China 1997 (Part 2)

The beginning of something that would define my life

China 1997 was my first ‘photography holiday’.

Central Beijing

By this, I mean a holiday where the objective isn’t just to capture memories, or pictures of myself next to famous landmarks, or photos of travelling companions, but to intentionally capture something of the destination itself and what makes it unique.

I love this Chinese flag photo

China was not my first overseas trip. I spent 2 years in Europe between 1994 and 1996. Armed with a brand-new Pentax Zoom 90WR point and shoot, I shot dozens of rolls of film. When I got back to Brisbane in late 96, I looked at the pictures: yes I was in them with famous landmarks and travelling companions, but overall, the photos weren’t very impressive. I decided that if I was going to travel to all these cool places I’d better learn more about photography.

Washing day in the Hutongs - they don’t look like this now

By mid-1997 I owned 2 Canon EOS 500N cameras - one with a short zoom and one with a long zoom. I started buying photography books and magazines. I learnt the basics of exposure, depth of field, colour, and composition. My confidence also grew - you can see below that I started to ask people if I could take their photo.

I aspired to shoot the types of images you see in travel guide books and magazines - this is why I predominantly shoot colour to this day.

All dressed up at the Great Wall

Getting ‘the shot’ could be a challenge on location. Weather, teeming crowds, and scaffolding around famous landmarks are just 3 things that conspired to ruin the perfect travel photo. No matter what the reality I’ve found, I’ve always tried to ‘declutter the frame’ and present the viewer with a scene they could stumble across if they went there themselves.

Card game in Beijing

Through photography, I’ve also learnt lessons about life. I’ve became more observant and see beauty in the most ordinary things - this is somewhat of a recurring theme in my photography.

Not sure where this is, perhaps Beihai Park

I shot about 8 rolls of colour negative film on my Canon SLRs during the 1997 China trip. I love looking through the photo album. I no longer have the negatives, the prints are all I have. I wish I had the negs, as these scans aren’t very sharp.

You can see from these photos, especially the one above, I’m thinking about angles and composition all the time. I also loved getting higher vantage points for street scenes (below).

Traffic is a little more congested than this now in Beijing

I also took a full-size tripod and so I could capture the lights and movement of Tiananmen Square at night with longer exposures. Things have come full circle in the last few months - learn why I no longer take a tripod on vacation with me.

Long exposure at Tiananmen Square

The trip was more than half my lifetime ago, and some of the memories had disappeared from my mind.

My Dad often reminds me of how we went up to a kite seller in Tianamen Square and asked to borrow one so we could fly it. In the days long before Google Translate, communication was difficult. We ended up buying a kite, running around the square like lunatics for 10 minutes, then handing the kite back to a very puzzled kite seller. Easiest money he ever made.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when we headed back to Beijing a few weeks ago. Turns out, there was a Communist Party conference on and security was tight. We couldn’t get anywhere near Tiananmen Square to take a picture, let alone fly a kite.

I’ll post the first of my 2023 China photos in the next few days.