This is an HDR from a single RAW file! I shot it while on an escalator inside a building… while the escalator was moving! I would have to say that one of the top three questions I get is “How do you make an HDR out of a moving subject?” Well, that is covered in page 3 of the HDR Tutorial here… Maybe some people don’t make it to page 3? I don’t know. It’s easy!

Also, I was recently interviewed on NPR for a the station WUKY. You can listen to the NPR interview here online. Enjoy!

Hong Kong airport is a great one, as are many Asian airports. They put US Airports to shame. The security is actually nice to you there, and you don’t get all the attitude of the TSA. The TSA looks so important with their little uniforms. I think they are just silly… but it is remarkable how people react to uniforms.

I was going to find a pic of the silly uniforms so we could all make fun of them, but then I found out that the TSA has a blog! How boring. It makes me real happy that my tax money is going for the TSA’s social media operation. Look at this TSA blog entry on the Fourth of July and the YouTube videos they provided (especially the charmer about the dangerous “Sparkler”). Don’t worry everyone, the US Government is now blogging for you.

Believe it or not, there is a small documentary being filmed about me. I don’t know what to think about it – only to assume it is going to be rather boring! I think it is going to be a lot like Grizzly Man, just without the bear.

As this gal is going about her process of gathering materials, she asked me for a few of the original shots from Hong Kong so she can show them during the documentary. I was going back through my old shots, and found that I had never processed THIS one of Hong Kong, which has a really moody dusk sky, so I spent a few hours to clean it up for publication.

I hope you like it!

This is Sophia Froeschl, an Austrian model I met in Hong Kong. I am not sure I remember how I met her and her boyfriend, but it was either up at the peak or later at the bar while I was editing photos. See, I am a total geek and when I am in hotels, I don’t go to the bar to drink alcohol… I go down there, order tomato juice, listen to good music, and edit photos until my battery dies. I usually pick a remote corner, but people occasionally see me editing photos, and since they are some level of bored, they come over and start talking. Anyway, Sophia and her boyfriend could not have been nicer – they sat down and we drank and talked. I asked if I could take her photo since she was the prettier of the two, and he said of course!

The Chinese love to shop. I can say no more.

No… I am not living in Hong Kong, but I’ve always wondered what it would be like. I was surprised to see how green and hilly parts of the city were. It almost reminded me of a San Francisco x10 on with 10x less Asians.

Hong Kong has some of the coolest architecture in the world. Even though I have been over there a few times, I am always amazed how China is leading the way for cutting edge architecture in skyscrapers.

Just before sunset I found a really cool bar near IFC2 where I chilled out with a book and a tripod. I got up every few minutes when the light changed – this was one of my favorites!

Here is a shot of a cool tapas bar on top of the IFC in Hong Kong.

This was found on top of a building in central Hong Kong…

This is close to midnight from the harbor in Hong Kong with a full moon rising.

This was taken around 11 PM after I took the ferry back from Kowloon to the island of Hong Kong. The big building there is the controversial IFC2 building that went against the city building codes by exceeding the visible height of the nearby mountains.

I just got to Leipzig, Germany and I am looking forward to exploring. I hope I get some more time!

The full moon was over Hong Kong and it was burning through the clouds just after sunset. I shot this from the Kowloon side before I took the ferry back over to the island for the night.

This was shot at the base of the IFC2 building in Hong Kong. They have an open air area full of bars and little cafes where you can hang out.

One thing I have noticed from staying in hotels in Asia is that the lounges at night are always full of spunky Filipino singers. I do not know why all the singers are always from the Philippines or why they are always spunky.

Hilton, Marriott, Shangri La, Mandarin Oriental, and all the others must flood the Filipino Craigslist with adverts asking for good singers that can do dance routines, sing, and never get tired of entertaining expatriots.

Below is one of the singers from the Marriott, who I met one night between sets. One of the owners of the Hong Kong Marriott was in the lounge and he saw me in the corner drinking coffee and working on a few photos. He was a big fan of my work and soon started calling all the staff, bartenders, his friends, and eventually the singers over to my laptop. I was surrounded and they were all looking at my photos and asking all kinds of questions. Joy, in the picture here, asked me if I would meet her in Kowloon on the weekend to take a picture of her for her portfolio.

Here is IFC (International Financial Center) 2 in Hong Kong. It’s the tallest building there and you can get some sense of its size from the jumbo jet I captured in the frame which is actually very close to the top of the skyscraper!

The following is from Wikipedia:

Two International Finance Centre, completed in 2003, is attached to the second phase of the ifc mall. This 415 m tall building is currently Hong Kong’s tallest, is quoted as having 88 storeys to qualify as being extremely auspicious in Chinese culture, and 22 high-ceiling trading floors. In actual fact, however, it is short of the magic number, due to the fact that the “taboo floors” like 14th and 24th etc., are omitted as being inauspicious – 14 sounds like “definitely fatal“ and 24 like “Easily fatal” in Cantonese.

The highrise is designed to accommodate financial firms. For example, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is located at the 55th floor. It is equipped with advanced telecommunications, raised floors for flexible cabling management, and nearly column-free floor plans. The building expects to accommodate up to 15,000 people. It is one of relatively few buildings in the world equipped with double-deck elevators.

The 55th, 56th and the 77th to 88th floors were bought by the HKMA for US$ 480 million in 2001^[6]. An exhibition area, currently containing an exhibit of Hong Kong’s monetary history, and a library of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority Information Centre occupy the 55th floor, and are open to the public during office hours^[10]. The 88th floor of the tower contains the office of the Chief Executive of the HK Monetary Authority, and is served by an individual lift.

The last Hong Kong picture went over so well that I thought I would post another one. I’m going to smoggy and humid Shanghai for a bit and will try to snap some pictures between meetings for y’all.

Has my iPhone evolved into a sentient being? Am I in the middle of a campy Star Trek episode where Data is trying to figure out what it “means” to be human?

I brought my iPhone with me to China so I could listen to music and flip through the albums with my fingers because it is cool rather than functional. But upon landing in Hong Kong, I got this SMS message: “Welcome to PEOPLE’S Hong Kong! Calling home / other countries? Dial <001> .” You can zoom in to the maximum size to see the message yourself.

I thought this AT&T thing only worked in the US. That’s what the man said to us, but now I have reasons to doubt the man.

How does my iPhone know I am in Hong Kong? A few weeks ago at a lunch with Will, we put our iPhones very close to one another on the table while we ordered our food. We were hoping that perhaps they would mate and spawn a third iPhone. But maybe what really happened is my iPhone started to learn from Will’s iPhone. I don’t know what it could have learned, other than how to dress conservatively and part your hair in such as way as to make you look one-quarter inch taller, but that does not explain the Hong Kong Recognition Enigma.

Perhaps my iPhone is confused and thinks I am Steve Jobs because I sometimes wear all black in speak like a vainglorious huckster. I cannot say for sure, but I will continue to explore what happens to the iPhone in various countries.

The pic up there on my Apple is the one I took of Hong Kong from The Peak on the previous night… Here is a link the full size.

I had a long day waking up at 5 AM to take a series of subways and trains up to Shenzen for some meetings. I was hot and sweaty and in the kind of meeting clothes that aren’t great for being hot and sweaty in. Anyway, I can’t complain… I made it back to Hong Kong just as the sunset, so I headed up to The Peak for a shot.

In the foreground is Hong Kong and on the far side is Kowloon.