Preface: Lots of people ask 'Ed, how do you manage to travel to these far flung exotic places 20 times a year for photography?' Truth of the matter is that I travel 95% of the time on company business meeting clients throughout East Asia ..... and always squeeze in shooting time. It almost always mean an early morning 4am wake up call and being out shooting at dawn. It also means rushing back before 8am for a shower and a quick change into business attire for the day's work.......work that actually puts food on the table.

The following article is how a typical trip unfolds and concludes.

The Night Before

Packing the camera bag at 'round midnight, 8 hours before my 2 week China trip, now second nature without even the need for a checklist, I stuff it with bodies, lenses, filters, flash units, cleaning fluid, tissues, spare batteries, blower, mini-flashlight, toilet paper, pen, notebook and ...... where??s the goddamned film?

The regular box in my bedroom, normally holding a dozen rolls of mixed Ilford, Kodak Tmax and Fuji Velvia/Provia stares back at me with an empty look.

Oh, I must've forgotten to re-fill it with stock from the fridge.

The Goldstar's door swings open in slow motion. Even before looking in, I had a sick premonition and 'Fxxxx! fxxx! fxxx!FXXX!!!!!! NOOooooo!!!!' began playing its tune in my head as Newton's Law became reality. I see lots of frozen meat, ice cream, last year's doggie bags from a few restaurants (pizza, pasta and a tiramisu, all time capsuled in deep freeze) but NO FILM .... at 1am in the morning!

Wife gently snoring away, I pry open her dresser and grope around and struck Gold .... actually Kodak Royal Gold 200. It'll have to do.

Day 1

I resigned myself to picking up some Fuji Superia and more Kodaks at the airport. I'd normally just rather burn in Hell first before I touched these emulsions but with little choice and tail between my legs, I picked up 6 rolls of each before checking in.

Past Immigration, I sat down opening up the film, throwing aside the little boxes and film containers preparing the rolls in zip-loc bags for hand inspection. Passengers were hustling to their gates all around me. I swear I heard the occasional snicker waft by... he??s shooting with THAT film??? Heh Heh Heh .... poor sod!'

Getting the airport security staff to hand check my film was met with no hassles. Except that that the policeman inspecting my film had a look on his face that said '... this idiot's making me hand inspect ASA 200 Superia and Royal Gold ....what's the world coming to???

In my seat on the plane at 50,000feet .... and still smarting from the humongous oversight, I contemplate if I should have made the plunge into digital.

Yeah, if I'd gone digital earlier, I DIDN'T EVEN HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT BUYING FILM.

But NAH, not till full frame CCDs and lower technology costs become more affordable for poor me .... unless a sponsor comes along the way.

Nesting down on a row of empty seats after a quick check that nothing interesting was outside the plane's window worth shooting, I catch up on sleep. Gotta love the recession .... the typically packed Singapore-Beijing flight is now lucky to be half filled. Who needs Business Class when I??ve got so much free real estate in Economy?

6 hours later as the plane descended to land .... I wake up much refreshed and look down at the Chinese countryside. Gee .... I wasn't used to seeing so much brown land after a such a long time away (13 years) from China.

Very unlike the lush green jungles and paddy fields of my beloved South East Asia. And much colder at 5 degrees C.

It looked like Nuclear Winter with no birds in the air .... and brown leafless trees, brown hills, brown cows, brown roads, brown fields, hell .... BROWN EVERYTHING (well ok I take that back , the sky was a muddy gray) . And I brought along high saturation color film.

From the airport going into Beijing city proper, the city seemed nestled in a smog. It looked depressing as the highway passed thousands of barren trees with the occasional crow perched on an empty branch. Garish billboards were everywhere. If not for the Chinese words, it was almost like driving along Chevy Chase Highway going into D.C.

Life picked up its pace as we entered the city. I don't see too many folks on bicycles, replaced instead by a sea of cars streaming in one direction towards China's capital. Buick, Volkswagen, Audi and Jeep Cherokees dominates the roads and the scarcity of Japanese and Korean cars brought a smile at last to my lips.

I spot a Land Rover Freelander bearing a plate numbered 16689. In Cantonese its pronunciation is equivalent to the phrase 'Prospering enough all the way down the Road'. Hopes of riches ride high in the land of the new Capitalist.

Pockets of locals riding their bicycles on the far side of the road contrasted to the situation 13 years earlier when they owned the roads and cars and public transportation were forced to drive to one side.

Another sight that brought a bigger smile to my face was that of many colorful kites fluttering high in the windy sky defying modernity and progress. This love affair the Chinese has with kite-flying I'll never understand except to hope that it never dies out.

The police looked smarter in typical black/white European-styled uniforms with weapons kept out of sight ... much better than their previous rags that identified them instantly as the highly feared Gong An goon-squads. They looked much better now as smartly uniformed gangsters

I check into the Grand Hyatt at US$150 a night before taxes. No shooting for me today as appointments to fill my rice bowl beckon.

Day 2

Waking up at 4.30am with an erection .... I gently massage my throbbing muscle. The trigger finger on my right hand relaxes a little but its up again. Looking out the window, I see the main boulevard lit up with huge floodlights. Occassional figures walk by casting long heavy shadows. I curse my shooting finger and put on my clothes.

Being out at 5.30am isnt a problem for me normally anywhere else, but not in Beijing on the last tailcoats of winter. The cold bites deep into me. I suddenly realize I've never shot in such cold before. It wasnt fun. I hated the frozen touch of the G2's titanium clad outer shell. 35 minutes was all I could take before I retreated back to the warmth of my room. In that time, I came across early morning cyclists, lone pedestrians, a couple of PLA soldiers on patrol who asked to see my ID and some folks out for an early morning run.

My business in Beijing finished, I head out at 7.30am to the domestic airport for my flight north to Da Lian.

End of Part I