Color, shadow and composition

Still life

Sometimes I feel I don't appreciate still life photography as it supposes to. It is a great form of photography and taking image with small details is very lovely.
Shot at boxing day.

Self Portrait

Slow down

In a busy and fast city like Hong Kong, we just keep working like a machine and have no time to take a break. We need to force ourselves to take breaks in order to slow down our mind and think what do we really want in our life. Family, relationship, friends or just getter rich? what do we what? let slow down and get back to the right track.

Tired at the restaurant

Color

Color is hard for me but not this time. I wish I can read colour better and create more colour works in the future.
Also I read an article(with video demo) from Thorsten Overgaard blog about the processing method , he made things simple and without ruining any natural look of the image, which impressed me. I highly recommend it.

Heartwarming - The use of big aperture

A direct shot, simple which tells the story in the simplest way. It was a reaction shot, I didn't have time to plan for the shooting angle, lighting and the framing, I just fired right the way and it works. Someone say it is not suitable to use big aperture to blur the background in street photography, but I think if it suits the purpose, you can use any aperture. For this image, I don't it will be that impactful if I didn't blur out the background because the background will become the distraction of the mother and son(the subject).

Go close

"If your photographs aren't good enough, you're not close enough." Robert Capa, it is one of the most famous quote about street photography and also it the hardest one to execute because you need to conquer the fear when you shoot the unknown person in such a close distance. It takes me a year to overcome the fear and now I can shoot close with a wide angle lens (28mm field of view in 35mm format) if I needed to. You may ask what do you mean of "needed to", my answer is it is all about the impact. If I can create a strong and impactful image by getting close to the subject, I would try to do it (I will not force it). Shooting close up is only one kind shooting style and it works in some situation especially the subject with unique character.

Old friends gathering with the X-E2 : Indoor Autofocus and shooting at wide open challenge

I shoot mainly street photography most of the time, 3 days ago I had chance to do something different to shoot friends and their kids during the yearly gathering. We started our friendship in Edmonton, Canada more than 10 years ago and now we live in separate places, LA, Hong Kong, Canada… I was having a good time to talk about all kind of things and experiences with them and also I have a chance to take some snaps with them and also with their loving kids!

Contrast

Lights creates atmosphere, if we use it wisely, we can create interesting images in all lighting conditions, such as harsh light, golden light, and flat light. I'm still a student of light reading and I'm trying to learn from using different lighting conditions which is a hit or miss to me. By the way, this image is my early success in shooting at the harsh light condition which I really like.

Street Portrait

50mm is not a versatile focal length for street photography because everything is pretty tight and flat. I used to have a hard time to handle it. The more I shot with it, I found out if the framing are tight, you better go closer to emphasis on the subject and give it more impact. 50mm is not easy for all around shooting especially in a crowded city like Hong Kong, but it is still very useful for some close up work.

Motion blur on the street: A great lesson to myself

Street photography has no limit, razor sharp image, blurry image, as long as it is interesting, you can do whatever you want. This shot was from instinct, I wasn't prepared for it at all. I was ready to turn off my camera and I saw the fantastic light lilted the nice looking legs perfectly then I my instinct moved my finger to press the shutter and the outcome was just fantastic! It taught me a lesson of how to use slow shutter speed and of course I will try more in the future and hopefully to create a series of it.

Fuji X-E2 for streetphotography review

I like my X-E1 it has really amazing image quality, but it is not trusty because the camera has shutter lag and LCD/ viewfinder lag(slow refresh rate which especially at night or low light situation) which cause me some trouble in shooting at night which is the time I do my photography most of the time. When Fuji came up with the X-E2 which promise to deliver better autofocus and also fix all the flaws from the X-E1, so that I bite the bullet and give it a try.

Scene inside the station

C is about COLOR!

Alone

Shot at Kowloon MTR station

Nathan Road

Railway terminal

I wanted to get this shot for so long and the outcome was perfect. Empty area, train on the left, and also the terminal is above the estate I used to live.

Contrast

Ask for fortune

The woman from the right paid for that guy to tell her about her destiny, what would you do?

Heading to party?

I'm enjoying the my new Fuji 18mm F/2 R on the street, just like the happy face from them.

Pattern

You may ask what is this? the answer is it is the side wall from an old building at the West Central area in Hong Kong Island. It looks interesting to me, how about you?

Blend myself to the scene

I'm always want to try something new by blending myself into the scene.

Walking at the the rainy night

Chess battle

Dream

Fuji 18mm review

I have brought a used Fuji 18mm F/2 R despite from the mixed bag reviews among the Internet. The reason is I need a small 28mm full frame equivalent FOV for my street work and the 18mm F/2 lens is the only choice and glad that I made the purchase.

Eye contact

Focus peaking make this shot possible from my X-E1, 35mm combo

Just for laugh

Looking at the instant photo

Street documentary project: Life on narrow alleys

I have multiple street photography/ documentary projects are work on and this is the one I want to share so far and it is call "Life on narrow alleys". Hong Kong is such a small and compact city, due to the size limitation, it has lot of narrow, tight and long alleys. This series aim to documentary the life in that tight space.

Big sunglasses

Reading at the dark

This is the successful one from my searching for new angles and lighting. I was lucky enough to have light to show the outline of the subject and create a silhouette like figure contrast with the fully lighted background.

Hot night

Amazing Cloud (All shot in one day)

"Wow! It is amazing!" that was what I said when I woke up and looked out through the window. Then the next thing I did was took out my camera and captured it. 

Karaoke

Eason Chan Live 2013

 I went to Eason Chan concert with Grace and I took a couple shots with my Olympus OMD with 17mm and 45mm lens. Even I shot quite far away, but I do think it is good enough to record the great time.

Eep Clean

Shot by XE-1 with Firmware 2.0, the area was really clogged up and I only had one chance a and I made it. I think I would missed the shot with the old firmware.

Two scene

The 35mm F/1.4 R is damn sharp....

Outsider

Dollar Store

Injuried

Characters

Forbidden

Reflection

Beside, street photography, I start to shoot more cityscape and I feel it also reflects of my feeling towards the city of Hong Kong. I like this shot because the building of the middle has got a nice reflection from the left side. Also, the tight spacing is a signature of Hong Kong.

Tired old man

Real Life Never Stops

No discount

Side by side (Rival?)