I went out with my aunt and uncle today. We walked around Central, ate at an old style restaurant, and took a ferry... It was really tiring, especially in 30degree weather with the humidity pushing it to near 40.
My family on my dad's side don't quite grasp what I mean when I say "I like taking photos" because they took me to a ton of tourist hot-spots and kept ushering me to take photos of things. "But everyone photographs these things, why add to it?" I say, "People take a photo of it for a reason, you're in Hong Kong, you should take photos of the things people remember about Hong Kong" my dad replies. I completely disagree, but snap away anyway, not wanting to make my aunt and uncle feel bad.
We went to the IFC tower, a huge designer label mall full of tourists, (and the place where I learned that official Leica stores are bullshit,) and onto the IFC roof garden that overlooks the ferry harbour at Central. You can see the skyline of the mainland side of Hong Kong there, though it was raining so hard that you couldn't even see out to the edge of the harbour. When the rain stopped, we went back out to the roof garden and my dad tells me to take photos. I have no interest in shooting the skyline... I don't have an eye or interest for these things, and Andrew shoots them better
Though I came away with a shot that I kind of liked.
Central is full of foreign businessmen looking to do business with Hong Kong businessmen!
Anyway, I think my favourite part of the day was eating at an old style restaurant in Central.
At the Lin Heung restaurant in Central, an old-style restaurant. Floor is dirty, tables are dirty (we were seated at a table covered in spat-out bones and chewed meat, the mess was cleaned with one quick wipe of a wet towel), you need to give your chopsticks and dishes a second wash just in case. My dad loved it, re-lived his childhood here.
When the food carts roll out, people flock to them... because if you wait for them to come to you (as you normally do in chinese restaurants), everyone else would've gotten the good food already. My dad refused to sit down until we had about 10 dishes infront of us
He's like a child. Though, Hillary says I'm like a big kid, so I guess it runs in the family
The Hong Kong photo culture is really different from the North American one. It's part of the culture (not the right word, though the word isn't coming to me right now) over here to value brand names and high price tags over personality and skill. I walked by a group of 4 men sitting at a table about a meter and a half in diameter. Each of them had a D3s/D4 with big, expensive glass mounted. 70-200/2.8 AF-S VRII, 85/1.4G, 24-70/2.8... they chat about their gear, the features, and how much it cost them... not once is a photo mentioned. People here think more expensive is better. Everyone shoots the same things, landscapes, mountains, cityscapes, skylines, things that people see in travel brochures, which is why my family thinks that's what I like when I say I like taking photos. Kinda sucks.