I made this images during my last trip.
The first is of a construction entrepreneur (I think his name was Yang), zipping along the countryside on his scooter-trike. The thing was faster and more manueverable that we were in our Ford 4×4.
I made this exposure from my hotel room in the Jingan District of Shanghai during my trip in February. Shanghai winter nights are usually foggy-hazy-dewy but I was lucky on this particular evening. I was even more lucky to have the company that I had on the trip. Family and old friends Bernard, Cal, Chris, Pete, Sam and Tim all made it over. Thanks also to local hosts Eric, ML and TS. What a crew! What a time!
We arrived to a cold, misty Shangri-la morning. I made this image as we circled past town on our run into the airport. It’s pretty dry and dusty this time of year. But when the the mist and light come out to play, magic happens. One of my dreams is to live in the area for several weeks and do nothing but make images of this amazing part of the world.
Shanghai – Chengdu – Kunming – Shangri-la – Lijiang – Shanghai in 11 days. Wow, what a trip. I caught a cold in Shanghai, an auspicious start that was followed with a bit of altitude sickness in Shangri-la. But all the while, the company was great. I got to see lots, do lots, accomplish lots. Caught the holidaying crowds in a festive Lijiang on Duanwujie, strolled down a Chengdu boulevard where the entire street smelled like Ma La (Sichuan hot pepper) cooking, had dinner and drinks with a celebrity hairdresser in Kunming, even got to belt a few at a Tibetan-style KTV in Shangri-la.
But by the end, I was glad to be heading back. To the quiet and tranquility and solitude of my special space; to the safety and steadfastness of the rock of my life. Ask me in a couple of weeks and I’ll probably tell you that I’m ready to go again. But for now, nothing beats being home.