). It’s ten times the size of Chicago. And this week is was hot. REALLY hot. There were lots of umbrellas on the streets to make-your-own-shade.
Nanjing
I just spent a couple days in Nanjing, which is a few hours west of Shanghai. It was my first trip there. I always seem to visit the same manufacturing hubs in China and it was nice to go somewhere new.
Yangjiang Traffic & Streets
Yangjiang a beautiful city on the southern coast of China, just below Macau. This place is the “knife capital of the world”. I’m here working on some product development projects with the knife factories, but have found time to wander the back streets to take some shots.
Hong Kong Sunrise +
On the way in and out of China I always stay in Hong Kong. It’s one of my favorite cities in the world. I woke up early because of jet lag and grabbed some shots as the sun was rising.
Market Sights
Sights from a couple market places in China (Qingxi + Yangjiang). I love to photograph these places. Lots of interesting sensory inputs: sights, sounds, smells, people, activities.
Qingxi Night BBQ & Market
One of my favorite places on the planet. Lots of amazing street food + beer + fun people (often random new friends). The smells are incredible (good).
Sunday in the Park
While I was waiting for a late afternoon meeting with a factory representative I decided to kill some time at a local park in ChangAn. I sat at various benches for about 3 hours taking photos and meeting people.
A Night(mare) at the Airport
Flying in China in the spring is not unlike flying through Chicago O’Hare at the same time of year. You probably don’t want to travel in the late afternoon or evening unless you enjoy (long) delays because of storms.
Behind the Kitchen Door
I was curious about how a restaurant kitchen looks and operates in China. I tested 3 restaurants that I frequent and was able to get access to the kitchen in all of them.
The Supermarket
In many ways this China grocery store is similar to a US store, but in other ways it’s VERY different. Most items are sold in small units to keep the price and size down. There aren’t rows and rows of minivans & SUVs parked in front of the store – you buy what you can carry home.
Under the Big Top
This circus’s “big top” was scaled down to village size, with about 8 guys acting as ringmaster, acrobats, clowns, animal handlers, ticket takers, poop scooper, etc.
Saturday Afternoon in the Village
I took these shots on a cool January afternoon on the weekend before the Chinese New Year holiday began. The overcast weather produced some nice flat outdoor lighting. The lighting in the meat market was a different story.
HKIA Sunset
I arrived at Hong Kong International Airport at sunset last night. I ran down to the check-in counter area, sat on the floor and started firing away as fast as possible with both a 8mm fish eye and my trusty 18mm – 270mm zoom. There was only a short window of time to shoot before […]
China Village Night Life – 11.15.11
Another night of prowling the village for some interesting shots. I used a fast F1.8 lens + high ISO to turn night into day.
