GX GARNERINGS

(Leica D-Lux 5) If we try to understand a scene in a geometric relationship, we may be able to make sense of even a short queue in a photo worthy way.

(Leica X1) Have you ever found yourself ended up deleting images back home as suspiciously vigorously as you took the shots in the street? If that is the case, the likes of the Leica X1 may suit you as the restrictive fixed 36mm lens gives you a non-existent chance of success in blind shooting and the slower camera response forces you to compensate by concentrating greater on your forward thinking as to where, when and how to do shots. The saving grace, and a big one, is that you will be returned with a greater number of shots that don't require deletion at the end of the day. Today's shot is one of those.

(Sony A55) Can composition in photography be learnt? In a cliché way of a reply, yes and no, depending on how you look at composition. It is not really opinionated to say that no photographer hasn’t learned about compositional techniques at some point of time by reading guidebooks, studying works of others or soliciting advices from old hands. I for one have tried all of these. Just as any techniques, compositional skills can be learnt. However, it is clear as one travels further in photography that compositional contemplation isn’t just about implementing standardised codes. In fact, I am starting to query the conventional wisdom of treating compositional principles as a paradigm standing on its own. It is in this sense that I think composition cannot be learnt. Take today’s shot for example. At the sight of this spot the question immediately jumped to my mind, in a split of a second, was how to frame a nature shot. Probably intuitive to every adept photographer, the typical rul...

(Sony A55) In fact, he was kicking up. This shot was done with one take only on the desert somewhere in Dubai. The trickling of one desert shot at a time is not because of frugality but that not everything has been migrated to my new computer from the old one. And there are some hiccups with the new computer, confining me to the chair to figure out solutions.

(Sony A55) The beauty of Dubai lies not, as some would have it, in the grandeur of architectures which I would call my biggest find during the recent trip. Whisked in a 4-wheel drive to the desert for what is called sand surfing the other day, I was tremendously captivated at the continual sight of the taut, undulant sand dunes whose vista was impaired only by the horizon where the expansive desert and the tolerant sky met. The acute amnesia with which I alighted the vehicle panting to its engine's humming tone, roamed to shoot with abandon and even changed lenses on the land of fine sand grains was the result of none other than my bewilderment on that first visit to a pristine desert. Thankfully, I turned less cautious but not totally reckless, and returned with unscathed gear and a few nice shots of which one is shown today. The regret is that the shot lacks a bit punch without a smoky trail of sand dust after the boy. But technically it is still okay I hope. More desert ...

(Sony A55, Polarised) Summer holiday is a time when parents and their children take a breather especially because we have a hectic school schedule in Hong Kong. This is what made yesterday's scene frustrating and even saddening with 90,000 parents taking their babies and young kids to the street in protest of the government's bulldozing ahead the controversial national education curriculum to be put on "trial run" this September. But isn't it natural for Chinese Hongkongers to be given some education about its own country? At the core of the issue are that, quoting the Financial Times , "course materials made available to schools include a teaching manual describing the Chinese authoritarian government as 'progressive, selfless and united' while assessing the US system as one that allows politics to disrupt the lives of ordinary people, and a prescriptive guide on how to be a “good child of China” that directs children to shout out in class: ...

(Leica D-Lux 5) Today Hong Kong is again to see probably tens of thousands of people taking to the street in protest of the government's bulldozing through what it calls the national identity subject to be implemented in schools this September. The issue became rough when the media discovered in a government-sponsored teaching handbook that the subject would be heavily biased towards praises of the one-party regime while  speaking ill of the multi-party political system as in the States. One of the guidelines for the subject is to train students up basing on the principle of "understanding oneself, treating Hong Kong as home, relying on the Motherland, facing the world", which is more commonly known as indoctrination. Isn't education something to teach one to think and reason? While the government is turning the situation topsy-turvy, the protesters, especially the anxious and infuriated parents, will show their colours for sure until there is a definitive answer ...