Transit Inn: Recalling the scenes

The one thing that never fails to get me excited when I travel is the opportunity to walk the streets, see and feel the life of locals and, hopefully, capture some authentic photographs. Street photography is especially difficult when you are travelling with others, which is why photographers are always in action alone. An observant and adept traveller would have honed his intuition for what makes a good photo, such that when the opportunity comes along, he would be fast in action, confident and effortless, with the right camera settings adjusted in no time. For common folks like myself, it's mostly a point and shoot process, or else we need time to fiddle with the camera, frame the shot and even take repeat shots just to get it more right.

Sometimes I don't get to appreciate sufficiently the places I visited or passed by because of the need to keep moving, either constrained by time or having to catch up with others. There are always so many things to see and learn, but time is never on your side, especially if you are not travelling for leisure. Precisely for this reason, I find that taking photos on the move allows me to return to the scenes later and appreciate the sights that have passed me by. Often enough, there's even greater pleasure as you can enjoy the photograph at your own time and discover details that you have missed on the go.

Visiting the old home of a local historically significant person

These colour flags and confetti are a trademark of Chinese celebrations.
I reckon they are meant to create a vibrant, triumphant mood

I know there are many people who adopt a condescending attitude toward
Chinese riding bicycles; they associate this with backwardness, Chinese masses.
Contrast the same image with, say, a European riding a bicycle. I think the
bicycles that Chinese ride reflect humility, not poverty. And if more Chinese
or others use the bicycle, we should be all the more thankful that the environment
is greener because of that.

I came across many a toddler who are wrapped in thick clothing and they
walk with wobbly steps like a bundle of cotton. It's terribly cute.

A worker at a pottery production factory that is sparsely equipped,
mainly because the process of making all the ceramic products is heavily
dependent on manual labour

The workers above are part of the 'assembly line' that is responsible
for carving the images and patterns on the ceramics. I was horrified
to see fellow visitors pointing their cameras at close range, in their
faces, snapping them at work. It was offensive but the workers were
completely oblivious, as though they were used to such invasions or
were under instructions not to be affected.