What’s it like to wear Glass in China?

Beijing is more recently known for its crazy pollution, so it was a real challenge shooting over the past week or so while I was there. It’s my fifth time to Beijing, and the pollution gets worse and worse every time. This means that shooting things far away is very difficult, because it gets fogged out like a video game that can only handle a few polygons at a time. I was most interested in the reactions of people to Google Glass in China. I’ve noticed people’s reactions in a few places so far – In San Francisco, Toronto, Auckland, and now my hometown in Queenstown, New Zealand. For sure, people’s reactions in China were totally different. Now, of course this is all anecdotal, so you can hardly figure out a cultural trend-line from my observations, but it is interesting nonetheless. Glass shot: When the sun sets in Beijing, sometimes you get a bit of this thing I call a smogbow.

Google Glass in Dystopian China

Found in the rubble of the polluted ruins...

Entering the Air and Space Museum

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This was the last shot I got with my tripod at the museum before it was so rudely removed from my person by the security staff. I still get angry about this… I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it. I think I get most angry because it is so illogical. Also, I get angry because a lot of this nonsense comes from lawyers, who are busy protecting themselves from other lawyers. People like me get caught up in their little war of lawsuits…

The Little Country Stone Cottage

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This is where Marie Antoinette headed when she wanted to get away from it all, that is, while she was still headed. This location is out in the gardens around Versailles. And it’s not just a little short walk to the main part of Versailles. I bet Marie had to jump into a horse and carriage to over and visit the rest of the family in the palace!

Great Night in Toronto

After a super-long day, I decided to make it super-longer by joining all the TBEX crew over at a party on Centre Island. I’m not a total expert of the-best-places-to-shoot-Toronto, but this area seems good enough! This was a three-photo HDR taken with the Sony NEX-7. I’m still working on that larger story where I compare the NEX-7 to the Nikon D800… that is coming soon… It was quite a rainy night, so between squalls I ran out there to take a bunch of photos. Since my tripod was lost, I had to borrow a tripod from good man Edgar Van Der Meer. Thanks again Edgar!

The Old Streets of Beijing

This street is very close to Tiananmen Square, Beijing. There is a lot of classical architecture and old stone buildings that line the road. There’s also an old streetcar that goes up and down the street. It’s all too good to be true, and is probably at least partially fake, but that’s okay with me. It seems barely authentic enough to seem passable. I was looking for a place to stop for dinner with Tom Anderson, Priscilla Dorresteijn, and her boyfriend. We walked up and down this street several times, just taking our time and taking lots of photos. We actually had to hurry it up because restaurants close pretty early around here!

Nat Geo Traveler – project from a student

See this awesome magazine cover here? It was made by Dave Reily for one of his projects for school. This is one of the cool things about Creative Commons Noncommercial — I end up with tons of students all over the world that end up re-using my photos for art projects or school projects. You can see more from Dave and his project on is FB page.