It's been five years since we were last in Hong Kong and it's great to be back. We have a ten day stop over here (although two days will be spent in Macau), then it's off to the Philippines to shoot the project for the NGO, which will appear on the Kage Collective site later in the year. I shot these with either the Fuji X100 or the X-E1 with the 18-55mm f2.8-f4 (more on this lens on a later post). At this point the X-Pro1 was still in the bag.
Hong Kong is an amazing city with stunning archetecture and design. It's a living, breathing, pulsating metropolis, a great place to be and an even better place for photography. I don't think I've felt more at ease or safe, even in the two cities where I shoot street the most in Scotland. Everyone should come to Hong Kong at least once in their life.
I shot a small video of the scene above and it looks so much like ants. everybody just flowing along, moving out of each others way and going about there business.
There's one thing that Hong Kong has in abundance, and that's great light. Of course it's better during the golden hours at both ends of the day, but like my Kage Collective colleague Robert Catto wrote about in his story Brighter, everything does just look brighter and more colourful at this end of the world. I'm afraid the UK lucked out on light.
Hong Kong has many levels in so many ways. But for a photographer, it offers a lot in the way of places to shoot from. You can be on ground level shooting what's around you, or above. In the vast elevated walkways that join buildings like a giant dot to dot. You can shoot what's ahead or behind, or down on to the street. Or you could shoot over at another walkway running parallel. There's just so much veriety of view points.
And finally, here's a couple of locals.....not really, it's my kids, cooling of on the roof of our home for the ten days we're in Hong Kong. Even they are finding the heat hard to bear.
I've posted a number of black and white shots from the streets of HK on my 35mmStreet blog, so click HERE to go there. A lot more coming soon.
Patrick La Roque should be back from Cuba around the time this post goes out (or soon after), so check his blog HERE regularly for more travel shots.
Now...where are those Digital Rev TV guys?