Hong Kong at dusk, part I

Every photographer will tell you that one of the best times of the day for taking pictures is the hour before and especially after sunset. From my own experience I can totally confirm this basic rule and I try to make use of these favourable light conditions whenever I can.

Normally I am somewhere outdoors when I take photos. As most of you know, I live in the Black Forest in Germany which is blessed with beautiful landscapes and great photo locations, sometimes quite far from ‘civilization’. So usually, when I think about dusk, I think of fading light, sunsets, open skies, perhaps seasoned with a few dramatic clouds and all that, dark silhouettes of hills and trees.

Not in Hong Kong!

Already on the day that I arrived and walked from Sham Shui Po MTR station to my hostel in Mei Ho House, I was very impressed by the atmosphere and especially the light that I saw. I immediately liked this residential neighbourhood with its many shops. And I made sure to be back around a similar time of day, this time without all my luggage but with my camera at the ready. And I managed to do that twice.

So what is remarkable about this atmosphere? Well, even at dusk there is plenty of light around, from all kinds of lamps in houses, shops, cars etc. And the streets through which I roamed were always still full of people, making the atmosphere both lively and homely at the same time. I tried to capture all of this with my camera.

I am not sure if this already qualifies as ‘street photography’. And to be honest, I don’t care if it does or not. All I can say is that it was a great pleasure to be there and to somehow be part of it. And even though I am not one to easily talk to people and take pictures of them, I did my best to capture not just the light (and the shadows) but also the people within that scene.

To conclude, I want to mention the fact that I always felt remarkably safe in that neighbourhood. I did not really blend in the crowd, if you know what I mean. My sheer size, my appearance, my camera etc. I was pretty conspicuous, I believe. But nobody seemed to take notice, let alone care about me being there and taking photos. I really felt at home there, for which am very grateful.