Weekly Photo Challenge: Sea

Posted: 06/09/2013 in Weekly Photo Challenge.
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Argh I missed last weeks photo challenge again. This week is all about Sea, this could be about the sea of despair that I am in with all the work I have to do!

For most people when they mention the Sea they think of the ocean. I love the ocean, especially at night when you have the crashing of the waves and the cool breeze. But that would not make for a good image.

Instead I am going to talk other types of “sea”.  Mongolia is about 1000km to the nearest stretch of sea (960Km from the easternmost tip to the yellow sea. But I love Mongolia because of the fact that it has two seas. in the south it has an ocean of desert and in the rest an ocean of grass. SAM_0170

In the Desert there are “ships” otherwise known as camels. SAM_0173

And then we have the “islands”. Also known as signs of habitation.SAM_0130

In the rest of the country there is grasslands. With the camels still in tow. SAM_0438

I am always impressed by the fact that no matter where you go in the world you can find some hardy soul living by the side of the “sea”.

 

And that is my post for Sea.

 

 

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Carefree.

Posted: 22/08/2013 in Weekly Photo Challenge.
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So I have not posted on here for several weeks, so much for keeping up with the weekly photo challenge.  It was due to a combination of factors including work, working on my masters, travelling and just being a bit of a lazy so and so. Well I am back to school and along with my plan to shed the pounds that I gained over the summer I am going to commit to posting again.

Carefree. Something I wish I was most of the time. But invariably with work and other issues this is often not the case. But over the summer I was in Canada catching up with friends who were former colleagues (one of the perks of being an international school teacher.) As part of the trip I was staying with some friends at a cottage in the woods by the Rideau Canal system. It was incredibly beautiful both in scenery and company that I was with. I was carefree, spending time stacking wood, swimming in the lake, eating fresh picked corn and generally just chilling. Whilst I was there I managed to catch a sunset from the friends cabin across the lake and it reminds me of that carefree summer.IMG_6864_HDR

To next week.

 

 

 

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Sign.

Posted: 07/06/2013 in Weekly Post.
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So the weekly photo challenge is Sign.

I live in Asia and I could have linked lots of signs that are of really bad English (Sometimes called Chinglish) or just weird imagery. One springs to mind of a toilet in Beijing’s forbidden city, a picture of how to use a squatting toilet that if you followed it you would end up covered in your own business.

But instead I decided to show you some images of the Hong Kong skyline from the night when we had the fireworks for China’s national day. As you can see, there are lots of advertising that happens on the buildings with the neon signs.

But why the fireworks?

Well I like the images for one, but if you look at the third image you can make out a figure of 8 star bursts. In China the number 8 is considered to be lucky because the word rhymes with money. It is the same reason why the Number 4 is unlucky because it rhymes with death.  So by having a figure of 8 in the burst it becomes a sign of good luck for the coming year.

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Anyway another short post due to work commitments. We are getting to the business end of the year, but soon it will be over and I will be off for the summer holidays.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Background.

Posted: 31/05/2013 in Weekly Photo Challenge.
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So the weekly photo challenge is Background.

I have decided to go with some pictures I took in Berlin from the roof of the Reichstag building. The first one is from the mirror reflection in the inside of the dome. As you can see I am reflected off of the mirror but in mad house kind of way. IMG_2167

the second image was taken from outside and I only added it because of the amazing storm that appeared to be forming in the background. But what was amazing was that there was no rain the whole time I was in Berlin. IMG_2153 (1)

A short post this week due to work demands.

Jamie.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Escape.

Posted: 24/05/2013 in Weekly Photo Challenge.
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So the weekly photo challenge is Escape. I was thinking about sharing some more images from Mongolia which is my idea of escape from the crazy world that I love in Hong Kong. It is definitely different from Hong Kong and an escape fro the craziness of the high pace. But in the end I decided to share some images that I took in Melbourne a couple of years back.

I was in Melbourne a few years back for my summer holidays along with the Gold Coast of Australia. Australia was an incredibly beautiful country with some amazing scenery and interesting wildlife. But the point of this post is about what I saw in the urban part of the country. I will be honest here and say that I do not believe that any city comes close to the imagery that you can get in Hong Kong. No where else has the skyline of our harbour or the dramatic back drop of the hills behind all of the skyscrapers. But one thing that we do not have as much of is street art. I am always fascinated by street art ( what some call Graffiti), not the kind that says bob loves sarah but the amazing art that can be found. For example the art found on the Duke of Lancaster. I know that some of this is preplanned and has permission from the owner of the property but in a lot of cases it does not.

So why do I believe there is a link to Escape? Well a lot of these images are an escape from the reality that surrounds them. They add brightness in a world of modern greyness that is often found in any city.

I found the following street that was covered in graffiti completely by chance. I was looking for an apple supplier as I needed to get a charger plug for my iPhone. Anyway as I left the shop I took a wrong turn and was walking along when i happened to see this out of the corner of my eye. IMG_1270

Now normally I do not go down dodgy looking alleys where even the bins are painted. but then I saw this image on the corner and so decided to explore more. IMG_1271

Anyway as I walked down I took a few snaps and they are below.

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But I feel my favourite of them all is this one.

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Just the surreal feeling I get with the scooter in the foreground.

Anyway there you have my take on escape.

 

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Pattern.

Posted: 17/05/2013 in Weekly Post.
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So I am in a bit of a rush this week with everything that is going on at work.  So today is going to be a fairly short post about  pattern. So I am going to share some photo’s of what I will be wearing later on today.

As some of you may be aware I work as a teacher and tonight is High School Prom. As always I will be attending as it is a really good evening in a very good hotel with students that I have worked with for the last four years. I always look forward to seeing who has had the biggest transformation on the night and which of the boys will wear the wrong shoes on the night.

I am a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to formal events and believe that I should wear a Tuxedo with all the black tie stuff. but this year I am changing it up a little bit, I still have the Tux but the bow tie and cumber band are slightly different.

Below is the reason why, first off it is not black and secondly it has a rather interesting pattern in it. IMG_6220

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Anyway that is my post for pattern. But I also wanted to share another image with you from the most amazing gardens in Hong Kong. It is from the Chin Lin Nunnery in Choi Hung. I have more to share on this but no time at the moment.

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Anyway that is all for me. And yes I will be taking a camera with me tonight, just not sure if it is going to be my little point and shoot or DSLR with the 50mm lens on.

 

 

 

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Weekly Photo Challenge: From Above.

Posted: 10/05/2013 in Weekly Photo Challenge.
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So the Weekly photo challenge is from above. Take an image of something from above and show it in a different light.

Some of you may be aware of the rubber ducky that is Hong Kong at the moment near the star ferry in TST. It is doing a world tour at the moment to promote peace and harmony and is the work of Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman.

Well being a typical Hong Konger I had to go along and see the rubber ducky and feel better about myself. off I went with some friends and we decided to take some pictures from the area that most people are trying to get them from, but then decided that we would get some pictures from the car park above Ocean Terminal. So below are the images I have taken from the original position. SAM_1535

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The following is the image that I took from above in the Ocean Terminal building car park. In the image you can see all the people down below trying to get pictures of the duck, there is not a great deal of peace and harmony in the flailing elbows.

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Whilst I was up here I also noticed the sunset over the new bridge that connects the down town area to the airport. SAM_1550

And the final image is for those who say that the duck is not taken from directly above. Enterprising individuals have started selling miniature ducks along the waterfront, I was given one of these by a friend. It is much easier to get an image of that from above.

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I hope you all feel more at peace having seen the rubber ducky. Have a great weekend.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Culture.

Posted: 03/05/2013 in Weekly Photo Challenge.
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I missed last weeks Photo Challenge Up due to work commitments. Which is a real pity as I feel that being in Hong Kong we have a lot of ups. We are the most vertical city in the world apparently, oh well work had to come first.

Culture, In Hong Kong? Some would argue that the only culture in Hong Kong is shopping culture or a culture of money. I tend to disagree, as there is a lot more going on here than that. I could show images of the various ethnic cultures that make up Hong Kong. I still have plan to go and take some pictures in Chung King Mansions at some point. Chung King Mansion is a location where a lot of South Asian who first come to Hong Kong used to stay, with cheap hostels and food from home. Now it is changing with more of the people staying there coming from African states, but the South Asians have kept their businesses there. It is an amazing location that has a real unique flavour, that has got some sights you will not see elsewhere.

I could also take pictures of the blend of old and new in Hong Kong. Instead what I am going to do is show a few images of the Chinese Lion Dancers. At Chinese New Year the Lion Dancers are often seen around town bringing in luck by eating the greens. It is exciting to watch and Businesses will reward the dancers with Red Pockets with money in them if they put on a good show.

Often Lion dances are confused with Dragon dances, but there is a fundamental difference between as the Lion dance is two people in a lion suit whereas dragon dance has many more people carrying a dragon on poles. IMG_4906

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Anyway I hope you like my take on culture in Hong Kong.

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Weekly Photo Challenge:Change

Posted: 19/04/2013 in Weekly Photo Challenge.
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So the Weekly Photo Challenge is change.

For me Change can mean many things,  the change in people, seasons or even as simple the change in location.  I could have talked about how I have changed over the years, I could have talked about the changing of the seasons. In the end I decided to talk about the a change that you can see within Hong Kong if you travel no more than one hour from the down town area around the Harbour.

Most people when they think of Hong Kong think of this image. IMG_4632

Or the images that I linked in My Neighbourhood.

But what a lot do not realise about Hong Kong is that there is a huge area of Hong Kong that is country parks. (If you do not believe me just look at a satellite map of Hong Kong on google and you will see a lot of greenery, especially in the north east.)

So in this post I want to highlight what a change travelling out of the centre can make. All of these photos are from the North East corner of Hong Kong around the villages of Sam A Tsuen etc. in the Plover Cove Country Park.  There are a lot of abandoned Villages in this part of the world that the young men and women left in the 60’s to go and work overseas in the UK for example. The villages continued for about 20 years more and started to be abandoned in the 80’s as parents got too old to hike 6 or 7 km in and out of some of them. I can get to this park in about an hour from where I live in the down town area.

Nature is changing and claiming them back slowly but surely, but in some of the villages there are holdouts. People who keep the places on for weekend homes or in some cases the sons returning from overseas to claim their family homes back, a lot of whom are retired. I wonder how many of them will be able to keep going.

There is a huge amount of Nature in the area and some really interesting structures, there are also the infamous wild cows of Hong Kong. Anyway I hope you like the images below that show the change that can be seen from the Down town area and the country park.

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Weekly Photo Challenge:Colour

Posted: 12/04/2013 in Weekly Photo Challenge.
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So the weekly photo challenge is colour.

I live in Hong Kong which has a really unique set up as part of China, as they say one country two systems. It is remarkably different between the two systems, in terms of what happens. A while back I was lucky enough to go to Xi’an with work, as part of that trip we went to Mount Huashan. Mount Huashan is a popular destination for tourists as it has amazing views from the top of the five peaks. When I went you had to walk up or take a cable car, we walked. Now there are apparently two cable car routes up, with a new one starting recently that is faster and has better access to the peaks. It is incredibly beautiful and has some rather dangerous drop off points along the ridge of the peaks.

So how does colour tie in with this and Hong Kong. Well the colour most commonly associated with China is Red due to communism, This is the case in Hong Kong as well with lots of red colour found all over. But Red is not just associated with communism it has a much older meaning of luck. This is why you will find the red pockets that are little pouches of money given to people for weddings and Chinese new year.

At Mount Huashan one of the most amazing things I saw was the locks on chains, seen in the images below. People climb the Mountain then they buy a padlock from one of the many vendors then have them engraved with a message to their family wishing  good luck, health and fortune. People then attach them to the chains on top of the mountain so that the good luck can reach the entire family no matter where they are.

You will never find red at funerals for example as it the colour linked to happiness. Though writing the name of a person in red can be offensive, as it was the colour previously used to write the names of the dead. In the case of the locks the red strips are added to bring that much needed luck.

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Well that is all for me this week. Over the weekend I am going with a friend doing a 12km hike in the new territories of Hong Kong. We are going  to be photographing some of the old abandoned villages in the plover cove country park. It should be a lot of fun.

Jamie

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