As Seen by TV

I am back from Chongqing (pronounced tchong-ching)!
I took 800+ images of a Taoist monastery in the Wudu mountains (“foggy mountains”) in the Beibei district north of the city, truly a great experience.  Not even my return flight through hell could diminish the amazing experience.  I was supposed to fly out of CKG at 19:10, but didn’t leave until 13:00 the following day… “bad weather”.  No worries however, as the verbal arguments, physical altercations, and riot-starters kept me amused.
The last couple images show the Ceremony of the Protector (the only religious ceremony I was allowed to photograph), the fog/mist mystically amplified the mysterious mood (!).

I am currently in the process of creating a 2010 desk calendar, roughly 500 will be printed and all proceeds will benefit the monastery.

ps- Happy Halloween!

It’s a shame that it’s been raining all day, as I’ve wanted to go explore the festivities planned for today.  The firework spectacle takes place in just over an hour, so I’m sure I’ll have a glimpse of that.
As for yesterday, I certainly heard a ton of explosions, and assumed they were fireworks… but I couldn’t see/find the damn things.   I ended up going to Pudong, taking metro line 2 to Dongchang Road and walking back to the Lujiazui station (I live nearby the Line 1 South Shanxi station, you can check out a subway map here).  The clouds were absolutely sensational… the colored lights from buildings literally saturated the sky, and once again impeccable timing, as it started raining just when I was wrapping up.

The first two images are panoramas, the vertical consisting of 8 images, and the [messed up] 360-degree horizontal of 13 (the building with the antenna just off-center is the stock exchange).
Also check out the differences in clouds between a 1.6sec and 30sec exposure.  You can even notice a blue radiance on the top right, from the blue lights that decorate the front/back of the Shanghai World Financial Center… not to mention the amazing glow from the apartment buildings to the left.

I have more images (I took about 140, which is more than double the standard Tim Shoot), but these are the only ones I cleaned up, more will be added later.  Have a good night/day wherever you may be and Happy 60th Birthday PRC!!
[also happy birthday to my Italian brother Salvo, have a good one yo!]

Dope video from the crazy parade in Beijing by Dan Chung: