Photographers

Two groups of tourists sat on the benches by Madison Square Park. They took turns taking photos of each other. Each of them had a silver digital camera in their hands. When I visited Longji, in China, I hitched a ride up to the hill-top village with a group of Chinese tourists. I was waiting at a bus stop for a jitney. They recognized me—we had bumped into each other near Guilin—and invited me to hop into their van.

That night, as I walked along narrow paths through the terraced fields, I ran into them again. They had each brought bags of camera equipment, and were setting up their tripods in a small clearing. I sat with them and we waited for the sunset to light up the hills. Unfortunately, the afternoon turned cloudy, and the flooded fields didn't light up the way we had hoped. My new friends took a few pictures anyway, carefully tripping their shutters with cables so as not to disturb their cameras. Then they packed away their gear, and slowly made their way back to their hotels. As they left, they said they'd try again tomorrow. Posted by eku at February 19, 2004 11:11 AM