Seaside Promenade

My friend CP has kindly allowed me to share this photo which he has taken last evening.

The photo was taken with the Victoria Harbor and the old Kai Tak Runway in the background.

After the relocation of the airport to Chek Lap Kok in 1998, the runway has now been converted into other uses; for instance,  a cruise terminal which can be seen on the image.

You can also see tiny lights on the faraway buildings in the background too.

I like the silhouette of the trees against a sky with some fading light.

He has adopted a slow shutter speed of 30 seconds.

Temperatures here have gone up to around 30 degrees Celsius even during the evening.

People prefer a late stroll or sitting out on the seaside promenade.

So life just goes on as usual in Hong Kong 🙂

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Twist (in the Trees)

I have digressed into the theme of incense and smoke, a subject which I will return in due course.

But for now, I need to catch up finishing my series of Twist for the Weekly Photo Challenge.

I have two more photos to show; both taken near my home.

The first one is a tree which sheds all its leave in Autumn and fully covered with green foliage in the Summer.

The bare tree has branches which are sort of twisted.

The second one is located in the Country Park I used to hike.

This is a type of vine with many twists. One just wonders how it can suspend itself between two trees and why the vine is in a twisted form.

In Chinese, this type of vine is known as the Flying Dragon; surely, it didn’t fly from one tree to another!

 

 

This is the Type of Photo I Love to Take Lately

This is the type of photo I took recently in the Man Mo Temple.

Without any tripod, I took a deep breadth, hold my breath and clicked.. . . . . . . .

While the joystick incense remained stationery,  the smoke from the burning incense drifted into the air, illuminated by natural light coming through the roof.

A thousand years seem to have gone past while I took the picture ( actually I was down to 1/14 second).

I am not a follower of the Buddhist, although I sincerely believe many of the teachings are applicable to daily life.

According to a report issued by the John Hopkins University:

“Many religious traditions have contended that burning incense is good for the soul. Now, biologists have learned that it is good for our brains too. An international team of scientists, including researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, describe how burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression. This suggests that an entirely new class of depression and anxiety drugs might be right under our noses.”

Hope it will have the same effect on you on seeing this image 🙂

Weekly Photo Challenge: Twist ( in Nature)

We have no joy up in the WuYiShan (mountain), China, as it has been raining almost continuously.

After a tiring climb, we descended from the picturesque mountains (covered in mist and rain) and walked by the river bank.

While strolling, we caught this riverside view: river in the background, straight line of trees (mostly bamboo) with thin girth standing at the river edge.

Their twisted form and light color was a perfect contrast to the straight bamboo and the river!

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Twist(ed Incense)

This is the first time I photographed within a temple in Hong Kong.

Just yesterday, I was testing my new camera at the Man Mo Temple along Hollywood Road on Hong Kong Island.

I was fascinated by the light coming at an angle onto the interior of the temple, the smoke from the spiral incense and also from the joy sticks – in the end I took many photos of the scene which seem very colorful and surreal to me.

Here, I am only showing the spiral incense photo as an entry to this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Twist.

Please enjoy 🙂

Weekly photo Challenge: Twist (in the Stairway)

We were climbing down the narrow stairway which led to the dungeon in the Spanish Castle of Hvar Island, Croatia.

The place was dark and was artificially lit by some colored lights.

As we groped down the stairway, I took this photo which shows the winding and narrow stairway; with handrail on one side which cast a strange shadow on the wall.

The wall on the right hand side was, of course, out of focus.

I find the color somewhat unnatural and therefore turned it into a Black and White image to remove the distraction.

However, this twist in the stairway does give you a sense of heading down into the unknown!

 

Weekly Photo Challenge; Twist (in the Body)

This week’s WPC is Twist.

I am sure we have twisted our bodies many times, especially when we are doing sports.

Here are a couple of photos supplied by my friend C P Chan.

C P likes taking photos of all sorts, especially sports and action photos.

Basketball match

He enjoys himself in the process of taking photos; but not as much in having to file them. So, getting these out of his archive took some work.

The first photo shows students at a basketball match – see how their upper bodies twisted with respect to the lower body.

Badminton

The second one was taken in a badminton court – see how the various parts of the body deviate from the usual posture.

Hope you enjoy the photos 🙂

 

 

The Nile ( from my Hotel Balcony)

Have been longing to see the river Nile in Egypt.

The Nile has been the lifeline of civilization in Egypt since the Stone Age, with most of the population and all of the cities of Egypt resting along those parts of the Nile valley lying north of Aswan. Climate change at the end of the most recent ice age led to the formation of the Sahara desert, possibly as long ago as 3400 BC.

While visiting Luxor, every morning, after waking up I would go out to the hotel balcony to have a good look at the river.

The place  is just surreal – with cruise vessels plying up and down the river.

The scene of the feluccas in the blue waters are just amazing.

They are  like paintings – I was in a trance – made me feel like going several back thousands years !

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Work of Art

This week, I am running pretty late for submitting entries for the WPC: Work of Art.

Here are two pieces of art –  both wood sculptures by my favorite artist Ju Ming.

It appears that the artist has retained a lot of the original trees; minimum sculpturing to give us these wonderful sculptures.

The first sculpture is for a couple lying on the ground.

The second one is a vertical one, representing a seated girl.

Since 2007, Ju Ming only painted his sculptures with white color only.

Please enjoy 🙂

 

Huanglong Travertine Pools in China

At about 10,000 ft. above sea level in Huanglong, China where the view is Alpine, we have breathtaking views of these pools.

They are literally breathtaking,  as at this level, we were short of breath (oxygen).

This is how Wikipedia describes it:

Huanglong Valley 黄龙沟 – The total length of the travertine in Huanglong Valley is 3.6 km and it is thought to look like a huge golden dragon wheeling through the snow-capped mountains of the valley. The main landscapes are travertine banks, colorful ponds and travertine waterfalls and caves. The main body of water starts from the ancient Buddhist/Benbo temple at the top of the valley and ends at the Guests Welcome Pond in the north with a length of 2.5 km and a width of 30–170m. The colours of Huanglong’s waters consist of yellows, greens, blues and browns.

On these two pictures, I am showing the blue waters.

This is in sharp contrast to the Pamukkale travertines I showed in my last post.

Up here, the scenes are more Alpine and tranquil.