Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, Beijing 2012

Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, Temple of Heaven, Beijing, China 2012
iPhone 4 | 3.85mm | ƒ/2.8

I was working at GroupM, in Singapore, when I took this photograph. I had only been living in Asia for about a year and half, and as a team building event we were able to go on a field trip to China. The economy for WPP, and our business in Asia was much different than it is today, so taking 40 people to Beijing just seemed like a good thing to do.

I took some vacation time ahead of the tour, flying first into Hong Kong for a few days, then crossing over to Mainland China by boat, and then wandering around smaller cities until I fly into Beijing. I love solo traveling. Once I reached Beijing, I joining the team for the arranged tours for the Great Wall, as well as the Forbidden City, and the Temple of Heaven.

I had packed my Leica D-lux 4, the wonderful little second hand purchase I had made shortly after I arrived in Singapore in 2010, and a battery. I forgot my charger. I only realized this when the battery got low in Hong Kong. (Note that I now own many batteries for my Fuji, and a couple extra chargers).

By the time I found myself standing in front of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the tallest building in the Temple complex, my Leica was dead, stuffed in my backpack. I stood here for almost an hour, waiting for a time when there were no people passing in front of the building looking at my watch over and over to be certain I did not miss our buss back to the hotel. I figured I could get back on my own, but also didn’t need to deal with that on only my second day in a city that speaks very little English.

I captured this photo with my iPhone 4. It seems lifetimes ago with the rapid advances in phone based photography, but it still produced one of my most favorite architectural images to date.