A Thinking Street Photography Site
Again at Sham Shui Po.
Life follows function.
The buildings are useful for nostalgia.
Though they’re still here.
Bodies crammed between buildings.
A selection of goods.
At the butcher’s.
Chinese foodstuff.
Frenetic energy.
Bustle.
Check out the lap cheong (Chinese dried sausages)!
Yummy.
A window reflects.
Work in progress.
Still building.
Renewal and construction.
A tree trunk is tamed.
Shroud on building.
A conference.
A building pushes.
Camera: Canon 600D
Legacy Lens: SMC Takumar 35mm f 3.5
All images were taken with one camera on a single roll of film on the same day.
Fare well, Occupy Central.
At Causeway Bay.
Freedom under watch.
At Admiralty.
Camera: Contax TVS II
Film: Kodak UltraMax 400
An early Christmas for Occupy Central at Causeway Bay.
Fare well.
People are packing.
Amidst Christmas sale.
Installation with steel resolve.
Imagine what might have been.
Freedom under the eye of the clock.
At Admiralty.
Unpoetic translation: even if there’s disappointment, one cannot lose hope.
There’s a time to pack up.
A time to plant fresh hope.
A time to remember.
Time to take stock.
Sacrifice.
Hope.
Restrain.
Hunger strike zone.
Merry Christmas Occupy Central.
The central government offices are overwritten with desire.
Home is Hong Kong.
A time to build up.
A time to let go.
A time for nostalgia.
Merry Christmas Occupy Central.
Fare well.
Fare well.
Photos in previous posts have been featured in the following literary journal articles:”Whither Hong Kong?“, Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement: Four Poems” and “The Umbrellas and the Tear Gas“.
Camera: Canon 600D
Legacy Lens: SMC Takumar 35mm f 3.5
Here’s a mishmash of images of Singapore, significant to myself.
Though the underlying theme here is about how we try to snatch something beautiful out of what is essentially functional.
Form follows function in much of Singapore.
Life, too, follows function: poetry is a luxury we cannot afford.
There is one way only. The rest is barred.
If you live with it long enough, it becomes beautiful.
Draw the curtains.
Poetry delayed is poetry denied.
We are at the zoo.
The helpful tram driver and a passenger.
After the animal show – poetry is found after the event.
Reflections in the MRT.
The tree is obedient, bent in the wind.
Perhaps something is poetry after all…
Thanks for reading.
Camera: Leica M6
Lens: Voigtlander 35mm f 1.4 Nokton SC
Film: Ilford XP2
At the zoo in Singapore with my son.
We did a double photo combo, with my 10-year-old son holding the Canon 600D with a 40mm f 2.8 STM lens and I holding my Leica M6. I’ll post my photographs another day.
All photos here, except for the elephant shot, were by my son.
On the way to the zoo, he found the water droplets at the back of a bus interesting.
He’s developing a good visual sense, I must say.
Nice monkey.
Nice erm … plant thingey.
Looking up to see itself.
Nice fishes.
A very charming gentleman.
Nice big mole.
I waited for a while before everything came together in this shot.
I told my son to wait till all the necks were parallel with one another.
Would have been better if they were between the trees in contrast with the background.
A horse (pony?) sticking its neck out.
Feed the goats!
My son was fascinated by the polar bear show.
It’s a powerful looking bear. We were told polar bears weigh only about 350 grams at birth.
This is grace.
Power.
Determination.
When I grow up I want to be a polar bear.
I’ve lived in Hong Kong long enough such that I could see Singapore with a fresh set of eyes.
Some of the buildings have become rather futuristic.
And public housing flats are beginning to look very homely.
Singapore is home, a comfortable grid.
We’re all fitted into grids.
Nice looking public housing.
Was at Hard Rock Café with my family.
An amazing acoustic set – it’s nice to listen to local acts with my wife… while trying to get our children to eat their broccoli.
The HRC I know were Saturday clubbing nights, 2 decades ago.
As I looked around at the various tables, I saw expat families with kids, tourists and middle-class locals out for dinner.
Times have changed – or perhaps I have changed.
Once upon a time, I wanted to be a rock star with my acoustic guitar.
The lyric he’s singing: “I’m all about that bass, about that bass, about that bass…”
Subsequent serious research (Google and Wikipedia) tells me it’s really a very cool song.
Now, I see HRC as an F&B outlet using rock music as a marketing tool, reaching out to customers like me who’ve come of age with the likes of GnR, Bon Jovi and Skid Row.
Perhaps I’m getting older and more cynical.
Still – it’s good to be young and idealistic.
HRC still looks impressive.
The colour is wonderful.
Orchard Road is gearing up for Christmas.
Hilton façade with a dash of nature.
A Martian landscape in full colour.
Equally interesting in monochrome.
It’s nice to be young…
An empty bus looks somewhat disturbing, like an unfulfilled promise.
This looks better – all blurry and full of promise.
Thanks for reading!
Camera: Canon 600D
Legacy Lens: Meyer-Optik Gorlitz Lydith 30mm f. 3.5
So, here’re some memories of Mong Kok.
They were trying to create a better community.
The streets announced their will.
The exhibits were playful: this looked like an umbrella carousel.
There were thoughtful moments like this at Mong Kok.
There were hard hats with a tough message.
There was a clear intention.
There was energy.
There were tents.
There were floating umbrellas.
Pretty umbrellas.
The streets belonged to its people.
The signs and umbrellas were there.
There were ominous moments.
The graduates were there.
They were preparing for an eventuality.
Yellow and blue went well together.
There were selfie moments.
He told me to take a picture and share it.
Goodbye tents, goodbye Occupy Mong Kok.
Camera: Canon 600D
Legacy Lens: Meyer-Optik Gorlitz Oreston 50mm f 1.8
We were at a wet market in Yuen Long.
I walked past this shed and felt I really had to take a shot.
If you’re in construction, you have to be a bit of a Spiderman.
They’re very agile.
Chicken rice stall.
We walked through a wet market.
Straw hats for sale.
Very fried and oily calamari (or were they oysters)?
I thought the wall was rather beautiful.
I was having a William Eggleston moment here.
The second floor of a village house.
Dried seafood.
More dried seafood.
Some more dried seafood.
Dried seafood, anyone?
Last chance to buy dried seafood!
Scaffoldings offer lots of compositional possibilities.
I walked around to obtain different angles.
I have so many others but I’ll stop here.
The underside of awnings too, can be beautiful.
Check out the lines, colours and shadows.
Sometimes the most common of things can offer up beauty.
The blue and yellow above go very well together.
The arm offers a quirky variation to the scene.
Bamboo scaffolding.
Some more scaffolding.
Parking lot signage.
Thanks for reading!
All photographs here were taken with the now classic Canon G11.
So, my family did the excursion package thing again and we went to the Hello Kitty Organic Farm and Harbin Ice Festival.
First stop – Hello Kitty Go Green Organic Farm.
Check out the landscape here – I’m beginning to think it’s a myth that Hong Kong does not have enough land.
This is usually cited as an explanation for high property prices.
I’m beginning to think: if this is indeed a myth, then who benefits from this?
There’re activities for kids here – they get a map and they’re supposed to get stamps at various stations.
There’re handmade toys for sale.
Plants for sale.
Turn left for Hello Kitty.
Turn right for Hello Kitty.
Walk ahead for Hello Kitty.
Run for Hello Kitty.
Hello Kitty refreshment corner.
It’s actually a very beautiful and intriguing place if you’re into (street) photography.
Shady scarecrow.
You could rent a plot of land here for a few months to tend to your crops.
It’s all very properly laid out, with your name written down so you won’t end up tending to someone else’s plot.
Feed the goat!
Ditto what I said earlier about land in Hong Kong.
Look at my clever composition.
Tiny windmill, tiny scarecrow.
Ah – the pastoral life…
Chrysanthemum tea for sale.
Washing hands after feeding the goats.
My very suave shadow.
Our cheerful excursion guide.
Boredom in the tour coach.
Yes finally, we arrived at the Harbin Ice Festival.
The colours and lines look well-balanced to me.
Nice looking cable tower…
We were in the exhibition hall at Harbin Ice Festival.
It’s minus 10 degrees Celsius in here.
Psychedelic penguin.
Everything here is carved out of ice.
I paid close attention to the colours.
I’m having a Martin Parr moment.
Bye bye and thanks for stopping by!
All pictures were taken with Canon G11, which you could now call a classic camera.
All images were taken with one camera, one lens, on the same roll of film and on the same day.
This is a visual meditation on Occupy Central.
Once upon a time, Occupy Central was an idea. It was an event that was yet to come.
It then became an event.
It will be an event that is always already present, even if it ends today or at some point in the future.
At Admiralty.
At Mong Kok.
At Causeway Bay.
Thanks for reading.
Camera: Leica M6
Lens: Voigtlander Nokton Classic 35mm f 1.4 SC
Film: Ilford XP2 400
Hong Kong Lucida 