(The bamboo scaffold covered by a huge nylon sheet and mesh was cut with several of such artistic openings. I lost no time in taking the picture with my GX200)
Yesterday, we looked at some images of streetscape and the skyline framed by the bamboo scaffolding. These bamboo sticks decorate the city in many more other ways too. The scaffolds take different forms of artistic assembly works, even more so when covered in nylon mesh.
(More often than not, a better photo requires the photography to scout the site for an ideal position. Originally, I stood on the street but the up-tilting shots of these openings rendered distorted images. So I ventured in the building opposite the bamboo scaffold. Through some quiet corridors and staircases, I
finally managed to ascend to almost the same level to the openings and took this photo) It is required by the law to cover bamboo scaffolding with nylon mesh to prevent objects falling from height. For reason of countering wind, the mesh covering the scaffolding will be punctured or cut with similar openings. To most eyes, this scene is interesting and that's all. But as a photographer with a trained eye, it is a sin not to find the best position to record it. So a responsive and trusty camera, a trained eye and a photographer's mindset are the assests of all following photoraphers. Of course, luck always plays a part in whatever we do, photography included.
(This scene reminds me of the stages built with bamboo scaffolds and zinc sheets for Cantonese opera performances during the Chinese ghost festival in July. If you have a chance to be here then, look for one in a football court near the Hong Kong Aviation Club in Kowloon City)
It is interesting to look from the outside of a bamboo scaffold covered in nylon mesh. But the scene is much more absorbing to me when looking from under one. It is not sheer chance that I saw one. I actually looked around the city after lunch one day. The scene is too contrasty for the GX200; so some post-processing was done to juice up the exposure. I am sure that the Ricoh CX1, with its ability to cover a range of 12EV, will do justice to this scene.
(Bamboo scaffold builders starting from
ground zero with the humble sticks)
The bamboo scaffold builders are really amazing with their skills in building such artistic assembly works with the humble sticks. They are not workers in the cheap low stratum of the society, but the true art workers of massive scale to beautify the city. For sure, their bamboo scaffolds have very practical values. Hong Kong will be a world much less lively fascinating without their bamboo sticks. Their trade should be more highly valued in my opinion.
In fact, these fastastic builders can set up different forms of bamboo scaffolds on slopes, at shopfronts and encirculing houses, to name a few. Bamboo scaffolds are also used to build the bun mountains for the annual bun grabing competition in Cheung Chau (literally Long Island because of its shape) of Hong Kong.
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