A week in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is known as one of the best cities in the world for street photography and for this reason I've been wanting to visit it for a few years. One of my favourite photographers (Fan Ho) did all of his work here, more than 50 years ago though. I certainly saw the potential, but did I get any award winning shots? Nope.

The city certainly has an enormous range of photographic 'ingredients' - it blends ultra modern with traditional, has amazing architecture, there's gritty back alleys, the famous water skylines, urban decay, the neon lights, enormous street markets, the great double decker trams, and the hustle of a big dense city. However, working with and/or pulling apart those elements into something that works (for me) photographically was not easy, at least I didn't think so. I found it a bit of an assault on the senses, and the viewfinder.

I think the mistake I made was trying cover too many areas within the limited time I had, rather than focus and allocate more time to one or a few locations or do revisits. I also subconsciously got sucked into going to some of the Insta-famous places like the Quarry Bay buildings, which makes finding an original shot very hard.

My biggest learning from other big cities is to basically get lost, ignore Google Maps, and just walk off randomly down streets and alleys (safely) and occasionally choose random locations to go without much research. Some of my most rewarding experiences and photos came while I was lost. I tried in Hong Kong but obviously didn't get err lost enough.

What was useful was just riding the double decker tram on Hong Kong island end to end on the upper deck at the front or rear. Lots of unique perspectives and you can easily see spot interesting areas to disembark along the way. It's also pretty relaxing! Other good spots include Mong Kok, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon Park, the Xiqu Performance Arts Complex, as well as the Sky 100 observation deck (yes it's touristy).

Hong Kong will a require a revisit as I certainly appreciate why it's rated a top destination for street photography. Photos below.