A Beautiful Day – The Latin Parade

The Latin Parade (Parade through Macao, Latin City) I came across on TV for the last two years had kept me wanting to make a visit there. It’s the narrow streets, the remaining European architectures making it a fantastic theme and location to interact with the audience in close proximity. The route was foreign to me as a visitor who had been there only a few times. I did not prepare at all before I got there, except pre-loading parts of Macao map from the Google Map on my phone. I got lost for 30 minutes. It was not helpful until I picked up a map of the parade on the ground. My destination was to the finale performance, main stage.

The crowd at the Ruins of St. Paul was as much as I’ve experience in Hong Kong during any special events. I picked up a cone of Turkish ice-cream just to keep myself thinking straight. It was a 30 minute walk to the main stage at the end of the parade route. As much as I thought I would miss the parade, I found people gathered on a back street. There was the parade! Fortunately I did not miss any of it.

The final performance was the entire parade’s highlight. Almost each groups (international/local) got chances to perform. The stage could be viewed from all angle. Audience could gather around the stage. I really enjoyed it with all different cultures come together to celebrate the handover of Macao to China. The aerobic performer hanging underneath the floating balloons surprised me. I thought she was only flying toward the stage from distance. She actually floated around half of the stage over us!

I could not leave Macao without my stomach empty. My once-a-year Portuguese cuisine fix left me happy, and pocket empty. As soon as I got out of the restaurant, there’s the firework in the sky. It was a beautiful day.

Revisit to our memories – Ocean Park

It was a summer last time visited the Ocean Park. It was scourging hot, so sunny that burnt our skin and packed with lots of mainland visitors. This time it’s much better, only without the heat; we felt much better.

Ocean Park is everyone’s childhood memory as it is the only surviving theme park founded in Hong Kong. And it is the iconic attraction of Hong Kong. Not only me, everyone is glad the Ocean Park is still here. I even heard a man saying he hadn’t visit the park for 30 years, he could barely recognize it!

What makes me like Ocean Park so much is really the ‘memories’ it brings to me. Just their cable cars alone reminded me of myself and family together since I was just a kid. It’s over 20 years already since I ever got on a mountain crossing cable car! It’s still running so as the rest of the park!

With ‘have a great time with family’ in mind, it’s always a good idea go as light as possible. It’s a revisit to my 28mm – Ricoh GRD since a long time.

There’re plenty of scary rides at the park but those were not what we were after. We like the zoos, aquariums, themed restaurant, water show…that’s precisely why family with grown-ups can still enjoy their time while not feeling silly with the cartoons (vs. Disneyland). We had only seen a few things and so many more to see, such as the performances by sea animals. A day is just not enough!

The new ‘Old Hong Kong’ section is a street dresses up with the 50-70s decorations. It’s well-decorated but somehow it feels fake to me. Nothing is really going on. The classic street food was expected, with a ‘park’ price. Why bother eating there when we all could eat the same/better food anywhere?

What I love the most was the themed restaurant at the South Pole Aquarium. We could easily see penguins through a huge glass. Just how often do we see live penguins swim right next to us?!

Here & There – My Off-time with the GRD.

Photography for me is a motivation, to walk further; an exploration, to explore things from my every day experience. I wouldn’t have walk and see as much as these past few months than I’ve ever had. I often came back home with tired body and said to myself ‘oh wow, I actually walked from across three city districts.’ I really do not care how many photos I take these days as long as I get one or two from a day. I’m satisfied. There’s no need to rush for photos if I do not feel like taking. I know it from myself I’m capable of shooting photos that I’ve done before. So it’s a matter of chance and of how I encounter the subjects/moments. If the timing, feeling is not right, just forget it. Moreover, photography is life-long and continuous. That is if you got everything done today or overwhelmed yourself, what are you going to do tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, next week, next month and perhaps next year?

The beauty of our life is like what Forrest Gump says ‘Life is like a box of chocolate, you’d never know what you’re gonna get.’ It’s not different than photography as it’s part of our life experience. Again, ‘Oh man, I can’t believe I’m actually meeting Daido Moriyama in person in just two weeks’

This series includes photos taken from different areas of Hong Kong. I particularly enjoy the randomness and uninspired photography in days that I was confused and moody. I wouldn’t notice how interesting some of these photographs turn out until I select and process them. The way they turned out keeps surprising me. How cool to have photographs that do not turn out the way we wanted and actually better than how we’ve pictured.