Shot on Leica MP: Tiergarten, Berlin

New York City has the worldwide famous Central Park (335 hectares). London is the home for the classic Hyde Park (125 hectares). In comparison, Berlin’s Tiergarten (210 hectares) may be less high profile but the huge park does serve as the heart of Berlin.

I guess it is very proper to bring a Made-in-Germany Leica film camera (in my case, it’s Leica MP) to Berlin and take some shots of the Tiergarten. I chose #ilfordhp5plus400, which I also thought may be proper for photography in Europe.

It is all about light, especially when it comes to the black-and-white photography. A morning walk in the park can certainly refresh my mind, which helped me to catch some nice peaceful moments on my camera too.

Every city, big or small, deserves to have its own park, a park for Mother Nature, for our life, and for memory. Tiergarten is the one for Berlin.

View more photos shot on my Leica here.

Paris, first roll on my Contax T3

I tried to acquire a Contax T3 film camera in good condition last year and it did take me some efforts. I don’t just want to be an owner of T3 because T3 already has many celebrity owners like Kendall Jenner and Jisoo of Blackpink but it is such a beautiful camera. So is the quality of photography shot on T3.

I acquired my T3 in almost mint condition from a local private film camera specialist. It was not cheap but T3 in good condition (i.e. coming in full box set and original leather case, not to mention it’s the “double teeth” model if you know what it means) is just rare in the market. I jumped on the deal and brought it home, few days ahead of my trip to Europe.

Contax was a Japanese brand but its famous Carl Zeiss 35mm F2.8 lens was made in Germany. T3 is known as the most advanced compact film camera to this day and it does live up to its fame as you can tell from the shots (#nofilter) I did with Fujicolor Superia X-Tra 400 film. The color, light, and balance were all right. If I don’t tell you this is T3, you may guess it could be on a Leica?

Of course there are still many limits when you shoot with T3, compared with Leica M models. But T3 offers you a lot of freedom and gets you back to the basics — remember the No.1 golden rule of photography? Don’t over-think. Focus on the moment and catch it.

I’m very glad to have T3 as my new travel companion. I guess Kendall Jenner and Jisoo of Blackpink may also agree with me.

View more photos shot on my T3 here.

The World's Most Expensive Property Market

This is one of my favorite black-and-white photos I shot recently on my Nikon FM2/T. It was a weekend afternoon and I wandered around Wan Chai, a traditional district on Hong Kong Island. I just bumped into this matchbox-like small shop, which is a very typical real estate broker office in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has been known as the world’s most expensive property market for decades. You think property prices are expensive in New York, London, Tokyo, or Singapore? Hmm… Come to Hong Kong and check out.

Property is not just a business. Property also means politics in Hong Kong. Some analysts say HK property prices were already contributing factor to the social unrests in recent years.

Even if you get 1 million US dollar, what you can get in Hong Kong is most likely a matchbox-like flat. There are tens of thousands property brokers in Hong Kong. Some can become very rich almost overnight if they can sell ultra-expensive houses on the Peak quickly. Those buyers usually pay all in cash.

Nothing can really stop the rise of property prices in Hong Kong, from the 1997 handover, Asian financial crisis, 2003 SARS, 2008 global financial crisis, 2014 Umbrella Movement, 2019 Anti-extradition law protests, and now the ongoing Covid pandemic…

People say sky is the limit for HK properties.

If you want to understand Hong Kong, understand HK property business first.

Life is more than a smoke

Title: 往事並不如煙 (Life is more than a smoke)
Camera: Nikon FM2/T
Lens: Nippon Kogaku Japan Nikon 50mm f/1.4 non-AI manual focus
Film: FujiFilm Superia X-TRA 400
Venue: Tai Kwun, Central

I remember this photograph was a quick one. From the moment when I saw the subject to when I pressed the shutter, it perhaps only cost me less than 15 seconds.

I like the composition of the photograph, and the three main colours in background, red wall, black door, and white stone. The woman was most likely on a short smoke break and she was all in white, which matched the overall colours of the photograph very well.

I was lucky to catch this moment. It just felt like “wow, I need to shoot this.” And I did.

Tai Kwun (大館) used to be the Central Police Station, including a detention centre mostly for refugees and dissidents. That was during the time when Hong Kong was under British rule. Nowadays Tai Kwun is a popular cultural and art spot.

People come and go. Buildings witness all the changes of their owners. Is this all about fate? Is life more than a smoke?

Life Beyond One Frame

Camera: Nikon FM2/T
Lens: Nippon Kogaku Japan Nikon 50mm f/1.4 non-AI manual focus
Film: FujiFilm Superia X-TRA 400
Venue: Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

A “frame burn” happens when the starting part of the film is exposed to light, i.e. that happens when you load a new roll of film into a camera, light will expose the first few inches. It actually creates an interesting opportunity to see your first frame of film becomes usually about half image and half (or sometimes 1/4) film artifact.

For every roll of film you load, you have an opportunity to pull off a really cool result for the first frame, and that is also known as the “frame burn” or “burning-first frame” in the industry.

I got this unique frame (yes, the very first frame of my new FujiFilm roll), which shows a 1/4 “frame burn” and the rest of some old local buildings in Causeway Bay, one of the world’s busiest shopping areas where Hong Kong’s SOGO Department Store and Times Square are located.

But there are still many local residents living here, right behind those fancy malls, and their lives are often neglected in the society.

I guess it’s just like the “frame burn”. Things happen always for a reason. You choose to forget to forget, or you just decide to forget it someday.