5 days in China-with a Leica X1 -part 1

I first visited China in 1984.It was just a quick day trip over the border from Hong Kong.I remember the drawn out immigration and customs procedure on entry and having to list details of all the personal belongings we were bringing in with us.I remember there being no cars,just bicycles,crude motor powered carts,very ancient trucks and buses and very drably dressed people who all looked as if they were participating in a nationwide lemon sucking contest going by their permanent joyless expressions.I remember having lunch in a very drab restaurant where all the bowls had minute crazing cracks which were brown.Yuk.We only went into one small town and most of the travel was through a very poor rural area.China in 1984 did not look to be an attractive place at all and they made it fairly obvious that they did not really want us there.
My next visit was to Shanghai in 2004 and it was very different visit.It was boomtown plus.An extraordinary energy and pace permeated the city and visitors were very welcome.
Ten years later I have been back to China again.Not this time to a big city but to what by Chinese standards is a small city-Guilin with a population of "only" 300,000 in the visually stunning karst limestone peak country in southern China.I spent 3 days in Guilin and then sailed down the Li River to the tourist town of Yangshou where I spent 2 days.
Modern China really is an extraordinary place.The rate of change is quite breathtaking.China has gone from rural peasant economy to a rapidly emerging first world urban economy in 30 years.Even out in the country there are Audis and BMWs and Range Rovers.Then beside them are bicycles and crude trucks and wizened old ladies pushing carts and even water buffalos ploughing the fields.The contrasts are everywhere.So much untidyness and visual pollution-even out in the country -alongside great natural beauty.A superb hotel-the Shangri-La in Guilin is beside the river but one end of the vista is obstructed by a scruffy run down apartment block which is almost in the hotel's grounds.In the markets you see food being merchandised in what appear to be the most unhygenic conditions and then walk a few hundred metres and you see an ultra modern restaurant.

The purpose of the trip was to attend a wedding in Hong Kong and China was an add on.For me it provided a great photo opportunity.I am really working hard to bring back just a few photos which capture the spirit and feel of the places I am visiting.
All the photos were taken with my Leica X1 which is very unobtrusive and almost toylike compared with the big bazooka DSLRs favoured by the Chinese and European tourists I saw.This certainly works in my favour as the people seem less concerned by me shooting away than when they have a great monster of a camera pointed at them.Chinese nationals make up probably 95% of the tourists I saw.They now have money and are very eager to travel-and to buy big Nikons and Canons.
The weather conditions were sometimes inclement -- there was an almost permanent haze from a combination of pollution and humidity-and rapidly changing conditions-heavy rain showers and then sunshine- but I am happy with the results of my photography.
The first tranche of photos were taken on the first day when we made a very long and slow journey up into the mountains to see the magnificent rice terraces and the local minority people.I also got up early that morning to photograph a street market in Guilin near to the hotel. I just hope that the hotel did not get their meat from there.

 Technical notes for the photography techos.All photos taken with the Leica X1 - predominantly DNG files-processed in Lightroom 4.There are a couple of jpegs in there - taken on the natural setting.I spent a lot of effort-more than I usually spend - trying to optimise the exposure.I did a lot of exposure bracketing.
I probably could have used all of the shots as jpegs although the DNG files do give me more latitude in adjustment.When I look at the X1 jpegs the colour and saturation and tonality is very accurate and although they do not look bitingly sharp the detail is all there.Leica seem to shy away from oversharpening their files-unlike Sony in particular- relying on the lens to deliver most/all of the sharpness.This trip may have convinced me to use predominantly jpegs going forward and to minimise the use of processing software particularly the sharpening tools.

On the road in China

I'm back from Hong Kong and China and will be sorting out the photos in the next few days.A couple for starters.Firstly a very large car transporter seen on the expressway south of Guilin on last Sunday morning.This monster was long and as you can see it carries a double row of cars on the top deck making it a very wide vehicle.No signage to indicate that it is a wide load and as we approached it I saw a double deck coach pass it and the coach was pretty close to the top deck.I have no idea whether these transporters are restricted to certain roads but as it is China I doubt it.
Road safety does not seem front of mind for the Chinese.Within 24 hours of arriving I saw the aftermath of three major accidents.In the first two cars had collided at a crossroads.There was very little traffic around and they would have had to try hard to find another car to run into.And it was a big hit.In the second accident a car and a truck had collided and the truck had been forced off the road and one of its front wheels was hanging over a sharp drop.In the third a car was on its roof with a trail of debris marking its line of travel.The second and third accidents happened on a very winding mountain road where very slow, grossly overloaded trucks blowing out plumes of black smoke were wheezing uphill and drivers in faster vehicles totally ignored yellow lines and blind bends and just drove on the other side of the road pumping their horns as they passed them.It reminded me of driving in India,Vietnam and Turkey .Of course after getting away with these suicidal passes for a time they eventually meet a vehicle coming the other way which cannot or is unwilling to yield and the inevitable happens.
The second photo is of a truck in the main street in Yangshuo a small town in Yangshou County south of Guilin.This is a pretty typical sight.You see strange mobile set ups everywhere.I'm sure an Australian government heavy vehicle inspector would immediately apply for stress leave if confronted with a vehicle like this.And yes those are people in the back of the truck.No OH&S for them.

Natural colour

                                                

I rarely take landscape photos.When I first started photography -so long ago- landscape photographs were very predictable-almost always black and white-dry stone walls- windswept moors, and so on and I found them downright dull .Because there was no internet all I saw of the genre was in magazines.Then in the last 20 years I have been exposed to lots of absolutely superb landscape photography on the internet.So many brillliant landscape photographers walking into wilderness areas and taking amazing shots in amazing light.Way out of my league.But sometimes I dabble.
Lichen covered rocks-St Helens,east coast of Tasmania,Australia.Leica X1.

Peugeot's woes

I have always has a soft spot for Peugeot since being responsible for their sales and marketing in Australia for nearly 10 years back in the 1980s and I still own a Peugeot today.We sold some great cars particularly the 505 and the 205 GTI.So I was sad to see that the Peugeot family has lost control of the company after years of heavy losses and have just sold 14% of the company to Chinese interests-the Dong Feng Motor Group -and 14% to the French Government.
Peugeots woes have been building for many years-a combination of many issues but particularly gross overcapacity and low productivity and a very heavily reliance on the European market which has been very depressed for the last few years.
Peugeot have not sold cars in the critical US market since the early 1990s and no internationally succesful automotive brand has prospered without a strong US market presence.Peugeot's problem was that they really did not have products which suited the US market and the brands strength in diesel cars was of no interest at all to Americans.
Peugeots halcyon days were 1950-1985 when they had big sales volumes in Africa,the Middle East and South America with initially the 203 and then the 504 and 505.They were ,of course, very strong in the French "colonial" markets.The cars were well engineered rugged,reliable and well suited to rough market conditions.Many were shipped to the markets in SKD(semi knocked down)or CKD (completely knocked down) kit form and locally assembled to meet local duty and quota rules.In Australia the local importer,JRA ,assembled the 505 from CKD kits because of import restrictions on fully built up cars at the time.Peugeot lost these markets because they did not have a successor to the 505 and because the Japanese and later Korean brands came into the markets.
The photo above taken by me in 1984 at the end of the 505 production line in Sochaux,France shows some of the last US market cars being finished.

On the road again

If all goes according to plan by the time you read this the Rolling Road editorial team- me- will be in Hong Kong for a niece's wedding over the weekend and then onto Guilin in China for a few days.I will have my Leica charged and ready to shoot and hopefully I will return with some interesting photos.The blog has plenty of material in hand and so I have set it up on autopilot for the next week so there should be no interruptions in the posting of new stories.

Barry Sheene Festival of Speed-some photos.

I went to the Barry Sheene Festival of Speed at Sydney Motorsport Park on Sunday.A great vintage motorcycle racing meeting.Some wonderful machinery, more than a few characters,some people who were certifiably mad -sidecar racers- and a terrific atmosphere and as far away from the poseurs and wannabees of F1,V8 Supercars and Porsche Carrera Cup as you could get.
I took my camera  and concentrated on trying to capture the atmosphere -not much chance of action shots with the fixed 35mm lens but everyone else was taking those with their Canikon DSLRs and kit zoom lenses anyway.It's very easy to take a load of rubbish photos at these meetings -as I know from previous experience- so I tried really hard to be discerning.Here are my efforts - all with the X1.And the last one is my favourite by far.And for those who are interested this was a DNG (RAW) file which I have adjusted in Lightroom.I bracketed the exposure and this one was the optimum or perhaps that should be the best compromise although I would have liked to have had the man on the rh side in a better position as he was in one of the less acceptable exposures.

A Porsche 911 anniversary.

This year is the 40th anniversary of the launch of the Porsche G series or "big bumper" 911 models.The big bumpers were introduced to meet US market 5 mph collision rules.These were part of a package of car safety rules mandated after the public response to Ralph Nader's book-"Unsafe at any speed" which took the US motor industry to task for its unsafe products and in particular the very wayward handling of the rear engined Chevrolet Corvair.Sadly the rules were hastily conceived and executed and in particular the 5 mph collision requirements.
The G series cars were fitted with shock absorbers behind the bellows on the bumpers on US market cars but these were not fitted for other markets to save weight.
One can only imagine the angst the 5 mph collision requirements caused Porsche as they had to corrupt the beautiful flowing lines of the 911 with these ugly devices.It must have been the cause of much handwringing and teeth gnashing.The task of redesigning the car fell to new chief designer Tony Lapine who had come to Porsche from GM after Butzi Porsche had left in the Porsche/Piech family "shakeout".
The G series were not that well received when shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show in October 1973.Press comments at the time were very polite but that was characteristic of the times anyway but beneath the politeness you can detect a distinct feeling of disappointment .And the reception got worse when significant price hikes and a rather disappointing engine line up was revealed.The switch from the lusty mechanical fuel injection and carbs to the new emissions friendly Bosch K-Jetronic (CSI) fuel injection was also a factor.Just over 5000 911s were sold in the US market in 1974-a very poor sales performance.
Part of the problem was that the G series marked a change in the 911 philosophy.Previously the 911 was a lightweight,svelte and rather edgy sports car.The new safety laws and emission requirements in the US and  European markets meant that the 911 had to change to a more refined,heavier and less edgy product.Also the 1973 oil crisis had meant that for the first time there was a realisation that petrol supply was a major concern - so it was not a good time to move to bigger engines particularly for the European markets.
Gradually the market accepted the G series -- more powerful engines helped this process and fuel supply anxieties faded -and the big bumper cars became a sales success through the 1980s.
Seen above are three examples of early G series cars photographed by me last weekend.On the left -a 3 litre-in the centre my 2.7 and on the right a very preserved 3.2 SC.

From the Hasselblad

I bought my Hasselblad outfit nearly two years ago.I have not used it for months.It is way too heavy to carry far and it has been so hot and sunny for so long conditions have hardly been conducive to film photography.This afternoon I rescanned a photo I took soon after I bought the Blad.I have a better handle on the scanner and Lightroom now and I am much happier with the photo of "Snowy" -the first shot below.This was taken on Kodak Tri-X film.

Now the The Rolling Road hasn't gone soft and lapsed into "frogs on logs" photography but for something completely different here are some flower photos which I took because I had grown the plants - which makes them more interesting -and because close ups with a Hasselblad are technically challenging.The photos are of hibiscus flowers in my garden and were taken on Kodak Portra 400 film using the Hasselblad with the 80mm Planar lens on an extension tube which I bought in a clearout sale by a camera shop in Perth about 12 months ago.Modern digital camera have a macro close focus setting.On an Blad it is much more complex.A very different sort of photography.

What happened to windsurfing?

I recently found this photo of Terrigal Beach,NSW,Australia taken on New Years Day 1989.I've not put it up because it has any photographic merit and anyway it is scratched and faded.
No, two things stand out.Firstly the same scene today would have dozens of little tent shelters on the beach - not just the umbrellas- and secondly today you would be very lucky to see one windsurfer in the ocean -yet alone dozens.I did see a lone windsurfer on Tuggerah Lake a few months back but I have not seen one on the ocean for ages.Why have they disappeared? Was windsurfing too expensive? Was the gear too cumbersome? Was it too difficult? Was waiting for the wind too tiresome? Or is there another explanation? Or has it just declined in Australia and it is still strong elsewhere? I'm curious to know.

Bernie's true colours.

In last Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald there is a long interview with F1 supremo, Bernie Ecclestone.The interviewer starts the interview by asking Bernie who is the man he most admires and his response is"Stirling Moss".Fair enough you cannot take exception to that answer but then it gets interesting.He is then asked "and who after Stirling Moss" to which Bernie replies-"Vladimir Putin".
Yes,you read that correctly.That Vladimir Putin.That answer tell us a lot about Bernie -but maybe nothing we probably did not already know.Remember the old adage-"birds of a feather flock together".Nice one Bernie.

Reflections on the Australian Grand Prix

After a great run-342 km -roundtrip to Bilpin in the 2.7 Porsche and despite a ferocious thunderstorm on the way back I made it home in plenty of time to sit down and watch nearly all of the Australian Grand Prix in an effort to reengage with F1.It was pretty processional and I would hardly call it riveting.There were some high points.Firstly the ever obnoxious Sebastian Vettel retired very early in the race with engine problems.Sadly the cameras did not record his dummy spit when he came in but I am sure it was world class.Kamui Kobayashi continued the great Japanese F1 driver tradition by making a kamakaze move early in the race - in his case at the first corner - and managed to knock Massa in his Williams out as well as knocking the front wheels off his own car.Daniel Ricciardio ,the ever smiling Australian driver,finished second in his first ever race for Red Bull and finally the Finnish driver,Valterri Bottas,driving a Williams Mercedes finished sixth after a  spirited drive which would have really pleased Frank Williams and his new partners Martini.If Bottas had not kissed a wall and broken a wheel and had to pit he would have finished on the podium.Although it should be said that he kissed the wall because he was driving so spiritedly.
The cars sound like junior formula  cars and all the hype and technical twaddle was as wearing as I had anticipated.Obviously I do not have a photo of the race but dug out this old one of Frank Williams and his F1 "team" a very long time ago at Silverstone as a counterpoint.A very long way from today's hoopla.I love the fuelling arrangements particularly the cloth fuel filter.And how about that tool box? Even I am tidier than this when I work on my cars.

Which was the most exciting part of my day? No doubt about it - driving the Porsche very hard down an empty Wiseman's Ferry Road on a beautiful clear morning and particularly the rapid descent down Mangrove Mountain with the bark of that aircooled engine echoing off the cutting walls.I'll take heel and toeing over pressing a paddle any day.

Since writing the above late yesterday Ricciardio has been disqualified for a technical infringement of the rules relating to fuel flow rates.Rules are rules and even in the good times of F1 drivers were disqualified for tecnical infringements but F1 now seems only about the rules and the racing does not seem to matter.It has become a gigantic cash cow and the thousand who make a  good living out of it -- and many make a very good living out of it-like multimillionaire good living- don't care about the racing or motor sport or the spectators and it's just a case of "I'll keep playing Bernie's game as long as you show me the money."