You are correct. The low ISO and shutter speed works for the very first shot of the Shanghai Bund and is the "ideal" when you have a tripod. High quality and smooths out the water. Obviously you can't do that every time- particularly when it is hand-held. The exposure on the RAW file for the street scene you mention was 1/10th of a sec @F4.5 at 400ISO in RAW+JPEG mode. And while I don't recall the exact situation for this shot, I seem to remember that I braced myself against another building while shooting this image.

Apologies for not making those distinction more clear.

Nothing wrong with shooting hand held. In fact, shots 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 are all hand-held. Sometimes, a tripod isn't available because of convenience or you're simply caught off-guard with the scene. Shoot it anyway! A tripod though will up the quality level significantly by allowing a much lower ISO, slower shutter speeds when you need it and no vibration or shake. Given the choice, I would rather shoot with the tripod in these situations though.

the shot of the Mid-Bay bridge in San Francisco was actually a "miracle shot". I was on a moving ship going under the bridge and no tripod with an exposure of 1/8 of a sec. at F4 while the ship was moving. A miracle that it turned out. I shot 6 frames and this one was the only usable one.

If you try this, let me know how it goes, OK? The shot you mentioned was made in Florence, Italy while I was visiting there for a weekend. I stayed in a castle 18km from Cortona in Tuscany and went to Florence to see the art and take in some world-class Italian food. Bar none, one of the very best cities anywhere. I was walking back to my Air B&B and came upon that scene, and the lady's red dress just seemed to pop out at me and I could not resist making a few shots. Thanks again for noticing this shot and it's an honor to show it to you.

I thought I would give it another shot. Quite honestly, I have endured a lot of snark here and particularly from people who have issues with China, which of course, I have ZERO control over. I had just decided enough is enough. In the summary that I read about this section, it mentions that "lessons" are OK to post here. Not sure if we were reading different ones. But, if posting this is an issue, let me know and I will happily delete it. Seems that most of what I do here seems to be "incorrect".

Than you, David! I noticed you're from Belfast. One of our professors here, a guy named Mark Benson, moved to Belfast to work. He is from that area and is thrilled to be there again. We miss him here though.

Well, just today, I signed my new contract and will be here for another 3 years. If you get back here, let me know.

Happy to read this. Thank you!

Hi all,

Been a while since I revisited this thread, but going through the ideas once again and just wanted to once again say thank you for your good ideas. Still in China, still teaching photography and all is going pretty well here. Hope you are healthy and shooting well.

Go to JAIL? I don't think so. This is as off-base as blinknikon's. Just not this way folks, really.

When you do, let me know how it goes, please? In Utah, you should have plenty of good scenery for this.

Thanks!

Thank you and hope you enjoy!

Thank you! I almost feel dirty reading this. hahaha!

Thank you Earnest. I dream of an authentic Shelby one day...

No, this is in a lake, so it is simply aquatic plants. The trouble is if there are fish in the same water, or if they are growing rice, it will kill them. I think, if my Chinese is correct, they are prepping this for rice. Although here in China (and Japan, and much of the Asian Rim) they do eat seaweed and if prepared correctly, is quite good, particularly with Sushi.