It has been 27 weeks since my last entry, which I guess is a long time!
A few things have happened in this last while so it seems appropriate to update this thing finally.

I won the 2009 Carl Zeiss Photo Contest. The theme was pulse of the city and a photo I took in the back alley of some street in Chongqing won first prize. 300 some participants from 39 countries took place in the competition this year and I am very happy to have won. Oh yes the prize….a free Carl Zeiss lens of my choice. Results can be seen here: [link] and here: [link]

I have decided not to study for my graduate’s degree this next school year. While a master of something would be nice, the school here does not have anything I am interested in, I need to work and make some money or go broke, and I have been here in backwater Chongqing for more than 5 years now and I think a change of venue might be nice. Maybe Hong Kong…or wherever there is work to be had. I think a change of area would be stimulating for my photography and mind as well.

I recently bought a Panasonic G1 as a replacement for my dying Ricoh GRD which has over 20,000 pictures on the dial. It is a nice camera, not so great at high ISO but a competent small carry around when a Canon 5D is just too much to have without a huge loss of image quality.

I have done a few photo projects in the past months though my non photography related job keeps me from really being able to finish them off because I come back home everyday so drained I don’t want to look at a photo let alone pick up a camera.

The girlfriend is doing well, she opened her own studio for drawing and painting, last month she made more money than I did! We have been talking about taking a trip in a few months, a few places for ideas: Vietnam, Cambodia, or less likely America. I have not been back home to the states in 2 years so it would be nice to go sit in nature for a few weeks, though she would just want to buzz around Seattle shopping and visiting galleries. We will see.