one day in my life
"fook wah mansions"
Posted by hugo poon (hong kong, Hong Kong) on 9 September 2008 in Cityscape & Urban and Portfolio.
Just an ordinary typical building of the early 60's across the street where I live today, but it keeps reminding me of the days when I was a boy...
Lyttelton Road, Hong Kong
PS. Taken in the same afternoon as yesterday's pic; the afternoon light and shadow were inspiring...
Fujifilm FinePix F100fd 1/600 second F/3.6 ISO 100 10 mm |
I do not regard myself as a photographer. I'm an ordinary man but extraordinarily obsessed with capturing all the memorable scenes that I encounter in my everyday life. It's like an excited traveller craving to record his memorable journey in a memorable way, but in my case, it's the journey of my life ... If I can record my encounters in such a way that they leave an image on the mind of myself and other viewers, it's a tremendous joy and some accomplishment...
In terms of photography, I'm trying to preserve the moments as my eyes see "something" and my heart feels it too. As such, I seldom feel interested in planned, arranged or manipulated photographs...
@Elaine: Oh Elaine, makes my day to read such wonderful words as yours! Thanks so much for stopping by!:-)
However, I might be disappointing you cause I'm still using an "old" and elementary software (the one I've been using since I took up photography in 2005) - PS Elements 3.0!! Maybe I'm not too much a fan of digital art and I find this software (with plugins like PTLens and Neat Image) still adequate.
That said, I do enjoy enhancing an image through some subtle and appropriate PP to "preserve and convey" the atmosphere that has caught my eyes and mind when the shot is being taken. For instance, in the present picture, the out-of-camera image was a little hazy; I improved it to that clarity in my mind's eye by boosting the contrast (using the technique of Local Contrast Enhancement). Secondly, the colourful details were a little distracting and I decided to desaturate the image a tad. Finally, I did add some sharpness (USM) to bring out the details and textures... These were about all and took me no more than several minutes to come to the final product.
BTW, I've visited your gallery and found alot inspiring and beautiful images!:-)
Have fun!
Hugo
@emily: Thanks so much Emily! This is really a matter of luck and maybe a matter of patience as well... I have always wanted to photograph this building, and this light was exactly the "element" that would give the subject the right atmosphere. Glad I had the little photo machine with me when I saw this...