Last Day, Last Post from China

I've not been able to keep up with this as I had hoped, but you hopefully get a bit of the taste of China.

Some highpoints:

• Dinner with the group. Food not as strange as Monday night, but still new
• The flag ceremony at Tianamen square.
• Strange lights floating in the air.
• Shopping and bargaining on Silk Street
• Chinese 'Hot Pot' meal
• Smog beyond belief

In about 30 minutes (13:00 Beijing time) I leave for the airport. It's Friday here ans 13:00 Beijing time is 1:00 Friday morning in Durham. I'll be home about 10:00 Friday night Durham time. You do the math.

I'll see you on the other side of the Pacific....from where I am now.

More on Physics and Beijing

Not only can two vehicles occupy the same space, a vehicle and a person can occupy the same space. It's incredible. And again, Beijing defies the laws of physics. (See rush hour post below.)

Beijing Rush Hour

Here is a quick snap of what the road looks like as I walk to work in the morning. Keep in mind, 20 million people. Lots of bicycles.

LIttle Red on the Great Wall of China

Thought we'd do a little PR for the Little Red Foundation. Wore my walk tshirt up there. Here it is...Little Red on the Great Wall of China.

The Great Wall

Sunday we hired a private guide and headed for the Great Wall and other places.

Once you get past the cable car to the top of the wall and the tobaggan run to the bottom of the wall, it is a truly amazing and beautiful place.

This is the Mutianyu section of the wall. Our guide suggested, no insisted, we head here, because it is a more natural area with fewer vendors.

Beijing: Arrival

This picture was taken from our hotel. Tenth floor window. It's late afternoon Beijing time and the air is pretty clear. Beijing has a lot of construction ongoing in preparation for the 2008 Olympic games.

As things go, it's a good day to arrive in Beijing.

Defying the Laws of Physics

I never new two vehicles could occupy the same place at the same time till I reached Beijing. Here they routinely do it.

The driving is absolutely crazy. I would never drive here.

Beijing: I'm Here

My apologies to those of you expecting pictures here. I should have brought my laptop.

Our schedule has been demanding and changes have kept me pretty busy with the work side of this trip, but some quick notes on the trip so far.

Thirteen and a half hours in a plane. I thought the US constitution protected you from cruel and unusual punishment. Evidently not. The good news is I had an empty seat beside me. the bad news is it didn't help much. The first 8 hours were OK. The last 5.5 were tough. Sleep would help but who can sleep on these things. It's a tough trip.

Sunday. We hired a private guide who was indeed wonderful. For a total of 1600 RMB, which is about $200, 5 of us shared the guide and a van with a driver. If I ever do this again, Christine will be on my list of people to contact.

She took us to the Great Wall of China, pictures to follow I hope. Then to Beijing and to the Lotus Market where we ate lunch, then to the DrumTower and for a pedicab ride that took us to the residential sections of Beijing. We even got to go into a home for a brief visit. Most folks live in one or two small rooms. Very different from what we are used to. VERY different.

Mostly the town is dirty. But there are 20 million people in Beijing. Lots of construction going on getting ready for the 2008 Olympics. And HOT. Humidity is lower but man o man. It will probably hit 100F today if not higher. And talk about your basic pollution porbelms...they got em. While writing this I'm sitting onthe 19th floor looking out a window and should be able to see the mountains easily. I bet I can't see much more than a mile.

Our hotel is very western. I eat eggs for breakfast with bacon, sausage, or ham, waffles, cereal, and fruit. Best watermelon I've had in a while. I keep stuffing it in. Room is very comfortable. Much more than expected.

Chinese food. It's everywhere. And it's not all that different from what we experience in the US. Last night they took us out for duck, which is evidently the BBQ of the Chinese. The General Manager ordered lots of food. I ate little. The duck was good, but the frog, sea cucmbers and a couple of other undescribable dishes were passed. A taste of each, but I don't think I returned to any of them except the duck.

But the regular Chinese food we've had is very much similar to what I eat at home. I've asked folks, since we have a Chinese restaurnat on every corner, do they have American restaurants on every corner. The answer always comes back KFC, McDonald's, and Pizza Hut.

Time is growing short. We're probably going to Tianemen Square (forgive the spelling...nothing with me to check it) to see the flag lowering ceremony.

Was hoping to get some pictures up today, but left the cable to download at the hotel. Will try again tomorrow morning Beijing time.

In short, things are good here. Dreading the plane ride back, but will want a burger when I get there.

And before I forget, the office is only a two minute walk from the Beijing WalMart. Geez!

Beijing

I was to be in Beijing right now but plans change. My trip to Beijing has been postponed until 16JUN. Continue watching here. I hope to be able to make updates once I get to Beijing.

On the Road 24JUL thru 31JUL

I'm on the road, but not posting here.

Check out http://www.theesbr.blogspot.com for posts from this trip.

Picture of the Day 2005.05.21

"Bahama Gets a New Fire Chief"

Kyle was fascinated with the fire truck...so much that we had to visit it twice. Snapped several shots of him in and around the truck. These are the best.

Yes, I know I'm no longer on the road, but I used techniques learned while on the road to create this and I think it turned out pretty well. What do you think?

The Smokies

I set the alarm for 6:00 to be able to hit the park about sunrise. The alarm goes off, I get up, get ready to go and look out the window. Man is it dark. How did I mess up the time for sunrise. Get to wondering and then check my watch. My watch says it's 5:30, not 6:30. I check the alarm clock. It says it is 6:30. Guess which one is right. I got up an hour early.

About 6:15 I head to Tremont Road, planning to shoot for about 2 hours. I'm there by 6:30 and have chosen my first location for shooting. It's a good place to shoot. A river runs down the by the road and there is adequate plant life (small widlflowers) to keep my interest. After shooting for a while, I check my watch. 7:35. Plenty of time. I continue to drive and shoot a couple of locations. Again I check my watch. 7:35. OOPS! My watch stopped. I check the clock in the car. It's almost 9:00. So much for my 2 hour plan...and I still have to finish here.

It's about 9:15 when I head out. Destination Sugarlands Visitor Center to find Kyle some gift to take back home. I'm stopped by the fly fisherman 'begging' to have a picture taken, but the flies are chewing on me and I don't stay here long at all. My schedule is shot, so when I leave Sugarlands I go in to the edge of Gatlinburg for breakfast. I'm back on the road near 11:00.

It begins to rain as I leave Cherokee and I'm getting a bit sleepy so I stop in Dillsboro for a brief respite of sleep and doze for about 1/2 an hour in a parking lot on the river. When I wake, the rain has eased so I head on down the mountain toward Waynesville.

Just before getting back on I-40 below Waynesville, I pull out into the left lane to pass some cars and just as I pull into line, the car dies. Fortunately I am able to pull to right and make the shoulder without incident...except for ticking off one or tow drivers. Scary. Lots of wondering about what to do, but after about 1/2 of waiting, the car restarts and I'm on the way home without further incident. The day finishes at home about 6:30.

What a day. What a week. What an experience.

Picture of the Day 2005.05.14

Little River from Tremont Road. Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Finals

Today we graduate. In the lab at 08:00 to learn a few more quick tips and tricks and then begin to print.

The topic of the morning is not new to me, so I begin playing with a couple of pictures. These are photos that I took on Tuesday, but I need something to print. I have two, but would like a couple of more for the afternoon printing session. One turns out to be the picture of the day.

It's a photo of a plant that I was trying to do a close up of, and it just didn't work. So today I retrieve it and play with it. I turn it black and white, paint back in some color using layers, and then add a filter to make it look like a painting. A really neat transformation that saves the 'photograph', though I don't know if that is the appropriate word or not.

I call the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and find I will not be able to get in to Cade's Cove at sunrise as planned. Bummer. Not to worry though, Bill has an alternate shooting location for me. Tremont Road. The road that leads to the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont. I've never been up this road before thinking it was a private road for the Institute. Not so. So that is my location in the morning.

We print and talk through the afternoon. A relaxing fun afternoon. Al brought his own printer, so I'm only sharing the printer with Nancy who is not printing a lot. I get 4 prints done on various papers before the afternoon is over.

I download my files to disk and am surprised that I have almost 3.5 gigabytes worth of data. Some of my picture files turned out to be quite large. I finish just before 5:00, barely in time to let Bill get out the door to pick up his son for baseball and the event is over.

What a week.

I pick up Krystals to eat on the road, and drive to Townsend and check in to the Best Western there after only one wrong turn. The room is OK and has a balcony where I sit to relax a bit. Here I fall asleep for about 1/2 an hour. I'm tired.

I drive over to the Park scout my shooting locations but it's getting too dark to tell much so I stop, gas up the car, grab a sandwich and head back to the hotel for some rest. One more shoot and my photography week is done.

Picture of the Day 2005.05.13

A Bad Photograph Saved with Photoshop Magic.

Create

It's a late start for us this week. I get to sleep in this morning till about 6:30. Not due at class until 8:00. And I end up getting there late by lolly-gagging around the room till it's too late.

Our early morning session is spent on scanning. Film scanning versus flat bed scanning. I'm interested because somewhere I have thousands, and I mean thousands, of slides and prints that are laying out there rotting away that I need to preserve. It's cool what you can do. An all digital world is here.

About 09:30 we head off for the marina on Melton Lake. Our goal...To photograph the rowers on the lake. The NCAA rowing finals are being held here (Oak ridge) this weekend. Alas, there is little activity when we arrive. A couple of teams on the water rowing, but mostly things are quiet. However, I get in to photographing the artifacts of rowing...boats in storage, oars on the dock, abandoned shoes on the doc, oars in the water, and so on and so on. I really get in to this kind of shooting....Story telling. I shoot for over an hour. I think everyone else gets tired of waiting for me, so we soon off to town to download pictures from the shoot. I've shot over 100 pictures this morning.

While downloading, the conversation turns to laptops. Al is extremely frustrated with his, so we go to Staples at lunch so he can pick my brain for information. Afterward we eat lunch at The Soup Kitchen. Then back to class.

This afternoon we're given a project...take some of the images we've shot this week and create the cover for some sort of brochure. I concentrate on my images from the morning and produce Oars on the Water for the Oak Ridge Rowing Association. It's a fun afternoon. Quiet but fun.

I should say quiet except for us trying to buy a laptop for Al over the internet. We start looking at Alienware machines. I've never given these folks a second look, but am impressed with what I see this afternoon as we poke and prod for Al. I'm going to consider them for our next computer purchase. Good value I think. And the equipment is getting good reviews.

I finish a bit early, format some compact flash cards and we all depart about before 5:00 so Bill can make his soccer practice. On the way out he praises my afternoon creation as being done well. Asks me if I have any more of my work with me. If so, bring it back. He'd like to have the other students see some of what I've done.

Talk about stroking my ego.

I come back to the hotel to finalize my change in plans for going to the Smokies to shoot Saturday and take some drugs (The Soup Kitchen gave me indigestion) and check to see what images I can share with the group. The good news is I have some of the Yosemite pics on the laptop, so I have something to share.

After supper, Al orders his new laptop. Bill brings in Krispy Kremes, fresh off the truck. And we begin talking about printing. Techniques, paper, and sizing are all covered. When Bill decides to print a couple of examples, we take a look at my 'portfolio' while we wait. Generally speaking, I get favorable comments. And then we just talk. We seem to do that well. This group gets along pretty well.

Tomorrow, no shooting. We'll meet at 8:00 to edit photos and print them. We expect that to take most of the day.

Today's picture of the day is the project I created this afternoon. Nothing terribly exciting, Just a practice in some of the techniques we've learned this week.

Don't know if there will be a picture of the day tomorrow or any posting. Don't know if I'll have internet connectivity in Townsend. If not, I'll wrap this road trip up on Saturday when I get home.

Goodnight.

Picture of the Day 2005.05.12

The afternoon project. Technique, technique, technique.

Vision

I'm up at 5:00 today, but am almost late and I don't have a clue where the extra time went.

This morning we're headed to Norris Dam, about 1/2 hour drive from our location in Oak Ridge. Our hopes of taking shots of the dam are pretty much shot by the dense fog surrounding the late formed by the dam and the Clinch River. At our first stop, we can't even see the dam, even though it only a short distance from where we are standing. Off to our alternate plan. It's a nature trail that runs along the river below the damn, about 500 feet above the water. Our hope is to find some wildflowers to shoot.

We never find those flowers. In fact, we kid the theme of the day is green. Everything we encounter is green. No flowers, lots of ferns and moss and poison ivy, but no flowers. We manage a few shots anyway, and after about an hour of hiking and shooting, head back to the trailhead. On the way back to town, we stop and shoot at an old grist mill for about 20 minutes. The good news is the fog has kept the temperature cooler, but as soon as it burns off, the sweat starts running with great abandon. It will be hot today.

We will be inside for most of the rest of the day. What will we learn today? Non-Photoshop. How to do panoramas. I'm glad to learn. Bill and I inessence saw the same shot today, but he got it because he knows how to do panoramas. We learn how to put text on and in photos. Then we break for lunch. I'm back to the room to make reservations for Townsend and check email and do a couple of other things. I grab a quick burrito on the way back to the Gallery.

After lunch, we work on a method to create a ragged border to pictures, a technique you see in the POTD (Picture of the Day) today. Less than perfect,but something to try anyway.

Then the question comes. What do you want to do with your photography? In essence Bill is signalling us that he's taught us all he intended to teach for the week, except printing, and wants to know what we want to study. This leads to a conversation about our goals, or vision, setting oneself apart by unique creativity, and the art of photography. Bill is excited, pulling pictures off the gallery wall to make his points. I am inspired to try some new things. Some may not work, some may. We're in to filters. Photoshop filters and how we can use them to our advantage. It's a fun hour or so of discussion and something that gets me pumped about doing some new and different things with photography.

At the supper break, I'm off to Big Ed's Pizza for supper. It's a well known place to eat evidently and I should try out. The menu: Pizza, coke, and/or beer. That's it. I order a small and watch the patrons of this place. It's an interesting place. Pizza is good but not great. It's just one of those things you must do.

Afte supper Bill loans me his new 'brush' for the Wacom tablet to try out. And then there is silence for about an hour as we work on our individual projects. That hasn't happened all week. I start tearing down my gear a few minutes before 9:00. But as our custom has developed, we continue to talk and I leave again about 9:45.

But we sleep in tomorrow morning. We'll begin at 8:00, do class for about an hour, then head to the marina to shoot the rowers. It's the NCAA Women's Rowing Championships this weekend.

But I am tired, so enough for today. I'm off to bed.

Picture of the Day 2005.05.11

Picture taken 10MAY05 at Frozenhead State Park, Wartburg, TN.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is Janie's special day. HER BIRTHDAY!

We'll celebrate when I get back, but for now, I say:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WIFE!

Have a great day!