When I first started photoblogging, way back in 2004, I posted pretty much every image that I was reasonably pleased with. In recent years I've been more selective, to the point where I have at least 150 images sitting on my hard drive that I can't decide whether to post. They aren't any worse than my previous images, so it's not a quality issue, I just can't decide whether they're worth posting. I don't think they're any worse than any of my previous images, so it's not a quality issue: more a case of not being sure what they say. Which, in turn, reflects a lack of direction in my photography that I think I probably need to address. In the meanwhile, I'll post some of the backlog, starting with the shot of this guy taken recently in Shenzen, China.

I've lost count of the number of times I've said "here's my last picture from China", but this time I mean it, honest. Unless of course I don't manage to come up with anything tomorrow ;-)

Anyway, I haven't put this one up previously as I've tried to process it at least three of four times, and haven't been happy with the results. And I'm not entirely thrilled with this version, but it's a lot closer to how I envisioned the shot than my previous attempts. The problem was basically to do with the extremes of exposure in the shot, and i) not wanting to blow out the highlights or lose the shadow detail, while ii) retaining a shot with a bit of punch. It would have been relatively easy to produce a 'flat' version, but that wasn't what I was after. Anyway, I've had enough of trying to sort this one out so will let you tell me what you think.

I know I said that I'd put up all the shots from my China trip, but having trawled through them again I found two more: this one, and the one I'll put up tomorrow. As with yesterday's shot I guess this is also about contrast – though this one is about east meets west rather than rich meets poor.

As an aside: this was one of the first shots I took as I wandered around Dalian and captures, albeit accidentally, some of the anxiety I felt while taking photographs in a culture that I knew little or nothing about. See if you can spot what made me especially jumpy as I took this shot.

Yet again, I haven't had time to shoot any new material, so I went back through my shots from China. I was thinking about what numerous people have said about the fact that the majority of the shots I've put up have been monochrome, so went for a more colourful result with this one. Let me know what you think.

This is probably the last of the shots I'll put up from my trip to China and was taken in down-town Dalian.

While we were in Dalian we were taken for a short tour of the peninsular and went for a walk on the beach. This guy was our guide, and as he took a picture of us I took one of him. The reason for the 2x1 crop is that I was shooting with the camera around my neck and ended up with a bit too much sky in the shot. Anyway, as partially accidental shots go there's something I really like about this one.

I know it's a bit of a cliche to come back from China with a photograph of some pandas, but I couldn't resist ;-)

This was taken somewhere on the south shore of the Dalian peninsular and I couldn't help inventing a story for this one:

The figures you can see on the beach, that you can only just make out at this resolution, are a wedding party. I'm not sure if the ceremony was being performed on the beach, or whether they were taking pictures – we were too far away to tell – but I couldn't help wondering what relationship the figure on the cliff's edge had to the proceedings below. In all probability the answer is almost certainly none – I guess he was just standing there, much as I was – but I found myself wishing that he was more directly involved ... that maybe he was watching his one true love marry somebody else (or something equally bizarre). More likely though is that I wanted the shot to be more than just a shot of a tourist looking out to sea and any speculation on my part was more to do with jet-lag than anything else.

On another matter: we probably won't have our ADSL connection back till the middle of next week so I'm probably not going to be posting many comments between now and then. All being well things should be fixed soon.

I got back from China early on Thursday morning – a twenty-six and a half hour journey, door to door – but haven't been able to get online much as our ADSL connection is still down (and won't be fixed until some time next week) and our modem connection isn't particularly stable. So, for the next few days at least, it's unlikely that I'll be posting an image a day.

Anyway, I'm online now so though I better put this up before the connection drops again. This was taken somewhere in Dalian, reasonably near to the train station (from what I can remember) and is reasonably representative of the back-streets of this town: small groups of people selling vegatables and fish from tricycles, or just spread before them on the pavement.

And finally: if you ever get the chance to visit China, go, it's a wonderful place.

Here's what might turn out to be my penultimate shot from Dalian, and I would write more but I'm totally spaced out this evening, it's almost 1 AM and I have around 22 hours of travelling to do tomorrow. All being well I'll put something up on Thursday.

Oh, and thanks for all the great comments on my last two shots, they're very much appreciated.

I went for a walk round Dalian (China) for a few hours this morning in the company of a wonderful photography student from the University, and managed to take a few shots that I'll probably put up; but found it very difficult. I decided that I'd photograph people, but the cultural differences seemed almost insurmountable at times. First, I speak no Chinese. Well, I can now say 'hello', and 'thank you', and a few other things, but I certainly can't hold anything approaching a conversation, so relied on my guide to ask people's permission. Some were ok about it, some weren't sure, and some said no. But what I found most difficult is that I couldn't read there emotions, at least not very well. After taking one photograph I thought that the person I'd photographed and his companion were arguing with my guide, but apparently they were making a joke ... but they didn't laugh or smile so I generally felt totally out of my depth and quite uncomfortable at times. Anyway, I have a few shots, and I got to see Dalian – well, some of it at least – so it was definitely a good day even if I didn't get as many good shots as I would have liked.

Tomorrow is a work day so I'll post in the evening, but I'm travelling all day Wednesday and don't know what time I'll get home ... expect updates as and when.

As for this shot: I wish the sign said something Zen-like, maybe about the tranquility of the sea, or the island, or maybe just something about China, but if I understood our guide from the afternoon it says something about hiring fishing rods ;-)