2 posts tagged “shanghai”

I know I’ve been away from Shanghai too long when I can’t remember where mom keeps the cups. 

Used to be I headed down from Beijing every couple of weeks for work. It’s a quick hop and a great arrangement because I get to stay with mom (which makes me happy) and clients don’t pay for a hotel (which makes them happy). Since moving back to Beijing this time, though, I haven’t been able to get back into the Shanghai groove – no clients here (yet) and so far most of my travel has been to the US or Hong Kong. Otherwise I’ve been staying put to set things up in Beijing. 

So for my first weekend reprieve I headed down to say hi to mom. One of the best things about being back in China is being nearby again; though I’m still not that familiar with Shanghai (ridiculous since I’ve been here countless times), mom’s place feels like home.

I cleared out of work on Friday afternoon like the office was on fire, grabbed my bag and camera and headed to the airport. I specifically wanted to bring the camera since there hasn’t been much opportunity to use it except hiking (and hiking and... hiking). At the moment the camera and I are fighting; I’m trying to figure out how to create the pictures I see but it keeps capturing them they way it wants. Yes, reading the manual helps, but I’m more a trial-and-error type than a read-the-directions type, which means fiddling with the settings, delighting in the occasional good picture and berating the camera when it doesn’t do what I want (most of the time).

Walking into mom’s apartment reminded me why I love this camera. It’s not the equipment itself, though the fact that it’s easy to use and takes great pictures helps. The point of the camera is that it helps me see things differently. In the whirlwind that is my life, the camera reminds me to pay attention to things like light and detail. 

Mom is a designer -- the kind of person with more aesthetic in her pinky finger than the rest of us put together. Left alone in my apartment she rearranges things instinctively (and automatically), which would be annoying except that it’s hard to be mad when it always looks better her way. I’ve always appreciated her design sense, but arriving at her apartment this time was like seeing it for the first time. I snapped a few photos (ok, more like a hundred, but lots were crap) of her place while we caught up. Here are a few of my favorites, and the whole collection.

This is the first time I've taken videos from the back seat of a taxi. Anyone who gets carsick may want to stick with the still shots...