Panoramas

Saw this link the other day. Shanghai's skyline in 1990 and today (h/t Gizmodo):


That's pretty striking for twenty years.

I'm going to use this post as an excuse to get a few of my favorite panoramas that I took in China on the internet:


Larger resolution link

This photo is from one of my favorite places on earth, Hua Shan, in 2008. The clouds below us engulfing the mountains. Unreal. Another interesting thing about this photo is my friend, Andy, on the far left. He is taking a picture off the edge of a cliff. He's easy to miss unless you're looking for him.

Larger resolution link

This is from the Jinshanling to Simatai section of the Great Wall. I took this photo in 2006.

Larger resolution link

This photo is of The Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an. I lived about a two minute walk from this pagoda and walked/rode my bike past it every day when I went to work. Every night at the pagoda they had a water show. I like the remnants of a firework blast on the left side of this photo.

I took these photos with my Canon G2 camera. I used the Canon software "Photostitch" to create them. Basically, I just took a handful of individual photos on a certain setting on the camera and then "stitched" them together on the computer. Not a perfect way of creating wide angle shots. The pagoda picture, in particular, doesn't look too professional. But I can't complain with these results. They show how far amateur photography has been advanced by digital cameras.

Chinese Wedding Ceremony Photos

Qian and I have regretted for the past several months that we had, literally, zero pictures from our Chinese wedding ceremony this past year.

The wedding (not legal wedding, just a celebration... Qian had to enter the US as my fiancee) was video taped, but not photographed. That video of the day is cool (and I realize I still haven't edited that and posted a few clips here... someday), but it'd have been nice to have at least some photos from the event.

The other day, Qian looked at her uncle's QQ page and saw that he had up a gallery of snapshots that he took from the ceremony last August. We were happy to see that he had a number of really good shots.

Here are some of our favorite ones:

Edited out photos here

Qian's dad and me toasting baijiu. Thankfully, I didn't have too much baijiu on this day (I was still hung over from the bachelor party a few days prior). I did have a few shots though. Qian's dad's friends had painted his face. That is a tradition for the parents of the bride.

Photos of the Week - Our American Wedding

I still haven't cut up the DVD of our Chinese wedding on our computer yet. I'll do that eventually. It shouldn't be too tough on my MacBook. Just a matter of sitting down and doing it.

Until I get that done, here are some photos of our US wedding from September 6th. It, like the Chinese one, was an unforgettable day. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I feel so lucky to have had two weddings.

There are tons more photos than what I'm posting here. Just am going to give a quick view of the evening:

Edited out photos

All in all, an incredible evening. It went so well. Such a happy experience.

Photos of the Week - Honeymoon in St. Pete

We finished up our honeymoon yesterday. We went to a resort in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was a really good and relaxing week. We were there from Sunday through Thursday. It was great to go during these times since there were hardly any people there. That's just what we were looking for for our honeymoon.

Here are some of the better photos we took:

Edited out photos

Me (with very stupid hair) and Qian on the beach with a rainbow in the background

Our honeymoon was perfect. We couldn't have really asked for a better few days.

Photos of the Week - Wedding Photos

Although Qian and I won't be legally tying the knot for a about a month, tomorrow is a big day for us. We're going to have an unofficial traditional Chinese ceremony/party for our friends and Qian's family in Xi'an. I don't want to get into all of the details right now, because there are a lot, but it's going to be a really nice day.

One of the things couples who are about to be married do in China these days is go to a photo studio to take wedding photos. I wrote about this some in April when we took the photos. (I'm really glad we did it then when life wasn't so hectic.)

We picked up the photos a couple months ago. They're just awesome. We're so pleased with how they turned out. We have a couple of professional-looking books of photos and had several shots made into larger photos to be hung on walls. In total, we have about 30 photos printed. On a CD, we have more than 120 photos in all.

Edited out

I'm going to be very busy for at least the next few days. Probably won't be posting too much. I'll surely be back before too long though!

Photos of the Week - Doodles

Bear with me here.

These doodles don't have anything to do with China. They're just random drawings I've done over the past year or so.

I've always enjoyed drawing. When I was in high school, I turned a corner a bit in the development and complexity of what I was doing. My drawing became markedly more abstract.

Towards the end of high school I drew several really intricate pieces. In more recent years, I've hardly done anything at all.

These drawings, mostly done during down time of observations that I do at my school (notice the random comments I have on their classes on the sides), are the first drawings I've done in years. I like a couple of them a lot.


This is the most "advanced" one I've done in a long time. It took me several hours of the course of a day.

Photos of the Week - An Evening on the Water at Houhai Park

The most enjoyable part of our trip to Beijing a couple weeks ago was taking a motor boat out in Houhai Park. Houhai Park is centrally located in Beijing northwest of the Forbidden City and Beihei Park.

Qian and my friends Richard and Ling and I went out on the water a little after 6:00PM. We were out on the water as the sun went down.

It was a surreal experience; both the people I was with and the setting around the four of us could not have been better.

Here are some of my photos:


The sun going down


A wonderful scene out on the water


Qian at the helm of the boat


Ling driving with Richard up front


There were little bars and restaurants like this everywhere around Houhai. There are lots of nice and expensive places around the lake.


After we got off of the boat and before dinner, the girls went shopping and the guys had a couple drinks. This is a rather sinister looking photo of Ricardo.


This is our friend, Elliot, who met us after the ride. I really like this photo. It doesn't look that good after I pared it down for this blog. But it looks great in full resolution.


This is a trippy photo from atop the bar we were at. I left the lens on for five seconds as the masses below went about their ways.

Atmospheric Optics Photo of the Day - Rainbow at the Great Wall

I found out about the website Atmospheric Optics from the reader, Jonathan Shock, and his comments on my Great Wall photos post last week. Atmospheric Optics and its photos and explanations of curious atmospheric phenomena is fascinating and is definitely worth checking out.

Per Jonathan's suggestion, I sent the Great Wall with the rainbow in the foreground photo to the AtOptics administrator. The admin said the photo was great and made it the photo of the day today.

Check out the great write up on the type of rainbow I saw and the work he did on the photo here. It looks beautiful.

Thanks a lot to Jonathan and Atmospheric Optics for getting this photo in front of more eyes.

Photos of the Week - The Great Wall From Jinshanling to Simatai

On July 1st in Beijing, Qian, a group of five friends, and I went to a section of the Great Wall a few hours north of Beijing. The section is a hike from 金山岭 (Jinshanling) to 司马台 (Simatai). It is widely known as the best, relatively-accessible, section of the Wall.

This trip was my fourth trip to the Great Wall. I went by myself in 2006, with my friend Meaghan in 2007, and my family, again, in 2007.

It's been great every time.

Here are my most recent photos:


The Wall and its forts go on and on


There were two quick rain showers while we were out there. I thought they were great. They cooled us down, cleaned the air and kept the sky immaculately blue, and also provided this ridiculous rainbow. It was the closest full rainbow I've ever seen. I couldn't take a picture of the whole arc. Quite the setting!


The 10km hike had some difficult patches


A few of my friends walking through the terraced fort


Another steep section


I'll be honest with you, I had an urge to go try to push this little wall over. I, of course, didn't. It just looked like it was about to fall at any moment!


This is the Simatai section at the end. We didn't hike this part. It looked incredibly grueling.


A look back at the Wall after we'd finished


Me and Qian. On my chance to endorse something with my clothing for my Great Wall pictures, I chose to wear my hapless Kansas City Royals hat.


Qian felt this was a nice setting to make a yoga pose

Photos of the Week - Walmart in Xi'an

I took these photos when the first Wal-Mart opened in Xi'an in 2007. Since that time, a handful more have opened up or will open soon in Xi'an.











While Wal-Marts in China have some of the same characteristics as Wal-Marts in the States, there are, obviously, a fair number of differences too.

Photos of the Week - The Streets of Pingyao

Qian and I went to Pingyao for a few days in February of 2008. It was a very relaxing few days. I wrote an article about it for Chinatravel.net here.

Photos of the Week - On the Yulong River

The Yulong River, near Yangshuo in Guangxi Province, is an amazing place. My family and I went down the river on bamboo rafts two years ago in June of 2007.

The karst mountains surrounding the river make it, quite possibly, the most beautiful place I've ever been.


Food/beer stall on the river, incredible mountains in the background


Bamboo raft


Ma and Pa


Younger brother


Me


Dad getting mugged by lil' ol' ladies selling junk


Our driver