Birds on a Wire

Heyuan 2/5/03

Heyuan

Heyuan. 2-5-03

Pool Table

Heyuan. 2-5-03

Room

Heyuan. 2/5/03

This room had a beautiful view and I knew that I had to shoot it but the XPan didn't see it the way I did. So I took just two shots and moved on. Perhaps I needed to have a seat. This place had some history to it that I'll never know about.

The scan is showing much more than I could pull out of the darkroom processed silver print. In 2004 when i was trying to print this negative I just wasn't able to pull out the highlight area and my printing ability at that time was probably the best it ever was.Now I just juggle it back and forth between Photoshop and Lightroom, move some sliders around and there it is.

Today I received a piece of anti-newton glass from betterscanning.com that has a better effect on sharpening negatives than any software can ever as there is no substitute for a flat negative.The only caveat is that it introduces two more surfaces to the scanning equation meaning more dust potential. Definitely recommended for scanning and I'm going to email thanks to betterscanning.

...eeway 125

Heyuan, 2-5-03

"Specializing in noble model street bike for noble life..."

The scooter was owned by my wife's uncle who was a doctor and I felt that he led a noble life.

Kunming

Kunming 1/23/03

Lijiang

Lijiang. 1/26/03

Stone Forest in Kunming

Shi Lin.  1/27/03

Dali

Dali 1/24/03

I don't remember much about this shot or why I took it. I believe that this person is of the Bai minority.

Ferry Leaving Huangpu 2003

Two Children Leaving Huangpu. February 2003

 

A lot was happening on this day. First a visit to the Huangpu Military Academy, now
a museum on Changzhou Island. The academy was started by Sun Yat Sen and Chiang
Kai shek with the assistance of the Chinese communists and the Soviet Union (Stalin).

What a crazy combination of comrades! Unbelievable.

Growing up in the US with a healthy dose of western civilization left me fairly immune
 to the troubles of China trying to shed it's imperialist past along with the oppression of the western powers along with Japan. The1920's decade roared with a different meaning for China than it did for the US.

Back to February 2003. New Year is on people's minds, not the past of Chinese history. This
shot was the adjacent frame to an image that I had selected for a grant proposal the next year.
That image focused on the child on the motorcycle. On this shot, a glimpse at the contact sheet
told my editing mind that the child in the van was distracting.

Funny that I was drawn to this shot almost ten years later - the mother and daughter in the van
are my own.