Bucket list 1/2 Marathon CHECKED. Have kind of let photography take a seat out the back the last year and concentrated on getting healthy, what is the point of all this camera equipment if I have no health to use it!
Travelled back to Hong Kong to do the famous Standard Chartered Half Marathon. Though this blog is not about running or fitness, so let us get back to the photos. After some R&R, I managed to head out to venture out around Tin Hau on the Hong Kong Island side and then headed to Kowloon’s Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui.
I decided to pull out the Leica M6 for a day of challenge and I must say fun. Not only is exposure and composition a thing to think about I now had the challenge of manual focussing. This doesn’t come easy to someone who uses a Canon 1Dx and Fuji X Pro 1. Admittedly the X Pro 1 is slow to focus but it at least is still auto focus. I am aware I can manually focus on both camera’s but I do not see the value in that.
After coming back home and placing the film for development, I have been awaiting in anticipation as to what I had done. With out further or do here are the better shots I think I have managed to grab.
Shooting alone - Victoria Park, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Fuji Superior X-tra 400, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
Taking a break on the outskirts of Victoria Park
Fuji Superior X-tra 400, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
The Ding Dings as they are affectionately known as. Trams can get you literally right around HK
Fuji Superior X-tra 400, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
Tin Hau Temple was built in the early 18th Century
Kodak Portra 400, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
After venturing nearby my hotel, it was time to use that credit that I overloaded on my Octopus card. The MTR station was close by and i headed off to the touristy Lady's Market in Mong Kok
Mong Kok is certainly a busy place, lots of colours and definitely lots of people.
Kodak Portra 400, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
Lady's Market .. well has Ladies I guess. The market now is full of fake shirts, phone covers, dodgy USB keys, the odd $10 Rolex.
Kodak Portra 400, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
How business is done in Lady's Market. Pay pal payment ? or just a slow day and the shop keepers are helping each other in Candy Crush?
Kodak Portra 400, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
The Lady's Market is a long series of stalls, fancy a massage for $38HKD ? there is also free wifi .. hmm ?
Kodak Portra 400, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
Who do you call and for what ?
Kodak Portra 400, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
I wonder if I can find my A+++ class fake Rolex in here? One of the many alley ways in HK
Kodak Portra 400, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
People rule the roads, people take preference over the vehicles in Mong Kok
Kodak 400TX, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
Just getting through the crowds was no easy feat
Kodak 400TX, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
By no means is life easy in Hong Kong
Kodak 400TX, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
The young and old do it tough
Kodak 400TX, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
Enough of the depression in Mong Kok and head to the touristy East Tsim Sha Tsui where I intend to take some snaps of the "Avenue of the Stars", the building architecture around the harbour, and the Star Ferry's. My feet are aching now after doing 21kms the day before but I'm enjoying the freelancing street photography.
How many tiled steps ?
Kodak 400TX, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
What is on the other side of the tunnel?
Kodak 400TX, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
This is what happens when film costs too much to change mid roll, and grab a Portra 400 to take a shot
Kodak 400TX, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
The Star Ferry Pier. The substitute for the Luna Aqua, which happened to be under maintenance when I arrived !!
Kodak 400TX, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
Hong Kong's version of Madonna - Anita Mui (梅艷芳) unfortunately passed away at a young 40 years old in 2003
Kodak 400TX, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
They call me Bruce ... Bruce Lee, another one of the famous status on the "Avenue of Stars" walk way
Kodak 400TX, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
East Tsim Sha Tsui is a developing area, cranes are everywhere here.
Kodak 400TX, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
Causeway Bay ... Human traffic !!
Kodak 400TX, Leica M6 with Voigtlander Wide Angle Color-Skopar Pan 35mm f/2.5-M (PII)
Well that is a wrap, one day (well actually about 5 hours) of walking about in Hong Kong. HK is not all glamourous but it is a street photographers heaven.
I got a bit of practice using pre-focus method on the Leica M6 and every time I pick this camera up it seems that it just gets easier to use. For my mediocre shooting, I think the camera produces some magical shots. It really does capture the moment. My only disappointment is that I cannot afford to change film mid roll. To me it seems more ideal to have 2 Leica M6's, maybe bolt on a 50mm on the other but the cost of it all hurts my head. For now I think I will stick to Kodak Portra 400 and black and white images in post with the help of VSCO.
Enough of the camera talk, it's time to save again for the next adventure.