Mar,19


 
 

Seasonal Winds ( 刮风)

Kinda cool - but mostly annoying


Definetly a “Page 2″ rant here.

  • Gua Feng/刮风:  ”Scraping, shaving, blowing wind.”
  • Brian’s Translation:  ”Annoying + Gritty + Ugh.”

Every spring here we have about 25 – 40 days of high seasonal winds – and consequently big ol’ sandstorms.  It’s really cool to see a sand storm for the first time; a sentiment that wears off 3 minutes into your first sand storm.  Unless you are that 0.0001% of planet earth that enjoys eating sand, this time of year can be difficult.  Just part of life in China – a part of China that I won’t be missing in 30 days.

You see, China has this big pile of sand known to most as the Gobi Desert, which is basically a huge pile-o-sand that some giant dump truck left there thousands of years.  Long story short, the construction project got cancelled,  everyone went home, some Chinese folk named it and declared it a desert and camels moved in.  The situation we are looking at now is this:

Lots of sand + Altitude + Changing winds = Sand in my mouth 24/7 for a straight month.

It’s a time of great tribulation (I’m exaggerating - it’s mildly annoying) – however, it is a time where I’m cleaning my glass constantly.

Every day around 2pm it kicks up and the locals run for cover – imagine a Godzilla movie.  We live in a valley and so we can literally see it rolling through in a not-so-subtle way.  By 4pm, on the worst days, it feels like 7pm and you start wondering if today will be the day that your windows actually rattle off their tracks.  Today’s 刮风 was especially bad.  I was outside buying some vegetables when I made a dash for home.  Took these shots as pure reference from inside our apartment – the only good place to take these kinds of pictures.

 
Mar,18


 
 

Market Scouting

This has nothing to do with St. Patrick's day


Our markets in town are all amazing places to take a camera (and avoid leaving money/phones/valuables in your pockets).  One of my favorites and one of the only places on the planet (that I know of) where you will find Muslims selling Tibetan goods to Tibetans is at our local Tibetan market.  The fact that I saw 4 very unique and individual ethnic groups in one setting is what makes where I live simply amazing.  Depending on whose counting, we have as many as 7 unique ethnic groups in one place.

I spent close to 3 hours today with a student on a photo assignment as well as scouting some locations for a shoot on Friday.  It’s always nice to come home with images you are proud of from a scouting trip – excited for Friday’s shoot (stay tuned)

Some Highlights:

  1. Chinese girl yelling at me in English “My name is China!”
  2. Saw a piece of Tibetan Coral that cost 50,000RMB (~$7,300 USD) ie, more than my first car.
  3. Was told “Your head is really small for you being so big” – I have to disagree
  4. Met a beggar that has – no kidding – “Dreams of studying Chinese Kung Fu”
  5. Was stoked to shoot w/ a student catching on and just “Getting it”

Like I said, it’s nice to scout but at the same time come home with pictures you are proud of. -

Pictures after the break

continue reading…

 
Mar,13


 
 

Worth a second look

Going backwards, despite my better judgement, to see what I missed...


Over the last few days I’ve been going through shots from a scouting trip I took in January.  First of all, I edited the shots I wanted (or so I thought) almost two months ago and had no intentions of revisiting that shoot other than the occasional sentimental impulse.  So what the heck am I doing editing through and old shot?

I didn’t intentionally sit down, open Lightroom and start looking through old shots.  I hardly ever do that when I’m in a hurry.  This time as I was thumbing through a specific date looking for a specific shot that I specifically knew I had, old shots started popping out at me.  Later that afternoon I couldn’t help but think, “Are there other shots that I just skimmed through?”

See, the brain is an amazing thing – it’s capable of rapidly, accurately, and effeciently sorting all kinds of things and its capable of finding, at a glance, things that stick out to us photographically and artistically – sometimes to our demise.  It’s that efficiency thing that can kill us, isn’t it?  I find that if I’m in a hurry with editing a shoot that I skip over all sorts of pictures that are worthy of my time- pictures that are in some cases more powerful than the ones that got the first nod.

It’s started to make me wonder what I’ve skipped over in the past without even a second thought.  I have no doubt that there are pictures sitting on my hard drive just waiting for a second look.

So in respect for the pictures I’ve skipped and also for looking backwards for just a bit, I’ve posted just a  few “late bloomers” from the bunch.  These are shots that I completely missed when I was sorting through this shoot originally.  Some are just as good, if not better, than the original shots I put together while some were just worth a reconsideration.

What’s sitting on your hard drive?

 
Mar,12


 
 

The Question of Why

Why you picked up a camera and Why you can't put it down


So what was it about a camera that even made you/me/us pick it up in the first place?

Seriously.  Think about it.

That simple question has been running through my head all day.  It made me think about this old Canon body that my dad used to have in our closet.  I couldn’t tell you how old this thing was, or the last time it had been used before I found it.  It was old enough that the smell of the leather case it had been kept in for all those years had permeated the entire camera.  When I was probably 9 years old I would go around the house winding that thing up and taking shots without any film in it just because I knew  it had to be the coolest thing in our house – it really was a cool camera and I really loved the noise of the mirror flapping up and down.  I liked the sheer look of the thing – It was rugged as all get out but I knew it was for making something beautiful.  At that time I’m not sure it had much to do with creating beautiful images – though I do wish I had the shots from when my father would sneak film into it to surprise me.

As a kid I’m sure my love for the camera mostly came from my perception of it as being a high-tech toy that made one of the most beautiful noises I’d ever heard.  As an adult, through a long process, it obviously came much more than that.  The backstory is for another day.

So here’s the question again.

Why photography?  What made us pick up a camera for the first time and then keep picking it up time and time again?

I know for me its a combination of art and science.  I’ve always been “artsy” and if I think about it, the camera was really never far away my whole life.   I was always drawn to creating beauty but at the same time this scientific, numbers-driven, concrete stuff.  I’ll always remember creating those first intentional images and feeling the rush when you saw them – wanting to know what would happen if you tried this or that – what numbers needed to be changed to make this more beautiful.  The shape, the feel, and the technology of the whole thing obviously attracted me and I bet if many of us were honest, we picked up a camera for the first time because the technology is just plain cool.  It’s a sexy machine.

The sticking power of photography came from the experiences I had behind it – freezing emotions, events, and people.  I keep picking up the camera because I know that each and every time I do, it teaches me something new about it, humbles me, amazes me, and all the while encourages me to keep going.  I absolutly love the images – the moments – a picture allows me to create.  There is no doubt that we all could fill an entire blogs with the question “Why.”

So with that I open this question up to you.  Let us know why you started and what makes it more than just pointing a lens and pushing a button for you?  Why not something else?  We have a million things that we could occupy ourselves with, but why do we keep coming back to this?  Every story is different and I’m sure we all have our reasons – so lets here them!

And just fyi, as an adult, I still think the mirror flap and shutter are among the most beautiful noises I’ve ever heard.

 
Brian Hirschy Photography