Where's My Leica

This leg of the trip will be winding down soon. I am now in Vietnam and have a couple or three weeks here. Next it will be Hong Kong to get my Chinese documents in order and then return to my adopted country. I think I’ll do some traveling there as well if I can. I’d like to grab my 4×5 camera and head out to Guilin and that area for some large format photo fun. Then I have an epic battle of developing all of the film that I shot on the trip, which is less than I was expecting. I managed to keep a good balance of non-photo fun in the trip so I didn’t live life 100% behind the camera.

Here’s a small update for everyone. I am now in Thailand. Europe was draining my budget faster than anticipated and frankly I was sick of snow and a lack of sun. Getting here was an adventure. Prague to Helsinki to Bangkok. I had to sleep in the Helsinki airport which was strange. Being in a nearly deserted airport at night is odd. Flying over Moscow at night is also odd. The kremlin glows with the brightest white lights that it is easy to pick it out in the center of the city.

Goodbye Canada. After spending two weeks in Toronto, it is finally time to make my way to Poland to begin the unknown part of my adventure. I should touch down sometime tomorrow in Warsaw. A backpack, a leica and a bag of film. Just the way I like it.

Please forgive the crappy quality of the pictures in this post, they were taken with my ipod.

This is the last of the color film from China. It was taken in Hangzhou and Linping during my last week there before coming to Canada. You will have to excuse the crap scans. I am stuck using my OLD Canon scanner with junk software. It just sort of auto-everythings the files. The end up over-contrasted and crappy looking.

Since coming back to Saskatoon, I have felt like an outsider. I am familiar with most places. I remember how to get almost everywhere. I recall people that I used to know. Yet I just don’t FEEL like I belong here. Everything is too open, too spread out, too insignificant. I am grateful for seeing my friends and family, but I am glad to be getting out of here next week. Toronto for a couple weeks and then back on the road. Just one bag and a camera. Bliss.

So my week in the dominican is almost done. Clayton is married and everyone had a great time. It was fantastic seeing friends that I have not seen in years.

There will be many more pictures to come, but since I shoot film, these iPod photos will have so suffice.

Here are some old photos that I scanned just before leaving Beijing. I am currently stuck in another delay at the airport. This time in Vancouver. So close to home. This trip has been long and fraught with many delayed flights. I will be so happy to get back into Saskatoon and not have to deal with an airplane for a couple of weeks. With the size of the gifts that I brought back, by bags were far from being on the light side.

So here I am, down to my last weekend in Beijing before I head off traveling for a bit. It’s strange to think that I am going “home” to Canada even if it is only for a month. Good times are ahead. I know that it will be a flash before I am back in my adopted home of Beijing.

The photos in this post were taken with my new to me canon 85mm 1.9 for my Leica. I sold off my canon 16-35 and 70-200 1.8 lenses and have rounded out my Leica kit. I feel pretty content with my kit. Let’s see how long it lasts.