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.

En Vogue

December 11, 2018

One of the advantages of living in Shanghai is the great number of exhibitions, fine art and otherwise, that tour here. Amongst my favourites of the ‘otherwise’ variety so far have been the Tim Burton and Pixar shows. Louis Vuitton might not be an obvious choice when you think of exhibitions but they have an excellent array of historic travel paraphernalia on display at the moment.

Disneyland Shanghai

August 16, 2018

If I said I had visited three Disneyland’s you might think I was a huge Disney fan but that’s not actually the case. I once went to Disneyland Tokyo when I lived in Japan a lifetime ago and enjoyed it though not sure I would have gone again as an adult. I then visited Disneyland Hong Kong as a birthday present to my eldest daughter when she was six years old. And of course I now live in Shanghai so at the request of both my daughters have been to Disneyland Shanghai three times - well it is only a subway ride away. And I’ve been to Disney Town twice, the free area outside Disneyland, which has the largest Disney store in the world and my favourite restaurant, the Cheesecake Factory. If you ever go watch out for the portion size. I had trouble finishing my main course even though I actually ordered from the appetiser menu.

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

Merry Christmas

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.