Things I am shooting....a photography blog by Taipei based photographer Duncan Longden.

Hong Kong again, and Nick Knight Mastered.

Well July has been and gone, but while it was here Mrs. L and I were in Hong Kong. She was there for two weeks running around like a headless chicken with work, so to try and keep her from going completely mad I tagged along too.

Not being one for sitting around and twiddling my thumbs, I made the most of the time I had while I was there, setting up meetings with Agents and Editors, making a portrait and of course catching up with all my friends in this crazy city.

AirBNB provided us once again with a great apartment, this time smack bang in the middle of Mid-Levels, just off the escalator. If you haven't been to Hong Kong, there is a thing called the Mid-Levels Escalator, which claims to be the longest escalator in the world. In reality it is a series of escalators that take you all the way up from Queens Road, Central to Conduit Road, Mid-Levels. To be accurate (I bet there are some out there huffing), it is the longest series of covered escalators in the world.

The view from the apartment we stayed in was simply breathtaking, I just would never get bored of it, making plenty of photographs as you can see. Even though some were made only minutes apart they are all different. Well, the weather and light conditions are never the same twice are they... 

Created using my Fujifilm X-E2 and it's in-built Pano feature.

I wanted to make a comparison between my little Fujifilm X-E2 and my Nikon D800e, the above image is from the Fuji and the below from the Nikon. They were made about 3 minutes apart from each other, which do you prefer?

Shot on my Nikon D800e using a 14-24mm 2.8 Nikon ultrawide.

While in HK I always take the opportunity to meet up with friends and clients, some of which I am happy to say are both. It was during an evening catching up and having a drink that I was told a magazine was looking for a shot of HK that made you feel how densely populated it is, and give a feeling of claustrophobia. There is a famous shot looking up from the ground in the old walled city which was offered as an example. The walled city is long gone but it's still fairly easy, if you are brave enough to venture into the little back alleys between the towering, stretching apartment buildings to find shots that give this feeling. The brief called for shots without the usual HK buildings in, so sadly the skylines I had been shooting all week were not what was wanted. I had the perfect shot of course, but it was on my hard drive back in Taiwan (bugger) and the two shots below didn't quite meet the brief either, not to worry. Sadly after a week of glorious sunshine, the weather had decided to throw down torrential rain for the second week, and boy did it. I was lucky to grab these two images in a 10 minute break in the weather. If you think photography is glamorous, try standing in a big puddle, at the backside of an apartment block, with unspeakable human detritus all around you in flamin' flipflops, I was on the verge of bringing up my lunch. Still even though the shots weren't used, I really like them, so I guess it was worth it, right?

Braving the nasty, filthy, stinking and flooded alley to get this. 

Thankfully a less unpleasant place to pitch my tripod, right by the mid-levels escalator for this one.

A fairly typical view from the Mid-Levels Escalator as I head up from Queens Road, Central.

The above shot was a kind of taste of street life. I feel I have been neglecting my street photography a little so will try and bring you a street photography special soon. Back to the Cityscapes...... 

Hong Kong is the most vertical city in the world, so it makes sense to throw a portrait orientated shot of it in.

Just waiting for that moment for the sun to set and the city light up, this was always going to be a winner. My favourite.

With my usual peculiar sleep pattern in full effect, I discovered that my friend had posted a thing on Facebook about the Nick Knight Mastered Program. Ever since I first started on this long road of photography, right at the beginning, back in the early 90's before I walked away from it all I fell in love with the work of Nick Knight. His lighting ability has always been the biggest inspiration to me, so naturally now that I am back in the game I was intrigued to find out more about this opportunity.

I guess it was somewhere between 3 and 4 in the morning, I had woken up, seen the facebook link and decided why not, nothing to loose. I filled out the application all the time thinking; "hell I'll never get selected for this course." 

Blow me down with a feather, I only went and did get selected, and now I am on it and both excited and nervous in almost equal measure. It is a great opportunity, the energy from my course mates is wonderful and the build up to it all starting is gathering momentum. The actual start date is at the end of September, at the moment we are getting daily news about who we will be working for/with, setting the projects, mentoring our progressing and guiding our paths to become more focused photographers. We not only have Nick (which is fantastic on it's own), but also 10 and Oyster magazines, the Editor in Chief of Lula and now Vox Populi are also lined up for us to submit our work to and learn from, it seems a new announcement of who is joining occurs daily.

It is all amazing to be part of, I am sure it will be a challenging 4 months of hard work, I will try and keep my blog up to speed with what is going on and how I am progressing, wish me luck, and enough energy...haha. 

This photograph made by Nick Knight is one of the reasons I strive with my work.

Never a truer word spoke.

 I'll leave at this, I have to go to the gym, it is taking some effort to address the beer and burger fest' that was Hong Kong. I need to be in shape and fighting fit to perform at my best over the coming months. We have friends coming from Austria and the UK, they will be getting a tour of Taiwan, fingers crossed I will be able to see them as well as work, I am sure I will manage one way or another as am really looking forward to seeing them and showing them the wonderful country we get to live in, I expect I may even make some photographs you lovely peeps will see on here in the future.

As ever, thank you for taking the time to look at my work, please go ahead and share it, leave a comment or ask any questions you may have.

Should you need a photographer, feel free to get in touch anytime, I am always happy to hear from people around the world regarding any work they would like to talk about. You can reach me here or through my website: www.duncanlongden.photography

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Take care, talk of what you love, not what you don't.

Cheers,

Duncan.