Beijing

26 Jun 2012

Along The North Wall – Forbidden City, Beijing

Along The North Wall || Forbidden City, Beijing

While my wife and I were in Beijing, we rented a little apartment right across the street from this view of the Forbidden City. China has some really strange weather so it was nice to be able to easily access this spot over the course of a few nights. Out of my 3 attempts with this shot, this was by far the best sunset. To be fair though, I think it was the only sunset. Every other time I shot here the sky was completely coated with a thick smog.

The weather wasn’t the strangest thing though. Every time I visited this spot, there was this old man doing the most obnoxious duck calls I’ve ever heard. The first time I heard it, I swore he had Tourette syndrome. There was no way that all those crazy grunts and belches had anything to do with duck calls. But the more he made these noises, the more admiration he seemed to receive from the people around him. So, bravo Mr. crazy tourettes duck belch guy. Apparently you earned it.

Along The North Wall - Forbidden City

Post-processing Before and After Comparison

Shooting into direct sunlight is always a tricky operation. When the light is this intense, I’ll usually shoot 9 bracketed exposures instead of my normal 5-7. Even if I don’t use them, it’s always good to have the data just in case I need it.

Technical Mumbo Jumbo

Nikon D700 |&| 24-70 f/2.8 at 28mm
Exposure: 1/125 at f/8.0
ISO: 200

Along The North Wall - Beijing - Forbidden City

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Filed Under: Architecture, Before & After, Beijing, China, Sunrise and Sunset, Travel

25 Apr 2012

Beyond The Fog || The Great Wall Of China

By Elia Locardi Leave a Comment

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As The Light Fades on The Great Wall

This is my favorite view from the top of The Mutianyu Section of The Great Wall Of China, just before the last rays of the sun disappeared into the thickening fog. It was a very spiritual moment for my wife and I, as we watched the soft light fade. We were all alone up there for the final hour of sunset, surrounded only by the gentle sound of the cool spring wind. It’s always been one of my dreams to visit The Great Wall and having finally seen it in person, I can happily say that it lived up to all my expectations.

Post-processing Before and After

You may be wondering why the before image looks so dull and flat. It’s because I turn off all of my in camera settings. No D-Lighting, color enhancements, or anything else that alters (or processes) the image. Without these camera settings active, the input into Lightroom looks very flat but it also gives me the ability to push and pull all the color data any way I want. And for this shot, that’s all I’ve done. All the color and contrast was already present in the Raw file. All I did was give it a little encouragement in the right direction.

Beyond The Fog - The Great Wall Of China

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Filed Under: Architecture, Before & After, Beijing, China, Great Wall, Landscape, Sunrise and Sunset, Travel

17 Apr 2012

Beijing – Reflections Of The Past

By Elia Locardi 4 Comments

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Blogging From The Great Wall!

I gotta say, this is pretty cool. Today, I’m writing this post from the top of the Great Wall of China, the Mutianyu Section to be exact. I was even pleasantly surprised to find full 3G service up here. So of course I checked in on Facebook and Skyped my mom. She was thrilled. I mean, It’s not every day that your son calls you from the Great Wall.

It’s always been one of my dreams to visit the Great Wall so I’m very excited about it. The weather sucks for photography today but I’m honestly just happy to be here. And before you ask, of course I didn’t take the sissy tram. All of myself and all the camera gear took the stairs…. Thousands of them and I’m planning on doing it a second time too, once the lighting improves. On a side note, wasn’t it the Chinese who invented the Stair Master?

New Adventures In Old Beijing

We’ve been staying in Beijing for over a week now is this shabby little apartment right across from the north wall of the Forbidden City. Today’s photo is only a few minutes walk from our front door. Even though there are giant rats living in the ceiling, huge brown slugs sliming all over everything, and pipes breaking open to spew stinky brown goo, the location couldn’t be more perfect. If I was a Realtor, all I’d say is, “It has character.”

What you see here is the north entrance to the Forbidden City shortly after a beautiful sunset. On my second night in Beijing, I jogged the length of the top half of the ancient wall to find some cool vantage points. When I returned here to shoot, there were dozens of little bats fluttering all around my shot. They were a cool addition to the experience and they moved too quick to impact the exposure.