Medium Format

Bhuddist Lipstick

*Buddhist Lipstick*
Fuji GW690iii + Kodak Ektar 100

One of the most striking features of all these buddha statues at the 10000 Buddhas Monastery was the red paint on their lips. I kinda like it!

Meditation Stick

*Meditation Stick*
Fuji GW690iii + Fuji Provia 100F

Shooting with 100 ISO film is constraining. Especially on a sunny day with some shadows, since you always have to arbitrate on your depth of field as well as on what you want to come through exposure wise. This shot was super shallow, but I really like the end result even though my wife would probably say there’s too much blur!

Fractured Official

*Fractured Official*
Fuji GW690iii + Kodak Ektar 100

One of the things I love with the GW690 is the amount of detail it renders. The cracks on the paint of this buddhist statue fascinated me, and I love how they were captured in the image.

Urban Meditation

*Urban Meditation*
Fuji GW690iii + Kodak Ektar 100

Back to some 10000 Buddhas Monastery statue photos, in colour this time. In this one I wanted to capture the proximity between these magical places that from another angle would look so remote and the city (Sha Tin in this instance.)

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.

Bodhisattva Bokeh

*Bodhisattva Bokeh*
Fuji GW690iii + Rollei RPX400

I love the subtle bokeh of the GW690iii, but it’s not always easy to find the right conditions. It took me a long while to find a statue at the 10000 Buddhas Monastery that was not leaning against a corrugated iron fence, that was in the shadows enough that I could open up the lens and that looked good. But I did (this was the last shot in the roll!)

Buddhist Trio

*Buddhist Trio*
Fuji GW690iii + Rollei RPX400

I was quite taken by these three statues and the sign above their heads. I kind of wich I hadn’t cut down the base of the statues, but my angle of view wasn’t wide enough. Still, there’s a serenity here that I find quite striking.

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.