#StandWithUkraine

gloss and paint

beijing airport was impressive, to say the least. dimension-wise as well as in puncto tidiness, and at least from the latter those pictures should give an impression. in europe it is common wisdom that societies with a socialist background usually have an enormous amount of hidden unemployment by entertaining low paid support jobs that would…

dec. 1st: world aids day

since 20 years december 1st is celebrated as world aids day. it’s only too easy to perceive this as a problem of “the others”, subconsciously letting your prejudice block the thoughtful observation. It’s a task for all of us to show solidarity and support, it is this what makes us human. fighting this terrible disease…

no words, just patterns

everything else I do know precisely thanks to the exif data, even the place: This is the result on clicking on this link and switching to satellite map. technical background? a cheap gps logger, the transystem bt 747 and (because i am a dedicated linux user and programmer) some perl code to find the correct…

late customers and nightbirds

late night wandering through nanjing. having experienced all the noise during the day, it’s astonishing that street life pretty much closes down at 8 pm. only in the biggest shopping malls you might find open shops now, and it’s better to find a place in a restaurant soon. not only the people have transferred a…

no way out (if you can’t read chinese)

any questions in which direction to go? where you are? there is one major challenge when wandering alone through a chinese city: how to come back. the namecard of the hotel is a lifesaver, so i always had two in my pocket. but not every taxidriver has good eyesight and/or knows the way. to make…

construction site at night

strolling at night, in the rain and without tripod usually is not a standard situation for good shots, but having only 8 days in china i wanted to get out the maximum of it. and this construction site offered some dramatic light effects, especially when the welding startet. street photography in the true sense of…

bamboo carving hands

taking a break from the roster-determined duty hours in our booth, i used my time to closely watch some artist in an exhibition hall creating their pieces. light was low and of mixed quality, so again high iso had to come to the rescue. checking again bibblepro for linux, i found its built-in noise ninja…

le dejeuner sur l’herbe, china style

the world urban forum of the united nations in nanjing was also used by the chinese government as a platform for showcasing achievements in tourism and real estate development. one of the booths sported this forest of tree silhouettes which was consequentially used as a picnic arena for the local visitors. the middle of the…

old and new, china

the mixture between old and new drew my attention. deducing from publications, reports of friends, as well as own short time experience in one chinese city, development in china happens at blazing speed – that is, in the cities. a lot of young, western style well dressed people in remnants of old architecture and traditional…

smoke and konfuzius

i am a fan of these temple sceneries (just see incense in the chinese temple), but nanjing offered nothing such. an official mission of course is not the ideal setting for pursuing private photographic interests, so i took what was offered. the scenery to the right unfolded itself just outside of the temple, quietly and…

street sweets, nanjing

the already mentioned ‘re nao’ holds true for street vendor businesses also. even late at night, the crowds at the food stalls are loud and busy, queues tightly packed. europeans with a certain affinity for less body contact when waiting immediately find themselves at the end of the queue for quite a while. at the…

waiting for customers

nanjing is not at all accustomed to foreigners traveling without a guide or translators. the overwhelming friendliness however made up for most of the difficulties, also in the restaurants. not beeing able to use chopsticks is a major drawback here, as one restaurant we visited had only 2 forks and two knives for those westerners…

chinese garden, nanjing

taking a rest from ‘re nao’, the chinese expression for ‘hot and loud’. for me, who is coming from a small town in the bavarian mountains, a city like nanjing with 7.5 million inhabitants is really stressful. so i did enjoy this quiet garden with the harmonious forms of the roofs, the ponds and the…

wave of bikers

even with all those 8-lane roads in nanjing, very often nicely framed by newly planted sycamore trees, the bicycle remains the major means of individual transport. bike lanes are broad here, adapted to the masses that use them. astonishing for me is the number of electric bicycles which are a good example of eco-friendly and…