Visions from China 2012: Part 1

I certainly haven’t spent much time in Perth since finishing exams! After completing 4 weeks of placement in Busselton, I only had a few days in Perth before jetting off to China for a short family trip. It was delightfully cold at well-below-zero temperatures in Xi’An and Luo Yang cities and I managed to escape the heatwave of Perth while I was away!

The food in China is never something I look forward to as high expectations often set you up for disappointment. At the first restaurant we visited, we had a mysterious apple dish and a delicious Peking Duck which was pretty tasty and set the bar pretty high. Throughout the rest of the trip, the food was “local fare”: steamed rice with various versions of stir-fried vegetables / meat. It’s pretty similar to the sort of thing my mum cooks at home, so not too much of a shock to the system.

Those white buns above, “bao”, are close to my favourite thing in the whole world and these gigantic bao were served piping hot on a freezing day in a restaurant where there was no heater. There was lots more food but I didn’t think you’d want to see all of it, it all looks like more of the same after a while, “a pile of stir-fry” and “another pile of stir fry”.

One thing I did think was worth photographing was the hand-pulled noodles. At this particular restaurant, the noodles were made from scratch using this amazing pulling and twisting technique! I’m not too sure the chef was thrilled to be there / be photographed, perhaps he doesn’t find it as exciting as I do because he does it every day :) The basic brothy soup he made with the noodles was so delicious!

Here’s an assortment of other random snaps from the trip; a rather sad-looking stray dog, a super eager photographer at a traditional dance show we attended, a tea ceremony in action and Tom at the Longmen caves, standing in front of a 10 metre rock carving of Buddha.

I went to China last year but I haven’t posted the pictures up here because they aren’t very interesting from a photography standpoint. After this trip, I’ve really noticed the difference in the photos that I’m left with, instead of rather drab looking tourist shots, I’ve got something I’m a bit more excited about. I’m so thankful that doing the 10 on 10s and light workshop over the last year have honed my eye and helped me to see subjects and light differently.

It is hard to get good photographs on a family trip because it’s not about me and my camera. People usually don’t notice when I stop to photograph something so I have to be super quick and be aware of my surroundings so I don’t get left behind! Also when I’m out with the family, I prefer to inconvenience them as little as possible (especially hungry people, never leave hungry people waiting for food long or they soon become HANGRY).

I’ve learned that in order to work quickly and efficiently, you need to be confident in your artistic vision to find and frame the subject quickly, and also have enough experience to know how to get the exposure and light correct on the first or second shot. I’m not 100% there, but I feel like I’m on the journey of improvement!

I’ll be posting the rest of my China images soon. As always, hope you liked this lot of photos :)