Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Finished editing photos

Well it took 4 days straight but I've finally finished editing all of the trip photos...phew. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and spent it with the people you care about because it's not about the presents although they can be nice, it's about looking after one another.

Among some of the street photos I was editing I found these and they made me smile. Have a happy new year everyone, stay safe and my street portraits will resume in the new year ;)





Saturday, December 15, 2012

My last days in Hong Kong


This is my last blog post from Hong Kong (no 3). It has been a fantastic holiday these past few weeks and to top it off on my last days before I had to leave I headed out to The Peak and Macau. I was lucky to get pretty good weather for viewing the Peak too. I managed to find the right number bus to take me up there (15) which I recommend over the tram, being more expensive and you don't see as much. It only took me about 30 min for us to reach the top. The view is pretty good up there and on a clear day you can see all of the city even to our apartment in Tung Chung. If you want to get right up the top you need to purchase a ticket from the ground floor lobby but it only costs $30HK about $3.50 Australian. It's obviously better looking if you go at night too.



It was pretty high up and very windy. Afterwards I got the Peak tram back down which took about 5 minutes. What I highly recommend is when you get off at the bottom, take the bus back to the Star Ferry terminal and try to get one that is double Decker with no roof. It's great to sit up the top and take photos of the architecture and people you get a different perspective of it all.


 This was taken from the top of the bus waiting in peak hour traffic.


On the 2nd last day I got up early to hop on the ferry to Macau. The ferry ride over there only took 1 hour and the inside of the ferry resembled the inside of a plane. They even gave us a meal which wasn't too bad. I bought the super ticket which costs more but is worth it if you want more legroom to stretch and better views. You can also buy an economy ticket but I don't think you get a meal and you are crammed in below with everyone else and it gets very loud. I mainly went over to Macau to check out their architecture and it was quite nice. Although it was very busy when I arrived, I tried to find the more colourful Portuguese inspired buildings.

This was around  senado square near the visitors centre.
   
They had a Christmas theme in the square and you can't tell but there were tourists everywhere!


St Pauls Ruins not far from the center of town.

I did check out the casinos and their interiors which were over the top extravagant inside.
One in particular I liked was "The Venetian" It has fake canals with gondola rides and a shopping mall with sky for the ceiling.

 This one is called the Grand Lisboa, It was quite grand on the outside indeed.





Not long after it was time to head back to Hong Kong on the ferry again.

My last day was very relaxed I packed my bags for the airport and went out for a hike to see the Tung Chung Skyline one last time. The hike passed the Ngong Ping Cable car ride that takes you right up to the big Buddha.
 

It was a perfect day to go up there 



Then it was time to leave for the airport.

 What a trip it has been, I've seen some amazing sights, meet some wonderful people and eaten yummy food. I have to thank my wonderful cousin Paul and his partner Tracey for letting me stay at their apartment. You guy's rock! but before I end this post I wanted to post a few extra images that didn't fit into my post but I like them all the same. Thanks everyone, till next time.












Sunday, December 9, 2012

Hong Kong continues...

Hello as I'm nearing the end of my trip this Wednesday I thought I would post some portraits from Hong Kong and some more street images too.

It has been so fantastic to visit this place. I have met some wonderful people and had some awesome meals as well. I will post one more time before I come home because I'm heading out to a place on the border of china called Macau. It's Portuguese inspired so the place has many influences in the architecture and currency too. It also has a massive casino that I just have to check out, not that I gamble but it would be fun to take photos in there.

These photos that I'm posting now are from a few places around Hong Kong.

I was shooting with some friends a few days ago and this guy came out of the restaurant's back door to see what we were doing. I asked if I could take his portrait and he said yes.


We were walking down near Shanghai street where they have a street market and noticed these ladies having a snooze in their truck before they started work.


This guy was eager to say hello at a construction site whilst walking around Temple street market area.




I found it baffling how she could talk through the mask with all of the noise around too.

I was also lucky to get some nice weather when I took the ferry to Tai O yesterday. I actually missed the ferry but they called it back for me in the nick of time, they were great.

Tai O is a tiny little fishing village about 30min ferry ride from Tung Chung. I also checked out the smaller villages surrounding Tai O which were very interesting. I met some very friendly villagers with their pet dogs.

This was a bridge that crossed Tai O with one of the surrounding villages. The mode of transport is very relaxed here compared to the city in Hong Kong.
One of the friendly villagers that sold his cured meats to locals and tourists.
Just a close up of a door I found wandering around, reminded me of the suns rays.

Tai O from a distance


Tai O's locals

Now for a tiny splash of colour. I took the bus from Tai O into Ngong Ping where the Tian Tan Buddha and Po Lin Monastery is located. Instead of showing images of the big buddah, I thought I would post some different detail photos that I liked from the day. A word to anyone that goes up there. Make sure you go early during the week because it gets busy up there in the afternoon.



I thought I would end this post with one last image I thought it was funny.


Thanks for reading guys oh and before I go, if you get the chance to eat up there go to the restruarant for only $70 HK dollars you can get a fantastic and very large meal (Vegitarian of course)

Thursday, December 6, 2012

HONG KONG!

Hey everyone I finally sorted out my internet and my shitty computer and now I can post on my blog during my trip. Sorry about the delay guy's. The weather has been mostly wet this past week but we should be getting better weather soon. Wow Hong Kong is Awesome, from the moment I stepped off the plane to now there's so much to see it realy is a sensory overload, I'm staying with my cousin Paul and his partner for my trip and they have been fantastic to me. They are located in a town called Tung Chung only 25min train ride to the city.

By the way I'm posting this from a very slow netbook that is not colour calibrated nor does it run any decient photo editing programs except Picasa. So you will have to excuse my bad editing. Anyway.

Here is a glimpse of where I'm staying. We're in the middle section :)


We are on an island just off Hong Kong Island called Lantau Island. If you like shopping then you'll love Hong Kong. I have never seen so many Malls dedicated to clothes before!



One thing I absolutely love here is the public transport. It just works. You rarely have to wait for a train and if you do, it's 5 min max, there's never delays, It's safe any time of the day and it's pretty cheap. Oh and the best part is the card system works everytime! Not like Myki in Australia.



Oh did I mention that you can't fall onto the tracks either because of these automatic station doors :D


It's definately a place for street photography with some interesting charactors and stories around every corner. I have been mostly shooting street and the usual touristy photos as well.

I have also checked out their abundant amount of markets here too. Just today I checked out Sham Shui Po. They have a ton or second hand and new wares from frest meat to old vinyl records.












People love their pet's here and you can always find them around their owners feet in their store.




Anyway this is only a glimpse of what Hong Kong is like, I still would love to check out their islands before I go. I will try to post in a few days with some more images and hopefully some Portraits too.

BTW I had intended to post some images from my first few days here except I had recorded them in Raw not Jpeg + Raw and my computer can't handle any editing of raw files, so now I will record both to save myself the hastle of editing them, not that you needed to know that ;)  Take care guy's. Kylie