To state the obvious, China is a very large country with so much to see that a person could spend a whole lifetime exploring this vast land, engulfed in it's cultural diversity and deep rooted history. My ten days, seemed hardly enough. Still combined with my Mongolian cycle adventure, time and other commitments didn't allow me the luxury of a longer visit, at least this time around....

Therefore armed with my trusty camera and some travel advice I spent sixty hours on trains, between Beijing and Guilin, and had just less then a week in the wonderful tourist mecca that is the town of Yangshuo by the Li River. I also ended up being in Beijing on three different occasions, getting to like this city more with each visit.

China with it's people has to be seen to be experienced and appreciated. It is also most definitely worth the visit. Now that I have a better idea of how to go about traveling there, I plan on coming back with more specific provinces and areas in mind, while staying for at least a month.

The following are some of my selected images:

China Adventure - ( see more )

On June 16th of 2008 I embarked on an amazing adventure that saw me and a group of other avid adventurers, cycling across the Arkhangai mountain ranges, located about 800 kilometers from UllanBaatar, the capital of Mongolia. Aside from riding more then 400 kilometers on a mountain bike over a variety of mountainous terrain at altitude of 2000 to 3000 meters, with snow caps above us and despite it being summer time, I got to meet the amazing people of Mongolia, experiencing their warmth, hospitality and openness. It was also my privilege to encounter the wonderful Mongolian children, some of them in the Christina Noble Children's Foundation Orphanage and others in the wilderness of the plains and mountain valleys. This journey was an experience that was a culmination of two dreams.

First, to visit the wilderness of Mongolia and meet the nomad people, something that has been on my mind since my early age, when I sat transfixed, listening to the stories of the great Ghengis Khan, a man some chose to only remember for only his ruthlessness and deadly efficiency, with others attributing such lofty titles as the father of modern globalization. With the second, a desire to experience remote travel by the means of a mountain bike, something that has niggled at me as far back as I can recall.

This trip not only brought both of my above-mentioned dreams together, but also exceeded my expectations. It would by hard to single out what I enjoyed the most in any particular order, after all the cycling was awesome, the landscape stunning, the crew fabulous and the other riders engaging and friendly. However, had I just to just pick one thing, that which stood out, making this experience even more special... that would have to be the people of Mongolia.

Living in their harsh and remote nomadic conditions, often with limited means, I could feel a prevailing sense of warmth, openness and sharing with no expectations. More often then not, on their weather worn faces, the Mongols reminded me of young children, devoid of any pretense, or as the saying goes, wearing their hearts on their shoulders. No doors were closed and no meals unshared, a refreshing alternative to the way people treat one another in the western world. The people of this country have made a lasting impression on me, one I'm unlikely to forget in this lifetime.

While I still have to write a full recollection of this journey, the following are some of my selected images of the Mongolian people:

Mongolian Adventure - ( see more )

Besides the long stretches of the Gobi desert, which coincidentally covers an area of over 30% of the country, Mongolian landscape consists of rolling green hills with grazing herds of goats, cattle, horses and yaks. Mongolia is a country of nomads with the idea of farming still being a bit of a foreign concept to most. Thus as long as the land they're set on provides sufficient pasture for their herds, they remain, the moment the grass runs out, the families pick up their Ger dwellings and move in search of greener fields.

The following are some of my selected images of the Mongolian countryside:

Mongolian Adventure - ( see more )

The April 2008 school holidays as opposed to the usual time away at a single destination comprised of number of shorter jaunts that included camping by the seaside, some challenging bike rides, bushwalking in the rainforest and exploring the local national parks, Namadgi and Tidbinbilla. The boys had a blast but did end up feeling a bit worn out by the myriad of activities thus this was balanced by a few in between days of computer games time.

While the bike riding was enjoyable and allowed me to continue building my fitness for the upcoming cycling trip in June/July this year, the camping and bushwalking allowed me for some great photo opportunities in my favourite times of dusk and dawn.

The following are several selected images from last months activities:

Batemans Bay - ( see more )

Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve & Namadgi National Park - ( see more )

Budawang National Park - ( see more )

When I first started with digital photography around three years ago it was with a pretty decent compact, a Canon A95. For the first year and a bit I sharpened every single of my images by a factor of 150% & pixels at 3-4 ignore threshold and 3-4 radius, sometimes more in addition to boosting the contrast and brightness by 40/30 or more..

The resulting images looked great on my monitor and didn't turn out too shabby on 8x10 prints either, while for web they were ideal... However.... when I started looking at selling my images via microstock I got a whole lot of rejections (over 90%) due to over sharpening and over filtering. Only the best images made it through and even those I would never submit now days.

Thus the learning process commenced.

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