Where I spend most Sat mornings…
Canon M50, Takumar S-M-C 28mm
Tag: Wu Kai Sha
Beach Meditations
The scenes speak for themselves.
Leica M3, 50mm Summicron Rigid, Tri-X
On Being Careless
To be interested in street photography is to be careless.
The above might look better if the boats were cut out of the photograph. The subject would be clearer.
But the eyes don’t always discriminate properly.
Found scenes are things as they are.
Boats and paths as they are.
A child as he is.
There’s an accommodation of sorts.
An ordering of nature.
Camera: Leica M6
Lens: Voigtlander Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4 SC
Film: Kodak BW400CN
Night Vision
A vision of the night.
There’s usually nothing to see.
Still, we try.
It’s a time for reflection.
We try to think.
We sit.
And rest.
Camera: Leica M6
Lens: Voigtlander Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4 SC
Film: Ilford XP2 400
Slow Down
We’ll need to slow down.
We can’t think like skyscrapers.
We need to dwell a little bit.
Take a walk.
Sometimes to be inane is to make sense.
A certain order at a certain time.
Think good thoughts.
Let a thousand thoughts flourish.
So we need a better government of our selves.
So as not to run aground.
Camera: Leica M6
Lens: Voigtlander Nokton Classic 35mm 1.4 SC
Film: Kodak BW400CN
Zone Focusing with the Leica M6
Given an ISO 400 film, if the light is good, I’d simply set the aperture to f/16 and shutter to between 1/60, 1/125, or 1/250 depending on whether I’m in the shade.
The f/16 aperture would allow for a broad depth of field, which allows me to zone focus with a wide latitude.
The whole procedure sounds complicated, but it’s for me the mid-point between going fully auto with a point and shoot camera, and going fully manual and getting all finicky and missing the moment.
It allows me to work intuitively and be disciplined at the same time – that’s the flow state I look for, whether I’m teaching, writing or on the streets with my camera.
I’m at Wu Kai Sha beach – yet again.
All images are from the same roll of film, all taken within an hour or so.
I like the word “take”. To take a photograph is to take something from the world you see.
There’s a contemplative and leisurely mood here I’d like to immerse myself in.
It’s nice to see people relax and do nothing in particular.
Like a frame with nothing at the centre, because the image is the frame.
My favourite street photography trick is to start whistling – people will look at me for a bit while my camera is pointing elsewhere and then ignore me after that.
They’ll think I’m a normal person… though the guy above wasn’t quite convinced…
At other times, they’re too involved with their own thing to notice.
I’d like to think that every photograph I take is an image of myself.
Sometimes there’s no need for explanations – it just is.
It’s a way of life – this awesome village house faces the beach.
We all have our journeys to make.
I wish I understand jogging.
I’m learning to look for patterns.
Looking for moments of insight.
We wait.
We’re on the lookout.
We look at ourselves.
We think some more.
Our pigeon thoughts will lead the way.
The pigeons are lining up in my mind.
Thanks for reading!
Camera: Leica M6
Lens: Summicron Type II 50mm
Film: Ilford XP2 400
Tranquillity
We all need to walk.
I have done this walk so many times now, that some of these images are lodged in my mind.
We all know how our external environments organize our internal state.
In a crowded shopping mall, we’re all a bit tense.
Look at water and we relax.
We all need a depository of homely images in our mind.
So we feel at home even outside of home.
There’s a story of a family here waiting to be told.
Just a little narrative.
A little space.
A scattering of things telling us who we are.
Just a little window to the world. A little insight.
A safe harbor.
And we’re home.
Wu Kai Sha Beach
There’s something going on at Wu Kai Sha beach.
I keep seeing Zen-like arrangements:
The stones are speaking.
And there’s always someone painting the rocks. Sometimes, you see “God is love” in both English and Chinese etched in the sand.
And once in a while, someone builds a turtle sculpture…
This gentleman has been at it all morning…
The sand is reclaiming its boat:
The water has achieved what the sand is doing:
Am I a shadow thinking I am a man or a man thinking I am a shadow?
Or am I a shadow of a man or a man emerging from his shadow?
I text, google, search and take a picture – therefore I am.
Hong Kong Lucida 