Become a quallie, travel the world and see the sights ... of airport terminals, taxi-cabs, hotel rooms and basement viewing studios. An experience common, I suspect, to most qual researchers working on international projects as an employee.
When I set up in business on my own, I promised myself I'd organise the schedules so that I actually got to see some of the places I visited. It isn't always possible, of course: sometimes the project schedules are too tight to allow even a morning off. But whenever I can, I allow an extra day or two when visiting an interesting place.
Go west young researcher!
In San Francisco, I'd had visions of a gorgeous sunrise as the Golden Gate Bridge broke through the dawn clouds. Anyone who knows SF won't be remotely surprised to hear that the bridge didn't emerge from the dense fog until late morning. Undeterred, I nipped back across the bridge early in the evening to take a shot with the city in the background across the bay:
A rented scooter let me explore the hills, revealing a view of SF I would never have guessed existed:
Then east ...
The best shots are often in the 'golden hour' before and after sunset, which is unfortunately when we're generally stuck behind a one-way mirror in said basement. Having an extra day in a city makes all the difference. There is no better time to stand on the Bund looking across the Huangpu River at the incredible Shanghai skyline:
Not to mention nipping into the Jin Mao Tower for one of the most beautiful man-made sights in the world: the astonishing atrium in the Hyatt which occupies floors 53 to 87. I was fortunate there were two guests enjoying the view further down to lend a sense of scale:
The weather wasn't terribly cooperative for my Tokyo visit, but I did at least find a vantage point for a shot of the famous Shibuya Crossing (now emulated in miniature form at Oxford Circus):
Then west again ....
For a trip to DC, I arranged to meet a couple of models for a shoot around the Washington Mall area. In stark contrast with London, where some jobsworth PCSO or security guard will come running at the first sign of a big camera, nobody bothered us in the slightest even when we were using one of the country's most famous monuments as a setting:
Like most quallies, I have only a passing familiarity with the ante meridiem end of the day, but since I had to be up reasonably early anyway for my flight home, and my model was a dancer, it seemed rude not to make the effort to struggle out of bed for a quick sunrise shoot with the Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument providing a suitable background for a fitting farewell shot:
