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.
Chongqing to Hong Kong would be quite a dramatic change of scenery. I'm sure your street-photo skills would still result in some great images wherever you go! Best of luck.
What Zeiss lens did you settle down on?
GL with your job and girlfriend
chongqing seems a lot better than before, although i haven't been back yet and i probably won't be this time. i met a nigerian guy in my tokyo hostel who was doing business in chongqing and have heard about others doing business there and other parts of sichuan. china really is changing, coming back to beijing i got huge culture shock - just not used to it anymore. the simple hugeness of everything was overload for me. i hope you find where it is you want to go to start this new mini-chapter of your life
May inspiration, good health, and happiness be yours always!