great documentary style photo. excellent toning.

don't really like the toning you did on this one ... Seems lacking contrast. And the scene is a little busy to my eyes ... No real point of focus ...

LOVE the tones.

Nice, I liked the way the persons in the foreground is light, and the rest of the people is darker...

I'm sure to the residents this is just another day, but to me it looks like chaos.

hmmm, I known this style... :)

Awesome street shot Dave - the toning is particularly effective, though i'm incredibly curious what the colour version looked like :)

I visited China last spring and it was quite an experience (and a long trip). I like these shots and am curious about how you do your toning with PS.

This sure is a documentary....and lovely toning and light...

At the very first glimpse (first 1/1000th of a second) I thought this was a shot of an accident sceen... maybe the truck had struck a few cyclists and a crowd was beginning to gather. Then as I looked longer it became more clear what it was.

I agree with a previous comenter that the shot seems busy, but that kind of gives you an inner feeling of chaos that matches the scene itself quite well. IMHO, not every photo has to make you feel warm and fuzzy. Photography should be like going to the movies... sometime you see a drama, sometimes a comedy, sometimes a thriller, etc. Some make you laugh, some make you cry, some get your heart to race, some make you scratch your head and drift into deep thought.

You have really captured a back street in an Asian city. Could be China, could be Korea, could be India. They all have the same feel. Chaos theory in action. The universe in flesh and metal and stone...

And welcome back.

D Carter
Seattle

good street capture, nice action, but i'm not sure about the toning, maybe a normal black and white would be more appealing

Ha, this it seems, will be a controversial image, I myself like the sepia treatment. If you had left it in color then it would have been too busy for the eye. If you had left it B&W then I think some of the street charm would have been taken away. I think that because the light falls in the center of the image then that's where your eye will be first drawn, but the shadows still have enough detail to keep you looking. Well done.

I visited China in 2002 and thoroughly concur with your recommendation for people to go. It's completely different to the picture most of us have in our eye. The people are so warm and there is a real electric feel of progress in the air.

No where else can I think of can you take a picture like this then step around the corner onto a brand-new ultra-modern mall.

Hope to see more...

I dunno about you, but I wouldnt buy anything that has been on that ground! I l ike the toning of the photo...how do you do it?

Welcome home, David!
I bet you brought fantastic photographs to show us.

Interesting photo, though somewhat busy and hard to interpret.

It's been fun seeing your skills outside the UK. Will you be sharing more from China?

I'm in the "don't like it" camp. More aritficial vignetting might make it better in my eyes, further accentuating the central characters and deemphasizing the other miscellaneous debris.

Great street shot, capturing their expressions as you did - however, I'm not a fan of the shadows.

Maybe it's because I've lived in China for 4 years, maybe it's because I'm of Chinese heritage, I don't know... but this picture (from the messiness to the tones) speaks "China" perfectly. There is something about the streets, about the people, about Chinese life, that's you've gotten just right.

Keep up the good work.

The tone issue has been beaten a bit, so suffice it to say: I like it.

Another thing I particularly like is the staggered composition of the people in the center of the photo. There are two people - mid right and far right/center - who seem to be looking directly into the lens; one even seems to be smiling. I think amidst the chaotic atmosphere, the fact that two people are making eye contact gives the shot a sort of immediacy that can sometimes be lacking in street photography.

Also - I love the precision of the shadows that the wheels cast against the pavement.

It's a good capture.

I like the shadows and slight vignette on the edges. Sepia tones make them even bolder.

Another nice capture. I dreamed I went to Macedonia, that was great.

Funny how we all see things differently. I see an obvious focal point and really like the tone.

Thanks everyone.

Love this one. Looks like a journalist photo. Reminds me to a time life book.

I wish this shot was in colour. I would quess that the colour original was vibrant, chaotic and more accurately resresented life on a Dalian Street.

Is this in sepia just so it is more pleasing to the eye or does making it sepia remove part of the cultural differences from the scene?

Personally I feel this shot would have been better in colour: the essence of the photograph is the chaos and the fact that so many people are doing different things in one frame. The B&W/sepia takes this away somewhat.

Just my opinion!

FS

I'm Chinese. I live in Shanghai, and never come to Dalian. But as far as I known, Dalian is one of the most beautiful cities in our country, however he chaos in your pictures is mainly due to the large population of China. I like your blog very much, and have introduced it to many friends. They are all Chinese. We are glad that you could come to China and enjoy the trip.

I love this shot, it brought back so many good memories. I was in China several years ago and this is just about how every street looked. I took a shot similar to this. It was a woman with her bike with two babies sound asleep in the attached cart. It's still one of my favorites. Thanks so much for this and all of your beautiful pictures!

dalian is where im attending college
the dalian university of foreign language
surprised to see a shot of dalian on your blog
i dont know much about photographing stuff
but this one quite shows something behind the city's pretty face
and sorry about the awful adsl connection
anyway enjoy your stay in china