Faces of Hong Kong: A Contest and a Book

(Postscript: Just got a news from the organiser of the Faces of Hong Kong photo contest (for HK residents only) that they now extend the contest to close on 20 June 2010. Participants can submit two entries instead of just one.)

While the Faces of Hong Kong photo contest, which closes at midnight today, is exclusively for Hong Kong residents to take part in, the book depicting another face of Hong Kong titled "Hong Kong Nature Landscapes" is for all lovers of Hong Kong spectacular hiking trails and aspiring landscape photographers.

The author and photographer, Edward Stokes, grew up in Hong Kong and returned in 1993, to work on projects about the natural landscape. He began with Hong Kong's wild places and criss-crossed them until 2003. The unique aspect about Hong Kong's country parks is not just that most of them border between thick woods and blue oceans, but more notably that they comprises 40% of Hong Kong's land. In comparison, the United States, for example, has designated only 3% to 4% of the country's land area for country parks.

The easy accessibility of Hong Kong's country parks is a great plus too. They are mostly within an hour ride by public transport.

This is a book I can easily recommend. You may check it out here and here. A reader gave his review on Amazon which I appended below. The author will give a club launch (lunch hour) at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong.

Veteran Ed Stokes has come out with this fascinating collection of his pictures takes over the years, showing the Hong Kong natural landscape at its best. Apart from giving reasons why he took these pictures he also shares the technical details with the readers. In my 20+ years of hiking in HKG I have covered all these places, but seldom have I seen such beauty first hand. It is a testament to Ed's tenacity and hard work that he has chosen the best season, time of the day and vantage point to create these beautiful pictures.

Comments

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

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