Welcome to a brand new blog
Who Am I?
So, what’s this all about then? Well, basically, I’m a British expat living in mainland China since 1999. During this time, I have mostly been working in market research as well as dabbling in the bar and restaurant business for a few years. All of that has come to an end. I stopped working officially at the end of November 2022 and this has allowed me the luxury of having more time to devote to photography, something I have been enjoying since childhood, although I suppose it started to become a serious hobby when I bought my first SLR, a Canon EOS 600, back in 1990.
My Street Photography Journey
Street photography has always featured in my photographs, but I only started to take it more seriously around 16 or 17 years ago, but as I was working full time, I only had sporadic periods of taking street photos. But I am now spending more time again on this area of photography. The explosion of material on YouTube and other parts of the internet has made it easier to learn new skills and to enjoy the work of other street photographers and to be inspired to go out and try to capture my own images from the streets of Shanghai where I live.
My Gear
I’ve used various Canon DSLR cameras since around 2003, starting with the 6 megapixel, APS-C Canon EOS 300D which I upgraded to a Canon 30D and then the full frame Canon 5D. The 5D makes amazing images, but with all the lenses and other accessories, half my baggage allowance is taken up by the camera gear, both in terms of volume and weight. So, it was quite a pleasant change to switch to a one fixed lens camera, the Fuji X100F a few years ago. Sure, sometimes I missed the ultra wide or telephoto focal lengths, but for 80% of the time, it was perfectly suited. In 2022, after a friend kindly lent me his Leica Q, I took a big step (financially at least) and bought myself a brand new Leica Q2. This is now my main, everyday carry camera and I absolutely love the images it produces. Like with the Fuji X100F, it is sometimes limiting to have only one focal length, especially as it is a wide 28mm lens, but most of the time, for the type of photos I like to take, it works.
Back in 2006, I also went down the vintage, medium format rabbit hole and built up a small collection of Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex cameras (two are pictured above) as well as a few Yashica MAT 124G cameras. I also bought a second hand Zenza Bronica ETRS back in the 1990s while still living in London. The ETRS was in fact my first foray into medium format. I still use all of these old cameras as I find it is much easier to take street photos with them as people feel less suspicious and less threatened at the sight of someone using a 50 or 60 year old antique. In fact, people often strike up a conversation with me when they see me walking around with one of my vintage cameras and that makes it even easier to ask for a photo when the time comes. And it’s for this reason, not just the “film look” that I get some of my best images from these older film cameras compared to digital cameras.
Why Start A Blog?
The aim of this blog is to share some of my photos with anyone who’s interested in either street photography or life in China or both. I plan to share my favorite photos as well as discuss techniques used and where appropriate, explain the background to the photos and any story behind it. I hope it will inspire other street photographers not just in China but around the world and at the same time, give those outside of China a little glimpse into what modern China is like, because I know there are many misconceptions which aren’t helped by how China is sometimes portrayed in western media. But to be clear, this is not meant to be a political blog and in fact, I will try hard to steer well clear of any political discussions. It’s not something that interests me.
In addition to the blog, there’s also a YouTube channel to accompany it for those who prefer to watch videos instead of reading, so please do take a look at my channel and feel free to subscribe if you find it of interest.
In the interests of full disclosure, a secondary aim of this blog and the YouTube channel is to generate some income for myself to support the production of the various content. So you may find affiliate links on here (and the YouTube channel) to various products I recommend and should you decide to make a purchase using any of these links, I will receive a small commission, but this will not affect the cost to you.
Okay, so that’s a not so brief introduction. I do hope you will enjoy visiting regularly and hope frequent visitors will contribute to the site by leaving comments, questions and feedback as they see fit.