IG Monthly Best - April 2021

Ferris wheel, Sharp Island, domestic workers, and tranquility

This photo was taken on a sunny morning before meeting up with my friends at pier to Cheung Chau, as a way to spam some frames out of the 72 shots available on the AGAT 18K. With a simple half frame camera one can only get a 3:2 40mm image. To get a wider shot without having to change lens (impossible on AGAT 18K anyway) I simply chained a couple shots and stitch them in post-processing.

The ferris wheel standing out on the left is the Hong Kong Observation Wheel. Each compartment holds up to 8 people, or you can pay the price for all 8 people to enjoy a lonely 20min ride.

The area around around the ferris wheel is used as the venue for AIA carnival, where circus and thrills rides are setup, in the middle of the city! For the time period when the carnical takes place, citizens can enjoy a concentrated package of theme park fun in less than 30min from getting off work.

I rode the wheel once on a Christmas double date, the party returned from Cheung Chau and went riding the wheel. After queuing up for some time, they cramped 8 people into 1 cabin and we where non-romantically riding with another couple and noisy tourists.

To enjoy the ride you may need to pay 8× the adult fee to occupy the whole cabin!

My first time loading an UltraMax into the AGAT 18K, I was blown away by the result. Up until that point I had been loading ColorPlus, or Vision3 250D with mediocre results. UltraMax, however, outputs with vibrant color and amazing contrast. The only other camera I loaded UltraMax into was the FunSaver, which with its plastic lens probably doesn't do enough justice to UltraMax.

This photo was taken in Sharp Island, an island 15min away from Sai Kung on a boat ride. What's special about Sharp Island is the Sharp Island Sand Levee, where a path emerges on low tide, enabling overland access to a small island next to it. Actually, this photo was taken right on that slippery path (we knew at least 2 people fell, one from our party, where he transitioned to an Ironman/Thor drop and punched the ground).

This year I visited Sharp Island twice, once is for the Valentine's day triple date, and another time simply crossing the half-submerged path with a sea kayak to reach the caves on the southern side of the island.

The island is quite empty in the morning, and the crowd begins setting in near noon time and peaks over the afternoon. There is a public toilet with a long queue and sometimes without water. So I'd recommend avoiding the crowd by going there early. You can hike, swim, sunbath on the beach, or even kayak around the island. You'll be well rewarded with muscle pain the next day.

I took this one a long time ago, like mid-2020, with the Agfa Solina Pronto. The camera wasn't well-fitted for street photography unless you pre-set the exposure and pre-focus because this camera is 100% manual. I still got some good ones though, and the limitation in equipment demands me to looks for static scenes or predictable events, instead of trying to capture instantaneous event that slips away the moment one raises the camera.

Like many in the city, I do not have much contact with domestic workers except maybe when visiting some friends who do hire domestic workers in their homes. When we work/go to school, they clean the house, buy ingredients and prepare meals. And when we are leaving office/school they are already back in the houses they serve. Our lives as they seem, do not overlap.

Except on Sunday or public holidays. This group of ~370,000 flood the street and occupy public spaces because these are the days they get off from work. They may be considered a nuisance because everywhere you look you can see them setup camps. On MTR, an 1pm ride can feel like a rush hour ride.

But if you have a chance to hear their story, or at least have a thought about their situation—they leave their families and friends, even husband and children behind to work in a distant place where despite the number they are still considered minority, just so that they can support people they left behind…

This photo was taken with a smartphone Nexus 5X years ago, long before I owned a camera. Recently when digging up some old photos I found this one, turned it black and white, then burn & dodge a few places.

I picked this one as my personal monthly favorite because I love the tranquility in this photo. The person looking at the mountains afar facing direct sunlight, which casts a long shadow behind and where refraction of light brightens the outline of the person. As if there's a thought, a slight sense of lonelines, smallness, compared to the vast world flowing at great speed.

You know, there was a crowd of hikers behind me as I took this shot, and from a distance, the tall residential buildings from the town of Tuen Mun.

This shot isolates (free) the person from that world and this spectre of a person I lock up in a frame, should finally gets some tranquility from everything the person was facing away from.