Shapes in Yuyuan Garden, Shanghai, China

Two Worlds

Chinese gardens are dizzying places full of zigzag paths, raised stairs, many, many buildings…it all leads to confusion. Their path madness is said to bewilder evil spirits who must travel in a straight line. I must have a lot in common with these evil spirits. Most of the time I am confused if I have visited a particular area of Yuyuan Garden. I have been there several times and each I have forced myself to surrender to the chaos and just let myself be…to flow though the place.

Photo Technical Info

  • Aperture: ƒ/5.6
  • Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
  • Taken: 2 July, 2015
  • Focal length: 20mm
  • ISO: 640
  • Shutter speed: 1/320s
  • Title: Shapes in Yuyuan Garden, Shanghai, China.psd

Early Spring Flower at the Imperial Palace, Tokyo Japan

Gardens of the Imperial Palace

I had not visited the grounds of the Imperial Palace on my previous trips to Tokyo. The Palace is not a site you can just visit. There are a limited number of tickets and you have to plan in advance which is not exactly my strong suit. I tend to like to go with the flow on trips and when you have an appointment for a site at 10am, you HAVE to be somewhere despite what wonders you find along the way. The East Garden is completely open to the public, but given that I couldn’t see the palace, I never bothered. After my visit, I am sorry this was only my first visit to the gardens. The site is a huge green-space and though I was too early for the cherry blossoms, other flowers were blooming. This flower was perhaps a bee’s paradise!

Photo Technical Info

Veins of a Dark City

Dark City

I visited Tokyo almost a year ago and I long to return (spoiler I am at least twice in 2015). It is a vibrant place with more energy then one city should be allowed on its own, but I don’t think Tokyo could be any other way. This rendition is from the window of my hotel room, looking over a city that never seems to end. The highway struck me and I was looking for a way to make it stand out more in the photo as it did when I was there.

Photo Technical Info

Evening at The Louvre

Comic Experiments

In a continuation of my processing experiments I made a little something that ended up making me think of graphic novels. I usually try my best to not have any preconceived set of parameters for my photos, rather I try to let them lead me where they want to go. I have been working on this photo for some time honestly. The coloring really was giving me trouble. This is actually shot at sunset and the sky is a nice blue and purple, but the lights of the palace grounds are in full blaze making a heavy hue of tungsten. I processed the photo twice for each color temperature, but still couldn’t get things feeling right. I ended up trying black and white which I really liked but then started playing with selective color, something I generally dislike. In this particular instance I think it came out very fun!