blackandwhite

Sanctuary

*Sanctuary*
Holga + JCH400

This is possibly my favourite place in the Hong Kong Catholic Cemetery in Happy Valley. It’s melancholy and beautiful, the tomb framed by those two tree trunks. I love the softness of the Holga in this context.

Lit Crosses

*Lit Crosses*
Holga + JCH400

Massive light leak on this one, but I think it works really well. Burnt sky plus light leak for the win!

The Column

*The Column*
Holga + JCH400

After a ten year long hiatus I’ve given toy photography a new try, and I like the results a lot more than I did ten years ago. Guess I didn’t have the confidence to realise that sharp isn’t an end unto itself. I did a fair few of these shots in the Hong Kong Cemetery in Happy Valley, and I love the mood.

Obscured by Dieffenbachia

*Obscured by Dieffenbachia*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Ilford FP4+
Model: David
Texture: Dieffenbachia Seguine

There are some leaf textures that I really love and come back to repeatedly. Such is Dieffenbachia Seguine. It has this lovely contrast of light green to dark green that works really well with double exposures.

 

My mind is in the clouds

*My mind is in the clouds*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Ilford FP4+
Model: Christina
Texture: Foliage

One of the tricky things with the « inverted treetop » technique is to avoid excessive wind because the image is then blurry. But as always with this double exposure project, I get accidental winners, such as this photo of Christina. Here the foliage was clearly in motion, but it creates this strange blurry bokeh effect that I find beautiful.

Bearded Bodhisattva

*Bearded Bodhisattva*
Fuji GW690iii + Rollei RPX400

So all of the statues that line the path up to the 10000 Buddhas temple are painted gold, but some of them are fresher than others. I think the ones I liked the most were the older ones where the pain was seriously flaked already. They had a more statuesque feel to them, especially in Black & White.

Sweeping the Nun’s Shadows

*Sweeping the Nun’s Shadows*
Fuji GW690iii + Rollei RPX400

I’m not actually sure that these female figures represent Nuns, or if they are female Bodhisattva, but I liked the alignment of statues casting shadows, and the leaning broom breaks that alignment nicely.

Dieffenbachia Suit

*Dieffenbachia Suit*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Ilford FP4+
Model: Christina
Texture: Dieffenbachia Seguine

The challenge with big leaf textures is that they paint themselves across different parts of the body and sometimes that breaks the abstraction that makes this series work. Yet here, the texture seems to espouse the model’s skin to the point that it looks like a painted wetsuit, and I think that makes it effective.

Leafy Dermis


*Leafy Dermis*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Ilford FP4+
Model: Laura
Texture: Ixora Coccinea

There are certain plant textures that don’t look like much but turn out working great (and some that you think are going to look awesome and turn out disappointing). This Ixora Coccinea is all over Victoria Park in hedges, mostly; I used it simply because I had not tried it before, but I didn’t expect it to work. I was wrong. On this picture it looks properly organic, and I love how different it looks in Laura’s hair.

Half a Nymph


*Half a Nymph*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Ilford FP4+
Model: Lia
Texture: Tagetes Erecta

With flowers, my double exposures are hit or miss. Flowers are usually very bright compared to the leaves around, and this can work in a nice bucolic kind of way or completely blow the image and ruin it. I’m glad here that it has worked. I was trying a half bust portrait, which I’ve already done in the past but with less success. I’m really pleased of the result here.