Playing around with my camera - October 2015

Some more pictures from me playing around with my camera.  Another close up of a flower - can you guess where this is taken from?

Apparently, I like taking pictures of flowers

Wandering around a shopping mall

I've started to carry my camera whenever I go out with the family.  Hoping to grab some pics.  To be honest, most of the time the pictures aren't particularly interesting.  However, occasionally, I grab some pictures which make me pause and question what is going on.

Like these.

I wonder what they are talking about?

Playing with the on camera flash

I'm back!

The Meister's back

No - that isn't really my back.  Nor did I take the photo.  Nor do I actually have anything to do with the photo or the person in the photo.

Hmm - that kinda got away from me.  Lets start again.

I don't use the flash on my camera very often - which is why I haven't gotten a proper flash yet - but recently, I did try playing around with it to see how it would handle a relatively low light situation.

Overall, you can see why most people don't like using the on-camera flash.  Part of the reason obviously, is that the flash is centered on the camera itself which means that the light from the flash falls directly onto the subject.  Granted, a bigger flash wouldn't, in itself, solve this problem directly but it would give you the option of bouncing the light off another surface (which you can't do with the camera's built in flash as it isn't strong enough).

He still manages to look super cute though.
:D

Gerry and the drum academy - Part 4

Last post about the drum academy.  :)

One of the places we went to while we were in Jiangzhou was to visit a place to see how the drums are made.  As you can imagine, these drums are made by hand.

First, he shaves off pieces of wood

Then, he puts them up against the side of a drum template

Once all the pieces are in, they get nailed together and have the top and bottom planed

Last step - they get the drum skin and then painted

And then sold to consumers!

Gerry and the drum academy - Part 3

In addition to doing a bit of tourism, we also saw several other drum teams.

First off was the school drum team from the school where we went to.  Interestingly, learning drums is considered a core class in Jiangzhou which means that everyone learns how to play in school.  No wonder they are so good!

The kids were amazing - probably a good thing they aren't competing in Hong Kong!

We also saw a professional drum team.  To be fair, I was less impressed with the professionals.  It was an all girl drum team and it felt almost as if their routine was more focused on a song and dance rather than the drums.  Clearly, this is all a matter of opinion although I do have to admit that their costumes were really impressive.

I love the sense of motion in the hair in this pic

Two mice getting married

Check out those costumes!

By far the best group we saw though, was a group who were only part-time.  By day, farmers - by night, drum master!

The group itself has been in existence for many years - the original founder now having passed away.  In some ways, its a shame as the current group are having some financial trouble and are in the process of raising funding for a trip to America.

Despite being farmers though, they were utterly amazing in both their interpretation of the music as well as their performance of it.

Group photo with the amazing farmers!

Gerry and the drum academy - Part 2

While most of our time in Jiangzhou was spent at the drum academy, we did get some time to do some sightseeing.

Unfortunately, I didn't actually understand what the various sights that I was seeing were.  I had a lot of fun though and managed to get some traditional holiday style snaps!
:D

The first place we went to must have been some kind of local landmark.  It was basically a tower at the top of a hill which meant that it was visible from multiple locations within the city.

Say cheese!

Naturally, the drum team took a group photo there.

Ha!

Admittedly, part of the reason that the trip was fun was because the kids had a lot of fun playing with each other while wandering around the city.

In case its not obvious, they aren't really fighting

As befitting the home of chinese drums, there was an amazing amount of drum related architecture and design ethos.  Literally, you would wander around and see something drum related in the middle of nowhere.

A stone drum

In addition to drums though, there were other sights.  There was a place where they were hand-making ink pads out of clay.  I have to admit, there was an amazing level of artistry on display as they carefully carved shapes out of a block of clay.

The clay gets baked before its finished

Gerry and the drum academy - Part 1

As you might have already guessed (I know my dad did but did you?), I've been on holiday.

Well, I say holiday but it's probably not strictly true.  At least, not completely.

The first part of my absence is due to taking Gerry to the home of Chinese drums - Jiangzhou.  Gerry is part of his school's Chinese Drum team and as part of this, he got invited to go to Jiangzhou to up his skills at a drum academy.  As Jiangzhou is the home of Chinese drums, the people there are all proficient at it (in fact, drum classes are part of the normal curriculum).

The place itself is fairly remote so it was quite a trip just to get there.  After a 3 hour flight up to Taiyuan (near Beijing), we got on a bus for another 5 hour roadtrip.  As I said, remote.

It wasn't actually the whole drum team that went.  Some of the older children in primary 6 had just graduated so were no longer officially part of the drum team.  Understandably, they weren't able to go.  Meanwhile, some of the new members of the team, taken from primary 2, were too young to go so they weren't able to go either.  Even so, there were a group of 12 children who made the trip.

Gerry and the Thundermakers

Teacher lays down the law!

It's actually fairly amazing how much sound a group of Chinese drums can make even when they are being played by children.  We spent most of the week being verbally assaulted by a cacophony of bangs and cracks.

Practicing the basics

It's also amazing how much variation you can get from just a single drum and the drum sticks.  There are a range of techniques to vary the sounds and visuals.  Below, you can see Gerry twirling his drum sticks and banging them against each other for a more "clicky" sound relative to the banging of drums.

click, click, click, clack, click, click, clack, boom, chack, boom, chack, boom boom boom chack!