GX GARNERINGS

(Ricoh GR) As surely as you are reading this, cameras come and go. Fact is, when you have adequately come a long way in this run of your life and are going nearer to the finish line, there will be increasingly less things capable of turning heads from your perspective. A new camera is set to have a better sensor and extra superfluous functions with a heftier price tag. A new car will give the driver more forceful torque and stronger horsepower at a higher cost. All things new are adorable until they become not new. C'est la vie, folks! You have been there, seen that, done that. Very boring! If you are into that mentality, you are worthy to be called an oldie. You should be cursed and rot on your sofa! So, the new Ricoh GR, the GRIII, has been announced and made quite a bit of a stir in the street photography community. While it is a mistake that it still doesn't come with a 21mm lens to be worthy of its GR namesake - I don't mind if that makes it physically bigg...

 (Ricoh GR) In their own unique style, the squatting Mainland Chinese tourists have become an eyesore a common sight in the usually narrow walkways around the more busy areas in Hong Kong since the r eturn of Hong Kong's sovereignty to China (Editor-in-chief's note: Officially banned phrase for political incorrectness) Chinese Communist Party resumed sovereignty over the city. Hordes of  the likes are too generous in their estimation of either the width of the sidewalks or the number of people passing by them, so stretching out an array of luggage cases in a disarray fashion for making rearrangement or taking a recess never seems to be too unedifying a bother to them. No location can dampen their determination in doing so, not even if it is right at a shop front, which is a somehow laudable national quality potentially in a positive way. Well, there are always two sides of a coin. Through the artistic eye of a photographer, can't these scenes be reproduc...

(Leica X1) While this blog has not been updated as frequently, even worse, most posts are off-topic now. Life is full of surprising offshoots and sometimes eventful fluctuations, and I can't help touching on various things other than photography, just as I find fascinations in all manners of a thing by looking through a viewfinder which normal people may normally pass by without a cue. Die-hard photographers could be quite abnormal at times. I know, it may seem that photography is no longer the prima ballerina on stage, so to speak. Well, not really. I don't toy with as many cameras for tests as back in 2008, but in the last few years I have tried the Leica SL, M10 and the CL, among which the last one is all-in-all a design disaster (But no review posts - too busy to do that now). I haven't taken photos as often, yes. But I could just as well say that I am more refined in deciding when to press the shutter release or just being wise to cut spending on memory...

(Leica X1) I have had quite a bit of bad luck lately.  The fact that bad luck happens to us sometimes somehow is one of those problems that are annoying chiefly because they are not supposed to be there at all.  It was a very early morning last week when I missed my flight to connect to an international flight.  The friendly airport security guy was compassionate enough to help send my oversize luggage case through the x-ray machine, which made quite a scene, and cheered me on as I ran to the gate.  But I came down to the decision to return to the check-in counter when the 15-minute explanation to the ground crew at the gate yielded no result. I left the gate seeing the other passengers off as they went up the plane which was just 100 metres from me. After much ado about putting me on another flight with the helpdesk conversationalist from probably India over the phone, I sighed to myself in the cold morning mist waiting on the bench off the airport entrance f...

(Sony A99 with Minolta 50mm f/1.7) To street shooters, the Mongkok pedestrian precinct is sort of what water is to fish.  They will love it for the place epitomises the essential opportunities that could present themselves to make shooters into street photography feel just right.  This is as true as it goes for those who haven't been to maybe New York. I haven't been to New York yet.  But Hong Kong is more than good enough. If you wonder what the three Chinese characters in the foreground mean, it is a sexist derogatory expression against women which however is mostly used as a blessing in a joking way.  Literally, it reads, "beg you to bring me into the fold and keep me" or otherwise, "please make me your mistress".  Yes, a blessing in a cheeky sense: be a mistress, have everything paid for and be happily worry-free ever after. Get your camera out and train your eye for any interesting scene that may emerge around the corner. I will be surprised i...

(All images taken with Sony A99 fitted with a Minolta 50mm/ f 1.7) The 50mm lens always holds a special place in my heart for it was the focal length with which I started photography.  This Minolta 50mm beauty is the first lens in my armory and especially turns me on.  I am glad that my new addition of the A99 gives a new lease of life to it which has otherwise been used with a crop-sensor camera. Without much of a convincing argument but purely by convention, the 50mm has long been considered a normal focal length.  It gives a field of vision which, as most old-school photographers have been taught to think, resembles how the human eyes see the world (no wonder most cameras came with a "kit" 50mm lens in the old days).  Undoubtedly, this claim doesn't hold up to any serious scrutiny.  You may as well fit almost just any lens on a camera and zoom with your feet.  The claim will become very pale and not be worthy of an argument.  I would rather...

This was one of the shot I got with the GR during my big loitering in Tasmania. Walking in the city where I was in an early morning I found myself at an empty corner in an empty street.  Suffice to say it that there are absolutely more sheep than human beings in Australia, let alone Tassie.  I scouted the location and had my mind fixated on my existence. Who am I? Where am I? Why am I here? The rather philosophical me got some abstract shots like this.

Photos with high grab quotient have an immediate appeal to viewers.  They arrest your attention right away but the more you look at them, their depth would become more shallow.  A sexist analogy may be that they are 15-second nymphs who grow wrinkles on their face, harvest fat in their tummy and droop from the shoulders the next second. There is no more room left for fancy. On the contrary, there are some photos that don't turn your head at first sight. But they grow on you over time and make you want to look at them again and again.   They appear richer every single time you revisit them. They  will eventually get into your heart and stay there, always providing new room for imagination when they meet your eyes.. If you ake time to muse about this mystery, you would probably find that this applies to all forms of art. To have an eye for this potentially rich works is important.  And in photography, such photographers are able to take mesmerising shots. T...

I fixated my gaze across the table onto where the shadows and light fell. Slowly and quietly as if I would disturb the sleep of the shadows in the empty room, I put up my Leica to my eye, meticulously framed the photo before pressing the shutter release fully.  It was the feel of the scene. Leica is so slow in operation, just perfect for sipping in the feel.

(Leica X1) If the camera industry and in fact the whole photographic community had been all the trees in the garden, what could be the photographers’ perennial doubt as the nourishment other than the constant wondering of when the non-existent best camera would be here on earth?  Notwithstanding the lack of preciseness in the question asked, the doubt itself is the fuel that has kept the history of photography going in a big way. So to contribute to the course of that history, and hence the development of humanity, I have recently been wondering if it is high time for me to make a proper upgrade to hopefully the Leica system. (Ricoh GR) The Ricoh system was my first sortie into the digital photographic era as I evolved from what the quantum leap in digital photography has made it seemed the medieval film period.  I still keep the the historical relic, the Minolta Dynax 7 (film) for its sentimental value to me though.  Kudos to the Ricoh GX200 designed with photographe...

One of the reasons I made my foray into photography some light years ago was because I had a sum of government grants for paying for my first semester in the uni and a marked lack of interest in any other hobby that I thought was remotely related to endearing myself to any prospective girlfriend in an effective way – which was proved a smart and fruitful choice. (Ricoh GR) I had saved some pocket money from my mum to pay for the semester instead.  Huh! I have never been very comfortable with action sports.  I don’t like the way those sports requiring one to compete with another in a way that the whole reality seems to build only on winning over the others.  That’s just personal.  I was more the Confucian kind of man of sport – that rather static kind of observant chap that could sit effortlessly with and listen effort-fully to you for hours, patting on your shoulder to cue you to move on and over.  I can do sports but odds are the result I get won’t lo...

(Ricoh GR) SoHo of Hong Kong got its name from south of Hollywood Road, which is the area strewn with swanky bars, restaurants, boutiques in a mix with some very old, traditional Cantonese shops.  The last decades have seen lots of art galleries springing up in the area, taking advantage of the absence of specific taxation regime for art sale in Hong Kong, to earn easy money from the veracious Chinese buyers.  The area is more known for its nightlife but I definitely recommend a walk in daytime to get a taste of the exotic east-meet-west mix.  Most Chinese shops and restaurants close in the evening.

(Ricoh GR) I’ve found myself constantly slowing down among the daily busyness to enjoy more of everything around as I approach the slide-down section of the backslope from the timeline of age.  I’m taking everything more easy.  It’s the quality of life that matters after all.  It’s less about material stuff than the spiritual fulfillment.  Probably this newfound philosophy in me has found its way to the hobby part of my life.  Yes, it’s nice to have a new camera with functions that blow one’s mind.  One that allows the sharp images to ravish your eyes, when the elements are right and the there is good light.  But at the end of the day, it is still the image that matters.  It is still how the photographic eye interprets a scene all right that makes the image click. So it’s still me carrying my camera everyday to try my luck around each corner where a photo worthy opportunity may present itself.  My 5-year-old a55, 4-year-old Leica X1 and 2-y...

(Leica X1) I framed the scene so that the pile of wooden racks sit between the human subject with the bright background on the left and the light source beaming through the metal gate on the right, allowing the bright parts echo one another; hence guiding the viewers’ gaze around the image clockwise.  This may hopefully bring the static image a sense of flow to complement the walking subject.

(Leica X1) This afternoon I ran into a young man carrying a Leica with a friendly countenance apparently showing his passion for photography.  The Leica was mounted with a Voigtländer lens, if I was not mistaken.  Nice choice.  Just because those state-of-the-art cameras offers tons of features, doesn’t necessary mean that the owner will be happier.  In fact, as far as I know what the psychology theory suggests, more options oblige us to work our brain harder lest we may miss the good stuff which can make us less happy.  On the contrary, simplicity allows us to enjoy ourselves more.  With a Leica, the shooter just needs to focus on the basic scheme of taking a good photo.  And that is all.  I had a little chat with the young man and just two years into photography he has acquired a sophisticated, expensive taste.  Though with 20 years in the hobby under my belt, maybe I can learn a lot from him.  One never knows. We all can move on to p...

(Ricoh GR) Since the start of this blog back in 2008, Hong Kong has seen a sea of changes in its political reality and ruling system to the worst which, as matter stands, leads to a decline of logic and common sense by far among the cream of the society and their followers begging power.  To those who have grown in the city when governance was by reason, the de facto dead of the city it once was is probably a past tense.  The death knell has rung loud and clear.  It is sad to admit so.  These are the images through my sad eye to hopefully illustrate how empty the city seems to me now.

(Ricoh GR) I’ve no idea if they were feeling ten feet tall, but they were actually almost that tall.

(Ricoh GR) In between the time of slacking off a bit and spending much leisure time on photo contests, I went to Daido’s exhibition on its last day in town yesterday morning.  Not all the images on display are his best but they are invariably filled with the style and taste one will know distinctive about Daido’s works .  The one prominent thing about the master’s shots is that the image quality, hence the grade of camera or lens, is virtually irrelevant.  Not even the photographic skill.  The gem is in the idea and theory the creator has in every single recorded scene through his eye.  The coarseness, imperfection and split-moment impulse are conspicuously flowing in the mastery shots – we all know that Daido celebrates imperfect images, don’t we?

Here are the shots some minutes ago to prove that I'm still doing photography a lot.  All shots by GR. Enjoy!