Day 31 - A Day of Rain

There had to be a day like this with bad weather, uninspired to take pictures and spending a lot of time in transport. The great thing about the day is that I met with Christian, a fellow Ricoh photographer and blog follower in Shanghai for dinner.

Waking up in the morning it was raining quite heavily so I waited a bit in the hope it might stop. After a while decided to head out anyway and see what I could do with the weather, it turned out that aside from getting wet there was not much to get out of this.

So I spent most of my last hours in Hangzhou at a cafe, having coffee and looking out in the rain.

Heading to Shanghai, I arrived in Hongqiao and had to make my way into the centre to meet Christian for dinner and also be closer to Shanghai main station to catch my train to Suzhou in the evening. The travel from Hongqiao took quite a while and was also during rush hour so not ideal.

The dinner however was great and is nice to have a chat with Christian about Ricoh cameras, photography and other things. A thanks here to Christian for the nice dinner and enjoyable chat.
This is something that I enjoy a lot and one of the best things that came out of me starting my blog. IT's always great to see the people commenting and reading my blog but also meet other like minded people.

So despite the rain and what turned out to be my worst photography day (in quality and quantity) on this trip, I had a great day overall.

Day 30 - Around the West Lake

After getting to see a bit of Hangzhou yesterday, I was looking forward to have the whole day to explore and walk around the lake. There are some scenes scattered around the lake with poetic names so I figured I try to see how many I find.

Unfortunately the weather was not in as good a mood as I was and it was pretty bad for photography with a grey sky, haze and very flat light. I guess I can't go through all my trip with sunshine and blue skies so it had to change at some point. It's a shame it had to change here as it is a great location for photography but I have to make the most of it.

Just after getting to the lake it started raining a bit and it kept starting and stopping all throughout the day. This did not really help with the light but at least it provided my with more subjects for my next #people with umbrellas' book. :)

Since the light was bad and all pictures of the landscape or the poetically names places around the lake turned out a bit flat and boring, I decided to make people the focus of this post.

It took me a lot longer to walk around the lake due to some stops to enjoy the scenery and to take pictures so by the time it got dark, I just about managed to complete the round. Since I was not hungry, I decided to take some long exposure shots as these would work even with a cloudy sky.

While waiting around for the camera to record and finish writing my 120 second exposures, I noticed bats flying around so I had an idea. Now, if you always wanted to know whether you can take pictures of bats flying at night with the GR but were afraid to ask, here's your answer.

Yes, it is actually possible to take pictures of flying bats at night with the GR thanks to the Snap AF and fast flash sync speed at 1/3000 of a second. Now, it's not the ideal camera for night time bat photography and you would ideally like a but of a longer lens for this but in an emergency (should it exist), it will do a decent job. You will get strange looks though if you're standing around and take flash pictures of apparently nothing at seeming random intervals with the flash, so be warned.

After satisfying my bat photography quote and even trying the GXR with Jupiter-8 lens, which was held back by the flash sync speed of only 1/160, I went to grab dinner and afterwards for a walk around to take some proper pictures.

Tomorrow will be my last half day in Hangzhou before heading to Shanghai, to meet a Ricoh photographer and blog follower, and finally getting to Suzhou late in the evening.
I just hope the weather will improve in the morning.

Day 29 - Shanghai Morning then on to Hangzhou

After a good night in the comfortable fast train, I arrived in Shanghai. The stay in Shanghai was very short though as I did not intend to spend much time here but just to change trains for Hangzhou. Since my next train also left from Shanghai HongQiao station, which is very far out, most of my Shanghai stay was in the metro travelling there.

Once I arrived in Hangzhou, it immediately felt different than the other cities in China I have been to. It somehow felt quieter, more relaxed and most unusual cars (including taxis) actually stopped at pedestrian crossings and traffic lights. This was already a very good start to my stay here and I was already glad having decided to come here.

Having booked a hostel right in the main pedestrian area and not far from the West Lake, meant I could enjoy the sights without having to go far. Huangzhou kind of was what I expected/hoped Xi'an would be.

Walking around the Hefang Street, Wushan Square and then West Lake area was great, it was relaxing, no hassle but had a lot of character and there was a lot to see. I enjoyed a nice enough sunset by the lake before heading back to Wushan Square, where people were out again, having fun, dancing, flying kites and generally having a good time.
This is always nice to see and a big difference from what you can see in Europe, it is just so much more civilised with everyone having fun together.

I ended up walking around and taking pictures for quite a while, it was quite cool and I was looking forward to the next morning when I could walk around the lake and see more of Hangzhou.