The Testicle Festival is a Montana institution. Held at the Rock Creek Lodge in Clinton, MT, just outside of Missoula, the festival has been going for nearly 30 years. Thousands come to the wild event from all over to indulge in a local delicacy: Rocky Mountain Oysters. Battered and deep-fried, the bull testicles are a favorite among attendees, but the real fun to be had is the 4-day party. Ridiculous games such as the Undie 500, in which contestants drink beer, race tricycles, strip away clothing for poor perforance; a wet t-shirt contest that always turns into an amateur strip show; and dancing late into the night to live bands. On one evening this year, the crowd packed the dance floor to a raucous cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd. At the Testicle Festival, however, the song echoing through the valley was “Sweet Home Montana.”

More pictures are available for licensing at my archive site.

Caught on the return trip from the US to China this week, I was among the thousands of travelers stranded at Beijing Capital International Airport. Severe thunderstorms crippled the airport, delaying or cancelling hundreds of flights for a day and a half. I took a few pictures while sorting out my own travel woes. Air China, thankfully, put me up in a decent-enough hotel while I waited for the mess to unwind. More pictures are available for licensing.

Spent a few days in Urumqi, capital Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, covering how the city has coped with ethnic tensions half a year or so after the violence in the summer of 2009. There are still plenty of signs of strife and unrest, but the city’s hustle-and-bustle economy seems to be on the mend. Now with the rumoured stimulus package planned for the region, the city hopes for a bright future. These pictures serve as a glimpse of a longer story to be published here soon.

I’ve been exploring the edge of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, where high-rise apartments and luxury shopping malls give way to farm fields, chemical factories, universities, and new luxury housing developments.

Here are a few more from the Wall Street Journal profile of Mrs. Sun-yoo Kim and her attempts to reinvigorate the MCM luxury fashion brand. I covered the opening day/evening of the brand’s flagship store in Shanghai. Here’s the tearsheet.

While in South Korea on a commercial shoot, I had some downtime on travel days and evenings to catch a few glimpses of the streets of Seoul and Busan.

The 2010 World’s Expo has opened in Shanghai, China, but just out of view behind the beautiful buildings is the army of workers making it possible. Fast-paced construction, increased security, and the need for more streetsweepers and other vital jobs has brought thousands to the city to make sure the Expo goes as planned.

For Map Magazine, a Chinese publication, I was assigned to photograph a few portraits of overseas Chinese people who have returned to the mainland for a variety of reasons. Some returned to chase business opportunities, others for reasons relating to family and heritage.

I spent the better part of the Lunar New Year traveling between Qinghai and Gansu Provinces, hoping to make it to Pingliang in time for the evening celebrations. The night was spent in good company with a group of young Hui minority Muslims enjoying Beijing’s annual holiday gala on the television and a few fireworks.

While in the city of Pingliang in Gansu Province for an ethnic minority Hui wedding, I got the chance to explore the streets a bit.