Shanghai nights
(Dog snoozing on the street: Shanghai)
This was taken near the magical street of night food, and a few streets from the junk market we discovered by day (http://china.analoguegirl.co.uk/junk-and-mao/).
I have mentioned before how extreme China can be, but here you can see the bamboo scaffolding on this house in stark contrast to the impossibly soaring skyscrapers bristling with steel. There are pockets of these smaller, precariously surviving neighbourhoods hiding all over the centre, much to our relief; it is easy to become overwhelmed by commercial, urban Shanghai, and China in general.
The dog in this shot was a bonus – people and pets line the streets at night; playing games, eating, resting, bathing, sleeping, chatting and many other activities. In the UK, people often spend warm evenings in the garden or chat to neighbours from front doors, but it is nothing like this. In this part of the city, it feels very community oriented with the pavement and road becoming an extension of homes. What I like about this shot is being able to see right into this person’s home, with the scooter resting inside. Outside, the chair has been left empty, guarded by a very lethargic dog – but no doubt whoever owns it intended to take a nap in the warm night air before retiring to the house.
perfect composition of the picture, as if you arranged every thing, the chair, the dog and the motorbike.