Night Markets, Hong Kong

I really did not enjoy the experience of the Temple Street night markets in Hong Kong. Before I went there, I'd spent two days looking around Hong Kong at what I thought would be fun to see. And it was.

The guide book gave a wrap to the night markets, but as a place to hang out, it sucked - big time. The worst part were the hawkers spruiking knock off handbags and custom tailoring - I wasn't sure that this was a lack of insight on their part - I don't wear custom tailored stuff - or a "not so subtle" comment on my sloppy dress standards. Suffice to day, it didn't wash.

However, there were some good photo ops and this was one of them, taken looking up a crowded street. The lights, neon signs and all the activity was wonderful if you were prepared to look only superficially at it. Under the surface were too many junky souvenirs and way too many tourists!

Can we say Hong Kong?

In late December, I got a chance to savour the delights of Hong Kong for a few days. I have to say, I totally fell in love with the place. I loved the less touristy areas and this is one of them. These too cute trams run along a few miles of track on Hong Kong Island. They're double decker trams and they are so fun to ride. This photo was taken along the route and it's very typical of what you see - lots of breathtaking colour and busy streetscapes but also it's all about a slower and more simple pace of life. It's the complexity and contrast that is so captivating about travelling in Asia.

The photo is straightened out of the camera and it is also colour corrected to bring back the colour. My new Pentax K10D - which I absolutely love - takes photos which lack saturation particularly when I use a polarizing filter on it. I have yet to get a real handle on its behaviour but, for now, just shoot away and rely on Photoshop to fix the results.

One aspect of this photo and some others I took is the contrast between the saturated colours in the ligths and trams and the delicious pastel colours of the roadway.

Color that rocks! Autumn in Paris

Ok, this post is Color that Rocks not Color that Pops.. I am really really sick of hearing the word POPS, it is officially Over, Out, Done, Finished - Gone!

I have to hold myself back from screaming "No! No! No! can't you find another word" whenever someone uses it. Seriously, we need something different, it is so overused.

Ok, Rant [officially] over.

This photo is yummy.

I shot it in Paris in, duh! Autumn. The colors took a lot of work to bring out but they are dazzling. Next work I do on it will be to remove the people. I love them... it gives the image a sense of life ... but a friend doesn't - so they are going.

I have used this image as an example for the color change tool in Photoshop. Open an image to change colors in and choose Image > Adjustments > Selective Color. Now you can select colors in the image - yellows for example and add red or green or blue to them. Select any color and add more of something else to it.

This photo turns from Autumn into Spring in a few minutes - bypassing Winter entirely!

If you make your changes on a duplicate of the image then you can blend and control the effect with a layer mask. So simple and so effective.

At The Opera

This beautiful photo was taken at The Opera in Paris. It was early morning and I was walking past as I saw this beautiful statue. There were bars between me and it and the photo isn't actually in very good focus. But there, a bit of work in LAB and it looks just fantastic.

BTW, as I was working on this image, I encountered a problem - I couldn't save a copy as a JPEG. Yikes! what is happening here? I thought about it for quite a while, then discovered I hadn't moved back to RGB from LAB color - can't save a JPEG image using the LAB color space - so now you know. Switch back to RGB when you're done and you can save it.

Color gone wild

This is one of my UK images - it is of the lock area at Camden Town. Right in the middle of London there are waterways and locks, this is one of them. I took a trip in a long boat from here up the waterways and it was just wonderful. This photo, however is taken before the boat trip and it was just after a rain shower.

Often rainy days don't look great for photography but they can rock like this photo shows. The fact that everything is wet helps boost the color and, with a flash of blue sky behind the buildings, it makes for a great shot of color.

Camden markets are a great place to visit, lots of cute shops selling lots of wonderful stuff. Worth putting on your "must visit" list - but while you're there, don't forget to add a trip on Jason's long boats to the list. Those folk run even at off times of the year, the boats are old and cool and the trip, well, has to be experienced to be believed.