One of my objectives, when I bought my first DSLR camera, was to try to stay away from 'tourist' photos. That hasn't been easy.
To want to be original is one thing, to actually achieve it is another. And I must admit that I didn't realise how difficult it is to really take a 'wow' picture, or a photo that tells something more than just what the image reflects.
The Forbidden City is a good example. If you google a bit on pictures of other people who visited Beijing, you'll find at least half a million pictures (for instance on Picasa web) and they're all similar. The same buildings, the same picture of the portrait of Mao, the same bed of the emperor... I even saw some of the photos I took, at similar angles of similar subjects at the similar location.
It's too boring.
Not that there's anything wrong with tourist photos mind you, I don't want to sound all snobbish. In the end I'm also a tourist, and I also like to take pictures of stuff that others have photographed millions of times already. Some of these objects simply beg for it. But I also like to come home with at least a few 'different' ones. And 'seeing' or discovering the 'difference' at a place like the Forbidden City, that's not easy - is my main point.
Therefore this third album doesn't have many of the 'usual' shots and in actual fact doesn't contain many photos for six hours of tourist site. Although I did take a few of the 'standard' photos, and do show a few, when making the album I focused a bit more on details.
The last pictures were taken in the early evening in a park close by the hotel, not in the Forbidden City.
If you want a general overview of the Forbidden City I suggest you google for it.
Click here to view this third album, with some 22 photos...
Visitors from China will have trouble with these albums, since the used domain is blocked there. They can click here, but will have to click around more to get to the bigger versions of the photos.
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