The Inland Sea - Dali, China

March 13, 2019

Dali is most famous for its street food (covered in a previous blog here) but Er Hai is its main attraction. It presents a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the old towns. Although still quite busy the calming effect of the waterfront is instantaneous and welcome. As the sea is so large there are plenty of locations to seek out along the shore. Circumnavigating the circumference is a popular two day drive but we picked only two spots to linger.

How to shoot on vacation in Bad Weather

February 26, 2019

It was 24ºc so we booked the tickets and when the time came we threw our summer clothes into the suitcase and... Holy Crap! A quick check of the wether before we departed and the temperature had dropped to 12ºc! We were booked to go during a rare and short lived winter spell in Hanoi. I mean that literally, a week after we got back the temperature had returned to 24ºc. So we threw the swimming costumes out of the suitcase and packed sweaters instead. It was a bit depressing but we were going to have a good time anyway.

Dali, the street food capital of the world.

February 16, 2019

There is a strong theme of flowers as flavours amongst plenty of familliar offerings like pancakes, tofu and chuar (Chinese kebabs) but it can all be eaten without having to stop the holiday and sit down for too long. I was definitely a bit iffy about the idea of eating flower petals but I was stunned by how delicions they taste. Our sense of taste is heavily influenced by our sense of taste and if you’ve never tired it they taste exactly like they smell. So keep an open mind and it’s definitely worth the visit for the food alone. And come in the winter, it rains all summer long and is warm and sunny in winter.

Egg Coffee

January 13, 2019

I’m just back from a tip to Hanoi, Vietnam and I drank more egg coffee than is good for me, or even several mes. The traditional coffee of Hanoi is a delicious blend of a strong sweetened coffee with whisked egg yolk and condensed milk on top.

If you dont want to fly to Hanoi just to try egg coffee then you can look for a nearby Vietnamese restaurant or make it your self at home. Just click here for the simple recipe.

Merry Christmas

December 20, 2018

Merry Christmas everybody. I hope you have a great winter break wherever you are.

Jan 7, 2024

Happy Chinese New Year.

So we decided to embrace the difference and see if we could, like our original mission statement, produce something a little different: inject a little laowai feeling into it and offer an alternative view of CNY. And so far the reaction has been exactly what we were hoping for. We’re already taking bookings and lining up shoots. And it’s been described by our clients as ‘cool’ and a ‘very foreign look’ at CNY. We’re happy with the diagnosis and hope to share images of our clients shoots in the near future

Dec 7, 2023

This year for our famous Christmas shoot we went with a warm home environment. As usual we used our own family for the example photos. It was a family by the fireside Christmas with a little present opening and tree decorating. But also a chance to capture the beauty of your children with portraits in the classic Rembrandt style.

Jun 1, 2023

Children's Day

Like the recent Easter photo I wanted to capture a very vintage image of childhood for Children’s Day. I think I missed the mark a little with the Easter shot but got a lot closer to genuine looking vintage photo. We already had the rocking horse in the studio for a Christmas shoot from a few years ago. This one was fun as as the horn was very loud Hermione had a great time during the shoot and it shows in her expression.