king_wong

Those who have a liking for travel are not hindered by language or, whatever, barriers. With so many cell phones in use today, I get amused by so much talking. Human beings are multi-dimensional beings that can communicate wholly-- other skills such as music, art, dance... can be used to forged an understanding.

I don't believe the post office would x-ray the film. otherwise all those films people order online would have a problem. When travelling in China, I always mail my film back to my village via the post office. I have not yet a problem.

If you are planning to take photos of sunrise on the mountain, and if you are planning to shoot it from a well-know spot, you will have to get to the spot at 3am in the morning. On a good day people are packed dangerously to the edges of cliffs, so you will more likely see a million heads rather than that one sun. Better to search for a less travelled spot if you are planning to set up a tripod. Usually, people waited 3 hours for that speck of light, and once it's a full sun, people took a few flash shots of themselves with the glorious sun in the background. Within 3 minutes people leave en masse. Another few minutes the area is as empty as the sky.

The cost of a Big Mac is not an accurate index to use in china. It is an import, therefore the cost of it will be multiplied by the exchange rate, probably even a little higher. They are cheap food in the US, but a king's meal in china. The dollar's worth in the US is about a Yuan's worth in china, in most cases.

 

How long your $2ooo dollars will last you depends on your lifestyle. How long can you last with $2000 in the US? Your biggest expense is hotel if you like equivalent US standard. Food will be expensive if you eat expensively. Same as taxi. By mass transit is cheap, about 1-2 yuan a ride. I can last 3 months with $2000.

 

If you are a foreigner, it is advisable to bring some reserve dollars and retrieve the bulk of your money through the bank's ATM. Getting money from the atm is as simple as anywhere. The major bank for nonchinese is the bank of china, which are everywhere. The fee is standard, about $5 dollars each way with my bank. $2000 dollars is not alot of money, so bringing US cash(easier,as you can exchange it in most banks in most places) or travel checks is ok. However,I bet you will spent more, so bring your cards. Forget about the fake cards, it will only add to the load and confuse you.

I was in Xian in the autumn of 2001. Things must have changed. I remember taking the #5 bus( 5 yuan fare then, must be 10 yuan by now) outside the railway staion. The bus will go to the terracotta warriors as well as the first emperor's tomb(mount li, which I did not go). The aesthetic and technical achievements of many of these figures are high. The best are out of public view, and these have color pigments on them.

When I was traveling in china, my film(iso100 chrome and iso400 bw)must have gone through the scanners in the bus and train staions 2o times or so. They all came out fine. I don't even use the lead bags because of the extra weight and space needed. Althougb if the films are going many more times or that they are going througb check-in scanners you should use appropriate lead bags.

It is a common belief that the camera faithfully reproduce a flat image of what it optically sees. This is due to a process that can be explained scientifically. What is scientific has more weight as being true to nature. Thus a photo is more 'real'(mainly optically but psychologically as well) than an image produced by hand, such as a painting, which is a behaviorial process that cannot be precisely explained.

 

There is no doubt that the camera cannot lie, afterall it is a machine. What lies is the user/holder of the image.

 

The ageless question of what is 'real' and not, and what is 'reality' changes with the times. 'Reality' can be raw facts, but what is 'real' depends one's perception(which includes the psychological or emotional aspects) and knowledge. What is 'real' therefore is subjective. In this case, a painting can be real.

 

So, ethics on manipulation of photojournalistic and wildlife images depend on whether it is label as real or reality. Much also depends on one's intention.

 

In a way, one cannot avoid manipulation, because one's way of looking and framing is a form of manipulation. Unless one is a machine, one cannot avoid thinking of looking in a particular way.

With all these overweighted academic jargons, you might want to relax and read a comfortable book like John Dewey's "Art as Experience". All too often critical theory and its targeted discipline are lum together like blind dates. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not.

 

Given that there are people who do work theoretically, these are more often critics than artists. For you to write a paper using other people's career-building coined terms is to put yourself into their tracks, and deny yourself of your own observation. Everyone claims that they understand the times and invented a few words to seal it. We ought to know that these are all intellectual rhetorics, useless and taken out of context.

 

What is important is to write a paper that you will understand a year later. I would look at the 3 artists' works and write about the experience of looking at them. You don't need to have a particular aim when looking at them, just your honesty. Look at them a few times. All this, of course, might not work for your high-minded professor, which is sad.

 

Don't be too concern about correct english, I understand them.

The Nikon coolscan 9000 manual also states that if there are other firewire(1394) devices hook up in the same computer as the Nikon scanner( such as a harddrive, printer, or another scanner), the scanner(or the Nikon scan software) may not work properly. The software may unexpectedly quit itself. Turning off the other firewire devices will help.

Unless you are a die-hard Packard Shutter user, or that you just

enjoy admiring the camera, I suggest just remove the bulb

shutter and the barrel lense, and replace it with a modern LF

lense. The whole apparatus is too cumbersome and heavy, and

the limited speed will not help you much technically. I own a 4"

diameter Packard Shutter which I only use for my huge vintage

Voightlanderr portrait lense., but this thing will not travel far. In

my opinion, it is better to get a decent lense and shutter and not

let it distract you while you are creating..