Cruising the New Frontier 新疆行旅

June 1, WInd Turbine

2010-01-07T23:44:00.009+08:00

Finally here, though it is not without obstacles. We made our way here, it is June 1, the beginning of June, and it is also the last day of this wonderful photography trip, tomorrow we will be relaxed at the Urumqi City, and part with Huang Zheng, and Neo in the afternoon, Pook and me and Wanbing will be flying together to Chengdu, where I will stay another day, before fly back to Bangkok. But it is tomorrow, today, we have some more pictures to shoot!

Arriving late in the afternoon, still, the sun is high in the sky, a little too early to make the pictures I want, so we have time to survey around, and Neo got his Land Cruiser performing what it was designed for.

Finally, the color of sky is right, the wind turbine is right, shot away some images, marking the epilogue of this photography journey.

Here Pook is making the pose to blow the wind turbine!

And the beautiful landscape of Xinjiang! Beautiful as it is, at close up, you will amaze at the creator of the world, where it can't produce anything, it produce energy!An image of the day, shot with Nikon D3X.Image of myself, shot by my lovely wife, Pook. Mark the last of the day.

June 1, Lunch and Wind Turbine

2009-11-25T00:43:00.009+08:00

We stopped by Korla to have a lunch, a small local market, with busy vendors, running kids, it is just a perfect normal day for the local.

Some shots made in the market place, beautiful kids.....

Continue to move on, somehow, I spot a small shop and ask Neo to stop before moving on the highway. I was looking for some Coke Zero, and beleive it or not, even a city as large as Chengdu, I didn't find any. But I have my luck here! I spotted the all-too-familiar black PET bottles in a corner, grap 2 for Pook and myself, and Wanbing and Huangzhen followed, saw what I pick, with sign of curiosity, but did not pick any. The soft drink market in China is very highly diversified. Countless varieties, mostly heathy related, in one way or another. Coke is not nearly as popular as it is in most other countries, in China, it finaly met its rivals. Its rival is not other kids of soft drinks, it is simply not Chinese lifestyle to drink coke, not part of their digest.

Soon Neo is on the highway, he told us this is a route that is so boring, so many drivers tried to speeding to avoid asleeping, but then the government knew enough to place many speed detectors along the way to slow down the cars, resulting that we have to move through this section at a very control path - means slowly. We also started to feel the heat, it is after all June already, and it is also we are nearing Turpan, the hot zone. It is dried, hot, and among the hills and rocks we drove by, seldom we see any plants, it is other-worldly. But I found it to be quite interesting, like taking picture of an foreign planet, and it is so hot, most of the time I use the compact Sigma DP-1, take series exposures, and make them into larger panoramic pictures.

Moving on, the discussion started to focus the reality, how to manage the days left. And also, what will be the best location for the wind turbines.

And we are moving on a utterly dried, lifeless, boring landscape, this is nearby Turpan, one of the driest and hottest area of China. The following images were taken with Sigma DP-1, each of which was stitched of a small sequences of shots.

Boring as it is, we still stop too often to take pictures, and before we knew it, we finally arrive our destination today!

June 1, Lake Bosten

2009-11-24T15:46:00.008+08:00

It is the beginning of a new month, unfortunately it is also toward the end of this great trip. After moving through the beautiful and majestic central Xinjiang landscapes, the snow mountain, the never disappearing TienShan, the lakes, the desert, diversified cultures and people, cold and hot, it is finally come to an end, not yet, and we have started to talk about the next trip already!

After a full night rest, I was into sleep and forgot to make a time-exposure of the lake under the moon light, or may be I skip it to make a reason to come back? Anyway, with a rich breakfast, we are on our way to Turpan area, the lowest and hottest area of China, and we are going to drive thru some of the more boring landscape of this trip, hopefully by sunset, we will be busy photographying the large array of wind turbines, the real green energy!
We quickly came to the lake side, saw some shepherd and the all too common sheep in Xinjiang, taken with Canon G10.This one with Nikon D3X + AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED.A shot by the lake side. Also with D3X.Nearby the lake side is a rich wetland, with birds, ducks...... all shots by Nikon D3X and AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED.

Pook, my lovely wife stand by Neo's Land Cruiser, by the lake.By the time we are about to leave the lake area, over the horizon, on the surface of the lake, a company of birds flying over, bidding goodbye. Nikon D3X and AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED.Time to move on!

May 31, Overnight nearby Lake Bosten

2009-11-21T22:37:00.008+08:00

Back on Neo's Land Cruiser, we are on the way again, heading to the hotel. Neo told us earlier today, we will be stay by the lake, and we all look forward to it, not to mention some fresh fish from the lake.
But of course, our focus is still on getting good images, and we stopped by a farm land on the road, took some pictures.
This one, bundles of straws, taken with Nikon D3.The land around the lake is rich of saline and alkaline, this is an image of my step crack the surface of the soil. Shot with Nikon D3, with AF-S 24-70/2.8G ED.The saline and alkaline does not only leaves its mark on the soil, also on the surface of the steel on the small bridge to the farm.Moving on, we are approaching our lake view hotel. Ok, this may sound too romantic, but it is and it is not. Chinese government did a good job to make sure the decision from the central is strictly followed, so we were really not going to stay in a hotel with a beach front. but then nobody else did. The hotel we stayed over night there, in fact, were among the better ones in this entire trip, and of course a good dinner, it is situated on a small hill and within a very reasonable distance to the vast lake, and now, you really get the idea how big this lake is, with no end in sight. Make no mistake, China is 3rd largest country as far as land mass is concerned, it also stretch over a very dramatic landscape on earth, many leading landscape feature in China is most likely also world class. This image, taken in front of our hotel, a sunset view of Lake Bosten, with some horses and buffalo on the beach. With Nikon D3X + AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED. And what a fantastic way to get relaxed.And some dried land nearby the hotel, still reminds me the Taklamakan Desert. Shot with Nikon D3 + AF-S 24-70/2.8G ED.

May 31, Lake Bosten

2009-11-21T21:18:00.006+08:00

On the boat, with Nikon D3X and D3 with me, I tried to get some shots of the lake. To counter the moving boat, the wave of lake, I set both of the Nikon to ISO 320-400, in order to get a reasonable combination of speed, and aperture, so not only to freeze the action, but also a little extra depth of field to get some images. I think about getting some blurring images, but quickly abandoned the idea because the overall contrast of the scenery is not my preference. Some of the images of the day at the lake.
This one, shot with D3X and AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED, of a distant nets. While we were cruising on the surface of the lake, the nets and the reflection form a nice pattern.Few more shots made on the boat. These two images of the birds, also taken with Nikon D3X and AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED.

May 31, Talim, Korla, Lake Bosten

2009-11-20T09:39:00.008+08:00

An easy day, began with a small mistake, against a big taboo. Just right outside the hotel we stay last night, each of us go for our own breakfast, Pook and I stop by a small restaurant run by Han, and we ordered our usual Chinese breakfast, bun, oil sticks, soy milks and etc. not particular delicious, but sure will past as a meal. Just about finishing our meal, Huangzhen and Neo came in, and quickly went out, a little odd.
When we all packed up, in the car, moving toward Lake Bosten 博斯騰湖, by way of Korla 庫爾勒. And Huangzhen told us what happened. Remember, this is Xinjiang, a muslin area, and Pook and me did not recognized at all we ordered some pork meat in our breakfast, which Neo can immediately know, and turn his head away (away from the the pork meat, not Poor or me, OK.), not serious, it is simply that pork is not a part of Muslin's digest, and to be honest, Neo gave me several reasons that almost convince me to abandon pork meat, almost.
We stopped by Korla, had a simple lunch, again some Xinjiang noodle, and continue our journey to Lake Bosten.And here we are, the lake is regarded as the largest fresh water lake in China, with surface area aroun 1,000 sq. KM, unless you are flying over it, really, you can't tell how big it is. We entered the scenery check-point, paid the admission - 30 RMB each, arrive at a small dock, hire a motorized boat (when will the electrical powered boat will be available??), then off we are. And come back to my point earlier, yes, we are riding on the lake, between several water path inside a rather dense of overgrown reeds, they are so much and so tall, 3-4 meters above water or more (Lake Bosten is large but quite shallow, its average depth is only around 7m), so we tried our best to try to visually gauge how big it is for this lake, but can only focus to the reeds just breath away, and reeds over the horizon. Good things is occasionally you see water birds, ducks, and some fishes, bad things is that the Yamaha powered motor of our little 6-seat boat really makes a lot of noise. But I guessed for the sheer size of the lake, paddling on the lake is not for us with a time schedule to meet.
There are also lots of lotus and water lily, a sea of them. Mostly small, Neo said we were a bit early to witness their full blossom, and also it is late, nearby sunset. But it is still a good boat ride, an experience.

May 30, Taklamakan Desert

2009-11-14T23:20:00.012+08:00

Finally, time to wake up, carried the cameras, and we set off to the Taklamakan Desert 塔克拉瑪幹沙漠, no, we were in the desert already, but we move on to a spot everyone agree to stop to do some photographs, and we soon found it. Quickly, we all jump off the car, and start our work. Pook, she is the one in this trip ever to step on desert, in fact, she did many things first in this trip!

There are many dried Populus tress still stand on the desert, refuse to accept their fate even after thousand years, beautiful as it is, I don't find the combination of desert and Populus tree here a particular nice composition, so I made some images, mostly without it. Here, I took one picture for Pook (with her G10), before walking into desert to find my view.And some of the shots made in the desert, Nikon D3X with AF-S 24-70/2.8G ED. One note to Nikon here: Please! Even the dusk removing mechanism is not perfect on every other camera system, with something is still better than nothing. I got a big problem after coming back to hotel to find some images were good but useless because of dusts. Yes, Photoshop is a solution, but not a solution to the problem I found. I kept walking, although try to be careful of my bearing, really there is nothing to register in desert, but, with camera on my hand, I continue to move on, while sun is setting, this one, also with Nikon D3X with AF-S 24-70/2.8G ED. And some shots from my pocket camera, Sigma DP-1.This one, shot with Nikon D3X, reminds me it was late in the night, now I have to find my way out.I thought it is easy, but it isn't. I tried to calm down myself, try to find the direction, not panic, and I heard some faint voice calling my name, so I follow the voice, back to join the team, and most importantly, my wife. And it was 10pm already.
And this becomes sort of the routine, get up early, long drive, taking pictures, late dinner. It is almost 10:30pm when we order our dinner, but compare to the days at Bayanbulak, this is not late at all.
Retire to the hotel room, it was late, and while backing up the day's pictures, pleasantly surprised that Pook's Canon G10 captures some nice images of myself, and of course the scenery.My steps? Captured by Pook with her G10.To me, Pook's shot of the day with her Canon G10.

May 30, Tarim & Tarim River

2009-11-13T22:14:00.014+08:00

We drove a little while, here we arrive the Tarim, where the famous Tarim River 塔里木河 runs by.

It is the longest in-land river in China, total length 2,030km, but nothing to photograph now, there is just the river bed, totally dried, only in the summer when the melted snow from the Tienshan Mountain, then the river is alive again, and of course bring lives to people who depend on it. Nothing to share here, and in fact we only stop by the river bed for just a few minutes, Neo suggest that may be we should find a hotel, rest awhile, and late in the afternoon to go to the Taklamakan Desert for some shoot. It is a good idea, the weather is getting hard, a nap is a good idea. After a few check ups, we eventually settle in this hotel, here my wife Pook pose in front of the hotel, and Neo's Landscruiser.
Not wanting to nap that early, Pook and myself went out, buy ourselves ice-cream at a small shop nearby the hotel, and went on checking out the street. And while we walk on to the main street, I ask Pook to sit on herself in front of this wall, with some Chinese writing, which no or less says "This is not toilet!"A nice Muslim restaurant nearby the hotel, shot with Nikon D3X. The kids inside the restaurant. Regardless how diversified the people on earth, of varies of cultures, kids all look the same! Shouldn't we all? Capture with Nikon D3X.Continue to walk on the street. This is indeed a very small town, with 2 roles of houses along the highway, probably 500-600 meters each side, beyond theses houses again the endless sand. Economic on this small town is asleep, at it seemed to be, dirty, deserted, you will really see how China was 20 years ago. Not today, but here, still has a long way to go. A series shots all by Nikon D3X with AF-S 24-70/2.8G ED.Pook standing by the door, with the typical Chinese greeting banner, this must be a house for Han Chinese, what the banner says? In short - peach and money. Nikon D3X + AF-S 24-70/2.8G ED.And OK, may be its time to take a nap, and prepare for the late afternoon shoot in Taklamakan Desert 塔克拉瑪幹沙漠 . I snap this picture for Pook, while she cross the highway, background the look of this small town.

May 30, Yanqi - Korla - Tarim River

2009-11-12T22:36:00.018+08:00

We have to witness Neo separate from his son, I am sorry for them, it is a job that Neo has to move forward, a story of millions happen in many countries, particular China, with such population, fast growing economic.....we all look forward.
Soon, after leaving the downtown area of Yanqi 焉耆 the Landcruiser enter the highway leading us to endless sand, trees becomes very rare, Neo told us, we are entering into the desert area. We are driving towards Korla 庫爾勒 The boarder area of desert is not that pretty, far away from those beautiful image published, but we are getting there.
Fast moving on the highway, with both side endless sands, we have to admit that this is kind of boring, so we have to find topics to chat around, talk talk talk, and naps in between, eventually the target focus on we have to find something to eat, this idea gets everyone's attention - except my Pook who does not understand Chinese, so she is the last one to cheer. This is the first time Pook on a trip in Muslim world (sort of, in large part), even though there is really not much choice besides the Muslim meal, she actually quite enjoy the local food. Then began the hunt, so we stop a few times, checking out the kitchen - don't fancy the kitchen in this area, it is in the middle of nowhere, kitchen means a brick stove on open air, with beat up wok which you can't tell the color from the coal they use to fire the stove. But, Muslim people is very clean, I trust them with the food, and everyone seemed so. To give an idea what it is, shot by compact Canon G10.And like most of the Chinese family, a too-familiar scene, Mom cooking, and kids running around. The 2 cute boys of the cooking mom. In China, one baby system is still practiced, among Han people, but for minors in Xinjiang, they can have more. Canon G10.The house they live in.We don't have problem with her cooking, but we are looking for other choice, I made the proposal; "....let's find some noodle..", so noodle it is. We continue to drive ahead, looking for noodle.
And we found it. A nicely set up restaurant, and a busy - although dark, working kitchen. I grab a compact Sigma DP-1 for snap shot, and a Canon G10 - this time just for video clip, sneak into the kitchen, make a series of images and a full record of our meal making. This is an image took while I walk by the hall way (OK, to be frankly, to the restroom), with DP-1. I confess that I am a huge fan of Canon G10, but I will not lie that for pure image quality, DP-1 is by a mile a better photography camera. Get use to it, and it produce astonishing quality image, something I don't understand why others don't follow suit. At the time of this writing, Leica has its offering in name of X1. something to look forward to.The waiter, and helper in the kitchen, unlike many Han Chinese, is not camera shy. He pose for me with 2 bowls on his head!The cook and his wife, working on our Xinjiang noodle. And the secret of such delicious noodle, it really took efforts to work on the flour to get the taste that let us remember forever!One proof that the food is so good is that I simply could not stop to take time to make shots on what we ate, each of us took 2 big bowls, including my Pook.
Time to move on, now we are goting to Tarim 塔里木, and to see the Tarim River 塔里木河.

May 30, Hejing - Yangi

2009-11-10T22:21:00.031+08:00

It is a more relaxed day. With much warmer last night, a good hotel, we met each other at the breakfast hall, given such a small city Hejing 和靜 is, it is a large selection, something you can always expect in when travel in China, even in Xinjiang. I must although overall there is a large difference between the quality of living in cities in more developed area and small cities in Xinjiang, the public infrastructure is well built, except the sanitation area still left much to be desired. Hejing is Neo home town, for the first night of the trip so far, he is not with us, and we started to miss him. But Neo did not let us wait, he came by the breakfast hall. We are ready to move.
It is going to be a long ride, with not much landscape diversity, because we are moving toward the desert area. We will be stopping by a small city, Yanqi 焉耆, where his son is there, and we are all going to see him!
We stop by a gas station, a truck also parked along our car, I saw the sheep packed in the cargo bay, jump onto the truck, took the picture! "Sheep for trade!" It is a mixed of emotion, these people live on these sheep, depend on them, little choice of not to, we called ourselves human being, atop on the food chain and somehow claim right to do so. These sheep are not depend on human, they depend on nature! May be in more ways than we do, because we took advantage of other species, or so-call command of food-chain, so we are less direct rely on nature. I am not so sure if these sheep felt their and saw their fate. May be, may be not.
Continue on our journey, moving slowly! In Xinjiang, the traffic rule is very strict, it allow often only 30-40km/hr when cruising on the city road, Neo told us, "....because Xinjiang is so big, they cannot allow the driver to drive faster than what seemingly a slow limit, to avoid serious tragic...", there is a logic there, but the logic makes people asleep as well, and so we stop to take some pictures. This one, shot on the road side, with a Canon G10, fill with the built-in flash. After extended use, one has to give Canon a credit to develop a compact yet powerful camera like G10. It delivers almost the same quality of those compact film camera could, such as those gems like Contax T2 and T3, there were my favorite, and should I still use that much film, for sure to still keep them. Anyway, entering into digital, Contax in fact also introduce a digital compact, the TV-S which without doubt I also have it and did great image with it, a pity such a beautiful camera discontinued by a discontinued camera brand. What a shame on Kyocera. But of course Kyocera will say "this is business", and it proved that Kyocera is not wrong, should they continue on the Contax line, they may be in greater trouble, so this is more sad than shame. May be it is just bad fortune. In the history of camera making and optical developing, Contax as a whole did more right than wrong, praise by those not even use them, envied by those who did not own them, but this is not enough to keep a good brand name today. Enough camera talk!
Back on to highway, we finally arrive Yanqi, Neo met his son, we all met his son, and we all share the joy!
This is Neo and his son!We are sorry for Neo! His duty made his time with his son so short, and we are the reason this time. For what may be just 5 minutes, Neo took us on road again, moving toward our destination today, Tarim 塔里木, and the famous river runs by - Tarim River 塔里木河.

May 29 Leaving Bayanbulak to Baluntai to Hejing

2009-11-09T21:39:00.011+08:00

Finally got what we want, and it is time to move on. Bayanbulak is a beautiful place, actually a little sad when we finally have to move on. But surely, the expectation to look for new scenery ahead of us soon overcame the sadness, besides, we got up early this morning, it is time to eat! Taken this image just in front of the small restaurant we stopped to eat our breakfast, weather is getting better and warmer. Using my compact Sigma DP-1, processed the raw file using Adobe Lightroom 2.1, one of my favorite editing software, and the platform I use whenever Capture One Pro did not support, for example the Sigma DP-1 and the DP-2.
And this image, also with the Sigma DP-1, took seconds before we move on the long and straight Xinjiang highway, toward Baluntai 巴侖台.This one, Neo on the driving seat, as always, moving toward to what seemed to be an endless highway. I could not resist, took a nap.And then this is the most important tip I will give to all - "Before you delete and format your compact flash or SD card, check and check again, and before you hit the enter key, check again." I can now advise anyone how important it is to double check and triple check, because I did not. And I lost some great image here, not only the beautiful landscapes, but also the feast Neo prepare for us, a whole roast sheep! For what it worth, Neo is treating us a meal of a lifetime. As fast as Chinese development is, not everyone benefit the same. Neo makes his living giving travel guide, often on the driving seat of his Landcrusier, hours and hours drive, stop whenever we want to take a picture, on or off-road. And this meal, cost him a good portion of the money he could make from this trip, too good to take, but Neo insist. I felt particular sorry because I lost the image of this wonderful meal, the video of the roasting process. We all eat, drink, and eat more, drink more.
Finally, we will have a good hotel to stay tonight, and after the wonderful meal, we are moving to Hejing 和靜, Neo's home town. We stay at a nice hotel, and before entering into the hotel, we saw a small desert storm, we quickly ran into the hotel, and needless to say, I lost the image of the desert storm, it was gone along with the "empty trash" command on my mac, stupid me. Good news is the hotel does have cable for high speed internet, bad news is even though I am able to download the image rescue software to try to retrieve the lost images, some came back, many did not.
No more image to entertain for this day and I will be careful for next, this is the location map of Hejing and its relation with other Xinjiang cities. Map Here.

May 29 Morning, Bayanbulak 巴音布魯克

2009-11-04T02:34:00.026+08:00

And we got an early wake up, remain half sleep in the car, 2 hours later we arrived the spot we came in the first day, cold, but we are ready to enter the field!
Bayanbulak morning presents a different beauty. Serene, tranquil, somewhat cold, but it was the kind of cold before warmth. I took 2 Nikon with me, a D3X with 24-70 zoom and a D3 with 70-200 zoom, walked on the frost covered grassland, composing the scenery surrounded me. And by the way, a compact Canon G10 in my pocket.
This image, taken with Nikon D3X + AF-S 24-70/2.8G ED. Quiet early morning allows the water in this small pond a total stillness.

Thin ice on the water, although this is in early summer, Bayanbulak can still get quite cold during the night. I snap this image using the Canon G10 inside my pocket, although a small camera, it is capable of capturing nice detail image. As I have repeat perhaps too many times, keep a pocket camera such as Canon G10 in your pocket when traveling, or whenever you go, is not a bad idea. My Canon G10 has proved its value over and over, at least it is to me. I have absolutely no problem shooting with it side by side with larger DSLR or even medium format digital cameras. And speaking of pocket size, without question, the Sigma Dp-1 that I also bring along, or the DP-2 I bought after this trip, is even a better option.
A buffalo crossing the pond. Shot with Nikon D3X and AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED.Also shot with Nikon D3X with the 70-200/2.8 zoom, capture this pair of duck cruising on the river.With the temperature getting warmer, the clear and bright view in front of us is a majestically display of high mountain ranges, Xinjiang, such beautiful, and in such grand scale, also shot with Nikon D3X and 70-200/2.8 zoom.Frosted grasses under the warm morning sun. Shot with Canon G10.A wild dog crossing the water, this image shot with Nikon D3X with AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED.Thin ice remained on the surface of small stream. Canon G10.A lonely yak looking over the horizon. Capture with Canon G10.My lovely wife, Pook, climbed on the steep hill to try to get a better point of image making, with her G10.spring just on the road side, clear, I drank it, nice!

May 28, Bayanbulak 巴音布魯克

2009-08-29T11:02:00.034+08:00

Finally reach our destination, one of the highlight of this trip - Bayanbulak 巴音布魯克. Our ultimate goal , the sunset shot over the winding rivers 九曲十八灣. After a few days of poor weather, we arrived Bayanbulak city last night, along the way witnessed greatly improved weather, beautiful sky, and of course lots of pictures.
We left our hotel early afternoon, saw the clear sky, and the formation of clouds starts to worry us again. Debates begun as our location, where we projected the sun will set, the clouds, uncertainty develped in our mind if we will get the sunset shot we want, or more specifically, Wanbing 萬兵 wanted, this will be where he produce his master piece, as he planed.
We won't know until we get there! And we won't know when sunset eventually happened!
Wondering, our minds still struggle between doubts of the sunset Wanbing dreamed about, and we all wish it to come true; but the beautiful scenery appears in front our eye, one after another, still caught us and too often we stop and take pictures.
While planning the shot with Huang Zhen, my lovely wife took this picture for us from the other spot, by the cliff, with a compact Canon G10. I am the one in the front, closer to the cliff, with Huang Zhen behind me. I was training the Nikon D3X with AF-S 24-70/2.8G ED, on my shoulder was the D3 + AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G. And this is the shot took one hour later, a little further away, using a Nikon D3X with AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED, original file size is 10,975X2,775pixels, stitched of 4 captures, using Photoshop CS4 photomerge. During this Xinjiang trip I made use lots of CS4 photomerge for my panoramic works. In comparison to my medium format camera, P45+, although it produced larger and sharper image file, but still, a single shot of 39-million pixels image still cannot compare to the impact of multiple-shot stitch panoramic image using camera such as Nikon D3X.

And shooting sunset picture in Xinjiang is a great pleasure for photographers, big challenge for the drivers, and tiring wait for those who travel with the photographers, in this case, my wife, but luckily, she does enjoy great view, and the process of creativity. Shooting in late May for sunset in Xinjiang, and in Banyanbulak where the spot we are shooting is away from the nearest city hotel we stayed about 2.5 hours. Considering we are waiting for the last light of day, we are well into 10pm of the day, and our dinner time well past 12. Nevertheless, a great image worth every second of getting it done.
This one shot with D3X, with AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED.

And this one a 7-shot stitch by Nikon D3X + PC-E Macro 45/2.8.
From the other side of vintage point, with D3X + AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED.
Observing the mounting snow storm, Nikon D3X + AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED.
And the sunset shot, D3X with PC-E Nikkor 45/2.8ED
And this one, took by my wife while I was training the camera, my beloved Contax 645 and Phase One P45+, mounted with the beautiful Carl Zeiss Super-APO TPP 300/2.8. One of my rare picture.
And this one, the image I was taking while the image above was taken. With the Carl Zeiss Super-APO TPP 300/2.8, with Contax 645 using MAM-1 adapter, Phase One P45+.
Perhaps not the best sunset view today, but we cannot say we were unlucky. We had great time watching the beautiful sunset over the beautiful winding river, may be not picture perfect, but it really does not matter, at least it is to me. We are the last group left the hill, Neo still have 2 hours ride to take us back to the hotel, it is already 10pm, another late dinner. We did not realize how hungry we were, the joyfulness still keep our focus around the show the great nature just presented to us a moment ago. Huangzhen reminded us the Xinjiang bread kept in the car, a small highlight in the journey back to hotel, through darkness.
It was almost 1am when we arrived at our hotel, settled ourselves on the dinner table to realize it is Dragon Boat Festival 端午節, we all enjoy some Zongzi 粽子, a tradition for all Chinese dated back to 278 BC, in memory of Qu Yuan, a poet and stateman of the Chu Kingdom during the Warring States period - tens of years before China became an empire, the Qin Dynasty.
Enough of history, and we have ourselves a nice feast. By what we all agreed during the ride back, we are going to have an early wake up, go back to the location we stopped the first evening in, for possible sunrise pictures, and we better rest soon!

May 28 Destination - Bayabulak 巴音布魯克草原

2009-07-23T03:01:00.010+08:00

After a good night rest, we have a rare late wake up in the morning. After a good breakfast, we have some time to retire back to our room to prepare our gears, memory cards, and took some time working on the computer to organize those images took earlier in the trip, and to back up them to a removable hard drive.
I have never been to Bayanbulak, but from the varies pictures, I gathered what it is like. And from where we stay, it is around 2.5 hours away from the viewpoint. We have decided to leave around 3pm, and may be we should have a late lunch, because by the time pf sunset and to drive all the way back to hotel, the dinner will be midnight again, and so we all took a little nap, wake up to lunch, 3pm, it is time to go.
The weather looks good, but we are expecting to also have some clouds to reflect the last light of the sun to capture more dramatic reflection on the winding river. We hope! Moving toward Bayanbulak, we started to comprehend how beautiful it is, we drove thru this area last night in total darkness, so the view along the highway to view point is a pleasure ride, and long ride, because we stop so often.
An image took by using tiny but mighty Canon G10.These two, with Nikon D3X and AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED. A shephard on horse tends his sheep.Continue to move on the highway cut thru the beautiful grassland, we took more picture along the way, while a little worry brew in our mind as we can see the clouds reappear again after 2 days clear sky, but on the other hand, the sky might as well reflect the color from the setting sun to bring more vibrancy to our sunset shot. Leave such worry for now, with Nikon D3, few more images here.Nikon D3 and AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED, clouds.Snow starts to fall in nearby mountain, Nikon D3.Vista, Nikon D3 again with AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED.Imminent snow storm?

Midnight, May 27, Bayanulak

2009-07-20T08:38:00.007+08:00

Nobody in the car as happy as Wanbing 萬兵, after all, Bayanbulak is for him the highlight of the entire trip, and against all odds, we finally made it here and just finished a short session of shoot. Driving in almost total darkness heading to hotel, the plan for tomorrow is finally set - we will have a good ight rest, easy morning so that Neo can get a maintenance for his car, we charge up ourselves, cameras and computers or whatever, then we will go to Bayanbulak for sunset shot. It is a clear night, discussion moved to what we wish tomorrow weather will be, and hope for the best. And I suggested to Wanbing may be to do some shooting for star, to test the Nikon D3 for long time exposure, as well as Wanbing's Canon 5D2.
We arrived at the hotel at midnight, while Huang Zheng, Neo and Pook went to restaurant to order our dinner, Wanbing and I gather our gear and ran to the roof of the 4 storey hotel building to set up our cameras for the stars. We will leave the camera expose and run to restaurant for dinner, I use the shutter released cable to lock shutter B, take a look at my watch, and go to dinner.
On our dinner table, I found the lavish dishes, and a bottle of white wine contributed fromWanbing, finally here in Bayanbulak, we congratulate ourselves, cheer to each other. Pook told me while waiting for the dish and Wanbing and myself to return to table, Neo gave her a tutorial of what we have journey so far and what we will be going to, and using the Canon G10 to record our route.

Between dinner and removing bags to hotel room, and preparing the gear for tomorrow shoot, I made a ew exposures of the night sky, uisng variest set up to try to get the best night image. It was cold, battery drains quickly. I made a succession of captures using Nikon D3 and AF-S 24-70/2.8G ED and AF-S 14-24/2.8G ED, between around 15-30 minutes. Some pictures here for reference, strong wind and the cooking smoke or turbine steam from the hotel we stay and probably the other restaurant clound the sky, not as clear as I hope it will be, but it is late and I ran thru 2 batteies, it was almost 2am and I told myself, time to go to bed!

May 27 Frist glance of Bayanbulak 巴音布魯克草原

2009-07-19T10:15:00.009+08:00

If the definition of "photo-graphy" is painting or draw by light, then the photographer is the one who chases light, and it is exact what we do. However in Xinjiang, chasing light means you drive to the location and find your own spot, and in this early summer, and with Chinese time, the sunset is very well around 10pm, and still that base on how long we want to stay over afer sunset to try to get the last glimpse light over the horizon. But, often you have to deal with yet another long ride back to the resting point, and sometimes it means hours, and it is exactly like that in Bayanbuak. So the best advise: go to Xinjiang, you need a good guide and better to be a good guy, and a good car, he will take you to where you want to go, but most important, take you back safely, no matter how late, or how early, because for us the photographer, waiting for sunset is one kep subject, waiting for sunrise is yet another key subject.....and Neo, succeeded and went beyond the scope of what you would expect from a good guide and driver.
Hours of driving across the grand mountain faces, we finally on the highway moving toward Bayanbulak, and just about sun about to set, we came to this spot, and make some of last pictures we will take for today, and what a beautiful end of of day - at least to us. For Neo, it is yet another 2-3 hours drive to our hotel, in total darkness.
This one taken with a Nikon D3X with AF-S 24-70/2.8G ED, Wanbing is in this picture making his mater piece.This one, by my beautiful wife, Pook, with a Canon G10. A good example of how much a small camera can do. Tip: Don't leave home without one.This one also with Canon G10, a panoramic image stitched of 4 captures, original size 10,119X2,871 pixelsThis one, with Nikon D3X and AF-S 24-70/2.8G ED.D3 with AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED.It was freezing cold and time to go, Neo still have more than 2 hours driving to reach our hotel, besides, everyone started to feel a little hungry, and it was 10pm already!

May 27 Across the faces of snow-covered mountain 翻過冰雪覆蓋的大阪

2009-07-18T01:03:00.009+08:00

Happy as we are, the road to Bayanbulak 巴音布魯克草原 is not with obstacles. We have to climb and cross this section of great Tien Shan 天山, on winding road over faces of mountain (local calls 大阪), we are still hours away and Huang Zheng continue to warn that we will very possible miss the sunset if we stop photography too often! Warning is a matter, incapable of stopping is another. While continue to ascent, we were again move above snow line, approx. 3,000 meters above sea level and the road becomes slippery. But what a beautiful ride! Took quite a few pictures using Nikon D3X with AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED.The shepherd and the herds of sheep on the grassland.Sheep on the snow-melting hillBeautiful winding roads and views, also with Nikon D3X.Pook and Neo牛哥Some shots with Nikon D3 with AF-S 24-70/2.8G ED, the strong wind ripple the surface of the snow.This one a closer shot, using Canon G10.But soon we arrived at a section where the entire road was blocked for paving, totally stop the traffic from both direction of highway. Coming this far, we are certainly not willing to accept to have to wait for hours before the heavy road paving machine to clear itself, while waiting, Neo went on to survey alternative route, and it did not take long to find out, and we ended up have a short section of exciting off-road - watch the video.
And finally, the road becomes smooth again, and we are heading to Bayanbulak! Everybody is happy!

May 27, destination: Bayanbulak 巴音布魯克草原, finally!

2009-07-13T03:49:00.006+08:00

Slowly we arrival upon kilo zero 零公里, and YES, the road is opened again, and we start our slow ascent to the mountain. We were at least somewhat relaxed, cheered up, yet the routine is pretty much the same, we stopped here and there, and take more pictures, and it is a wonderful day!
These two taken with Nikon D3X with AF-S 24-70/2.8G ED. First one, a horse rest by the small stream, what a peaceful view.This one, nice contrast of trees, in black and white.Continue to ascent, the stream becomes narrower, and wilder. This one, with D3X and AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED, shot on the cliff for this bird-eye view of running stream. Two more shots with Nikon D3, AF-S 24-70/2.8G ED.

May 27, Nalati to Kilo Zero 零公里

2009-07-12T11:34:00.015+08:00

Ok, what is kilo zero 零公里? Quite straight forward, it is the start of Du-Ku Highway 獨庫公路, our entry point to Bayabulak 巴音布魯克草原 - if we were to make it there today, rather than taking all the way back to Urumqi to take other route. This is not unusual in Xinjiang by the way, especially the great diversity in landscape and weather, constant road building and improvement and maintenance. Anyway, back on our route.
Although the worry never really did subside, we continue drawn by the beautiful landscapes, ask Neo to stop so we can take more pictures, while Huang Zheng continue to warn us the goal today is moving to Kill Zero, and has to pass the check point - something we all wish to happen but not quite sure.
This one is taken with Nikon D3X, while apporaching Kilo Zero, about to enter the mountain area and can start to see more herds of sheep, cattles and horses, watch the video. This one, a quick snapshot of tress on the roadside, with Canon G10.Another G10 shot on beautiful Nalati. And the video clip from G10, by Pook.Pook was taking picture with her Canon G10, and a snapshot of her.A 4-capture stitch using D3 with AF-S 24-70/2.8G ED.And a G10 shot on the lonely horse. And these two with Nikon D3 + AF-S 24-70/2.8G ED.And this one, with my wife, Pook training her Canon G10, Huang Zheng and Neo slightly below the Land Cruiser in the center of the picture, also with Nikon D3.

May 27, lunch stop at Nalati

2009-07-11T13:18:00.007+08:00

Driving along the highway and endless of beautiful landscapes, plenty of pictures taken, our appetite is well built. Neo is a great guy and a great guide, he planed the trip knowing exactly what we like and take care our meals masterfully. Masterfully means delicious, not necessary expensive.
Not just that we are hungary, so is our Land Cruiser, time to stop for gas before the official lunch break.
While waiting for the diesel filled, I grabbed the little Canon G10 (not as compact as my Sigma DP-1, but still considered small for every other cameras I use), and took a few picture for a house right next to the gas station. G10 is a powerful compact camera, I am very tempted to comment that if I were allow only a camera for a quick short trip, I would almost without hesitate to recommend a Canon G10. Its low ISO pictures is great (and I mean GREAT), keep the lens wide open if possible, if it is too bright for even the lowest ISO setting, and you need shutter speed you need, use the built-in ND filter to help. This small camera just produce excellent image for what it is. Above ISO 400, nothing special, but still useful when you really need it. Doing it right, it gives the image size, texture, overall quality like a true camera, easily rival the lower end DSLR. Sorry, I am also a DSLR user, but don't look down those tiny compact DC, they often surprise me.
We stopped by a local restaurant, and to eat like local is the best advise I will give, as I learned from experience. While waiting for the food, I took the Canon G10, and take a few shots in the restaurant, the lovely Uyghur waitress and the back kitchen, some short video clip. With our appetite well built, each of us order double portion of the now-our-favorite Xinjiang noodle 拌面, even my wife took as much as everybody else, a true testimony for the great food. During our luch break, Huang Zheng continue to update us the world commodity news, keeping us in the reality that fun is a matter, reality another. World economic continue to develop for better and sometimes for worse, positive for someone negative for others. And he delivered good news! Invested much into gold, Hunag Zheng announce he has made good gain on his investment, and award Neo a Canon 5D2, and we are all happy for Neo. My wife, however, is the only one in our group, perhpas in that partiuclar day in this little yet beautiful town in Xinjiang, know little of what we have in conversation, but when we congratulate Neo for his coming new camera, she felt the cheer, and also happy for him.
The G10 kitchen shot.Time to move on! Our ultimate goal today is to kilo zero, and overcome our worry, and move on to Bayanbulak. Good lunch did little to increase our luck, yet somehow we have more confidence.

May 27, Beautiful Nalati

2009-07-08T01:42:00.008+08:00

Driving towards Nalati 那拉提, Tian Shan continue to be the dominance of the landscape, sitting inside the car, the window is just like a fast changing frames of paintings. Although the worry over whether or not we can successfully pass thru kilo zero 零公里 never receded, we certain would not let the worry to cloud our mind and stop us from continue to take images of the never ending beautiful scenery, while hope for the best for our journey to Bayanbulak, and many more.And my wife, Pook, in the sea of rapeseed flowers.Approaching Nalati city, beautiful farm land continue to amaze us, and we took images for this beautiful, Tuscany-like country landscape. Still taken with Nikon D3X and AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED.This one also a Nikon D3X shot, with VR 70-200/2.8, 4-shot stitch panoramic image, original size is staggering 18,685X3,849 pixels Upon entering the Nalati city, I spot this graphical image and snap it, with Tian Shan the distant background.

May 27 Tekes 特克斯 - Gonliu 鞏留 - Xinyuan 新源

2009-07-07T22:41:00.013+08:00

I waked up in the morning, packed, and together with Pook we wen to the restaurant for breakfast and meet up with Wanbing and Huanzheng and Neo. Some discussion made last night over their room which must involved more calls to check, heavy debate or lobby, however, what I heard of the plan going back to Urumqi today is again changed! OK, not to be serious, we are a small group and one Land Cruiser, trip plan is more flexible. And the plan? Take chance! The decision has been made to take change to drive all the way to kilo zero 零公里, to see if the road to Bayanbulak is opened. And so we move on.
Xinjiang is a beautiful place, its landscape is such grand scale, you slowly digest it along with the long drive, but those sceneries that screen through the window is also capable of getting any photographer excited. Som flower images took along the highway, Nikon D3X, with AF-S VR Micro 105/2.8G IF-ED.We stopped here and there, take some pictures along the way, sheep, flowers, endless fields of rape plants. I am still using the Nikon D3X and the AF-S VR Micro 105/2.8. This one for my wife, Pook.Herd of sheep, enjoy their day.And we enjoy them.

May 26, Change of plan

2009-07-06T02:17:00.008+08:00

While we were busying taking picture, more information about the group that came 3 days earlier still stuck deeper inside the grassland - which now a snow land, as the weather turn good and becomes warmer, more snow to melt, the road will be nastier and less chance to drive thru Kalajun. Our original plan was to visit 3 grand grassland in this trip, with Kalajun the first, now knowing due to colder spring this year and grass is still 1-2 weeks from full length, and now the unexpected snow, the snese and logic to visit all three grassland is a question.
The worry over Bayanbulak is not lessening, so we are plotting possibility to drive all the way back to Urumqi, by way of Yining, so we can take another route to get to Bayanbulak, and lost 2 days of our trip. It it a tough decision, but a decision has to make NOW!
So to avoid driving the mountain road in the night, and by the angle of sunsetting and our location on the grassland, we decided it is time to go, and we packed up the luggage again, load them to the car, and we are on the way heading to Yining, still 3 hours away!
During our descent, we stopped by a little farm house, take some snap shots and continue our drive. Sitting in the car scanning the view outside the window, I saw the last light of setting sun behind the trees forms a nice contrast with the new moon, as well as the river reflect the fading light in the sky, I called another 2 stops to take some quick pictures. All with Nikon D3X and AF-S 24-70/2.8G ED. The shot with the river is a good example of how modern digital camera like D3X capable of, setting at ISO 800 to allow me to hand hold the camera for quick snap shot, with reasonable f stop and shutter speed. I wish: a VS version of this sharp 24-70/2.8G ED lens. Continue to drive, in order to avoid too much driving in the night, also to allow Neo an early rest, we decided to stay for the night in Tekes 特克斯, stop at the Tekes night street for an unforgettable dinner.
Late, it's time to sleep, to get up early for long drive tomorrow back to Urumqi.

May 26 destination: Kalajun 喀拉俊空中大草原, the expected and unexpected

2009-07-06T00:00:00.011+08:00

Nearing the end of our slow ascent we started to level with the snow line, muddy road, already we saw some photographers from the car who passed us earlier walking on the slope, a sign that their car is having trouble getting up. To be safe, Neo told us we better get off the car so that he can try to tackle the slippery slope, and went on he did. Neo's skill, and the ability of the Land Cruiser, we finally overcame the section troubled the other car, and we found ourselves in the check point, surrounded by beautiful scenery, here we are, Kalajun 喀拉俊空中大草原.
There are several wood cabins surrounding the check point, so we made our arrangement with the officer, off-load our luggage, taking short rest, while Neo is investigating the road condition further ahead of us, and it did not look to easy.
After the short rest, everyone again in the car, and it took only 50 meters from where we start did we find the reality that we will be walking to the grand grassland by foot, car is of now use on road of such condition, and we off going.
Slowly, we walk on the snow. As expected, Kalajun is beautiful, it's high on the top of the mountain, surrounded by panoramic view of ranges of distant mountains. However, unexpectedly, or we should have guessed it, the expected grassland was entirely carpeted by a beautiful layer of snow. But here we are, and little obstacle can stop the shutter of our cameras from clicking.
My lovely wife cheering up! The grassland or the snowland? No stranger to snow, but it is rare in this early summer day.And these are shots all made with Nikon D3X and the mighty AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED.And this one a stitched-panoramic picture using 5 captures, still the D3X with hand-held AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED, original picture size 21,616 pixels X 3,939 pixels

May 26 Ascent to our destination today - Kalajun Grassland 喀拉俊空中大草原

2009-07-01T23:04:00.016+08:00

Travel in Xinjiang involves much of driving, in particular the way we plan our trip which centered around photographic spots. Tiresom at times, but you got rewarded with non-stop beautiful landscape. After leaving Zhaosu, we started a long and slow ascent to Kalajun Grassland 喀拉俊空中大草原. known as the grassland in the air. Kalajun, in Kazakh, means "a dark widerness". So we continue to climb.
Along the road, we saw the river became narrower and water more angrier; and we saw the change of lifestyle, local people riding their horses, tending their sheep.
I made some snap shots to record the landcape along the road, pictures here taken with Sigma DP-1 - a compact and great camera, more on this later. My wife, Pook, also snap a picture on me while I am taking pictures.And these two by myself, using Sigma DP-1.Higher up, few more images taken with Nikon D3X and the powerful AF-S VR 70-200/2.8G IF-ED.One more shot for the look of the grassland before we reach its top.Conversation in the car centered around a possible change of plan due to the news we heard yesterday on our way to Xiata, the road maintanance may block our way to Bayanbulak, and very much jeopardize our following trip plan. Very much so because Wanbing 萬兵 has the high hope to produce his master piece in Bayanbulak and lobby us to the scenario to add one extra day in case whether becomes a porblem, now it seemed we have to turn back to Urumqi, which means total change of 2nd 1/2 of trip and lost of time.
And now we have reched the altitude of snow line, and our climb depend on Neo and his Land Cruiser, we all cross our fingers.