[youtube width="600" height="385"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idLG6jh23yE&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Recently, I have started to venture more into the video world and this summer, I will have a project which will allow me to start to really produce more video-work. As I start to add the moving image to more of the work that I do, I start to look more to the video world for inspiration. If I am honest, I always did this anyway as I am a huge movie and documentary fan and drew inspiration from these for many many years for my still work. Now, I am starting to watch videos, movies, documentaries in a different way, mainly trying to visualise in my mind how they were conceived, shot, edited and created.

This week I was blown-away by two videos, actually advertisements, that I caught online. You can get inspired by advertisements? Seems a little odd I guess, for a photographer who concentrates mainly on documentary subjects, but the answer is yes. Each of these videos is quite different, but they both have their own sense of ‘wow’ factor about them. Clever ideas and beautifully shot.

[youtube width="600" height="385"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hPm1p0Q3xA&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Now I must admit, that with the first video I am slightly biased as I am a big football fan, however I think the video is just beautiful and the editing is really very good (watch out for the hilarious inclusion of Homer Simpson). Now, in the second video I will never use the techniques they employ (this will become obvious after you watch it) but I really like it because it’s nearly impossible not to want to watch it a second time to figure out what you just missed! It made me think a lot about our perception of scenes we view quickly. Don’t want to give too much away though!

What did you think? Which do you prefer?

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Tourists on Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, China. 2006

Follow the link to find out what happened On-This-Day in various years…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buSv1jjAels[/youtube]

A couple of months ago, I stumbled upon a hilarious comic. His name is Joe Wong and I wanted to share one of his videos with you here on the blog.

Originally from China, Joe Wong is a relatively new American immigrant, and focuses his act on the experiences he faces in his new culture. Drawing upon daily happenings adapting to his new life, he offers hilarious anecdotes about being a newly arrived immigrant and his journey from China into becoming an ‘all American immigrant’, as he has dubbed himself.

By poking fun at himself and national stereotypes, Joe relates the differences between China and the West in hilarious fashion and offers them up in a completely fresh and interesting way with a dry delivery that is quite unique.

Enjoy!

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CHINA. Beijing. Muslim men worshiping at Niu Jie Mosque during Eid ul-Fitr, the festival marking the end of Ramadan. 2005

<<Return to the Learning Zone During our workshops over the past few months, I have often been asked the question “Where is the best place in Beijing to photograph….?” Now, you can insert pretty much anything you like into the last part of that question, as queries have come in to me about a myriad of different things. So, I thought it would be interesting to start a new series of posts that answers some of these questions about where I think are the best places to photograph in Beijing.

I have chosen Beijing for this focus, purely because I have lived in this city for nearly 4 years and like to think I have a good idea where things are and where are the best places for taking pictures. I would like to expand this concept to other cities in China, but I’ll start with my ‘home’ city first.

So, for the first part of these new posts, I answer the question “Where is the best place in Beijing to photograph…religion?”

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If you have dropped by my blog over the past few weeks, you may have noticed something odd. There hasn’t been many new posts. “Why?” I hear you scream, or maybe just say. Well, we had a few issue with the security of the blog with it somehow being hacked and information was been compromised and changed. Needless to say it seems that things have returned to normal now and we (myself and website hosts) think we may have solved the problems.

So, in light of this, I have decided to give my blog a little bit of a new look. I hope you like the revamped design. I’m still in the stages of tweaking it, so please bear with me while I get this new format up and running. I have a backlog of ideas for new and interesting blog posts, so please do stay tuned and come back soon as there are going to be plenty of new updates.

Please let me know what you think of the new layout and design!

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Tianmo Desert Workshop

We are delighted to announce our upcoming workshops for May 2010! We have two workshops planned, “Shoot-Edit-Photoshop” and “Beijing Desert Workshop”. We hope each one will cater to whatever you current goals in photography may be. Please find the initial outlines below. For more details and detailed itineraries, please head to our Workshop page (via the tab at the top-right of the blog) .  We look forward to seeing you on one of our upcoming classes!

This new workshop titled ‘Shoot-Edit-Photoshop’ is aimed at beginner/intermediate photographers who are looking to improve their digital workflow from the shooting stage, through to editing and finishing images in Photoshop. We all know how it is easy to lose control of all those images you take, so you will learn effective ways in which to edit and categorize your images to improve you skills at managing your photos straight after a shoot. After categorizing our images, we will take them into Photoshop to learn how to get the best out of them through simple alterations such as cropping, changing colour balance, levels, contrast and saturation. Photoshop can be very daunting but we will break it down and show you the few essential functions you can use to get the very best out of your images.

Editing Session: Weekend Workshops

“Beijing Desert Workshop” - Dates: Saturday 5th June and Sunday 6th June 2010 (Please note these dates have changed)

During this workshop you will explore and photograph the little-visited desert of Tianmo. Located just 80km from central Beijing, next to the Longbao Mountain Range, it is the closest desert to the capital and offers visitors a glimpse at the spectacular desert regions that now dominate 20% of northern China. Sean Gallagher, whose images of China’s deserts have appeared in National Geographic China, will guide you during this workshop helping you capture this unique environment. You will have a chance to shoot side-by-side with Sean and learn how to capture landscapes, natural scenery and photograph daily life in this dry but fascinating area.

Earth Hour | Beijing | China

Last week I posted the first competition for my blog, based on the recent video that I shot to coincide with Earth Hour here in Beijing. If you missed the video, you can watch it here on Vimeo or YouTube.

The challenge was to find me within the video, walking in front of the camera. Sounds easy huh? Yes, except for the fact the that the video is time-lapse and condenses the whole earth hour into one minute, hence making my two appearances very very brief.

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[vimeo width="580" height="300"]http://vimeo.com/10864307[/vimeo]

I am delighted to announce here on my blog that this month’s issue of National Geographic China contains a 12-page essay of my images and text, about my Pulitzer Center-sponsored work on “China’s Growing Sands”. This is a wonderful opportunity to reach out to a new audience in China and bring wider attention to the issue of desertification, which is gripping the north of the nation.

I considered just posting photographs of the layout here as a traditional tearsheet display, but then I thought it would be more fun to create a short video to showcase the layout. Also, this story only appears in the Chinese edition of National Geographic this month, so I wanted those not based in China to be able to see the excellent layout, as if you were flicking through yourself.

Please click on the video above to begin and thumb-through the magazine article with me on Vimeo. If you prefer YouTube, please go here. Continue Reading »

[vimeo width="580" height="300"]http://vimeo.com/10718110[/vimeo]

Earlier this week I released a video titled ‘Earth Hour: In One Minute’, a time-lapse video that captured last month’s Earth Hour at the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing. I thought it would be fun to use this video as the basis for the first competition that I have run through the blog. Up for grabs is a half-day (3hours) one-on-one workshop with me here in Beijing. Maybe you’d like to brush up on your editing, your night photography, your photoshop skills, your street photography? No problem. We’ll have 3 hours to target anything you want, FREE.

Okay, so how to win? In my time-lapse video I actually appear twice within the video by walking into the foreground. (I was waiting alone in the cold for an hour doing the video, so I had to entertain myself somehow!) The challenge is to tell me the correct second count at which I appear, both times. To clarify, it’s the second count on the YouTube/Vimeo counter NOT the clock in the bottom-right of the screen you see counting down the Earth Hour. You can watch the clip on either YouTube or Vimeo. They are exactly the same. Continue Reading »

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKS4nUsQMxc[/youtube]

Double click window above to watch up to HD 1080p on YouTube

Last weekend, I was sat at home wondering how I could test out my recently purchased Canon 7D. I had been waiting to get this camera for a while as it has video capabilities and comes at a relatively affordable price, compared to most high-end camcorders. I had seen the quality of videos that the camera could produce and I was keen to get my hands on one and to see what it could do.

I was trying to think up ideas when I stumbled on a news piece about Earth Hour that evening. I am sure you are well aware of the concept, however if you’re not, head here to Earth Hour’s site to get more background info. In a nutshell, Earth Hour is a ‘call to action’ against climate change by switching off lights for one hour on a specific date, with millions of people taking part all around the world. This year, the date was Saturday 27th March 2010 from 8:30 pm to 9:30pm.

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