Street Photography

I had the wonderful opportunity today to do a fashion shoot with Katy of Sugarlaws and Jordan of Ramshackle Glam.  Although I often take Katy's photos (some of my favorites you can see here), this was the first time I did a joint fashion shoot.  The ladies were fabulous - super cute and fun - and the weather couldn't have been any better (perfectly overcast for portraits).  All in all, it was a great day and a great shoot.  

So what does that have to do with the photos on this post, you may ask.  These certainly are not the vogue-esque shots from today.  So what's the connection?  Because it is one thing to do a photo shoot with friends who are eager to be photographed, and a whole different thing to take photos of strangers on the street, who, um, really don't want me taking their picture.  And while I love the staged photo shoots, there's something about taking a photo of an unsuspecting stranger that I just love.  You remember that from this Portugal post (and one of my favorite posts).

These photos were taken while I was in Shanghai a couple years ago.  Most of them are from one afternoon that I wandered around Old Shanghai by myself, camera in hand.  I tried to sneak portraits of the interesting strangers on the street and only occasionally got caught red-handed and shot disapproving looks.  

(Shanghai, photographed February 2008)

Shanghai'd by Work

Work this week has been crazy.  I don't even want to begin to think about how many hours I've been billing.  It's kept me from things that I like to do, like bowl in my league with my friends, going to a nyc fashion week party, finish reading "the hunger games" (such a good book!) and update this blog.  Thankfully, today ended mercifully early (relatively speaking that is), giving me a chance to put on my sweats, curl up on my couch and make a new post.

I started flipping through my old photographs, wondering what to share tonight, when I came across these photos.  They were taken when work had taken over my life, but in a slightly different way.  I was on an assignment in China, spending up to three weeks there at a time.  Although some of the days were long, I often had nights to myself to wander around Shanghai by myself.  Well, just me and my camera that is...

(And if you think the smooshed pig face hanging up in the one market picture, just wait until I post my photos of the street "meats").

(Shanghai, photographed February 2008)

Pearls of Wisdom

It's fashion week in New York City.  Glamor and tall skinny models abound.  Because of my friend Katy at Sugarlaws, I've been able to attend a few events.  I've gotten dolled up and put on my high heels (ouch blisters) and had cocktails with the fashion elite.  And it's been fabulous.

But I'm not posting photos from Fashion Week or Fashion Night Out.  I've taken a few photos for Katy's blog, but mostly have just been soaking it in sans camera.  However, as I was going through old pictures to decide what to post tonight, I saw these.  Strands of pearls from China.  Strands upon strands of pearls.  How glamorous, right?  Reminded me of the fashion festivities going on right now...

When I was in China, one thing I quickly learned how to do was pick out cheap but nice pearls.  Each booth in the markets would have hundreds of strands, just waiting to be picked through to find a decent set to be made into a necklace.  I would weed through them, and, after much haggling over price, I would buy one and (in what was my favorite part) the saleswoman would quickly knot up the pearl strand into a beautiful pearl necklace.  It was amazing how quickly these strands became beautiful necklaces to wear or share.  And I bought plenty, both to wear and to share.

(China, photographed April 2008)

Temple of Heaven

In my high school art class, I painted a picture of this beautiful blue building.  It had three tiers, and each tier had intricate designs of red and green and gold.  I had first seen this building when I visited Disney World with my family.  It was part of the Chinese pavilion in the "world showcase" at Epcot Center.  I remember hating the inside of the building - they played what I had then considered to be an extremely boring movie of China - but I loved the facade, with its bright colors and unique shape.  I snapped a photo with tiny camera.  Several years later, when looking for inspiration for my painting class, I flipped through my photos and thought, yes, this is it.  My painting, copied from my earlier photograph, turned out quite nicely and hung in the display case of my school's library for a couple months. 

Then I went to China . . .

And visited the building.

You may think that I'm silly, but I was so thrilled to finally see it in person.  To see the actual building that was the inspiration, albeit twice removed, for a painting of which I was really proud. 

It's not actually the "temple of heaven" but one of the important buildings on the temple's grounds, but to me, it was heavenly.

(The Temple of Heaven, Beijing China, photographed May 2008) 

The Forbidden City

As some of you may know, I traveled to China a lot for work a couple years ago. I went there five times in that many months. It was an exciting and very interesting time to be traveling to China, in the months leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when China was getting ready to show herself to the world.

Although my workload was demanding, I made sure on one of my last trips to build in a weekend just for me to see the sites in Beijing that I hadn't yet gotten around to see.  And I lucked out on my chosen weekend.  It was a gorgeous day when I walked around the Forbidden City by myself.  Of course, it didn't feel quite so forbidden any more as it was crawling with mobs of tourists clustered around and clamoring to see the various buildings.  But I happened to find some quiet corners of this massive former palace to take some photos and reflect on just how lucky I was to be there.

(Forbidden City in Beijing, China, photographed May 2008)