Many Hands Make Light Work

I have a confession to make - well some explaining to do at least: I recently spent some time using a digital camera. I have a legitimate reason for this. One that is rather irrelevant at this point. Either way. I needed to practice using one. Now, I'm not a particularly big fan of digital cameras; I think they are needlessly complicated sometimes, and I hate autofocus, and yes I am sure you can get around it, but I am not inclined to learn this malarky when I have perfectly good film cameras.

Anyway. Thanks to some rather fancy technology, you can get these little extension bits to digital cameras (some of them at least) and mount manual lenses onto them. As I have mentioned I use an old Olympus OM-1 as my default camera (I actually also use an OM-2, but that's also another story, for another blog post - most likely the next one). I have the use of an Olympus Pen, which is a pretty nice bit of kit. But as it stands I can whack on my OM lenses to the Pen. So this post consists of digital images that I have taken recently (my first actual attempt being some random shots of Shanghai from ages and ages ago when I felt like a wander about the city - but that was a pokey little camera that I was also trying to get used to using).

I went down to Suzhou for the day. It's very picturesque, lots of things to see. I went mainly to see some rather elaborate gardens and a water village, but I managed to get a chance to go around a silk factory. Silk Factory No. 1 as it is somewhat formally known. It's rated as the best in China, and as China is rather famous for it's silk, it's a pretty big deal. Now as I wasn't originally planning on going to see this place, I was somewhat uninclined to use up the films that I was carrying, so I figured it was the perfect opportunity to try out this digital camera, since I had brought it along anyway. I was also using a 50mm lens, also something that I haven't actually used a whole lot of in the past year. My first blog post with pictures is the only other example of my using a 50mm wide angle lens. I had found it a strange lens to get used to, and was more interested in using my 35-135mm and 35-70mm which are basically my two standard lenses I use all the time for obvious reasons. Anyway. What follows are some images of me wandering about a small factory and what I saw, using a camera I was not used to, and a lens I was not used to either. The title of this post will make sense.

So silk is quite interesting stuff. The way it is farmed is just as interesting. Here a woman is sorting cocoons, separating bad ones from the good ones.

After they are separated they are put in hot water and the threads attached to these things that run it all together in spools. You can't really see what the woman is holding, but trust me she is holding a bit of silk. Did you know silk is actually just silkworm vomit? Well pretty much. The cocoon is the silk and the silkworm is killed before it turns into a moth. 

The thread that comes out of a silk worm is one single piece and can be more than 1000 metres (yes, one kilometre) in length. Eight strands of silk are wound together to make one thread since one alone is too thin (this is a very basic run down of the procedure, but it's interesting nonetheless).

Moving away from hands for the minute, but this is a cool image.

The main area where the threads are run into spools is quite a long room with a lot of people working on them at one time.

Also a cool picture. Tools make things work too.

This is a woman opening up the cocoon and getting rid of the larvae. They stretch out the opened cocoon once it has softened in the water. The strange thing standing up is what the silk is stretched over.

This is a better view.

They move it from a smaller one, to a larger one seen here.

Larvae from the cocoon.

After it's all dried and and spooled, they make all sorts of things, here four women are stretching it from something that is about a foot squared, to something the size of a mattress.

And then made into the blankets... Silk is meant to be better for the lungs, and therefore better for sheets and covers and whatnot, due to the fact that it doesn't kick up dust the way cotton and feathers do.

I love these two photos together.

Fun in the work place it seems...

More News

I'm having a terribly hard time getting on Blogger at the moment, so updates are going to be slightly here and there (and everywhere). Will do what I can when, when I can.

Progress And All That

Ok. The final bit of Hangzhou is more along the lines of things I find curious. I wasn't so much trying to frame photos and make them look kind of pretty and all that. More just having a nose around. 

There isn't so much to tell about this picture. I was using 200ASA film, which I think I am not too fond of,  if I am being honest. The images are kind of bland. But then the above picture is generally kind of grey. What is interesting, and will become more apparent, is what's in the bottom right corner. 

Obviously there is a big to do about how the Chinese just develop things without regard to people who live in the places where this development is supposed to happen. This is a good example of that. What with the building site, the advertising and the laundry hanging up.

Building sites double as play areas it seems.

I kind of still feel a bit weird taking pictures of people when they are looking right back at you...

... Clearly the guy didn't seem to mind so much. He started waving and having a laugh with his mates.

I am go to be away for a little while in Hong Kong, but will return with some pictures of snow in Shanghai from December, and whatever I come across in HK.
Cheerio.

Waves

This is the photo of water that took me a while to get. It's not the best, but after several attempts, and not being able to actually tell whether any came out, I'm somewhat happy with it. It's a little clearer if you click on it and zoom in.

Either way. I like the spades and shovels that are there. And it was a generally fun day at the beach. What more could you ask for?

Last Bit Of Black and White (For Now)

Happy New Year and all that. I meant to get this up a couple of days ago, but due to some overzealous celebrating I found myself generally unwilling to stare at a computer screen (or bright lights in general) for too long. These are going to be my last few b&w shots from Hangzhou. Sort of. I have more, but they are technically from Xiaoshan. Will do them at some other point - they are of a different lake and it's all a bit much for now.

That's a famous pagoda in the background. I never actually got round to seeing it up close, and I probably should have done, but the view is nice. Not really sure what's going on with the light on the left. Might be the sun and pollution doing crazy things.

This could be split into two separate photos. It might be better like that - the couple asleep on the bench, and the man looking through the guide book.

I'm not sure what this kid was actually doing. Or more why he was doing it. He was picking up these things from beneath the a tree and putting them in a bag. As you do.

Aww.

This I'm quite happy with. I may crop the bit on the left out and just have the boat and bit out on the water. It's silhouetted nicely.

There is a little bit of a different attitude to street performance here. It is given a lot more reverential respect, rather than people just having a gander and chucking money in a hat. 

You can kind of get the idea of how many people were about if you look to the right.

Glorious Technicolour (And Pollution)

So... Here's some colour. These are from the lake in Hangzhou. I managed to catch a rather impressive water fountain show by sheer chance. The pollution kind of makes the pictures more impressive as it dulls the light of the sun as it comes down. You kind of get a glimpse of the mountains in the background.

I'm not actually sure whether they do this water show regularly. I wouldn't have stopped and took these if it hadn't have started as I walked past. Above and below were just a couple of experiments with silhouettes. 

This one is the better of the two. I think with taking it in landscape you get more of the mountains in the background, and just people from the waist up. 

These with the water are a little tricky to get. You need a fairly high shutter speed to catch it, which also means that less light goes through the lens and on the the negative so can come out a little dark. I practiced this when I was in Jersey, and meant to put the results up - something I obviously haven't done - when I was on the beach; I was trying to get pictures of waves hitting rocks. Out of 4 or 5 pictures, only one came out well. Anyway. So the one above you can kind of see the water being shot up from right to left. There is a little too much glare from the sun though.

This one I really rather like. Unfortunately I couldn't get all of the sprays in. But it kind of gives some sense of proportion.

I think I should probably crop this around the couple. I may do at a later date, but for now I like them as they are. It's a little romantic. Save for the E.T. looking chap behind them.

Lots of people were there. Apparently they seemed to know there was a fountain show. You can tell by the pictures above there were loads of people at the front. This girl was quite lucky though.

More police. Checking their phones. 

Spare Time

I obviously have a little too much of it. I figured a little (drastic) design change was in order. With a fair few photos in black and white, that are maybe a little too dark, I figured this was a better look.
Thoughts; comments?

People-y Type Things

There is a lot of internal tourism in China. So there are a lots of people to take photos of. The quality of them are up and down. I think it's still hard to get photos of people right all the time.

Kid chasing bubbles. Annoyingly the bubbles aren't too clear.

There was a whole lot of writing carved into the pavement near the lake. No idea what any of it says but looked well impressive. I mean come on... It was carved into the pavement!

I think this picture is brilliant. It's got a little too much white light, but it's cool.

The old man in the Mao suit is kind of funny looking. Or maybe about to start a fight

Peace.

A Mixed Bag

I spent a month in Hangzhou after I came out to China. It's a nice place. Quite famous for its lake and tea, and some other things. Anyway. The lake is a big tourist pleaser. And there are thousands of people there. So in an effort to take better pictures of people, it was a good place to start. First couple of sets are in black and white...

I got some good photos of some of the kids by the lake. There were people handing out all sorts of balloons and blowing soap bubbles and what not. It had a good atmosphere

There is a fair amount of pollution in Hangzhou. So you can't really see across the lake, but I have a couple of better pictures where you can get the idea. They're also in colour...

There are a few of these. They're flimsy as hell. I took a ride in one and it was quite a laugh. Business was apparently slow.

I couldn't resist... There is a bike loan scheme in Hangzhou. And there are loads of them.

I was using a fairly decent lense so I got some good shots. I like how this guy is sitting right on the edge of the bench.

Something I Missed

Oh, look. Another bicycle.

This is my last bike shot from Shanghai that I missed. I have no idea what the writing on the wall says. But I like the look of it.

Market Values

China has a lot of things to see. It's a big place. Markets are pretty fun places to hang out. Not in a shopping sense. I hate shopping. But if you want to people watch, or even just see how things can be a little familiar but completely different, markets are a good place to go.

This is the other end of that ally/partly abandoned house I was in (actually it wasn't really abandoned - there was a tattoo shop I was looking for and you had to walk through this building; it seemed abandoned though). There was more light down the other and was easier to focus the shot.

These were some kitchy looking plates just on a side of market stall. I love how they are just outside - this is on the side of a fairly busy road.

I have always wanted to learn how to use an abacus. There are a stack in the bottom left hand corner. But what I really like about this is the old suitcase in the foreground. There was a guy repairing old leather suitcases that were more than 50 years old. I was at the market one day without my camera watching him repair them. I went back with my camera and sod's law he wasn't there, but the suitcases were.

This is a different market, but you see the same things. Like guys doing some proper sketchy looking repairs to something or other. I took the photo a while ago and can't quite remember exactly what it is they were fixing.

I first moved to China in 1989. Waaaay back in the day. I don't think I could quite forget how people would sit or squat on the side of the street just watching things go by. Sometimes they would have little stools or buckets they would sit on. You can see how worn this one is.

Here is a different guy repairing cases. I could have said he was the one I was looking for, but he wasn't. These were slightly newer looking ones. See what he's sitting on?

Ahh. Little Chinese statuettes... These were actually painted some fantastic colours. They're basically propaganda in statue form. There are quite a few of Mao, but there are also workers and peasants and all that kind of stuff. Unfortunately Shanghai doesn't have old pictures and paintings and posters of Mao, or various propaganda type things on street walls like some places in China still do. I will eventually find some to snap photos of. Interestingly, posters saying workmen are about and you need a hard hat kind of look like they are straight out of the Cultural Revolution...

I always find it slightly amusing when you see people with terracotta warriors. I remember going to see them in the ground 20 odd years ago when they were still a fairly big deal (they were originally discovered in the 70s). They always keep finding more though...