Summer Palace Boat, a photo from Beijing, North

Photographer's Note

This is the marble boat of the Beijing summer palace, see Peter's picture for more information.

One of the most memorable incidents of my visit to China happened right here by the boat: Right after taking this picture a chinese couple came up to me with a camera. I couldn't understand a word they said, but I guessed that they wanted me to take a picture of them together in front of the boat. But after a while I realised that they wanted to have a picture of them together with me. First the man took a picture of me with his girlfriend and then they switched. I guess they were from the countryside, and had never seen any westerners or something, so that I became a greater attraction than the beautiful boat. Maybe I should try soemthing similar if I see any tourists here in Sweden :).

This is taken with a simple APS camera (as are all my other photos from China) so the quality isn't excellent. I added contrast and more blue, after resizing I sharpened.

I hope to get some better weather this summer when I go back, and I'll have a better camera so hopefully I can get better pictures from here.

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Critiques | Translate

joso (2417) 2003-12-12 19:28

Simon, it's good enough to let me see that marble! boat "floating" on the water. They have ideas...
One for the photo, one for your funy note.
S.M., one of the main atractions of Beijing...
I go almost every year to Sweden...

pierrot (0) 2003-12-12 19:31

Nice picture of a beautiful boat. Interesting story too.

Josh69 (1437) 2003-12-12 20:33

The 'locals want photo with foreigner' has happened to me many times too... not just in China, I had a holiday in India where it happened all the time. And it doesn't end at just taking photos, I've also heard a theory, expounded by some long term residents, that some NE Asians like to shag a foreigner too, just as a one off experience. However I digress.

I like the trees in the foreground of the photo, but I think you could have moved the marble stub near the centre of the photo off to the right a bit by changing your shooting position. Also they are a bit dark, so you could think about using a fill-in flash.

Georges (11185) 2003-12-13 6:33

Les détails de ce sujet sont bien jolie .
Le contraste et bon Dommage que la luminosité ne vous a pas aidé mais la photo reste agreable a l'oeil .Bien

emax (920) 2003-12-15 4:22

Very interesting and attractive construction. I like the combination between the white stone and green water. The two pillars on bottom of the pic could be bigger. Anyway its a good pic Simon.