Chinese New Year.

I am sorry it has been a while, as you are about to see I have been around the world and making a lot of photographs. I am not going to flood one blog with all of them so I will start with the Chinese New Year.

If you don't know it is the year of the horse, it is not the first time I have enjoyed Chinese New Year, but it is the first time I have been around for the build up. It starts getting very busy, everyone heads out to special markets to stock up on tasty treats and the streets get decorated with lanterns and lights.

January was a very busy month for travelling. I returned to the UK for the New Year there and made shots of the floods (that is another posting so keep a look out for that.), I then headed to Singapore. It was the first time I had visited Singapore and I will do a blog on that too. After Singapore we popped back to Taiwan and then off to Hong Kong before finally getting back to Taipei and a chance to get up to date with everything.

I have been processing so much that I strained my eye. I got a bit worried, but it is calming down a bit so hopefully will stop twitching soon.

Like I said, there will be episodes to come from each of the trips but for now, here are shots from around Asia of the Chinese New Year....

First of all of course, from Singapore, this magnificent Horse. It was the lead of an impressive lantern display near Chinatown.

When I returned to Taipei from Singapore I headed to Dihua Street market, rigged up my Rogue Lightbender onto an off camera, hand held speedlight and headed into the throngs of people busy stocking up.....

Entrance to the market...

Fresh fruit Tea to keep you going.....

Sweet and savoury Rice and Yam cakes...

Toffee Strawberries....yummy!

Hot Ginger Tea....Delicious! 

Of course, plenty of pic'n'mix....

Dried Squid......

A superb spread of succulent Sausages..... 

Dried Fish and Shrimp/Prawn...

Do you want to try? Dried Peach, they were really good.....

The market in Taiwan was great, everyone was super friendly and offered me tasters of all sorts. As ever I will try almost anything and made some great discoveries, these Peaches are something I will definitely keep an eye out for.

A few days spent in Taiwan and I was back on a plane again and off to Hong Kong. Like Singapore it would be the first time I had made it out of the airport and into the streets. 

I liked Hong Kong from the start, it has a great vibe about the place and I look forward to future visits. I shot hundreds of photographs in Hong Kong, the following are from the New Year market in Victoria Park, Causeway Bay and some shots of the lantern display at Tsim Sha Tsui. The market was a bit more lively, with people on P.A systems getting the crowd going. In the evening sun it was a colourful experience and great fun just to hang around.

The Security weren't too pleased that I climbed over the barrier, I just smiled and made the shot, it had to be done.

As always, spread the love and share my blog around, it is for everyone to enjoy.

I go back to school tomorrow to continue learning Mandarin, I also will be finally getting started building my new website. My book will hopefully be back from the printers and then sent out around the world to Editors, Art Buyers and Agents, if you are one of the above and want a copy get in touch quickly as they are very limited editions.

I hope you enjoyed this selection, next time the subject will be the floods in the UK, I put on my Landscape photographers cap and set out risking life and limb (well a wet foot) to make some gorgeous shots.

Spread the word, hit follow and don't be afraid to say hi......