Orthodox Smoke
Canon 7D, 135mm, f/1.8, 1/400s, ISO 800
A few years ago I was invited by a Greek friend to the christening of his son, and we decided to make a family trip of it. I took many shots during the ceremony and I have to say that I found the ritual fascinating. One thing I really wanted to capture was the smoke form the incense burner, and this shot was a good capture of that.
Gnawa Street Musician
Canon 7D, 80mm, f/2.8, 1/1250s, ISO 400
There are street musicians you just want to give money to. This guy had such a smile that you couldn’t resist him. I don’t remember how the music was, but it’s one of the only things in Marrakech that I really liked (the rest of Morocco was much more interesting).
Full Protective Gear
Fuji x100f, 28mm, f/5.6, 1/250s, ISO 1600
Sometimes my « street portraits » just aim at depicting a cultural trait, or something that you see frequently in one place but not in others. In Hong Kong women protect themselves from the sunlight with hats or umbrellas, and men and women alike from the pollution with masks. The mask+hat combo may be over the top, but I’ll let you judge.
Cross
Fuji x100f, 35mm, f/4, 1/250s, ISO 640
The benches in Victoria Park often host interesting people. Not sure what prompted me to shoot, but I like the attitude. Can you really check your phone with your arms crossed like that ?
Colourful
Fuji x100f, 28mm, f/8, 1/250s, ISO 2500
I like capturing people in uniforms when shooting street. At first I was bothered that the face of the guy at the front is partially hidden, but now I think the trade off is the movement, which I really like.
Pretty Poodle
Fuji x100f, 35mm, f/4, 1/250s, ISO 320
One thing you notice when you live in Hong Kong (and more generally in China, it was even more pronounced in Shanghai) is how much the Chinese love their dogs. There’s a special liking for small dogs (I suppose the topology of the city explains that in part) and so I’ve been trying to capture masters and dogs these last few weeks.
Mobile Addiction
Fuji XPro-2, 50mm, f/8, 1/160s, ISO 200
I suppose you could see a scene like this anywhere, but here in Hong Kong (and elsewhere in China) there is really the sense that people are constantly glued to their device to the absolute ignorance of anything going on around them. I must have been maybe three meters away from the lady when I shot this, took my time, framed… she never looked up.
Melancholy Monkey
Fuji XPro-2, 85mm, f/1.4, 1/1800s, ISO 200
There’s something fascinating about monkeys, especially when they’re just lying around like they own the place (which, to be fair, they do). It’s hard not to project our own reading of facial expressions on their faces, wrong as that may be, hence the title here…
Erhu in Central
Fuji Xpro-2, 85mm, f/1.4, 1/1800s, ISO 200
The Erhu is a Chinese violin that sounds atrocious to my European ears. But when you find an Erhu player on an overpass in Central and that he lets you take your time shooting a portrait, you can tolerate the sound for a few seconds, open nearly all the way to f/1.4 and get a nice bokeh in the background of your street portrait !
Headache
Fuji X-Pro2, 85mm, f/4, 1/800s, ISO 200
Model: Gabriel
For this last shot I went pretty far on the grungy post-treatment, using lots of scratching and dirtying in Analog Efex 2. Some might thing it’s too much, but I quite like it.
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