Travel and Street Photography in China

[fike]

I was lucky enough to spend a few days and nights around Beijing and Shanghai. I was happily restricting myself to a small format camera and managed to get some nice street photography of the Chinese urban landscape.  Comments?  Critiques?

Nighttime in Hutong Mao'er in Beijing
http://www.flickr.com/photos/trailpixie/7404925284/in/set-72157630056765137/lightbox/


Young women Shopping on Nanjing Road late Sunday evening
http://www.flickr.com/photos/trailpixie/7374558626/in/set-72157630056765137/lightbox/


The Drum Tower in Beijing with modern LCD billboards and walkers in the foreground. This one is technically so bad that I almost hesitate to show it, but there is some real interesting contrast in the extremely dark tower in the background.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/trailpixie/7404926104/in/set-72157630056765137/lightbox/


Nighttime vertical pano of the Bell Tower in Beijing
http://www.flickr.com/photos/trailpixie/7404924518/in/set-72157630056765137/lightbox/

[amolitor]

The first one is great. Love the balance of darkness and light, with the seam of interest running diagonally between the two.

The second and third don't seem as interesting, and there's so damn much noise in the skies I can't form a fair opinion.

The last one has potential, but there's a basic problem of scales. The figures at the bottom of the frame want to be interesting, but I find them to be just too small and muddled to grab me, and yet without the entire building in frame it's a completely different image. It's possible that in a large format and placed quite high to bring the bottom edge into the eyeline it would be very very successful.

[fike]

...
The last one has potential, but there's a basic problem of scales. The figures at the bottom of the frame want to be interesting, but I find them to be just too small and muddled to grab me, and yet without the entire building in frame it's a completely different image. It's possible that in a large format and placed quite high to bring the bottom edge into the eyeline it would be very very successful.

Printing large and mounting high is a very good idea.

[Petrus]

If you go to the drum tower during the day when the drummer team plays at certain hours, you can also play the great drums after the official performance. Just pay a few yuan to the drummers and have a go at it. We have done that a few times, provides a great video and photo opportunity.

[fike]

If you go to the drum tower during the day when the drummer team plays at certain hours, you can also play the great drums after the official performance. Just pay a few yuan to the drummers and have a go at it. We have done that a few times, provides a great video and photo opportunity.

That's cool! I wish I had known that, but I did go back during the day and get a decent panoramic of the interior. I arrived early and it was still pretty quiet. They did a short but fabulous drum concert, though I was kicking myself for my incompetence with using video on my camera.  Somehow my video didn't work at all. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/trailpixie/7404921346/in/set-72157630056765137/lightbox/