Reality Check of Macau

^Largo do Senado (Senado Square), the unmistakable landmark of Macau, has been the town's urban centre for centuries. The square is surrounded by neo-classical buildings in pastel colour, giving the place a consistent and harmonious Mediterranean character

We got a glimpse of Macau yesterday. The town is worthy of introducing to our readers, through words and most importantly some more photos by, this time, a GX100.

Macau to Hong Kong is like what Hawaii to US or the less populated cities to UK where people go there on vacation. It is located some 45 minutes ride on a catamaran from Hong Kong and has been a quieter small town until recent years when the gambling industry there is picking up and overtkaing the scale of Las Vegas

^A woman walking up the stairs to the second floor of the Edificio do Leal Senado (Leal Senado building) smacked of a very Portuguese taste

Fishermen from the China costal town Fujian and Guangdong were the first known settlers in Macau, when it was known as Ou Mun in English/ Portuguese (literally Trading Gate), because of its location at the estuary of the Pearl River running from Guangzhou (aka Canton)

^Macau consists of several small islands connected by bridges

In the early 1550s the Portuguese reached and took Ou Mum, which the locals then also called A Ma Gao (place of A Ma) in honour ofthe Goddess of Seafarers, whose temple stood at the entrance to the sheltered Inner Harbour. The Portuguese adopted the name, which gradually changed into the name Macau, for which rumour has it that the Cantonese original came from the local vuglar expression comparable to "What the fxxx" in English.

A Real Hero

(Grip On Reality: This photo was taken on my way to work. I was walking past trucks parking on a cul-de-sac when the ropes caught my attention. The light was right, the colour was right and the criss-crossing pattern was perfect and I held up my GX200. People passing by checked me out and wondered what could be made out of such a boring scene. To me, the fun in photography is that the photographer makes something interesting out of what is not obvious to most at the scene. The ropes tied in knots somehow reminded people I know who are in the grip of the recession) You must have also known a friend or two, or even yourself, being baffled by the spiral downturn of the economy. Bank went bankrupt and the rich was faced with a shrinking wealth. A friend of mine has just had his salary cut by over 10% and some of his colleagues started to be shed. But, wait. Was this done really for the sake of continuing the business? Or is there a factor or greed in it? I wonder whether the

New Low Prices

The window shopping some hours ago has almost provoked my AgIDS illness. Just in case you’re in Hong Kong or are coming here, and have the money to burn (All in HK$/ body only): GX200 = $3,280 GRD2 = $3,380 LX3 = $3,180 G10 = $3,280 Prices are available form a gear shop on the 1st floor of the Mongkok Computer Centre. Besides these new low prices, I found that Wing Shing Photo (55-57Sai Yeung Choi St., MK Tel: 2396 6886/ 91-95 Fa Yuen St., MK Tel: 2396 6885) is offering a Sony A700 + Carl Zeiss Lens package for HK$9,980 (hopefully, a bargain will make it some hundreds cheaper).

Eye Contact

(Leica D-lux 5) The digital era may make it easier to end up with fave shots. Even lousy photos may be turned likable after a few clicks in the post-processing workflow. But if digital advancement or amendments have any bearing on the cultivation of personal style, no photographers will need to discover his or her own photographer’s eye. Undoutedly, this is out of the question. Only with a trained photographer’s eye can we give a thinking gaze and capture an eternal moment, in our unique style. Style is the soul of a great photo. A few posts have been written in GXG to touch on the topic of photographer’s eye. Instead of finding an answer, which would require academic discussions, the posts are intended to give my general reflections and spark interests in moving towards further exploration of the topic. The posts can be viewed after the links: 1) Photographer's Eye: Storytelling 2) Photographer's Eye: Little Show of Observing 3) Photographer's Eye: Sight-Worthy 4

GX GARNERINGS

Search This Blog