Last Sunday, I went to Macao for a quick trip. We stayed at the newly open Venetian Resort, which is the second biggest building in the world. Again as you can guess, it is a casino but this time, it is also a shopping mall together with thousands of hotel rooms. Even more, it has several exhibition halls and arenas, making itself a crazy huge place that one can stay for a week without worrying about the outside.

Before I talk more about the trip, I want to show you some HDR images I took during the day. I will explain more in the coming blog. The first image showed the morning sky I took before leaving home, and it looked like inferno in the clouds.

The exterior of the Venetian. It tries to copy everything from Venice, but obviously it is more like a mix and match design.

And the inside...what can I say? Luxury to the highest level...from fake canals in the shopping mall...

...to the entrance hall and atrium...

The place is really huge, and you can stay here for a week, really, without stepping out the door. There are shops (of extravagance), restaurants (from high-class to Starbucks) and big guestrooms (even standard ones have a little living room!). It is very impressive in terms of size (look at that fake sky above the canal! It is a painted ceiling actually!), but in no way I would say it is beautiful. Probably fake architecture is not appealing to me.

Anyway, more in the next blog...

Yesterday, iin the morning right before work, I went to the pier and witnessed one of the coolest flights I had ever seen. The new Airbus A380 flew over our harbour at a height of only 1000 feet. The new aeroplane is huge but it looks cute too, like a little overwiehgted child in the sky. Now let's take a look at the plane, from approaching to flying away.

The middle image is definitely the best shot, and I got the angle just right. It was a pretty lucky day too to have such a clear sky. Since the weather was not very good these days, the show might have been cancelled if there was rain or heavy fog.

Of course, my shooting didn't stop when the plane flew away and headed to Causeway Bay. I got some nice HDR shots for you, as part of your after-dinner dessert, haha...

And click this for a bigger image...

And I must say that I love the following image so much. The combination of both old and modern, and the mix of western and eastern are so well presented in just one wide-angle shot. It is just beautiful to me.

In other words, or should I say in short, I just love my city. This is one of the best places ever. 

I need to take some images for my office work, and so tonight I went out and tried to get some decent photos from the other side of the harbour (I mean the other side from my office). What you will see here are mostly HDR images, but they do not have much tuning, because I want to retain the original feeling.

So I started from the pier...

Then I shot what I needed for the office work. It is a shot towards North Point, where you can actually see the hotel construction site I am working on now. It is right in front of that AIA building.

The view towards Central is just awesome...

I know, the red part on the left is a Chinese junk boat, owned by the Aqua restaurant group. Finally, one giant picture for you to see the nice night view of Hong Kong.

[ click on it for bigger view ]

I guess I have made my city look more and more beautiful, or do I? Do you want to come over and visit me? Haha

Causeway Bay is one of the most crowded places in Hong Kong, and is considered as the most polluted part of Hong Kong too (and proved to be). However, the poor air quality and crowded-ness do not stop people from haunting around here because it is the center of fashion, lifestyle, hip culture and shopping. You can find nearly what you need here, and get the latest information about modern and fashionable things.

Last night I went to shoot pictures with Jackie, and obviously, the sparkling light and tons of moving people and cars are just too perfect for a series of night shots.

Canon 400D / 200mm / F/29 / 6 sec / ISO 100

So you see the people in front of the cars at the far end of this image? Yes, it was like hundreds of people crossing this busy road. It was around 1900 and people were getting off work. I guess only the traffic lights can stop the crowd from proceeding. Then it is another shot by Jackie, using my camera.

Canon 400D / 110mm / F/29 / 8 sec / ISO 100

One of the landmarks in Causeway Bay is definitely the Sogo shopping mall, located right at the center of the district. It is a Japan-based mall and here you can find different kinds of Japanese food, raw and cooked, fresh and canned. There are Japanese bookstore and cafes too up there!

To get a glimpse of everything, this HDR image will help a lot I believe. Feel the power and feel the movement!

Even though this image is an HDR image composed of three images of different exposures, I used a lot of masking and brushing to achieve the lighting effect. The lights made by the cars are mainly based on the overexposed image. The three images are taken 4 sec, 1 sec and 15 sec respectively (18mm, F/11, ISO 100).

Who doesn't like Hong Kong with its vibrant night life?

Recently, as many of you may know, I am addicted to HDR image processing. Last night I finally met up with Jackie (geckokid), who just came back from England, the place he studies. We went out and talked, and managed to take some really cool images of the night-time Hong Kong.

The sky was so beautiful on that day, and the orange clouds were just delicious. We couldn't help and shoot some really good images for HDR processing. Let's talk a look at what we have.

This is taken at the podium level of the IFC Mall. With HDR imaging, the sky and the skyline can be shown in one image with very good contrast.

And then I also shot something really cool...

A little lamp post on the podium. The effect after HDR processing was dramatic, and I pushed up the contrast a little bit more and got this saturated image. FInally, we went on the bridge in the main road of Central, and I got this shot:

This image is also an HDR image, but I did a lot of masking and painting work on it (except to the sky damn it) because the bottom part was not good after the HDR process. I guess the software can't take good care of fast-moving objects like glowing lines or stuff. Anyway, since I am exarggerating things, I don't mind pushing up the contrast even higher, together with saturation, to get this blue plus orange shot.

Photography is really cool! Tell me what you think!

And btw, a really nice evening with Jackie!