it's been precisely one year since my run-in with china's 'public security bureau', who deemed exposure to music in public, performed by westerners anyway, an absolute offence and declared my bandmates and i a nuisance to this harmonious society (more on that here). it has also been nearly as long for kitty and i to obtain the endlessly elusive canadian immigration documents necessary to act on my original thoughts of a china departure (then imagined to be a matter of only a few months.. my, did i underestimate canada's immigration process, or rather, the lack of a humane one). but i digress. it's a new year and one that i'm happy to announce will be spent mainly in canadian pastures where the air is clean(er) and the snow blows hell-high, much higher than here anyway. mind you, i wouldn't want to be lugging a dozen water jugs or a bag full of mail through this stuff.
bonne année tout le monde!

'road heros' • qingdao, china

© MARC MONTEBELLO  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
[CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

Labels: 2013, asia, china, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

at the penguin pavilion in beijing..

'penguin peddle' • beijing, china

© MARC MONTEBELLO  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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Labels: 2012, beijing, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

from a recent and very quick visit to a classical guitar factory in the hills outside qingdao. these are german branded instruments bound for export only. all solid wood construction and completely hand made - not your typical chinese axe variety.

'laoshan guitars' • qingdao, china

© MARC MONTEBELLO  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
[CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

Labels: 2012, asia, china, corporate, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

this sprig serendipitously bounced off my head a couple of days ago. it is in fact the seed of many traditional chinese sounds - the paulownia tree, whose wood is carved into pipas and qins, among other stringed instruments. in a pinch, when dried out, a branch of these capsules will also make do as a tiny set of maracas.
NOTE: when you click on the image, they will appear more than three times their actual size.

'paulownia pods' • qingdao, china

© MARC MONTEBELLO  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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Labels: 2012, asia, china, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

'hardheaders' • qingdao, china

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Labels: 2012, asia, china, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

whilst lingering at a print design office the other day, i couldn't help noticing the copy on a fan one of the women was casually flapping at her desk..

'abortion fan' • qingdao, china

© MARC MONTEBELLO  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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Labels: 2012, asia, china, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

my how time flies. it's been over a month since my last entry, so to catch up with y'all i thought i'd post something old(er) yet apropos as the summer heat marches on and the infamous qingdao beer festival has come to an end.. finally. ironically this has been one of my most used photos (various lifestyle magazine covers in china and most recently at CNNGO.com) yet i've never uploaded it to my own domain. go figure.
UPDATE.. in other news, i'm happy to report, thanks to some backend tweaking, this blog is now mostly viewable in china. i'm still in the process of updating the code for older entries and the twitter feed won't show up but otherwise, welcome back china ;-)

'beach beer' • qingdao, china

© MARC MONTEBELLO  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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Labels: 2012, asia, editorial, lifestyle, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

some moments can just make your day..
[shot on an olympus E-M5 with a lumix 20mm f1.7 lens]
IF THE VIDEO ISN'T SHOWING UP YOU CAN ALSO VIEW IT HERE.

'mr. bubble' • qingdao, china

© MARC MONTEBELLO  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

[click the tiny bottom right box for fullscreen HD]

Labels: 2012, china, editorial, photographer, photography, qingdao, videos

apologies for the lapse, it's been a busy working summer. meanwhile back by popular dismay in qingdao, the 'thing' is back - an algae bloom like no other. get your green thrills.

'slime pickins' • qingdao, china

'season of slime' • qingdao, china

Labels: 2012, china, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

ottavio got his haircut this weekend - here's the before and after..

'hair today gone tomorrow' • qingdao, china

Labels: 2012, china, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

'shot with an olympus E-M5 with nikkor 105mm f2.8 macro lens' • qingdao, china

Labels: 2012, china, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

'pretty in pink' • qingdao, china

Labels: 2012, china, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

five fakes, two 'real' - can you guess which ones?
from a shoot for an upcoming article on chinese iphone clones (pre-layout version).

'iclones' • qingdao, china

Labels: 2012, china, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

from this weekend's wall street journal blog..

Labels: 2012, china, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

'on the field' • qingdao, china

Labels: 2012, china, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

from an upcoming cover feature on the best burgers in qingdao and the man who rated them.

'where's the beef?' • qingdao, china

© MARC MONTEBELLO  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

[click on image to enlarge]

Labels: 2012, china, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

'thursday threads' • qingdao, china

© MARC MONTEBELLO  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

[click on image to enlarge]

Labels: 2012, china, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

shot for revelation guitars..

'union-jacked' • qingdao, china

© MARC MONTEBELLO  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

[click on image to enlarge]

Labels: 2012, china, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

- from the 'good morning' series.

'rough night?' • qingdao, china

© MARC MONTEBELLO  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

[click on image to enlarge]

Labels: 2012, china, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao

working on a local internal campaign for an express multinational - you can probably guess who from the colours. the job includes the design of the title (see: below) and an accompanying video (never to be seen publicly i would guess). and no, i didn't pick the slogan. apologies to linux worshipers nonetheless.

'ubuntu' • qingdao, china

© MARC MONTEBELLO  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

[click on image to enlarge]

Labels: 2012, china, editorial, photographer, photography, photos, qingdao