There’s quite a few photos below of some of our "everyday" scenery. The ironic thing about the photos is that there are no people in them (other than closeups of my immediate family (jia–I’m learning Chinese).

And believe me, there are quite a few people here living in this city. Over a million to be more precise. The problem is that around here I get so much attention without holding a camera that I’m seriously afraid of what people will do when they see me playing at the urban Ansel Adams.

Today I tried to surreptiously walk with my camera held down at my waist so that it would seem as if I were just checking the settings. Without being too obvious when interesting people would walk past I would hit the button in hopes that I would accidentally capture something good through the viewfinder. These digital cameras still make that clicking sound though which gave me away to a few folks.

This technique is kind of like a drive-by shooting, except I was walking.

Anyway, the experiment was a failure. The only shots that were any good were the ones you see below with absolutely no people in them. The other photos were of the sides and tops of peoples heads, branches of trees, and concrete buildings. Nothing too exciting.

I’m going to have to be braver with my photography. I stick out like a sore thumb here, though, and it’s nice only being glanced at for a few moments instead of drawing a crowd of gawkers that might follow me down the street. In the overall scheme of things, I’m sure I’ll have plenty of photo-ops in the future.

(Sidenote: we went to the KFC for the first time tonight. It was good, but I think they should think about adding buttermilk biscuits to the menu. I had some spicy chicken wings and many uneaten chicken nuggets left by the girls. The Chinese word for chicken–as in food–is: ji rou. See I’m learning things after all. I just can’t pronounce it right.)