Master of Nets Garden, Suzhou, China.
On my first trip to China in 2008, I found myself with a bit of free time one morning in Suzhou. I think it was day 3 of the trip and our guide had taken it easy on us by arranging a later departure for the silk factory we would be visiting. The quiet morning hours are my favorite to shoot when traveling with a group, because I can sneak away and see the city just as it’s waking up, before the other tourists descend.
I was told that there was a garden near our hotel, so I ventured out early to photograph it in the early morning light. The Master of Nets Garden, it was called. It was beautiful, as you can see from the photo at the top of this post, and I spent a half an hour or so exploring it. According to my Lightroom catalog, I came away with 52 images of that garden.
Walking back to the hotel, traffic began to pick up. Not just any traffic, but largely bicycle and scooter traffic. It was absolutely amazing watching the fragile two-wheelers mingling among the cars and busses. No horns, no near-misses. It was like ballet.
I got distracted and spent more than an hour photographing the traffic, coming away with another 105 images — twice what I’d shot in the garden.
Moral of the story: It’s always worth heading out early and having a plan is great, but be prepared to deviate from that plan depending what you find. Many of my best days started just this way — by getting distracted.
