![Chinese Pagota in Yunnan [photo / pic]](http://www.jazzviolin.com/china/pictures/pagota_china_t2_photography_san_francisco_490px.jpg)
Another shot, shot on a backup camera (Nikon D200) while in China. This is Chuxiong’s pagoda, which is about 8-9 stories high and allows one to view a 360° panoramic view of the city, nestled in the mountains of Yunnan.
Archive for the 'Photos' Category
Here is a shot of the famous lighthouse right up the road from Costanoa on the California coast. It was shot with a Nikon D3, again, using HDR by using three photos. No tripod was used, but because it can shoot up to nine NEF (raw format) pictures per second, shots like these turn out okay.
Just got back from Costanoa and we took this shot of the sunset. There was some sort of movie or television production going on right behind us at the lighthouse.
Used Photomatrix Pro to HDR merge the levels, using a Nikon D3 — I think we shot five NEFs, bracketing the exposure by .3 to .5 each stop — so that would take about 1/2 a second to shoot five photos.
Just got back from China to visit the parents. I noticed a lot of newly paved roads and shiny crosswalks. My brother Tom came along this time and brought his Nikon.
Here is a sunrise shot we took at a secret location in Yunnan.
Also, look for a very special follow-up video soon.
Title says it all. This plant is used for fertilizer after it is picked. Taken somewhere between Lugu Lake and Lijiang.
View Large Panoramic Photo of Lugu Hu, Lugu Lake
The results are in for Lugu Lake. There is one thing that is stunning to see — the panoramic above. After you see that, and go on the 10 minute boat ride, there is absolutely nothing else to do there.
Another surprising factor is that it takes 14-16 hours to get there from Kunming. And not to mention that the road is dangerous! We saw five head-on collisions, and I counted 15 broken down cars on the total trip.
A four day trip, driving about 466 miles on a one-lane (but two-way) road with a series of sharp zigzags, and five head on collisions.
Here is a shot of what a one lane, two-way road looks like, with a huge dump truck lining the cliff, squeezing between a bunch of cars.
I can’t count the number of times the Chinese drivers would pass on a blind turn, at double the speed limit.
On to more happy things…
Boat Ride Photos
via China Travel Guide on the local ethnic minorities, the Mosuo people:
Mosuo people who live there form a matriarchal society. There is no marriage. Children are brought up by women. Women operate production and management, and hold the principal position in the society, forming a modern day ‘woman’s kingdom’.
After this lady whipped out her brand new Sony Ericsson, I told her, “Wow, your cell phone is really nice!” She said she got two cell phones from two men in exchange for you-know-what. How personal, I thought. So it goes, the women are the rulers here.
At one of the bars in the Sheraton, overlooking the South China Sea.
An unedited picture of one of their many pools, with the annual Sanya Jazz Festival being set up in the background. That’s what the water really looks like, so I guess it really is “China’s Hawaii.”
In other news, there was a small disaster in Oakland, CA about 24 hours ago (dubbed the “MacArther Maze Meltdown”, god), where a gas tanker exploded and collapsed a freeway overpass. Then Arnold announced free transportation for the day.
Well, they have free transportation in China, too. This was taken on the Kun-An Expressway (the only freeway in Kunming) on the way back to Chuxiong, at 50 mph.
It has been slow lately, so I went back and found another shot I took a few months ago in the mountains of Yunnan of an old family friend.
I’m now studying the Photoshop RAW mode in black and white. Perhaps if I knew anything about photography I could intelligently manipulate B/W photos, but as it stands, I’m just sliding knobs. We have lots of photos of Sanya, Hainan coming up soon.
I’m testing this in Contribute to see how nice it works.
E Jia.
Third time to Lijiang. As of March 2007,
Do:
- visit Afternoon Sun for the Lavazza coffee and espressos (while in China, I haven’t found Lavazza anywhere)
- visit the Prague Cafe for great ambience, a good mix of Western and Chinese food, good coffee (however, they recently removed their computer and internet)
- all the rest of that touristy stuff (horse back rides, go to Zhongdian/Shangri-La for a while, get lost in the Old Town)
- try to get a shot of the Snow Mountain without clouds, it’s rare
- visit the Snow Mountain and take the tram up the side of the mountain
- try some of the local food, either at the street kiosks (er kuai, dou fu, etc) or just outside of the Old Town. Most places have menus with pictures, if not, just say, “Sui bian ni!” (“Whatever is fine!”) and wait for the bees and intenstines and all that good stuff
- go shopping, but try to find things that are unique to Lijiang (hand made or hand crafted things), and not things you can find in every other city in Yunnan (like Mingzu clothing, fakey jade, fakey silver, Mingzu dolls, traditional “Chinese” clothing, etc)
- help others take photos so a brother can be with his women in the shot
Don’t:
- visit the “screaming bars”, they’re loud, service is bad, very gimmicky
- go to KFC, don’t be like the rest of the lao wai
- expect western food to compare to your home town, it’ll be “just okay” at best (except for the coffee at Afternoon Sun)
- expect the Chinese food to be great (Lijiang is very touristy, food quality is lower than average)
- book a trip with a Chinese tour company. I’ll blog about that later. They’re lame and you only get to see “surface-level” China
- openly complain about no soap in the bathrooms, or any other rant I overhear all the time, you’ll come off sounding crazed and paranoid (ie, get over it)
- buy any jade or silver in Lijiang, it’s overpriced, but worse, 95% of it is fake (doh!)
That’s all I can think of for now. Good luck. Photo above is a flower patch of the main strip in Lijiang.