Reader Rating 📷 📷 📷 Professional Cathay Camera Club is a local group of professional and amateur photographers that participate in monthly competitions and an end of the year exhibition. I’m into my second year with the group and its been fun and beneficial for receiving constructive criticism of work from a rotating schedule of professional photographers who function as invited judges. In the spring, the club hosted a street photography photo walk using disposable cameras

Blog #183 Testing at home with 28mm + TMAX 400 Reader Rating 📷 📷 Hobbyist We were all born scientists, or was it artists? or both? As children we experiment, but somewhere along the line we lose some of that curiosity and “lemme try this…” instinct. In my previous blog post I wrote about some camera issues while out on a photo shoot far from home in the great outdoors. After my experience with PLAN A failure and having to implement the best (only) PLAN B for that event, I f

Blog #182 The Importance of Having a PLAN B Reader Rating 📷 📷 📷 Professional So I was planning a nice hiking day adventure to outer Island Po Toi recently with fellow film shooter Mike [@analalogmike]. The landscapes on Po Toi are the best in Hong Kong. Vast ocean, blue skies and orange textured mountains make for the best landscape images around our fair city. What to pack? Along with a hat, sunblock, water bottle and the obvious necessities, the age-old question of what

Blog #181 Moonzen Brewery Reader Rating 📷 Amateur The art “scene” in Hong Kong is significant. From large scale events and event spaces such as Art Basel Hong Kong and the development of the West Kowloon Art Park , to the small galleries and Chinese antique shops lining Hollywood Road. Art comes in many flavours. On any given Friday or Saturday night in Lan Kwai Fong, DJs are dolling out custom mixes of ear candy for all to enjoy, for example. In this week’s blog post I want

Blog #180 F11 “Hong Kong The Way it Was” Reader Rating 📷 Amateur Ed Van Der Elsken was a Dutch photographer who came to Hong Kong in 1959 and shot some truly wonderful street images. His work took him all over Hong Kong from central to Tai Po in the New Territories and everywhere in between. The body of work is stands tall on its own merit, artistically, and represents an historical view into the old days. The event was finished recently but debuted this past spring at the a

Blog #179 Variations on a theme (aka working the scene) Reader Rating 📷 Amateur In this week’s blog post, I want to share some thoughts (and images) pertaining to the topic of working the scene. Interestingly, while most world famous and successful photographers were made famous by a handful of images only. Upon further inspection, many of these men and woman worked the scene. Their stellar images were rarely a one and done sort of event. Magnum Contact Sheets is a book that

Blog #178 You Know You’re a Photographer When… Reader Rating 📷 Amateur You’re a light chaser. You draw with light. You love gear and cameras. you love nailing the shot! You are up early in the morning to catch the sun rise and out late at night to catch the stars. Your GAS is kicking in and you want that 100MB sensor for no reason whatsoever but it’s cool as hell. “Take my money!” you yell at the YouTube reviewer. You might be a certified photographer, or maybe just certifia

Blog #177 Photato Premium Art Collection Reader Rating 📷 Amateur I’m writing this blog post #177 on 26 March 2020. The world is in the middle of a massive a deadly pandemic. This is an every one hundred year occurrence and we’re living through the middle of it (or at least trying to). The economic reverberations have been felt across all sectors of society and across continents. It’s truly and amazing albeit scary as hell time. Schools have been out in Hong Kong since Januar

Blog #176 Leica Q2 Reader Rating 📷 📷 Professional G.A.S. affects all of us. After a year of self-imposed abstinence from buying camera bodies, I felt that I had earned something special. Enter the Leica Q2. This is basically one camera to rule them all. It’s a digital (mirrorless) rangefinder (of course) 35mm camera with a fixed lens. The lens is a prime Summilux 28mm f/1.7 Aspherical (ASPH.), 11 lenses in 9 segments, 3 aspherical lens areas. All that mumbo-jumbo means tha

Blog #175 Parkour in Hong Kong [HKFP] Reader Rating 📷 📷 📷 Professional Back in September of 2019, I had the opportunity to work with Hong Kong Kong Free Press, Hong Kong’s Free Independent news and information agency. They are on the front lines of the protests, coronavirus situation, politics, art, sports, you name it. The (recent) protests started in June of 2019. Our fair city was completely upside down by September of last year. A story was brewing under the surface th

Blog #174 The Blue Lotus Reader Rating 📷 Amateur The Blue Lotus is the premier photography art gallery in Hong Kong. Works from Fan Ho, Michael Wolf, and other legendary artists graces the walls of this small shop in the super cool Soho section of town. Last fall, I attended an opening for a show featuring two amazing artists. Alexis Ip’s layered 3-D images literally *POP* off the wall. Alexis’s street photography is on another level or maybe I should say levels. Stephan Irv

Reader Rating 📷 📷 Hobbyist Happy New Year! Congratulations on surviving another spin around the sun. In Hong Kong, we get to have two new year celebrations within the same month. The Chinese Lunar New Year of the Rat is here. The flower market is buzzing with activity and the decorations are morphing from santa to a big fat rat (hardly noticable, actually). Here we go again with another year of blogging. In this first post of the new year, we’re going back in time to a coll

Blog #172 The Last of the Acros? Reader Rating 📷 📷 Hobbyist There is film and then there is film. There are different sizes and techniques for developing but there are three types of “modern” day wet film. There is black and white negative film, slide or color reversal film, and color negative film. We all have our favourites. Kodak Tri-X black and white negative film was shot by countless photographers and countless times in decades past burning our collective culture and

Blog #171 The Essence of Photography Reader Rating 📷 📷 Hobbyist In this week’s blog, you can consider it an Ode to Black and White Photography as it were. Images are mine (except self portrait, Thanks @analogmike) and quotes are from others. Enjoy… The light is always right. JHG *Images: © Limelight Limited Where: Third Rock from the Sun Gear: Does it really matter? Website Limelight Limited Facebook Page Instagram Twitter National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year

Blog #169 The Hive Studios (Workshops) Reader Rating 📷 , 📷 📷 , 📷 📷 📷 Amateur, Hobbyist, & Professional The hive and the hive studios in Kennedy Town is a top-notch shared work space for creatives and anyone, really who needs a cool environment for working and having client meetings outside of their home. They are increasing popular in major cities and very useful not to mention economical compared to renting a larger flat or commercial space (especially in rent-crazy Ho

Blog #168 Po Toi (Series #4) B&W Digital Reader Rating 📷 📷 Hobbyist There is indoor photography and there is the great outdoors. Whatever your preferred genre within this art form, most folks enjoy a leisurely hike with their camera de jour. “I hate hiking with my camera” said no photographer, ever. Back in June, we packed up the backpacks and headed south to our favourite hiking spot, Po Toi. My wife Christine, 12 year old son Milo, and photographic partner-in-crime @analo

Blog #167 Po Toi (Series #3) B&W Film Reader Rating 📷 📷 Hobbyist There is indoor photography and there is the great outdoors. Whatever your preferred genre within this art form, most folks enjoy a leisurely hike with their camera de jour. “” “I hate hiking with my camera” said no photographer, ever. Back in June, we packed up the backpacks and headed south to our favourite hiking spot, Po Toi. My wife Christine, 12 year old son Milo, and photographic partner-in-crime @analo

Blog #166 Po Toi (Series #2) Color Film Reader Rating 📷 📷 Hobbyist There is indoor photography and there is the great outdoors. Whatever your preferred genre within this art form, most folks enjoy a leisurely hike with their camera de jour. “I hate hiking with my camera” said no photographer, ever. Back in June, we packed up the backpacks and headed south to our favourite hiking spot, Po Toi. My wife Christine, 12 year old son Milo, and photographic partner-in-crime @analog

Blog #165 Po Toi (Series #1) Color Digital Reader Rating 📷 📷 Hobbyist There is indoor photography and there is the great outdoors. Whatever your preferred genre within this art form, most folks enjoy a leisurely hike with their camera de jour. “I hate hiking with my camera” said no photographer, ever. Back in June, we packed up the backpacks and headed south to our favourite hiking spot, Po Toi. My wife Christine, 12 year old son Milo, and photographic partner-in-crime @ana

Blog #164 Seeing in Sixes Reader Rating 📷 📷 Hobbyist There are many (good) photography websites and magazines available. Burn Magazine and LensWork are two excellent resources in particular. LensWork just published its third and (sadly) final year of a project titles Seeing in Sixes. As you might have guessed, this project selects various sets of six images for publication. I submitted two entries. The published magazine is very high quality and I love to view images in a