Rush hour. Friday night. 7pm. Beijing, China. 2012

Tomorrow, Thursday 22nd March, marks the United Nations’ World Water Day. To mark the event, Beijing NGO Thirst4Water has been holding events in schools and universities throughout the city to raise awareness about water issues across the globe.

This morning, in Beijing, we orchestrated nearly 1000 students into the shape of a dragon to mark the day tomorrow. As you can imagine, this was no small task. A team of artists first designed the dragon and then led the students into the correct position. A conveniently place 10 storey building allowed us to get the shot that we needed from above.

Wherever you are for the day itself tomorrow, spread the word about World Water Day.

The above image is from a street advertisement for the local Chengguan in Beijing, China.

The Chengguan are a local government agency that take care of various aspects of the city’s management, normally enforcing local bylaws. They are a frequent site in the city and are infamous for being the arch-enemy of all street peddlers and hawkers….

Today I had to visit the Wukesong camera market in the west of Beijing, to pick up a couple if items of equipment. In case you do not know, the Wukesong camera market is the Beijjng Mecca for all camera lovers. Behind the cheery face of Jackie Chan, holding the latest model from Canon, lies a warren of stores selling every kind of camera and piece of photo equipment. It’s a dangerous place if you linger too long. Far to easy to buy things that you really don’t need!

For more info on the market and how to get there, check out my previous blog post “Where is the Best Place in Beijing to buy Photo Equipment“.

Beijing Subway. China. 2012

A cyclist passes an ornate gate, in the west of Beijing. China. 2012

Two schoolgirls ordering snacks from a street food kiosk, just after sunset in west Beijing. China. 2012

For the past 8 days I haven’t seen blue skies in Beijing. The grey haze has descended upon the capital and has sat upon the city through one whole week.

The taste of the smog lingers all day and it’s presence can even be felt at night. As headlights and street lights cut through the dark, the haze seems illuminated against the black.

Beijing. China. 2012

Beijing. China. 2012

Canon 7D - 16-35 L lens - ISO200 - f6.3 - 1/1250sec

I recently had the opportunity to meet and photograph one of China’s leading media women, Ms. Mei Yan of Viacom China. On assignment for the Brazilian magazine, Serafina, I met and photographed Mei Yan who runs MTV, amongst other media entities, at her office in central Beijing. I thought I would post a couple of the images from the afternoon here and give a small insight into the shoot.

The image above is the one that the magazine chose to run last weekend. You can see that this image was shot through a window, with Mei Yan standing on the inside while I stood outside. I was trying to get an interesting shot of her and I noticed that the harsh afternoon sunlight was creating some really interesting reflections. I asked Mei Yan to stand inside, making sure that the sunlight was hitting her face. I then proceeded to photograph her from the outside, making sure that I was getting her face against the black of the building. As the light was quite strong, I was under-exposing my a stop or two, to make sure her face wasn’t too overexposed.

Canon 7D - 16-35 L lens - ISO 200 - f9 - 1/160sec

The second shot was a little bit more straightforward however I again tried to use the harsh light and shadows to make the image a little more interesting. I under-exposed the image again to make the shadows very dark, almost black. As I was shooting, Mei Yan and I were talking and joking which meant I was able to get a very natural image of her smiling. I tried to balance to photo and make it a little bit more interesting by waiting for the cleaner to pass by on the left and place the plant on the opposite side. Altogether I was quite satisfied with this image and how we got a little bit of luck to make the portrait unique.

To learn more about Mei Yan, check out the article “A Censor’s Daughter Changes the System” on the Daily Best website.