Solace - Xingping, China

After a month intermission from the website, internet and business side of photography I'm back in action. There's nothing better than a nice long break to clear the mind. Over the break I was fortunate enough to visit Norway, Sweden, New York City, and Oregon.

The main goal of visiting Norway and Sweden was to step foot inside the Arctic Circle and see the Northern Lights. To do so we Flew into Kiruna, Sweden and rented a car. From there we took 10 days and drove over 2000 miles around the Fjords and into Norway. Due to a stagnant weather system with clouds that constantly followed us we kept an eye on the weather, finally finding some clear skies and the Aurora. Out of the entire trip we were able to see the light 3 times, all of which had some pretty nice activity.

I've included a few "snapshots" that I took while traveling below as well as a video. Currently the portfolio shots are in work and I'll be posting a few in the coming weeks.

Sunset in Northern Norway

Foggy Afternoon along the Norwegian Coastline

Massive Peaks at 68 Degrees North

Reine Norway

A Random Shot the Paul Weeks Just Gave Me. Taken in Hong Kong

The Shot
After returning from my trips I was really to get back on the computer and start post processing some shots. This shot comes from one of the best places I've ever traveled to, Xingping, China. We set out early one morning while it was still dark to take some shots of the fisherman at sunrise. After venturing up the Lijiang River in the dark/mist/rain the sun popped out for a few seconds and allowed us time to get some good shots.

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Boats in the Mist - Xingping, China

Has anyone gotten their hands on the new Google Nexus 5 yet? I am really tempted to pick one up, but not really sold on the 5" screen, the 4" screen was already big enough. Everything else about the phone looks so nice that I might just buy it anyway..

After starting this Behind the Scenes Photo Project a few weeks ago I started to realize, " damn I have a ton of pictures from random adventures and great times". It's been really fun going back through them all:) Hopefully some of these will provide you with adventure ideas and inspiration for new travel locations. With the backlog of photos that I plan to add to my portfolio constantly growing you may see a behind the scenes location that hasn't really made it to the website in the form of a portfolio picture yet. Are these Behind the Scenes shots a good edition to the website or do you wish they would go die somewhere? haha. No but really, would like to hear some thoughts...

Paul & I Feeling the Pain After Camping on the Great Wall of China

The Shot

As many of you travelers may know, the Cormorant Fisherman no longer fish for a living, but they do provide photography services for the right price. If you are in the Guilin/Yangshuo/Xingping area and would like to see these guys in action I highly suggest going through a guy named Jack who runs Yangshuo Private Tours. He provides a wealth of information, and will set you up with everything necessary and more. I was highly impressed & as goes for anything on this website, I mention his name and product because it's amazing and for no other reason.

We woke up early, 4AM early, and I stepped out on to the nice little porch we had ( This Old Place Youth Hostel / Could stay here for weeks, awesome spot ) overlooking the Lijiang River, in Xingping. The water for instant coffee was hot, and we were ready to knock out the next mission on our trip itinerary. Up to this point in the trip weather had been perfect.

This particular morning it was pretty nasty, wet, rain, fog, you name it. None the less there was no way I was coming all this way and not getting a picture of the fisherman at sunrise. Mr. Huang the fisherman met us at 5AM and we boarded his small bamboo raft to venture up the misty Lijiang. Upon docking the boat, he setup his little skiff and pulled the birds out of their cages by the necks ( they didn't seem to mind ). We proceeded to take numerous shots of him for the next hour or so.

At first it's hard to get used to shooting very low light & High ISO ( 2500 in the case of the shot below ), but once you get the hang of it, taking an insane amount of shots will guarantee you get something sharp, and interesting. I came away with 10 shots that I really liked from the morning, here is the first to make it online. Upon waking up I complained of rain, but I think it ended up making this picture.
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