Weekly Photo Challenge: Vibrant

It’s back to Hong Kong for this weeks challenge photographs. Why? Some of the photographs I took on the streets are so vibrant; people going about their lives, unaware that I’m photographing them. For Street Photography I normally use Black and White but sometimes colour is better.

Wandering around the streets presents lots of photo opportunities. Moments that have to be captured there and then or they’re gone.

The streets are vibrant, intimate, and accessible—a lot of life is happening right in front of you. Sometimes the everyday moments that make up people’s lives provide the richest content for a photograph. – Leslie Rosenthal

Markets are a great place. They’re colourful, there’s so much going on and for me I get to take photographs, generally without getting busted.

The Flower Market provides lots of colour and as you wander round the streets wonderful fragrances assault your senses. Sometimes a little too heady. Almost right next door to the Flower Market is the Bird Market. I wanted to photograph the bird but this tourist was determined to be in the photograph. So in the end I thought “Why not?”

The biggest bug-bear with Hong Kong is mobile phones. People go about the streets, blithely unaware that you are there. Great for Street Photography but a PITA when they bump into you. They’re all doing it.

See what I mean?

For me the camera has the ability to distil significant fragments from the complexities of everyday life. The ability to make coherent, to simplify from the mass of details. Photography today should speak with urgency, should be free from contrivance, so that it must never be suspect. I strive for intelligibility because photography as communication to me is its noblest calling. The are of photographing human relations is not new but rather a development from Lewis Hine and the Farm Security Administration. The thread of humanism has greater vitality than ever, even if abused today. Photography combines those elements of spontaneity and immediacy that say ”this is happening, this is real”, and creates an image through curious alchemy that will live and grow and become more meaningful in a historical perspective. – Dan Weiner

Near the Star Ferry Terminal and the Avenue of Stars are these what can only be described as posing barrows. Artificial turf and a tree are mounted on a wheeled cart. People sit on them to take photographs….strange.

Now this guy I like. He creates stencil signs by hand. You can see some of his handiwork behind. With a hammer and various shaped punches he creates the signs on metal. His workshop? A busy main street in downtown Mong Kok. I kid you not. He just sets up his stall and get working.

Back to the market again. One of the most famous in Hong Kong is the Ladies Market in Mong Kok, which has over a 100 stalls stretching for about a kilometre and selling bargain clothing, mainly for women. You can also pick up very dodgy counterfeit watches and handbags here. As you walk through the narrow aisles of the market you will be approached constantly with calls of “Copy Watch” or “Copy Lady Bag”. It’s a game, be polite, if you don’t want to buy just say “No Thank You”. They won’t hassle you, too much.

Well that’s it for this week. Here’s what other bloggers are saying about this weeks challenge.

Weekly Photo Challenge – Vibrancy (2) – Travels with My Camera
Susi Lovell That Night At The Circus
HIP Photos Vibrant Sunset
Giggles & Tales Photo Challenge – Vibrant!
Weekly Photo Challenge- Vibrant – Adrian Evans Photography
Brilliantly Vibrant – SunDragonLady ‘s Cavern of Lost Words
Julie Powell – Photographer & Graphic Artist WPC – Vibrant
Musin’ With Susan Kaleidoscope
Connie’s World Weekly photo challenge- Vibrant
STREET-PHOTOGRAPHY – COLLAGE vibrant