Hi, I'm glad you stopped by.
My name is Lizbeth. Grab a panda and join me as I leave Las Vegas in pursuit of adventure in China's tea houses, classrooms, dirt roads, and industrial cities. I shoot with a Nikon D3100 and am sharing my journey through it's lens.
Share with me, talk to me, ask me: Feel free to leave any questions or thoughts in the ask box below.
Photography by Lizbeth Arias is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
First time behind the wheel since last year. There’s something so satisfying about a quiet drive through town - windows rolled down, warm desert breeze, and no place to rush to.
Next Up: Tales from Beijing
Day 23 - Sunset
(30 Day Photo Challenge)
Capturing a picture of the sunset in Chengdu is a challenge I’m not willing to take on. Of course the days are not normally dark. Days are lit by a bright grey sky. Direct sunlight (and the sun itself) are hidden behind layers and layers of things I don’t necessarily want described to me. Beyond those layers, I’m sure you could see the sun retreat behind the horizon. What I see is instead similar to what happens when you slowly pull down the switch of a light dimmer.
As such, today I will provide you with two sunsets which I captured last year at home.
- The first is the sunsetting behind the New York, New York Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
- The second is a photo I took in Vegas near the Nellis Air Force Base. I got out of my car and was stunned by what looked like swirls of lava overtaking a blanket of blue.
From Me To You: Encore! Encore!
It’s a total Wynn-Win.
We were in Las Vegas recently to attend the NAB (yes, as geeky as it sounds) and stayed at Steve Wynn’s breathtaking Encore Hotel. The views were incredible, the perfumed air was intoxicating, and the modern classic design matched everything I packed to wear. Small…
This woman is a wonderful photographer and has one of the best wardrobes ever. This post has great words and photos of Las Vegas. It makes me miss the lights and allure of my hometown.
My comfort music is usually The Killers. Romeo & Juliet has been a recurring track these days for some reason. Have a listen if you are so inclined. Good night.
“When are you going to realize, it was just that the time was wrong.”
I know these aren’t China related, but I have a whole bunch of unshared pictures from Sarah’s visit, Kenia G’s birthday, and miscellaneous outings. Here’s just a random handful.
Carry on, lovelies. :p
Hey babe, take a walk on the quiet side.
My walk back to the dorms this evening was a satisfying kind of beautiful.
I was initially a bit apprehensive about walking to the dorms alone after midnight, but the hesitation quickly wore away as my intuition took over. Because it’s Spring Festival in China, the streets are significantly quieter than usual since locals are tucked away in the comfort of their families. I hadn’t walked by myself before, but I felt fine with exploring the route on my own accord. There is a simple satisfaction in not being 100% sure that you’ve chosen the right direction, then turning the corner to find a familiar landmark reaffirming that the last right you made was indeed correct. It was quiet and peaceful, and I highly enjoyed being able to stop whenever the road invited me to take some pictures.
I leave you with these images, the first being the entrance to the dorms and the second just a random elevator shot. Goodnight, I have to sleep in preparation for my morning Skype date. :D
When one door closes…
One thing I love about traveling is being able to arrive some place new with a completely fresh start. No one knows your name or knows your bad habits. No one knows about where you’ve been or where’d you’d like to go. You can put your best foot forward and push yourself to accomplish new goals, refine existing standards, and learn things you never thought possible.
All the while, you can still build on your talents and knowledge base with the help of a new cultural lens. It’s amazing and refreshing to meet new people from completely different walks of life, whose path you just happened to cross at that moment in time. I love learning about people and from people, and traveling is one of the best ways to do that.
That being said, I’d like to share some of the major goals I’d like to accomplish during the next few months. It’s important to not lose sight of why you are where you are, and how to actively work to accomplish what you set out to do. So my six major goals are as follows:
- Learn as much Mandarin as possible.
- Government and politics in China is my secondary concentration while abroad, and I hope to broaden my understanding of what exactly that entails.
- Explore, wander, get lost and found, discover places to love that I’ve never before imagined.
- Meet new people, learn from them, share with them, explore with them.
- I plan to get my first (and likely only) tattoo while in China. I know exactly what I want, where I want it, and I am so excited to get it.
- Become stronger, smarter, more travel savvy and in short: be better.
Thank you to those who spent my last night in Vegas with me. I truly enjoy your company and am glad I was able to see all of your lovely faces. I’m off to have the last sleep in my bed before I fly out tomorrow afternoon.
… another opens.
