Fotoeins Fotografie

location bifurcation, place vs. home

Posts from the ‘Hong Kong’ category

Lantau Island, Tai O, Hong Kong, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, twenty-five

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

21 June 2012.

On the first full day of northern summer, I’m on a day trip from Hong Kong proper to the west side of Lantau Island. The small fishing town of Tai O is my destination. It’s not long before my stomach growls in hunger at the sight of a woman making “Chinese pizza” (香妃卷, “heung fei guen”).

Among a variety of deep-fried seafood, Chinese pizza is a specialty of the Tai O Snack shop (大澳小食). The “pizza” consists of an egg crepe base, upon which diced spring onion, pickled radish chunks, roasted sesame seeds, crunchy egg crisps/savoury cracker, salt, black pepper, and homemade savory sauce are added. After a gentle grill, the crepe is folded and rolled, ready for takeaway or for consumption at one of the small tables inside. It’s entirely possible you might want fried-fish or -shrimp as well on the side …

I made the image on 21 Jun 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and these settings: 1/13-sec, f/5, ISO200, and 20mm focal length (32mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-m86.

Hong Kong Mahjong Company, Lockhart Road, Tonnochy Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, twenty-four

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

18 June 2012.

I’m looking for something that can (partly) summarize Hong Kong in an image. That the city rarely sleeps, that there are always people streaming through by day or at night. The scene above of the pedestrian crossing is at the intersection of Lockhart Road and Tonnochy Road in Wan Chai. Notable is the neon sign at upper right, representing the 2nd home of the Hong Kong Mahjong Company (香港蔴雀娛樂). In November 2015, the company moved into a new 3rd home a block further east at Lockhart and Marsh.

What’s equally noteworthy is the near proximity to Joy Hing Roasted Meats (再興燒臘飯店), for an essential dining experience of having a BBQ-pork rice plate on a small plastic table and a little plastic chair.

I made the image on 18 Jun 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and these settings: 1/6-sec, f/8, ISO800, and 41mm focal length (66mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-m7B.

Tian Tan Buddha, Ngong Ping, Ngong Ping 360, Lantau Island, Hong Kong, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, twenty-three

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

5 June 2012.

On Lantau Island near Hong Kong, the cable car ride takes me from the end station of the Tung Chung MTR line in Tung Chung to Ngong Ping. It becomes very apparent the Buddha on the top of a hill is more than simply “large”. The Big Buddha statue itself is over 26 metres (86 feet) tall, and with the throne and pedestal base, the entire structure stands a total of 34 metres (112 feet) tall. the “Tian Tan Big Buddha” (天壇大佛) faces north to the original inspiration of the Tian Tan (Temple of Heaven) in Beijing. With almost 10 years of planning and 3 years of construction with the auspices of the neighbouring Po Lin Buddhist monastery, the opening ceremony occurred on 29 December 1993.

I made the image on 5 Jun 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (Rebel XSi) and these settings: 1/100-sec, f/8, ISO100, and 28mm focal length (45mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-m6b.

Seattle Lake View: Bruce & Brandon Lee

Honouring the surname

In the mid- to late-1970s, our parents took us to single-screen movie theatres with names like Olympia, Golden Harvest, and Shaw for cinema night to watch movies made in Hong Kong. There were dramas; some high on the melodrama and low on character. Some were historic-period pieces, and there were kung-fu movies for which Dad passed his love to me.

There’s nothing quite like seeing a kung-fu action sequence on a big screen. I was mesmerized the first time I laid eyes on a memorable fight scene set in Rome’s Colosseum, that epic scene observed by little stone dragons between “Little Dragon” himself, Bruce Lee, and Chuck Norris’ character in the 1972 film “The Way of the Dragon“. As a kid, I was proud to have had the same surname as this Bruce fellow, and memories of seeing his on-screen characters prevailing in fights have stuck over time (e.g., “Boards don’t hit back.”)

Tragically, Bruce and his son, Brandon, died too young. I’m certain when I was a teen that I asked where Bruce Lee was buried; my parents didn’t know and in pre-internet days, it was more of a challenge to find those answers. But the mystery has long been solved: Bruce Lee and his son, Brandon, lay side by side in Lake View Cemetery in Seattle’s Capitol Hill.

Despite multiple visits to the city in years past, this particular return trip to Seattle has been decades in the making for a chance to honour a part of my childhood and a part of my heritage. When I find the Lees, my arrival means another answer has been quietly realized. On a crisp bright autumn morning under blue skies, I feel my father’s spirit with me; he never had the chance to come to this cemetery. My lips move without voice, a prayer I utter into the ether, pushing for hope to reach him. Because I know now that this, is also for my Dad.

(Click here for images and more )

Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong, myRTW, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: Tai Po street scene (Hong Kong)

12 June 2012.

This is Tai Po in the New Territories, and I’m walking southeast on Kwong Fuk Road (at Tsing Yuen Street). The white tower at left-centre is the Wing Shing Building (149-155 Kwong Fuk Road), and visible through the haze in the background is Ma On Shan (馬鞍山) mountain.

Where is everybody?

June in Hong Kong is hot and sticky, and on a blazing muggy afternoon, many are inside next to fans or air-conditioning. I’m one of the foolish few to wander the streets, but my reward is relatively empty streets framed by signage and street lines. There are “classic” Hong Kong elements: the row of air-con units outside and tucked next to windows, commercial signs big and small hanging over the street, familiar traditional Chinese words and characters, “no stopping” and “no left turn” signs to accompany driving on the left, aluminum scaffolding and bamboo poles, and women with open umbrellas to provide shade from the scorching sun.

During my year-long RTW, I made the photo above on 12 June 2012 with the Canon 450D, 18-55 kit-lens, and the following settings: 1/800-sec, f/5, ISO100, and 43mm focal length (69mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-9UT.