GX GARNERINGS

(The point of interest is the sort of mirrored images of the two heads as the foreground leading to the focal point, which is the fisherman on the junk selling seafood.  The photo would be even more intriguing if the fisherman had looked up.  But the picture is good in its own right.  Well done, Chris) Again, Christopher Guy sent us some photos he had taken on his Sai Kung trip.  The one posted above is a very interesting photo.  Chris uses a LX3 and the images looks undoubtedly crisper than those of GX200. As the shoot was not planned, any photographer could not afford a missed chance by waiting for the decisive moment to press the camera shutter.  So Guy certainly did a great shot in terms of the composition. Of course,no photo is without room for improvement. With the benefit of hindsight, the connection of the subjects in the photo will be better with the fisherman facing towards the lens.  And if the camera could be pointed from further ove...

(This worker is climbing up the bamboo scaffold to the eighth floor.  He is buckled up with a safety harness to the fall prevention gears.  The scaffold is tied to the building at regular intervals)   Bamboo scaffolds may look like monkey bars of a huge magnitude. But as perilous as weather-beaten, bamboo scaffolds are not fun filled either in hot or cold weather. Up on a scaffold , the scorching heat of the sun or the chill blown from the north is sharply felt. It is, however, the danger which really makes bamboo scaffolds off-putting to those other than the daredevils. All the bamboo sticks used for building a scaffold are not the same. There are new bamboo sticks and old. The tradition of the trade is to use the old sticks only unless a ritual to charm the new sticks is perform-ed. Call it super-stitious or not, new bamboo sticks have to be smoked by joss sticks for 24 hours before the luck charm turns potent. After that, the new bamboo sticks are believed to...

(Reflection of buildings with the on on the right scaffolded.  This is not taken with the GX200 but a very primitive Oly digital point-and-shooter) The sight of buildings encased in bamboo structures is always absorbing. These bamboo structures crisscross to form the scaffold, eventually hiding under a vast piece of green nylon mesh for safety purpose. Whenever gushes of wind bring the mesh leaning against the scaffold, the shadowy vertical and horizontal patterns of the skinny bamboos conjure up a remote memory of pictures showing gigantic warships of old kingdoms in full sail to the uncharted waters. In the hearts of the people ashore cheering for the ships, the puzzlement tightened its grip as the vessels vanishing on the horizon, “Will they be gone forever?” In like manner, the bewilderment flashes across the minds of many culture lovers time and again, “Will this ancient practical art be made redundant one day? Will it be totally gone one day?” Some old tales have ...

(The White House Teahouse dons an exceptionally rare retro outlook which has a sleepy quality to it.  The old-styled Chinese characters goes perfectly with the window grille.  The small octagonal fitting hanging on the grille is a feng shui mirror for dispelling bad luck) A true tourist's attraction in its own right and sparsely known even among locals, the White House Teahouse (pronounced as Pak Kun Bing Suck in Cantonese) heaves into sight at the corner of the sidewalk leading to the Kowloon City Pier nearby.  With a history of 50 years, it occupies the place of great-granddad in the family tree of the local chachangtangs (literally tea meal house, previously discussed here and here ). (The teahouse occupies the whole premises around the corner on the ground floor of the outworn tenement building) The old teahouse is situated on the ground floor of a tenement building in Tokwanwan (literally Earth Melon Bay).   During the better days that i...

(Washing are hung right next to a road.  It makes for a good philosophical question: Are the clothes drying here already washed or are they to be cleaned after the drying?) *Check out the last photo to learn why For any place as populated as in Hong Kong, a backyard at home is a luxurious dream.  For those living in an apartment, the vexation of hanging out the washing at the right time to catch the sunlight can be readily understood and actually felt. Not being quite found in any non-Chinese places, hanging clothes in the street to dry on a bright sunny day are ubiquituous in Hong Kong and China.  That effectively solves the problem of lacking space for drying the washing.   (All sorts of drying linens including a bedsheet and a tablecloth) Of course, there is the cheating invention called the drying machine to accompany the washing machine.  But the general wisdom is that drying under the sun is free, effective and, to make the arguement invincible, ...

(The ferry, the boat and the space tracking ship) Oops, the title should be "Space Tracking Ship", Yuanwang 6 (literally Far View 6) which is China's state-of-the-art vessel visiting Hong Kong. The purpose of building ocean-going space tracking ships in China is to perform maritime tracking and control duties for satellites and manned spacecrafts. Being the latest and most advanced space tracking ship of China, Yuanwang-6 is equipped with and makes use of the new and high technologies of maritime meteorology, electro-nics, mechanics, optics, communication and computing for its missions. Yuanwang-6 successfully performed maritime tracking and remote control of "Shenzhou 7" spacecraft during a mission jointly carried out by other ships of the "Yuanwang" fleet in September 2008. (The pilothouse with some ball shaped scanners on top) Yangwang 6 have a displacement tonnage of 25,000 tons when fully loaded, with a crew of about 470 and a length of ab...

(It always pays off for photographers to be observant, with a stealthy and responsive camera.  This scene of the patrons reading the menu was noticed in a restaurant.  Once again, the GX200 did a good job.  So was I.  I guess so :)) This is Sunday.  Have some fun!