As Seen by TV

Taken over a month ago (yeah, I know… but it’s been a busy couple weeks for me) this was one of the first spring-like days to hit Shanghai.  Originally I had wanted to see the “pr0tests” dealing with the Jasm1ne Rev0lution… but what we found were almost 100 “undercover” agents stationed all around the Peace (irony?) Cinema… it was a tense and creepy scene (made more so by getting stared at by each and every one of them; foreigner + camera = no good).  So instead, we just walked around People’s Square and enjoyed the nice weather. 

My roots lie in Antwerp, but many of my friends live around Brussels… so rain or shine (or snow), there is a lot of driving back and forth.  Honestly, there is nothing better than snow on the ground and a rental in your hands.  I just thank them lucky stars that my rental car had German plates, as winter tires are mandatory in Germany but not in Belgium.

The snow was amazing, all the years I spent in the Benelux and I’ve never seen such a blanket across the entire country (the south got up to 60cm).  I was there for 10 days, and it snowed every other day… truly amazing.  First white Christmas since the 60′s, and the most snow since WWII!

One morning I also went for a little hike through the Sonian Forest (Zoniënwoud / Forêt de Soignes) located just south of Brussels, which was simply amazing.

Day’s 3+4 of shooting with the 12-24mm Sigma lens… first two are near my office building (left, in picture #2), while the others were taken around Jing’An Park.

Boom.

And yes, there is a semi-naked dude chilling in the subway entrance in that last image… keep in mind, it has been +35C all week (right now it’s 39C)!

I got the chance to borrow an absolutely wicked lens from a friend for the past week (Roy Frankland; check out his work), these are shots from days 1-2.  It is a Sigma 12-24mm… mix that with a Canon 5D MkII and this is what you get.

I got my hands on the brilliant Canon 5D Mk II, what a truly glorious piece of machinery.

The moon was strange that night, as I had never before seen such a bright start hovering so close to it…

Xujiahui Park, Take 002

Well, it doesn’t happen very often, but it seems I totally forgot about a shoot I went on… way back in February.

Although I do have a good excuse, as right after that shoot something happened… the absolute mayhem that was Chinese New Year (see the amazing pix again).  That post incidentally still holds the record for most traffic to this blog (cheers for that, by the way!).

Anyway, so this post is the lost shoot just before Chinese New Year, just a stroll down my street (Yong Jia Road) to Fuxing Park, just to give a realer idea of what my [old] neighborhood was like.  Enjoy.

For a while I’ve been meaning to hit up the Suzhou Creek artist area and the infamous Moganshan Road (“the graffiti street of Shanghai”). 

So after work on Monday I did exactly that, although rather obviously by then all the galleries and shops had long been closed down, so another visit will have to be made… but at least I got some good flix!

So I recently moved to right around Xujiahui, actually right by it.  Simple put: a great area… it’s like a city center just outside the city center.  Actually, it is a city center. 

I’m 2 blocks away from the massive intersection that is XJH and less than a block away from Xujiahui Park (map), a modern park I only explored for the first time this past weekend.
It got a little chilly while shooting, so I had to cut it short, but for a 5 minute walk, I’m pretty sure I’ll be back soon.