Kevin Thom Photography Blog » Travel

Coney Island in the sun

Kevin Thom — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:40:55 +0000

Undoubtedly, one of Brooklyn’s most iconic locations is Coney Island. I had a day to kill earlier this week, so I decided to visit the park and boardwalk to take some pictures. I took the D train from Manhattan and just enjoyed the ride to the end of the line at Brooklyn’s southern tip. It was my intention to capture Coney Island’s very familiar scenes of classic Americana in an unusual way. I mean, almost everyone’s seen pictures of the Cyclone and Wonder Wheel, even if they might not have known exactly what they were looking at, so I brought along a super-wide lens and my bendy tilt-shift 65mm f/3.5 Hartblei Super-Rotator to try to put a slightly different spin on things. The skies were clear and the air was a sweltering 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees F), which made roasting on the pavement waiting for the exact moment to shoot an exercise in sweat tolerance. However, it was a lot of fun finding ways to throw the focus across different planes with the Super-Rotator, and to identify novel abstract angles with the super-wide lens. The direct sunlight created some lovely hard contrasts and bright colors. I think the unique bokeh effects created by the tilt-shift help to communicate the almost comatose state of heat stroke that I was experiencing out there!

The Standard Hotel NYC over the High Line

Kevin Thom — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 01:33:11 +0000

On this last trip to NYC, we stayed at the Standard Hotel, located on Washington Street in the Meatpacking District. While there are many things non-standard about the Standard Hotel, what I found most interesting about it was its location straddling the High Line, an abandoned elevated rail line that has been converted into a pedestrian walkway and garden. It’s about 15 blocks long and is not only beautiful, but also practical; it’s a great way to see the stretch of Manhattan between 14th and 32nd Streets. The gardens are made up of a variety of local plants and flowers, decorated by public art pieces. It’s divided into a number of different “neighborhoods” along the way, including a sort of urban beach and an area for public performances. There are plenty of comfortable places to sit and gather with others. It’s inspiring to see urban spaces renewed and reused in this way. Not only is property value increased dramatically along this corridor, it provides a welcome refuge from the sweltering concrete jungle.

Here are some of my photos of the Standard Hotel and the High Line.

Under the boardwalk

Kevin Thom — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 05:27:06 +0000

Laura and I drove into San Diego late last night, after flying into Orange County. It’s nice to be back in California again. It’s a bit cool and grey, which I’m told is due to the “June Gloom,” a weather condition that results in clouds and fog in the mornings and evenings. In the morning, I left Laura to enjoy her conference in San Diego, and drove up the coast toward Los Angeles. I found that the June Gloom quickly gives way to bright blue skies at mid-day, as the California sun is irrepressible.

Heading north on I-5, I made a stop in San Clemente to dip my feet into the Pacific, walk the pier, and to have a delicious seafood salad at the Beach Garden Cafe. I particularly enjoyed walking the beach, feeling the pull of the tide eroding the sand beneath my feet, the ocean breeze through my hair, and the sun on my face. Children pelted noisily by, kicking up sand, splashing into the surf, fueled by new discovery. Their excitement fortified my own desire for exploration. In the distance, dark dolphin shapes looped lazily above the waves before disappearing again into azure.

For the next couple of nights, I’ll hang out with my talented Uncle Wayne in Los Angeles. Wayne has 40 years of experience in architectural photography, and is a great source of professional and artistic knowledge.

Plotting my China trip

Kevin Thom — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:53:53 +0000

I found a website that calculates distances on Google Maps. I thought this might be a cool way to visualize the my trip to China.

It shows the distance traveled as being about 32,681 km (including flights to and from Toronto), but I’m sure it was more than that. The distances were “as the crow flies,” so didn’t account for the winding, weaving roads and railroads between places. The trip started with a flight in to Shanghai, located around the center of the image, and ended when I left Hong Kong to return to Toronto. Looking at this stark map, it brings to mind vivid memories of those places and experiences represented by the magenta pins and lines.

The Asian blur

Kevin Thom — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:35:13 +0000

I’m writing this entry from home, because the last few days of my trip passed in a blur. During the wedding ceremony, the temperature hit about 41 degrees C. I got a pretty nasty case of heat stroke and passed out. Yikes. That was embarrassing. Fortunately, I didn’t cause a major disruption, and only my friends around me really noticed. I recovered enough to be able to participate in all of the parts of the ceremony I was supposed to, but felt pretty abysmal by the time I got back to the hotel. I missed the reception, which by all accounts was spectacular, and slept for the majority of the next day and a half. Note to self: tuxedos and tropical weather are a bad combination.

I’d given my camera to my good friend Culver to take some photos during the ceremony. He did a great job joining the scrum of photographers surrounding the happy couple, and got some excellent shots. The first eight photos in the gallery below are his. There are a couple of snaps from our dinner at Prime, the steakhouse at the Hilton. The rest of the photos show the Loy Krathong festival in Bangkok, in which you release a floating vegetable and flower sculpture into the river, symbolizing the release of negative energy. It was a beautiful experience, and it was a lot of fun to be able to participate. I took a hair-raising tuk-tuk ride back to the hotel after the festival celebrations. The tuk-tuk actually did a wheelie at one point because of the acceleration, and the wind had my face plastered into a grin. Awesome.

I left for the airport at about 4am the following morning, which was way too early for my 6:30am flight. But, you never know what traffic will be like in Bangkok, and the last thing I’d want to do is to watch my flight take off from the back seat of a taxi. I got to Hong Kong right on schedule, and decided to take a train ride into the city to kill off a bit of my six-hour layover. Hong Kong was as lovely as ever. I spent most of my short visit sitting on the public pier at the Central ferry terminal, enjoying the breeze off the harbour and watching the boats. Hong Kong, like many places in Asia, is undergoing constant and rapid redevelopment. Hong Kong is perpetually reinventing its glistening skyline, with office and condominium towers reaching ever higher.

My final flight home was long and uneventful. The gluten-free meal on the return leg was approximately thirty-five million times better than the one on the way over. This one contained delicious portions of steamed fish, salad, vegetables of many colors, and tropical fruit. Thank you, Hong Kong caterers. You’ve outdone yourself.

Things here in Hamilton seem exactly the same as they were when I left. The stability of Canada is comforting after a month of continuous change. As I sit here now, breathing crisp, clean Canadian air and sipping cold water poured straight from the tap, I can truly say that it’s great to go away, but even better to come home.

Getting used to culture shock

Kevin Thom — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:05:06 +0000

Is it an oxymoron to say that I’m getting used to culture shock? I’m settled in to my favorite little hidden hotel in Bangkok, the Silom Convent Garden. After weekly doses of culture shock from exploring various regions of China, from cosmopolitan Shanghai to the outskirts of Tibet to the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, I’m in a whole different world again. The language, people, money, food… all are different, of course. I woke up in Beijing this morning, with a climate like Canada’s, and got off the plane into Bangkok’s 33 degree Celcius heat. Even getting on the Internet is different. I don’t need to worry about someone snooping what I’m writing and banning my access to my server. My mini suite at the Silom Convent Garden has a rainshower bath, kitchenette and a king sized bed, which is a far cry from the hard and narrow beds served up by hostels in China.

Dinner tonight was at one of Silom’s finest street-side eateries. It’s literally a woman with an array of fresh ingredients, under an umbrella on the sidewalk. There are tables and chairs set up in a the alley behind her. It smells like sewage. The food, however, is divine. I ordered a plate of shrimps, stir fried in a pungent red curry with those delicious Thai licorice-scented basil leaves. I also got a piece of grilled chicken, sliced over shredded cabbage and fresh leaves of lettuce, with a sweet chili dipping sauce. All of this for about $5. Why can’t I find a Thai restaurant in Canada that cooks like this, at any price?

During dinner, it started raining, and I mean pouring. The brief but violent rain temporarily washed away the city’s nearly pleasant stink, and cut the substantial humidity by about one percent.

This week is going to be filled with festivities pertaining to Tan’s wedding. I’m looking forward to the arrival of many of my friends in the city tomorrow.

Peking ducks and a Beijing marathon

Kevin Thom — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:30:29 +0000

It’s been a long day! I started shooting around 9:30 this morning, and just got back now. It’s just after midnight and I’m ready to finally pack it in. This was my full day in China, and I felt rewarded with this gorgeous weather. After I shot those blue sky photos from the previous entry, Dad and I departed to explore the city a bit. We hit a hutong neighborhood, which is a classic Chinese residential area built in a series of alleys. I’m caught off guard by things that make perfect sense to the very pragmatic Chinese, like a leg of pork hanging to dry with the laundry. I mean, why not?

We wandered for hours, eventually finding ourselves in a major tourist area and then at a bus stop. After studying the various out-of-date maps posted for everyone’s inconvenience, we worked out how to get back to the hostel on the bus. I find these little adventures to be rewarding.

Dinner tonight was Peking duck. No visit to Beijing would be complete without the city’s famous roast duck recipe. The food was so good last night that we decided to eat at the same restaurant again. The chef and owner of this restaurant clearly appreciates that having good Chinese food doesn’t mean you need to have a dismal dining experience to go along with it. The presentation and service were top-notch, and the price was very reasonable. There was even a dude who stood by our table and patiently wrapped and served us the traditional “duck burritos” that are an essential part of the Peking duck experience. I remembered to bring my camera this time. No, the wriggling still-alive scorpion skewers are not from our dinner. They were from a local street-food market. I was gratified to note that everyone, including domestic Chinese tourists seemed grossed out by the scorpions.

Immediately after dinner, I set out to the Olympic park to try again at shooting the “Birds Nest” stadium and “Water Cube” aquatics centre. This time, I had better luck and managed to score a few shots of these iconic structures. That’s good, because between walking and the subway, it’s about two hours each way to get to the Olympic park.

Now it’s time for bed. I’m leaving for Bangkok tomorrow. More thoughts about China later.

Beijing shows me up

Kevin Thom — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:10:38 +0000

Beijing was determined to prove me wrong after what I said about pollution yesterday. The rain and wind blew away the haze, and we were treated to an absolutely spectacular day today.

Going with the flow in Beijing

Kevin Thom — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:22:56 +0000

I did a little walking around Beijing today. During the day, the smog is astounding. China has made some truly impressive efforts to reduce pollution and energy consumption, and the message is constantly hammered home by the media: use less energy and water, live in harmony with the environment, use public transit. However, the fact remains that there are just too many people here, and despite the fact that each person uses far less than we do in North America, the cumulative effect of so many crammed into such a small space is catastrophic to air quality. Anyway, as it pertains to me, it’s hard to take photos during the day, because everything more than 50 feet from you is shrouded in a hazy white veil.

Tonight after a delicious and artfully prepared meal at a restaurant down the street (sorry, I wasn’t expecting it to be so good, so no photos), I went out to see what I could shoot. I decided to hop on the subway and try to get myself over to the Olympic park to have some fun with all those celebrity buildings, like the National Stadium. I’m truly amazed at the changes to the subway system in the last two years. When I was here in 2007, I had to battle a crowd to get to this little cage containing a woman selling paper tickets. You then had to battle a crowd to get to a guy who would punch a hole in the ticket and let you down the stairs to the trains. There were four very limited subway lines open, covering a small part of the city. That’s all changed. Now, you buy your re-usable plastic subway tickets from a bank of bilingual touch-screen terminals, and pass through automated gates to get to the trains. There are nine lines now, with 147 stations all over the city. The cost has also changed. Instead of three to five Yuan (about 50-80 cents) that it cost in 2007, it’s now 2 Yuan (about 36 cents) to ride anywhere this massive system goes. According to Wikipedia, the system is still under massive expansion, with plans to double its current size by 2012. This is why I’m baffled that Toronto can’t build proper public transit to Pearson airport. It’s all about priorities.

So, I rode the subway for quite a long time, transferring a couple of times to get to Olympic park. It took about an hour to get there because it’s pretty far, and I kept missing my connecting trains. By the time I arrived at the Olympic park station, it was about 9:35pm. I was surprised to discover that the Olympic park closes at 9:30pm, so I was just in time to see the security guards let the last people out, and slam the gate shut. Also, it started raining.

I chalked it up to experience, and comforted myself in that I’d at least figured out where the airport express subway line started, and headed back to the hostel. When I came out of the subway, the rain had pretty much stopped. The reflections of the buildings in the wet pavement made me feel like doing some long exposures. Earlier in the night, I’d been shooting this old church that was sandwiched between a giant hotel and a mega-ultra-modern department store in the busy Wangfujing shopping area. It looked amazing reflected in the wet pavement.

Just as I was getting into shooting this, and finding some interesting angles, someone abruptly turned out all the lights on the building. It took a moment for me to realize how awesome this was. I truly believe that to get great night shots, you have to shoot what seems impossible to shoot. There are so many photographers who can easily recognize the photographic potential of brightly lit night scenes, and will get out the tripod to take some very ordinary shots. However, I want to make it my mission to capture those rarest of photons, because the fewer there are, the more potential they have to make night photos that really shine. After the lights went out, those remarkable photons were reflecting off of the moving clouds, creating a surreal backdrop. The sparse light from the shops across the street provided ample fill for the building itself, even though the scene at the time looked almost totally dark.

I only have one more night left here in China before I head over to Thailand. In some ways, this trip has seemed to have flown by so fast. In other ways, I feel like I’ve been here a lifetime. In either case, I’ve done my best to make it memorable.

In Inner Mongolia

Kevin Thom — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:50:23 +0000

It was great to arrive at our hostel in Hohhot (pronounced Huhehaote in Chinese), the capital of Inner Mongolia. After several days of dusty travel, I was pleased to discover that the shower here is not only the best I’ve experienced in China, but probably the best I’ve ever experienced, period! It is strong enough to be a sandblaster, which is exactly what I needed to blast the sand off me.

We needed to take care of some particulars, including booking the rest of our trip. We secured flights to Beijing leaving on Friday night, and booked an overnight tour of the grasslands starting tomorrow morning. I booked our hostel in Beijing too, near the Forbidden City.

All of that being done, we could enjoy a walk around the city. Hohhot is a modern and relatively affluent place. Because it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere, it’s quieter here too, with less pollution. It was a pleasure to walk through a large park in the middle of the city.

Dinner tonight was Mongolian hot pot, which is served all over China, and in many places in Canada too. It seemed only fitting to have Mongolian hot pot while in Mongolia. The idea is that you get these different kinds of boiling hot soup at your table, and you dunk in various meats and vegetables until they’re cooked. Delicious.

Xi’an I get along just fine

Kevin Thom — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:13:26 +0000

The thing that has struck me on this trip compared to my trip here two years ago is that there are a lot more young people out, looking good and having fun. The difference is striking. Youth are filling the streets, restaurants, stores. The cities are happening places, even on Sunday nights. Music throbs from every corner. People are drumming, dancing, bands play in the streets. Kids are spending what I can only imagine is boatloads of money. Except they don’t need boats, because all of that consumption is being directed towards products made right here in China: clothes, shoes, accessories, cars, jewelery, etc. Can you spell “future economic superpower?” I can: “C-H-I-N-A.”

Anyway, I’m not going to write a lot tonight. I’ll just let the photos from today’s walks around Xi’an do the talking.

Terra cotta warriors

Kevin Thom — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:27:15 +0000

We arrived at Xi’an very early this morning, but not as early as planned. The overnight train was an hour late leaving from Nanjing, and therefore got to Xi’an an hour late too. That’s ok though, since arriving somewhere at 6:30 is often easier than arriving there at 5:30. As I remembered from the last trip, the overnight train is a relaxing way to travel. You get a reasonably comfy bed, and when you wake up, you’re in a new place. It’s public transit and hotel combined into one. Genius.

The taxi stand at the train station in Xi’an isn’t immediately apparent, unlike in other cities where it’s directly in front of the exit from the station. Dad and I wandered aimlessly for a while before discovering it. After that, it was a brief drive through the city until we arrived at the hostel, which is located in a beautifully restored historic building. We checked ourselves in and then immediately turned around went out the door to tour the areas around the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, who united China as a single country about 2300 years ago, and declared himself the first emperor. I was excited to be there, because I’ve heard so much about this emperor and the massive army of clay warriors he had buried in his tomb to ensure his rule in the afterlife.

We took a couple of public buses to go about 40km outside of the city. Along the way, I couldn’t help but notice the dozens of brand new high-rise buildings being built in the suburbs. These were enormous apartment buildings, each at least 40 stories high. This is the kind of development that is happening all over China, in its rush to modernize. When I try to picture China’s population of over a billion, it becomes easier to imagine when I consider dozens of brand new apartment complexes simultaneously rising out of the suburban landscape of every small Chinese city.

Our first stop was the emperor’s tomb. This site was extremely dilapidated. It looked like they started restoring the tomb and its grounds, and then promptly stopped as soon as the U.N. designated it a world heritage site in 1987. The grounds themselves are impressive, consisting of long paths bordered by tall coniferous trees, and (what should have been) manicured gardens. In the middle, there is a large burial mound, with steps leading up to the top. It was surprising to see that so little effort has been put into maintaining it though. Grass is uncut, and displays are worn out, unfinished or just plain missing. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the experience of visiting it. There were few visitors, so it was quiet and peaceful, and there were many song birds warbling in the trees. We even saw a pheasant fly out of one of the bushes. The view from the top of the burial mound was impressive, if not smoggy.

The next stop was the site of the buried terra cotta army. It was discovered by a peasant in 1974 while he was digging a well. He reported his find to the government, who within a short period of time turned it into a major archeological exploration slash tourist attraction. The peasant, who is now in his 70′s, still works at the museum. The site is enormous. The heart of it is three large pits, over which three huge buildings have been constructed, with viewing galleries from which you can see the terra cotta warriors in their original formations. Work is still ongoing to excavate these sites. So far, they’ve discovered about 8000 of these warriors, no two of which are the same. You aren’t allowed too close to them, so I’m glad I brought my 70-200mm lens to get a closer look. Surrounding the site is an sprawling complex of shops and food stands, a gigantic outdoor mall. Hawkers selling pomegranates, persimmons, and terra cotta figurines shout at anyone and everyone passing by.

In fact, everyone seems to be selling pomegranates and persimmons. From the bus, we could see dozens and dozens of fruit stands, side by side. Each of them stocked nothing but pomegranates and persimmons. When we weren’t passing pomegranate and persimmon stands, we were passing groves of pomegranate and persimmon trees. It’s amazing that they could stay in business with this level of uniformity. If these guys can survive, it blows our theories about product differentiation right out of the water. Dad bargained hard and bought a choice pomegranate for RMB 1.5 (about 20 cents).

After a pretty fancy dinner down the street, which consisted of goose, jellyfish, green veggies, fancy mushrooms and surf clams, we did some planning. We’re getting down to the last few week or so of our trip, so we have to be a little more careful with our time so we can see what we want to see. I’ve planned an itinerary that’s going to take us into the boonies and back. More about that later…

Back in Shanghai

Kevin Thom — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:48:05 +0000

Well, here I am again. Dad and I have arrived in Shanghai. The sterile white of Pudong airport was a soft buffer into the country after spending 14 hours in the bizarre perpetual twilight of the Air Canada 777. We took the maglev train from the airport into the city. The 30km trip took somewhat less than 7 minutes at speeds of up to 430km/h. Whoosh!

We have checked into our hostel. It’s not a bad littleplace, built upon a traditional building in the heart of the city. We’re going to spend a few days getting acclimatized to the country before heading out to the more remote areas of the country later.

More updates after I get some sleep.

Jadine gets married

Kevin Thom — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:57:04 +0000

I wrote before about shooting what you love. In this case, it’s my lovely sister Jadine and her new husband David on their wedding day. Here’s my collection of snapshots from their wedding, in video form!

The soundtrack is a song called “Happy” by Secrets in Stereo.

Kevin Thom Photography Blog » Travel

Coney Island in the sun

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