Week 26: China and Back

Still catching up. This post is the first of a couple of rolls that begin to fill the gap between my last regular post and this week’s update. It’s a roll of Portra 400, shot through the Yashica that started out in China on a very brief business trip there and ended back in the UK. Despite taking plenty of film, when I did get to see something of China, other than the factory I was visiting, I shot mostly digital using a Fuji x100. You can see the results over on Flickr.

Changzhou is crisscrossed by these ‘canals’. The banks are filled with tiny plots of vegetables, grown by the people who live in the tower blocks and so have no gardens. There are also people fishing the murky waters.Qinggou Alley (Comb Street). Every shop on this street sells the same thing – combs. It’s been rebuilt in this traditional style, right in the heart of the modern city.A real highlight of my trip was a walk around HongMei Park in Changzhou and this group of singers and flute players. These guys each had a dozen flutes and were playing ancient (sounding) Chinese melodies that drifted across the park. They were accompanied by a trio of elderly singers who wailed their own tunes, apparently ignoring the music completely. It was tremendously emotive.Back home and a ‘fishing’ trip with my friend Iain, shooting twilight exposures of concrete infrastructure……and collecting more Mercedes.The final shot on the roll was taken on my way to work. Whenever possible, I commute by bicycle and as often as I can, I like to stop for some ‘proper’ coffee on the way in. I am lucky enough to ride through a country park and so can stop for ‘a brew with a view’. The Porlex grinder and Aeropress give the most flavoursome results you could possibly imagine, but it is not coffee for the fainthearted.