Saturday, May 09, 2009

Beijing Candids


Please Buy Some Love, originally uploaded by schpleep.

Finally got through post-processing and uploading my shots from a recent work trip to Beijing. The majority of the time I could spend out and about was limited to after work walks from around the hotel. Still this presented a huge array of candid opportunities. Especially away from the bright, modern main streets.

Back Street Candid

I made a last minute descision to travel as light as possible this time and left my SLR behind limiting myself to only using the G9. The only other kit I took was my 580ex and off-camera sync lead.

The G9 does not have the low light performance of focus speed that I'm used to, but it is way easier to stuff in a pocket, (580ex went in the other pocket to balance loading). And it does have video capture too, which is occasionally useful. Here for example, the scorpions look grim enough as a snack:

Not (normally) On The Menu

But shooting a few seconds of video adds a whole lot more gruesomeness to the scene:


I did manage to stay over the weeknd though so some daylight shots were possible. The weather was however typically Beijing, with dull grey skies and low gloomy light. This possiby explains the billboards:

Country Commute

All in all though an interesting trip and the challenge of shooting with only a compact(and flash and gorillapod) was definitely worthwhile. I did get some strange looks standing in the middle of busy food market with the camera in front and the flash held up and out. Not your average tourist pose I guess.

Forbidden City

The full set of images from this trip is in my China Set on Flickr.

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