I was browsing through my hard disk and found these old photographs which I took six years back in Beijing with a very humble Nikon D40 and 18-55 mm kit lens plus an used 10 mm (16mm on 35mm format) antiquated manual focus lens which I bought from a local shop. The photographs are very average. You may find annoying empty foreground on the wide shots. Despite all those mistakes I thought of sharing the photos with you guys as I just want to share the experience and not my expertise 🙂

Lets start with the most iconic structure in Beijing i.e. The Forbidden City

                       The entrance of The Forbidden City

 

-18 degrees and everything is frozen

The outer layer of Forbidden City

Inside the Forbidden City. Its been long time and I have forgotten exactly what this part of the palace is called

A giant bronze tumbler

Another structure within the palace

The roofs of Forbidden City

The frozen moat surrounding the Forbidden City.

Near Mutianyu section of The Great Wall

The Great Wall in snow. Lucky we were. The temp was less than -15 degree Celsius and we were wearing 5 layers on top and 3 at the bottom 

Temple of Heaven

Temple inside the Summer Palace

The frozen lake at the Summer Palace

A nice bridge on the frozen lake

I took a lot of risk to get this photo. Rather than walking on the trail by the lake to get to this place I took a short cut across the frozen lake itself. The lake was probably few hundred mtrs wide if not a km. Half way to the other side of the lake I could hear the cracking sound of ice sheets beneath my feet. I got scared but kept my head cool. I sat down on the lake with my legs stretched out and then expanded the tripod and then stood upright. I was holding the tripod fully expanded and away from my body just to increase the surface area. I took the shot and came back safely. But if I look back now, I shouldn’t have done that. It was insane and a very stupid idea to walk on the lake.