The trip ended with more curiosity left for me to this little Europe – Macau. I found out from a colleague during a car ride to the Macau company office. There’s the unseen territory of Macau in the northwest neighborhood. There were markets, old buildings, and more of the local stuff. The roads were not as organized as in the main district. That’s the cruel side of Macau where most of normal/lower class locals live. It was a travel back in time kind of feeling. I’ll come back to this district for photography some day.
A very good example of how I missed this shot. It supposed to me a candid one. My camera spent a little too long (more than a second) auto focusing, as it turned out to be a mis-focused one. It could have been a very cool one. I still think my thinking was right to go with the AF though.
Very unique part of the Macau is the pavement in most of the tourist attractions. That, we Hongkongers are totally behind.
The 3 nights, a few hours sounded like a rush. The fact is, ‘rush’ never yield the good stuff. If I summarize my entire trip by my photos, there’d very well be around 10 photos. It’s no surprise if you found my photos in Hong Kong are in more laid out manners. I just get a lot more time and chances here back home. I understood why photographers need to spend ‘weeks’ and even ‘months’ in foreign countries for their projects, but not ‘hours’ or ‘nights’. I know it from my heart in terms of magnitude, my 3 Nights in Macau is just no match.
It was a memorable experience. Either way, a nice little personal travel exploration log and documentary on my blog.
–
Leica X2
As a personal project, it’s a great experience and lesson. I’ve never taken a camera with me with a clear purpose and proper hours spent on the street. There’s A LOT to work on with my approaches, and the Leica X2. In this trip I found the use of area AF was not as reliable as I’d have thought (at night with large aperture). I did quite a few mis-focus shots that I really liked. My last day (Episode III), my camera was primarily set to MF and only AF when I saw certainty in a scene. Further down the road, I see myself the need to get a better grasp on my distance while on the run. MF zone adjustment is absolutely crucial at night.
Is the X2 a competent companion?
It’s very straightforward to operate with. The MF works and no shutter lag. Everything works like a dream this way on this kind of high-end compact camera. The color/rendering are rich, realistic, dynamic range is more than okay (what I love about this and why I prefer this over the GRD other than the overall image quality). The shutter sound is audible to myself, a very good indicator whether I got the image taken. I still have to get to know more about it. Since day 1, I’ve shot all my photos with this camera and nothing else. It’s also a way to re-program myself again with the 35mm mentor.
(Here comes my rant, sorry!) I still whine about the auto LCD off timer is too short, making me to wake it up every 10, 30 sec. I thought I was settled with the idea of waking it up before taking part in scene (was doing fine in Macau) until tonight I basically missed all my shots in the busy streets. When the streets are crowded, I was just too busy scanning. I do not know the difference of either 10 sec, 30 sec, 40sec or 1 min when scanning for subjects and scene, the auto LCD off timer is limited to 1 min. I believed my constant half-pressing the shutter every so-and-so seconds would pay off, perhaps it’s the extra 10 seconds I have not half-pressed the shutter to wake the damn camera up; I screwed on all my photos. I did double tab on the shutter to make sure I got the photo. I could hear no response from the damn camera and the scene completely changed. It was frigging miserable I can’t do anything but to evaluate my approach again. I understand I get a much longer battery power with it (quite long!), but hey I do not want to keep missing shots this way. It’s miserable when I ready and I’m still asking my camera ‘hey! wake up!’. It’s still napping. I have expressed my opinion in writing to the Leica. It’s up to them whether to update it through a firmware patch. Sooner or later, I’d demand an anger management from them too?!
å p i n h ø n g k ø n g 
Your experiences with the X2 are very helpful to read. Thanks for sharing. But what I like most are your pictures. Fresh and full of true life. May I say: As always?
thank you KUM! you comment is always welcome. Lives in Macau is just like that. I tried and done my best ;p I kept my camera talk undercontrol and i must somehow express it after the trip.