Shanghai – Jiashan – Pinghu – Xitang

My third trip to China took me into Shanghai, then South to Jiashan, Pinghu and a side trip to Xitang. For the most part of the three weeks, I was staying at a hotel (World Expo hotel, not recommended) in Jiashan and working in Pinghu, getting to the lake at Pinghu only once for a late evening dinner with a very large group. I did get back to Shanghai for one weekend and had the delightful opportunity to get to the Shanghai art & photo gallery district, M50. For a quick overview of my impressions, you can find my thoughts that Miguel posted on his blog, Exposure Compensation, for me. Miguel also posted my frustration with the Chinese Blogger Red Guard, as well. Thanks to Miguel for allowing me to be his guest blogger.

This trip concludes the three loosely planned visits over nine months and I racked up a total of 36-1/2 Gigs of images, for a total of approximately 3,450 images, and due to file storage limitations, I had edited out about 25% more.

My first week in China last year, I was kinda of overwhelmed, so it was more of an orientation trip, but in a good way. The second trip for the two weeks, I was beginning to open up to the possibilities and starting to look more at what was there. This third trip, over almost three weeks, everything started to jell and I saw photographic possibilities everywhere! I now have working themes for five series coming out of this experience, which I hope to share shortly. As you might suspect, the photo with this post will be part of one of the series;- )

I also had some frustrations with equipment, especially with the lousily cold weather performance of my Canon Rebel XTi. I will write about that shortly as well. Right now I am just trying to get a little organized, very jet lagged and my baggage is still en route from Hong Kong. As you probably heard, China is having one heck of a blizzard, just as the Luna New Year approaches, which for us in the USA, is like a combination of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years all rolled into one. A LOT of people are trying to get home for the holidays, and we almost did not get the plane out of Shanghai airport yesterday. Thus with a tight connection in Hong Kong, I made the flight and my bag did not, the second time that this occurred. So I am thankful to be here at home even if my luggage is not.

Best regards, Doug