Well I've actually been in Beijing for a good 3 weeks now (or has it really been 4 weeks already?); well, since June 1st. you can do the math.

It's slightly more complicated to blog over here, since all access to most blog sites (Xanga, WordPress, etc) are blocked by China's internet security system, what many people have lovingly termed, "The Great Firewall". But, there are of course means of bypassing this restriction - and I am currently wondering what the consequences are, of being caught doing so.

Either way - I am writing through the means of using one of these bypasses.

It's been pretty busy over here - settling down and figuring out the whole Beijing slang/accent. I'm pretty much a Twinkie (see: white-washed Asian) over here, which complicates things a bit, since I can spit out a few seemingly coherent phrases in Mandarin - but that leads locals to think that I'm 'one of them', and I'm barraged with an onslaught of Chinese which I can barely understand.

I'm working as an intern for a Search Engine Marketing company for 6 months to a year, and I do intend to possibly look for a full time position here afterwards. It's quite a transition into this industry. Having no marketing, and minimal IT/programming experience, it's a lot of reading and trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do on a day-to-day basis. One of the most helpful things that I've been keeping up with, are the RSS feeds of many SEM/SEO (Search Engine Marketing/Search Engine Optimization) blogs and websites that I have subscribed to in my Google Reader. It's hard work though. These websites and blogs churn up to ... maybe more than, 40 updates a day. Its a lot of reading I tell you!

Anyhow - I think I'm done with this post. I figure this is a pretty good start to updating - I might actually start up a new blog, so I can keep my SEM/SEO side of me separate from the photography side of me. Though, I guess I don't even really update my pictures much either. Heh. This is what I would call: "fail-sauce".

Well, signing out.

   -Duncan

hey guys;

well, i'm not even sure who's subscribed to me- but just a short update.
i'll be leaving the US on may 31st and will be heading to Beijing- arriving june 1st.

i hope to take lots of pictures, so stay tuned! or maybe i should just post them on facebook. hrmm hrmm

   -duncan

Featuring Crew Awkward Teen Hunger Force -

Battle 2::

Battle 1::

Team love, fasho fasho

   -duncan

Featuring Soul Alive?
Well, I guess more like- Jacob Lee, and Soul Alive. Heh; alright alrigh, I'm pretty biased in my coverage, but there were a bazzillion crews- I gotta be selective 'somehow' right?

Featuring... well, random people wearing FLI shirts and people in their crews.. yeah. And, well; a lot of Jenkin, because he was the co-ord that invited me to shoot =p

Featuring MSU Crew; because my friend knows a friend - yeah, one of those

  -duncan

Flash photography is an interesting thing; many people get flashes to
give that extra boost of light because fast lenses with big fatty
apertures/glass are just extremely expensive. However, a lot of people
just don't know how to control their light! And, there are many
situations where your little boost of light just becomes a flood of
'white' for someone else. (I would imagine flash photography to be
pretty darned annoying if you're breaking/dancing and someone has their
flash pointed straight at your face)

Someone had their flash diffuser attached to their flash, but weren't
even using it- it was pretty whack; I don't know why people do that
=_=;;

More flash woes- yes... beautiful pictures from spill-in flash light =)

Someone is foofing their light on the ceiling! Very nice; Good technique for soft light =)

The one cool thing about flashes- someone randomly taking a picture at the same time that you do; awesome backlight subjects!

   -duncan

I had the opportunity of shooting the annual breakdance competition, IL Breaks, which is hosted at the UofI each year-

It was a really awesome experience, and I definitely learned a lot about shooting this kinda stuff, and also more about my camera (1D Mark IIN- a very confusing camera, indeed!)

Here's a sequence of BBoy Blond - Extreme Crew, who came from Korea to give workshops and to judge the competition.

BBoy Kid David - Renegades; I think he came from Cali? to judge the event

BBoy Check-It - Chicago Tribe; Also came to judge the event

Continuing on with my gradual posting-
One of the good things about carrying a big camera around, with big lenses (well, I guess medium sized lenses, since I've reduced my gearbag to consist of primes), is that people kinda are more lenient with you when you walk around. Big cameras lets you go places =)

Showcasing, DJ Skeme Richards-

Showcasing, DJ Franco De Leon-
Some awesome stuff; I actually heard of him from a friend, before I got to IL Breaks, about a DJ who would do live production (aka, while he's DJ'ing, he'll mix in live instruments and loop it in the track- at least, that's my understanding of it). Pretty sweet stuff! I bought two of his CD's afterwards. haha =)

   -duncan

well, actually my uploads have been online for a while now- but i forgot to make a xanga post about it!

OIL pictures from my viewpoint are located at: leungduncan.zenfolio.com

check them out! =D

i should post some teaser pictures here, but! i need to sleep =)

gnites! perhaps tomorrow if i have time

   -duncan

well, i was kind of expecting it, but not this late- i'm sick

just a bit of post-OIL-immune-system-deficiency syndrome, to conclude the OIL experience.
thus starts my vitamin C chugging routine.

alright. its 1:23am, and i just finished my initial OIL photo duties for the pastors.
time to sleep, because a full awesome week of work awaits!

goodnight!

   -duncan

hey guys!

well, it was an AMAZING OIL! so many blessings and convictions that I will be combing over and praying through for the next year (until the next OIL!)

I will be posting more images later, I'm actually still in Chicago- I decided to drop by Wheaton and say hi to my third-wheel buddies, Lynn and Gunny, who just got back from the Ai Huu Vietnamese retreat.

The transportation to and from OIL was pretty ridiculous- it was fun, but the weather was totally crazy; praise God that we got back safely! Ice and snow storms are pretty much all part of the OIL experience, I guess =)

I'll post more later, I gotta head back to Champaign now, cya guys later!

Picture credits: Kenny Kim, Kenny Nakai, Duncan Leung

I will try post links to the awesome videos made by HyunKyu Yoon, Nick Joe, Peter Lee, Sean Lee

OIL Day 1
OIL Day 2
OIL Day 3

  -Duncan

hi guys! just dropping in a quick post. so our bus from chicago left at 7am, and we got into pennsylvania at 4am last night.
the trip was safe, we did run into some bad weather when we got into ohio? (i think); forcing us to pull over and de-ice the bus since the driver couldnt' see out the windows anymore.
arriving into montrose, PA, was also quite an adventure- there is this steep slope that leads up to the conference center, but our coach bus couldn't make it up- the driver repeatedly tried to back the bus up to get some speed, but no matter how much he floored it, we would make it up several feet, and then begin to slip.

right now we're just waiting for the registration to start; and downloading some of the pictures i took of our caravan-crew

will be posting lots soon!

   -duncan