Visit to China

[Didache]

Hi all

I just arrived home last night from a week's visit to Beijing and Shanghai in China. I have around 800 photos to work through (all RAW), but here are just three to give a flavour.

The first is a Tai Chi master - she was running some kind of class in the gardens of the Summer Palace in Beijing, where the emperor would go when it was hot. I have seen Tai Chi before, but never like this - she was astonishing.

The second is the Olympic countdown board at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, complete with a guard.

The third was one of those special moments - all the parks have loads of older people who congregate for exercise and to meet their friends. This was in the gardens of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. This corner of the park was known for its ballroom dancing - every morning, a hundred or more people come to dance the waltz and the foxtrot and the tango. I shot it against the sun to emphasise the earliness of the hour. Had I had a partner who could dance, I would have been right in there with them! The whole thing was magical with the dawn light and the frost - like something from a film.

As always, any comments are much appreciated.

Cheers
Mike

[Overbeyond]

Welcome back Mike and I'm sure you had a great trip.
Very nice shots and I like the way the guard is dwarfed by the Olympic monstrosity behind. Looks like some snow there too.
I often sat for long periods watching the citizens enjoying their dancing as I visited the many parks around. I found the old people really knew how to enjoy themselves; they got out and did things. Very nice photo of the dancers.

[Greg McCary]

Nice work Mike. Your compositional skills are as good as it gets. I have nothing to add, but I am looking forward to a series.

[gahspidy]

Very good compositions, Mike. I have only a gripe about the tree in the bg appearing out of the mans head in the last shot.
I always admired the older Chinese persons as Tom says, for their get up and go. They keep healthy and active. Looking forward to the rest of these images.

[Herriot]

Really enjoyed these so will look forward to seeing more, of the three, the third image captures my attention and my imagination the most.

[KyRain]

I love the shot of the woman in the first photo, you show her grace, style and strength
in such a beautiful way! The color of her purple outfit against the neutral stone wall
and snow are stunning. The gentleman in the red sweater though doesn't add
to the photo in my opinion. The 3rd shot makes me smile. It is charming to see folks
dancing in early morning light in a public square (did they have music?) and even the names are enchanting such as "the garden of The Temple of Heaven". Thank you for sharing.

[Didache]

Thanks guys for your comments and kind words. To be honest, we saw so many wonderful things in the seven days that it would be very hard NOT to come away with some pretty reasonable photographs, especially as nobody seemed to mind having cameras pointed in their direction!

Tom - yes there was snow on the ground in most places, although there were only snow flurries while we were there, and no rain. It hovered around -3 to -10 C the whole time. Good thing I had my long johns!

Gary .. I thought about the tree myself - maybe I will clone it or something as I think the photo has potential.

KyRain - thanks for looking. It's a close call I think. I have quite a few of her, with people and without. She was amazing. I don't know if the purple signifies anything, but it was quite unlike any Tai chi I have seen - you would get the slow movements, all done with perfect grace, and then she would suddenly explode into something impossible, then back to the slow movements. At a guess I would say she was a master of some kind.

Greg and Herriot .. thank you, too

Cheers
Mike

[readingr]

You had a nice time by the look of it.

Excellent series so far. I'm sure there are loads to come.

Roger

PS. Welcome back

[MB1]

If we start by taking these as travel photos they are pretty darn good. Make that really darn good. Plus to this American viewer Beijinj is a pretty exotic local (I've been to China but not to the capital.

Now to the critique (all these comments are easy for me to say after the fact and not so easy to do while shooting, I really do enjoy these images just as they are) ;

The first two images look slightly tilted to me. There are all those diagonal, vertical and horizontal lines going through the images and I know you just had to pick one and go with it but they both look tilted just a tiny bit to the left.

In the first image the real interesting thing is the woman in purple. The man in red is a distraction. If you had shot from a slightly lower perspective their heads wouldn't be even so he would seem less important in the frame (and that line of light bricks wouldn't be running through her ears). You could have kept him out of the frame entirely but he does add context.

I wish you were closer to the soldier in the second image making him bigger in the frame.

In the third image you got what I want to see in the first image-the mans head is above all the heads in the background giving a really good sense of distance and perspective. I still wish you had gotten closer to the first couple so his head was closer to the top of the frame (I like where their feet are in the frame). As it is I find all those bare tree limbs and blank sky a distraction in this image.

[AgingEyes]

but it was quite unlike any Tai chi I have seen - you would get the slow movements, all done with perfect grace, and then she would suddenly explode into something impossible, then back to the slow movements.

Ever heard of Chen style Tai-chi, where all other styles of tai-chi came from?

[Didache]

MB1 - thanks for the detailed and very useful critique. The first two do look a shade tilted, although I don't think they are - still, a little skewing on them will I think make them look a little more natural while keeping the verticals straight. I'll try it anyway. Re the second one, I couldn't get any closer I'm afraid - not without cutting into the countdown board.

AgingEyes .. sorry, I know nothing at all about Tai Chi. Is Chen what she is doing?

Cheers
Mike

[AgingEyes]

AgingEyes .. sorry, I know nothing at all about Tai Chi. Is Chen what she is doing?

If she was doing tai chi, and she did some explosive moves, then it's likely it's chen style.