Ok, so what about LensWork, issue 74, to be published January/February 2008? Because that is going to be the issue that my series Bad Trip – Sad Trip is going to be published in!!
I received notification from LensWork earlier this week while I was in JiaXing. I have scheduled the interview with Brooks for early next week to develop the podpcast. So more details to follow…
Best regards, Doug
Well, I have been doing some blog reads, like non-stop. I gotta admit, I missed them!
Seems that Paul Butzi just got back from China as I was leaving. As he was doing the tourist route, his choice of eqquipment (just a Canon G9) was different than mine. Also, as he said, he went wide and turns out, I went deep. As a result of this being my second trip to China this year, I had a idea of my base camp (Marriott hotel in Shanghai, not really roughing it, eh?) and that I was going to be hunkered down with one vendor in a city (JiaXing) about an hour and half car ride South of Shanghai for two weeks. I also knew that I had mornings before 8am to photograph (sunrise about 6ish), so I had some time to roam around. I also had the experience of the last trip not having my tripod and REALLY regretting it.
So here is my camera kit:
Canon EOS XTi (10.1 Mp)
17 – 40 mm f/4 L lens (primary), the 70 – 200 mm f/4 L lens, stuffed in my Tenba camera bag, with 2 each 2 Gig CF cards and 2 camera batteries and the battery charger. Also a CF card reader to download my files to my slug (5 year old Pent3) Dell portable (30 Gig which I filled by the last day) and the Dell is loaded with Photoshop CS3 to do my black and white mojo for posting. I also needed the Dell for the client work, so I could justify lugging that brick along with me. Finally the Gitzo carbon fiber tripod with the RSS 40 ball head, in a Tenba carring case (fits in my big suit case to check) which I wrote about recently.
Back up batteries and extra CF card a must. I toted the extra battery and CF card with me all of the time and glad I did on a couple of occasions.
The tripod is a now a MUST, can’t really do the night, early morning or evening pictures without it. So you just gotta get one that is small enough to fit in your bag, but substanial enough to make it worthwhile.
Only issue was the L bracket from RRS keep kinking the Canon electonic release cable while the Canon was in the Horizontal position. I think that there is not enought clearance to keep it clear all of the time, you have to make sure it does not get pinched. I think I need a new cable now. So the last couple of days, I was using the shutter release button on the camera for some long exposures. In retrospect, I was jet lagged and tired, and could have had used the mirror up function with the timer. I read some where about the grips with the Canon and their funky mirror up function on the menu, and I will second that their mirror-up process sucks. Okay, maybe I’m a little cranky, but the other camera manufacturers have figured this out, duh.
Okay, so that’s what I brought, what worked (just about all) and what was a pain. I would probably do it all again and probably will if I need to head back there again shortly;- )
Best regards, Doug
BTW, this image is from the 39th floor of the JW Marriott (resturaunt) in downtown Shanghai. And I did use the tripod, but I had to smash the camera lens up to the window to try to kill any window glare and had to crop slightly to eliminate what I could not compensate for during the componsition. I used the PSC3 on my portable and not sure that I have the foreground right, I need to look at this again on my calibrated monitor when I get home (yep, still in Tokyo). Also part of going deep, as I have stayed here a couple of times before and I really like this particular composition, so I was prepared. When these clouds started to break up, I had to run from the lunch group and capture this image! I can be a little anti-social on occasion!
South Lake, JiaXing, China
I left Shanghai this morning and I am currently at my four hour layover in the Tokyo Airport and guess what? I can access my blog again!!
You might say that I have a few things to post and comment about. But the first is the ‘radio silence’ of all blogs in China. I tried for the first week to try to figure a way around the buggers, but I eventually gave up. Oh, well it did make me realize that I might be addicted to the blogging, not being able to post a daily image or thought was almost as bad as not getting access to email, but yes, I did have access to email.
The thing is, I will need to be back in China again, perhaps as soon as in three weeks. My client project for a technology transfer did not go smoothly. But that whole issue is for a different audience. But the take away is that I need to figure out a process to get images and thougths over to this blog, so I will nooodle on that for a bit.
Besides not being able to post (my exception in a moment), I was also not able to access most of the other blogs, for the same reason. Since I was able to view and post to the collaborative blog Stills (see blogroll) that I participate in, I think that I have broken their code. The China internet will not allow any web sites that are two words with a dot seperation, e.g. www.singularimages.wordpress.com as they have determined that this is a blog web addresss. If the blog is administered directly from a web site, such as Stills, it is not blocked! Although Stills uses the Blogger front end, the actual blog is admin by Colin from his server, thus the trancated web site name does not get dedicted. So that is another alternative, manage my blog from my own server. hmmmm. NOT. That is beyond my capablities and interest, sorry.
Well, I have some other admin tasks to manage, such as approve some other nice comments and do some blog reading….as well as I have one more great thing to announce shortly…
Best regards, Doug
By the way, I did try one experiement that I had to check before adding this note, since I could access Blogger front panel to get to Stills, I then tried to set up a new blog (www.singularimages.blogspot.com) on Blogger as a work around. Well that was a good news, bad news event. I was able to set up the new blog, with an original name (NOT!), chose a template, and then post some images. BUT I was still not able to see the results!! darn. BooBang! So I had no idea of how it was looking until just a moment ago. Well using that blog site is an alternative, but much like bowling in the dark, roll the ball but you have no idea of what pins you knocked down. So perhaps I will try to improve that blog as my back up plan?? Is that going to be a pain for you all??? Oh well, some more things to noodle about, but in the meantime, I will continue to keep that blog as a back up plan…..
