The umbrellas on the streets of Mong Kok speak for themselves.
All images were taken with Contax TVS II, loaded with Kodak Ultramax 400 film.
Tag: film photography
Love and Peace at Lennon Wall Hong Kong
This was what I saw at the Hong Kong Government Offices at Central.
You could think of this as a temporary exhibit, as an example of public art.
Is there an artist claiming responsibility for this?
I’ll let the wall speak for itself.
All images taken with Contax TVS, loaded with Fuji S 400 film.
Ladies’ Market
This is Ladies’ Market at Mongkok.
It’s a short stretch of market stalls popular with tourists and locals alike.
We were a bit early so we got to see the stalls being set up.
This is the ubiquitous red/white/blue canvas.
The material has been used to make awnings, bags, covers, etc.
It was a hot day.
The goods were arriving.
People were doing all these calculations.
Hong Kong, of course, is defined by numbers.
I was using my Olympus XA2.
The 35mm lens was great for tight situations.
I was worried about the shutter speed in the shade and hence was using the Fuji Superia 800 film.
The film has a “powdery” painterly effect sometimes.
Wonderful colours.
Seasoned tourist.
I like the (faux?) leather notebooks.
Hong Kong’s street markets are literally full of colours.
A bit of heartfelt advertising.
I especially like the above image because the slight blur as a result of the camera shake adds to the sense of urgency in the way we look.
A bit of effort.
For collectors: open-edition prints are available at my Saatchi Art page.
Purchasing Schemes
Again we choose.
We decide.
We look.
Hmm…
That one! Yes!
This is the season.
We’re in season.
We stop to think.
And buy wisely.
All images are taken with my stealthy Contax TVS II with Ferrania Solaris 400 film.
For collectors: some images here are available as open edition affordable prints at my Saatchi Art page.
Thanks for reading!
Decisions
So many to choose from!
We follow our appetites.
We make the effort.
We are exasperated.
We lose ourselves.
Oh yes! A real decision!
We have the luxury of time.
We calculate.
We choose again.
All images here are from my trusty Minolta AF-C, loaded with Kodak Professional BW400CN film.
Some images from this post are available as affordable open edition prints at my Saatchi Art page for collectors.
Do drop by to have a look.
Shenzhen Shopping Monochrome
For the images here, I’ve done a B/W conversion from Fuji Venus 800 film loaded on Olympus XA2.
I’ve done a minimal bit of tweaking for some high contrast.
To my eyes, they look somewhat raw and harassed.
Here’s another one of Luohu Commercial City, viewed at a lower level.
You could see this is a popular place for bargains.
The above composition looks quirky – though it looks strangely apt.
This is how we see things – artlessly.
I’m up close, and they’re too busy negotiating prices to notice.
Why is it that yummy food is always unhealthy food?
That’s the way we see things sometimes – blurred and hurried.
You could see I lingered for a bit at this stall…
Check out those food on the skewers …
And yes, let’s not forget the man who winked at my wife…
Some images from this post are available here as affordable prints, in case you haven’t checked out my Saatchi Art page yet.
Waiting, Choosing, Eating
Every day, we do the same thing.
We wait.
We’re waiting for something to happen.
Or for someone to come along to give us the answer.
We wait for that big transcendental Other, that Godot, to come along.
We have a choice, we think.
We choose.
We consult.
And hope for the best.
And then we eat.
And after all that, we’ll be merry.
For collectors: some images from this post are available as open edition prints.
Not Shopping at Tsim Sha Tsui
All images here are shot at Tsim Sha Tsui with the Contax TVS II loaded with Fuji Venus 800 film.
The Contax TVS series of film cameras are gorgeous, with titanium bodies, aperture priority and P modes.
There’s a 28-56 focal length zoom which is ideal for street photography.
For me, they are the more nimble younger siblings of the Contax T3.
Which explains why I went out the other day with the intention of not buying that Contaxt TVS II I had seen, complete with the databack.
This person saw what I was about to do, and smiled.
Check out that SLR camera-thing his buddy behind him was carrying.
Hong Kong people work really hard.
We keep saying that Hong Kong is a shopping paradise.
Of course, we need people to service the economy.
There are shoppers just as there are delivery people.
A salute to the people who keep things going.
Sometimes they are invisible to the shoppers, often faceless and anonymous.
We should make it a point to notice people more …
To see the difference between glamour and real people.
Otherwise, we’re nothing more than mannequins looking at other mannequins.
For collectors: open edition prints from this post are not available here.
I suppose that’s my (ironic) gesture of commitment to the push and pull of capitalist logic…
Leica M6 Summicron Love
It’s been a while since I’ve given some love to my Leica M6.
The Minolta AF-C and Contax TVS point-and-shoot combo has pampered me.
The auto-focus and auto-exposure modes do allow me to get into the flow of things, to the point where I’ve come to think of manual focusing and exposure as distractions to stealth and composition.
So I was worried that I’ve lost touch with the Leica M6 routine.
All images here are from Leica M6, 50mm Summicron Type II lens, on Fuji Superia 400.
A little warm up was needed.
Testing testing. Got to be fast on the double-decker bus as the reflections are flitting past. Yes, I can rhyme pretty well.
A little practice on walls.
No prizes for guessing where this is for HK film photography people: that film lab (Dot-Well Photo Workshop) across the road develops your film in 15 mins during non-rush hours, for the princely sum of HK$20.
The people working there exemplify the HK way of doing things – somehow they manage to be gruff, direct, and friendly at the same time. And all those film cameras piled up in there …
And that building (Champagne Court at Kimberley Road) has a magnetic quality to it, given the vintage film camera shops.
I often go there with the intention of not buying a camera.
The prices could be a tad high, compared with the stalls at Shamshuipo.
But it’s really apples vs oranges, since many of the Champagne Court shops cater to collectors who would then place the cameras in their cabinets, whereas the cameras stalls at Shamshuipo are more for users.
Yes, I was spotted, so I did my silly-tourist-frowning-and-muttering-at-his-camera routine.
If they’re within earshot, I would mutter in my Klingon dialect.
I’m happy I’m still able to capture images the way we look at other people in crowded urban landscapes. We see through glimpses.
We glance at one another so as to be polite.
We learn not to look too directly at people.
For collectors: open edition prints from this post are available here.
Fuji Superia Venus 800
I usually do very little post-editing, leaving the quality of the film to sort itself out.
But the colours can turn out to be so very different from one exposure to another.
All images here are done with my Contax TVS, with Fuji Superia Venus 800.
The above looks so lomography-ish.
I suppose lomography is point-and-shoot film photography write large.
Then you have this, which seems a bit warm.
And then this:
Greens and blues are rather saturated, with a gritty look to them.
I waited a bit for the green canvas to be spread out, and was spotted.
So I smiled and waved, trying very hard to look like a silly tourist befuddled by his camera.
Oh look – yummy lychees!
And here, the colours are muted.
I was hoping for a silhouette effect.
And then I switched off my camera, turned it on again, and forgot to de-activate the auto-flash function.
The flash went off less than 2 metres from him. He looked at my camera, and didn’t react…
I figured he must be deep in thought, or was he looking at something else…
For collectors: open edition prints from this post are available here.
Hong Kong Lucida 