The World's Most Expensive Property Market

This is one of my favorite black-and-white photos I shot recently on my Nikon FM2/T. It was a weekend afternoon and I wandered around Wan Chai, a traditional district on Hong Kong Island. I just bumped into this matchbox-like small shop, which is a very typical real estate broker office in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has been known as the world’s most expensive property market for decades. You think property prices are expensive in New York, London, Tokyo, or Singapore? Hmm… Come to Hong Kong and check out.

Property is not just a business. Property also means politics in Hong Kong. Some analysts say HK property prices were already contributing factor to the social unrests in recent years.

Even if you get 1 million US dollar, what you can get in Hong Kong is most likely a matchbox-like flat. There are tens of thousands property brokers in Hong Kong. Some can become very rich almost overnight if they can sell ultra-expensive houses on the Peak quickly. Those buyers usually pay all in cash.

Nothing can really stop the rise of property prices in Hong Kong, from the 1997 handover, Asian financial crisis, 2003 SARS, 2008 global financial crisis, 2014 Umbrella Movement, 2019 Anti-extradition law protests, and now the ongoing Covid pandemic…

People say sky is the limit for HK properties.

If you want to understand Hong Kong, understand HK property business first.

Life is more than a smoke

Title: 往事並不如煙 (Life is more than a smoke)
Camera: Nikon FM2/T
Lens: Nippon Kogaku Japan Nikon 50mm f/1.4 non-AI manual focus
Film: FujiFilm Superia X-TRA 400
Venue: Tai Kwun, Central

I remember this photograph was a quick one. From the moment when I saw the subject to when I pressed the shutter, it perhaps only cost me less than 15 seconds.

I like the composition of the photograph, and the three main colours in background, red wall, black door, and white stone. The woman was most likely on a short smoke break and she was all in white, which matched the overall colours of the photograph very well.

I was lucky to catch this moment. It just felt like “wow, I need to shoot this.” And I did.

Tai Kwun (大館) used to be the Central Police Station, including a detention centre mostly for refugees and dissidents. That was during the time when Hong Kong was under British rule. Nowadays Tai Kwun is a popular cultural and art spot.

People come and go. Buildings witness all the changes of their owners. Is this all about fate? Is life more than a smoke?

Life Beyond One Frame

Camera: Nikon FM2/T
Lens: Nippon Kogaku Japan Nikon 50mm f/1.4 non-AI manual focus
Film: FujiFilm Superia X-TRA 400
Venue: Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

A “frame burn” happens when the starting part of the film is exposed to light, i.e. that happens when you load a new roll of film into a camera, light will expose the first few inches. It actually creates an interesting opportunity to see your first frame of film becomes usually about half image and half (or sometimes 1/4) film artifact.

For every roll of film you load, you have an opportunity to pull off a really cool result for the first frame, and that is also known as the “frame burn” or “burning-first frame” in the industry.

I got this unique frame (yes, the very first frame of my new FujiFilm roll), which shows a 1/4 “frame burn” and the rest of some old local buildings in Causeway Bay, one of the world’s busiest shopping areas where Hong Kong’s SOGO Department Store and Times Square are located.

But there are still many local residents living here, right behind those fancy malls, and their lives are often neglected in the society.

I guess it’s just like the “frame burn”. Things happen always for a reason. You choose to forget to forget, or you just decide to forget it someday.

A Lucky Cat (FujiFilm 400 Review)

Title: Lucky Cat
Camera: Nikon FM2/T
Lens: Nippon Kogaku Japan Nikon 50mm f/1.4 non-AI manual focus
Film: FujiFilm Superia X-TRA 400
Venue: Soho, Hong Kong

This is my first time to try a FujiFilm film. Superia X-TRA 400 is known as an affordable film and ISO 400 also makes it an almost “all weather” film that preforms well in daylight and lowlight.

All film photographers will agree that it’s like 10x more challenging to shoot film at night due to lack of natural light, so a high ISO film will be quite desirable for night photography.

In comparison (this may be my very personal or “biased” view) I feel this FujiFilm film produces a warmer sense than some Kodak films, but there are also a lot of variables so my assessment is not scientific at all.

Perhaps 100 photographers will have 101 views about film.

This Camera Needs No Introduction

This camera needs no introduction.

Nikon FM2 is a legend. It’s not the most advanced film camera developed by Nikon but it just means a lot to many photographers including Steve McCurry who used this camera to shoot the most famous “Afghan Girl” photograph for the National Geographic in 1984, or amateur photographers like you and me who began to learn about film photography in our school hood and always dreamed of having a Nikon FM2.

Nikon FM2 is a 100% mechanically controlled manual focus SLR with manual exposure control. That means you don’t need battery at all to shoot, so it’s a truly “all weathers” camera.

I remember some years ago when I went to Finland to chase the northern light, my Fujifilm X-T1 suddenly got “stuck” due to the low temperature in the Arctic circle. I had to bring it indoor and keep it warm for a bit, and then the camera went live again. Honestly, I find that quite silly. I wish I could have brought FM2 with me at that time.

FM2 has several editions and I happened to acquire a FM2/T camera in perfect mint condition. T means titian, one of the world’s strongest materials and it is also very light, hence titian is also widely applied in space technology. Nowadays FM2 may be a bit overpriced than other Nikon models due largely to its celebrity effect, i.e. perhaps it has just too many famous photographers and celebrities as its loyal fans, even to this day. Well, a legend has its own reasons to be defined as the legend, of course.

I thought I am one of the few who decided to go back to the basics and pick up film photography again during the pandemic. The New York Times proved I was wrong. Film photography is now in trend.

Last year I also acquired a Nikon F4, which is more advanced technologically than FM2/T. F4 is a heavy one, over 1 kg already including lens, so these days I carry FM2/T more often for street photography. Film photography is like magic, the magic of color, light, and your point of the view about the world. That’s all and that’s how you can also be the master of magic.