VISUAL THOUGHTS 视觉观点

On Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th June, we headed out on our first “Desert Workshop”, focusing on introducing our students to Tianmo desert which is located just 80km north-west of Beijing. We spent two days exploring the local dune systems and experiencing local life amongst the people of the area. You may think that I might be a little tired of deserts by now, but it really was a lot of fun to introduce people to this little visited area, so close to Beijing.

We had a jam packed 2-days full of shooting in the desert, visiting people’s homes, lots of editing sessions and trying traditional food from the area. Highlights including getting up for the sunrise over the desert and having a run-in with the local army plus multiple wedding parties! An odd mix but a lot of fun and it provided plenty of photo opportunities for everyone!

Please take a moment to play the slideshow and see some of the images from our trip. We hope to run this workshop again sometime soon, so please stay tuned and sign-up for our newsletter to be the first to know about new classes and trips!

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” – Charles Darwin

As the climate for photographers, journalists, media creatives etc. has changed (mostly for the worse) in recent years, it has forced the respective industries to look at themselves a lot closer and try to redefine who they are, what they do and how they do it. Photography has been no exception, with many photographers struggling in a market where the venues for distribution have all but run dry. This is not really news for anyone.

Old logo (top) and new logo (bottom)

Recently however, I was trying to come up with ideas about how to start to redefine my ‘brand’ and make sure I was completely clear in who I was and if that’s what everyone else thought I was too. I am not a marketing expert, so everything I know has come from trawling through websites of people who are experts on the subject and trying to pick-up as much as I can.

As I started to write down a list of my recent projects, subject matters etc. I started to see that I had made the natural movement towards multimedia and video. This was not a completely unconscious decision however the image I was projecting was still only that of a photographer and not of someone who was able to also provide multimedia and video too.

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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.

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

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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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.

Chinese New Year Workshop | White Cloud Temple

February welcomed a very unique time of the Chinese calendar; Chinese New Year. To mark the most important holiday of the year, we decided to run a special workshop to coincide with the celebrations in Beijing.

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From Left to Right: Jessica, Sean, Pip, Ross, Rita, Fredrik, Eva, Andrea, Alexia

Last Sunday saw the 4th in our series of Hutong Photography Workshops. We had nearly a full class with nine students attending; Jim, Pip, Ross, Andrea, Daphne, Eva, Rita, Alexia and Fredrik.

Andrea, Eva and Rita

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Chinese New Year Special Workshop: White Cloud Temple Fair

February welcomes a very unique time of the Chinese calendar; Chinese New Year! To mark the most important holiday of the year, we are running a special workshop to coincide with the celebrations here in the nation’s capital. We continue in the vein of trying to introduce our workshop participants to less-visited and authentic locations, therefore will be holding this workshop at the White Cloud Temple, in XiCheng District on Tuesday 16th February from 11:00 a.m. to 16:00 p.m. This spectacular Taoist temple is over 1000 years old and is one of the city’s hidden cultural gems. It will be the perfect place for photographing the true, authentic and traditional new year celebrations. To find out more details about how to join us on this special workshop, please head to our workshop page here.

For those of you leaving Beijing for the holidays and won’t have a chance to attend the Chinese New Year workshop, do not worry! The increasingly popular Hutong Photography Workshop is back again on Sunday 28th February from 10:00 a.m. to 18:00 p.m. and will again offer participating students the chance to explore the maze-like hutongs whilst improving their photography. We were delighted to learn that this month a former student from this workshop was featured in Beijing City Weekend Magazine talking about her experiences taking this class. Read a snippet of her interview here and then find out how to book your place here through our workshop page.

We look forward to seeing you!

Inside a Photographer's Notebook | Images (c) Steve McCurry / Magnum Photos

I haven’t done one of these posts for a while, so thought it was about time I shared another page from my notebook. If you haven’t seen the previous posts on this, you can head here and here to see them. The concept is simple. When I was beginning in photography I compiled a notebook of pictures, phrases, poems, sayings etc. that inspired me. I did so that when I was out shooting and I maybe had a down moment, or was lacking inspiration, I could turn to it to help me get going again.

The above page are pictures by the legendary Magnum and National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry. I chose them because for me they represented the exoticism of the places he photographs and I wanted to be reminded of the dynamics of a photo that you could create using objects within a frame (see pic on left) and the power of a simple, well-lit portrait (see pic on right).

At the time, I believe I was reading a book by the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. I was completely captured by how he wrote about life and losing love in Japan. One small haiku that stuck with me was the following:

“furin ya, koenaki kaze wa, uta wa seru”

The translation, although not literal I believe, was interpreted as:

“alone, the wind has no voice, but when it moves through the wind chimes, it sings”

For me at that time, the photographer became the wind and the camera the wind chimes. I liked that idea very much and wanted to remember it.

Hutong Photography Workshop | Beijing | China

The temperature plummeted in Beijing this month but that didn’t stop us from heading out into the chilly hutongs for another “Hutong Photography” Workshop this weekend. Luckily for myself, guide Jessica Zheng and our students Bonnie, Scott, Tina and Kirsten the thermometer crept up over the weekend, hovering around 1-2C making it a perfect winter day to explore the hutongs.

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Along with our class in the morning introducing everybody to the key, fundamental technical aspects of photography we had two shooting sessions in the morning and afternoon. The hutongs are a constant inspiration and you never know what may be round the next corner. For this month’s workshops students encounters included photographing a 98-year old hutong resident, bicycles buried in snow, conversations with pipe-smoking locals, coal deliverers and many more unique characters.

Thanks again to our students Kirsten, Bonnie, Scott and Tina who braved the threatening cold to make it another memorable workshop!