Kowloon West

Kowloon West is the best place for doing sunset shots in this territory. When the old Kai Tak international airport was still in use, chances were that the photographer could get in the picture a plane flying out to this direction.

Here in the image the wash of pinkish orange tinging the sky is peaceful. The silhouettes of the cranes springing up from the barges rightly balance and complement the tinge on the upper half of the image while the dots of street lights break the otherwise monotonous swath of darkness at the bottom.

In the film era, the surefire way to get the 'right' exposure combo for sunset shots was to spot-meter the area right below the sun without including it. In the digital age, this technique does not rule such shots as the moon rules the tides, so to speak, because the photographer can tweak the shutter speed and the aperture value while monitoring the real-time result on the screen. But if you know this trick, doesn't it give you a sense of "Well, I know what I am doing and how I do it"?

Just as last year when I was back from the UK trip, I still find this true after the OZ trip: Hong Kong is probably a better city, if not one of the best, to do outdoor photographs. There are simply opportunities galore.