Reflection from the mirror

Project- Close Up

Along with my City on Contrast project, I'm also starting a new project "Close Up". What I want to do is to zoom in only parts of the subject to emphasis their feeling, characters or life.

A walk with HP5 400 Pushed 1600

I still didn't have time to shoot film during the daytime, all I could do was to keep shooting at night. 

Since I only got the Iford HP5 400 film, I pushed it by two stop to ISO1600 for a walk at the Tsui Sha Tsui and Jordan Area.

All shot by Leica M6 with 35mm Summicron 6th Element Version 2

Film and Digital

The upper is from the Leica M6 + 35mm Summicron Version 2 with Kodak Tri-X 400 pushed to 1600 and the bottom is Fuji X-E2 35mm F/1.4. I just feel the film has more feeling and depth towards the digital. It is not any apple to apple comparison because they both have different focal length, it is just base on my emotional feeling.

A designer who has no creativity

This is exactly what I feel about myself today.

Wonderful light and geometric shape

I don't think you can see me post this kind of shot often ^^. I just love it

Work selected on the: Art World of Street Photography | Art Photo Feature

My on going project "City of Contrast" photo got selected to Art World of Street Photography by Art Photo Feature. Since I was a bit confusing about my project and want to some feedback on it. I posted my image to their page and received great comments which end up became the selected work. That was really stunning to me.

All of the selected photographs are really amazing and I'm still not sure why mine is belong there. Anyways, it is such an encouragement to my on going project. Wish that this series can end up at a high note!

Quarry Bay

This is the first time I went to Quarry Bay for a photo walk, It was not easy for me because I was having a hard time to find something can make a strong connection of it. 

Got defeated at work

My role has reduced, I feel I'm an outsider of the company. I'm not sure it is my problem or others. IHowever, I have never doubt my ability, which is the most important thing. Let god led me the way to answer all of the uncertainties. Of course I will still do my best.

Just not looks like it's my image

Yeah, I feel this one is interesting, but no matter how many times I look at it, I still feel like it is not my stuff. Anyways, as a designer, street photographer, son, boyfriend…. I need to be brave and try something new in order to expand myself to think further. Wish one day I can have thousand styles of street photography and also become a boyfriend/husband can have 10 bags of trick to make my lover feels happy.

Vintage intercom

Tsim Sha Tsui- Expression

Tsui Sha Tsui is known as a retail shopping district and also a mix culture area, it has all the major brand boutiques, small shops and also with people in different races. It is one of the most crowded places in Hong Kong with many human activities and interactions, but I always feel it is hard to do street photography there.

After I have more experience of street photography especially I started to know how slowed down and observed more, I decided to give Tsui Sha Tsui another go to see I can make something good out of it.

What photography means to me?

Some say about a perfect picture, colour resolution, sharp at evey corner, pixel peeping and so on. For me a photography is about the capture of sensation, which is a emotional desire. I really like the feeling of "That's the one" when I'm pressing the shutter. The story, the atmosphere, lighting, contrast and the contract from the scene or the subject are the elements that keep me feel interesting about photography. I'm not saying that I'm not care about the focus or sharpness and depth of view at all, I do care, but they are not the main elements of a good photograph.
You can have a sharp focus image with dreamy bokeh which has no soul. All I want is to show every tiny bit of myself through my photography. 

After I finished this writing I think I write about what camera means to me in the future. 

First roll of film- Leica M6

I always want to own a Leica and I always look at the market to see is there any affordable one. I wanted to get a M9 but it was way too expensive. At the end I found a M6 black and a 35mm summicron version 2. Since Leica's price will not really depreciate, if it is not suit for me then I can sell it afterward. Here are the shots from shot photo walk.

All Shot with Leica M6 with 35mm Summicron Pre ASPH with Fuji Xtra 400 Film pushed to 1600.

Thousand times, first shot

I have been there for more than thousand times, but this is the first time I take a picture of this street. When I was a teenager, I used to go to the TV game arcade centre, local restaurant almost everyday. So the feeling came and told me to take a shot of it.

Will get my Nikon FM2 back this week!

I will do some film stuff after I get my camera back later this week (It is at the repairing service). I haven't done any film photography since my first year in university. At that time, all I know was to focus, read the meter, and press the shutter. I knew nothing about the light, all of my works were flat and meaningless. Wish I can make some interesting stuff after a year and a half of shooting experience.

Shek Kip Mei

I used to studied in Shek Kip Mei when I was around 14, it was an old district and it still had some oldest public housing estate left (the rest had been demolished) in Hong Kong. Last week, I went to Shek Kip Mei to have some pick up basketball games, I went there and took some shots before the basketball game which brought me back some old memories.

3 subjects, 2 scenes

3 subjects, 2 scenes and I maybe one of them. When you are on the mood, you can't see the sadness beside you, but vice versa when I'm in down time and see the happiness right next to me, that makes me even worse. If possible, I would just ignore them and turn away.

35th floor

I rare went to skyscraper for meeting. Today we went to 65th floor for a meeting about the digital solution design. After the meeting we went to 35th floor for a coffee and I took this shot. I have no intention to shoot the subject at all, all I wanted to do was to took a couple snap and iMessage to my girlfriend about this nice looking building's interior.  Of course I saw that person when I pressed the shutter from my iPhone and found it was a gorgeous image. I just like photography because of that unexpected beauty.

Father figure

I still want to be that kid who can lay on daddy's shoulder. My dad has left me and my mother for more than 10 years… Now I'm 32, not a young kid anymore but I still want to have a father figure who can taught me through his experience. I can live without him, but I really missed the completeness of my family.

Now I will use my blog in as my personal diary to express my feeling through the use of photography and text. Wish my blog can become a tool to documentary my growth in life.

Makes familiar things unfamiliar

I was walking on a bridge at Shek Kip Mei and found some interesting shadow. I some shots and this is the one remaining. Viewpoint is interesting because it can makes familiar things unfamiliar, I don't think this image can have some kind of interestingness if I shot at eye level.

City of Contrast

I will do a photo essay about the "City of Contrast" As I always says, Hong Kong is a compact city with such a busy environment. From my point of view, people want to find personal spaces to give them a breathing room. To show the emotion through the personal spaces, I use the chaotic lights from the gap between, buildings, signs, bars to create space for the subject.

Update: 24/ Jan, 2013

For the on going project "City on Contrast" I started with Black and White, after a while, I found some success  of using colour and feel that it is stronger than the Black and White for this series. Now I will make this as a colour project.

Here are the colour images

I always want to have more colour works and this series is the chance for me to do it. I'm really excited to see how it end up!

Crowded

I always wanted to make a shot which shows many faces in one go, but it was hard because the composition will went off and became messy, but not this time. I like this image because it shows the busyness of Hong Kong and also shows the individualism as well. Every faces on the images show no connection with each other which is symbolic to Hong Kong life: rush, no personal space and self protection.

Communication

We love the convenient of smarthphone, we can do social media, chat, internet and almost everything with that palm size super computer. Sometimes we just concentrate on our phone rather than the one beside us. We need to use the technology wisely.

Portrait

I did this candid shot not only about the great light, but also the "Eminem" hat. The contrast between the old man and also the a lot younger Eminem makes me feel interesting which add something to this portrait.