Since our return to the UK in April 2012, after 14 months relaxing on beaches, hiking up mountains and sleeping on over-night trains, we have finally managed to sort through ‘some’ of our photography archive. Between work commitments and fitting back into the UK way of life we are working hard to sort through the thousands of images to be able to do things with our favorite photographs. Like offer some for sale!

Thanks for looking. Helen and Dave.

We have been rather busy over the past few weeks. After a great time in Liverpool with The Double Negative team we sent out some notworkrelated promotional literature to companies that we would love to work and collaborate with on projects. We are now working closely with two partners.

Firstly we have strengthened our friendship with The Print Space in London and after appearing on their blog and judging their Self Portrait competition, we are working on promotional material for notworkrelated as well as printing all our shop orders through them. We highly recommend their printing skills and great customer service.

Secondly we will be appearing at ‘Focus on Imaging’ 2013 at the Birmingham NEC with Canson Infinity on Monday 4th March from 10am. With 450 years of high quality paper heritage we will be showcasing our travel photography with Canson Infinity and talking to fellow photographers interesting in printing and paper stocks. If you are at the event feel free to come over and say ‘Hi’.

And… hot off the press we have two prints back from The Print Space printed on the lovely Canson Infinity Arches Aquarelle Rag (310gsm). ‘Yosemite National Park, California, USA’ and ‘Decorative Basket, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia’ both look amazing on this matt textured stock.

You can purchase limited edition prints from our shop. All printed on two stocks by Canson Infinity, either the above mentioned Canson Infinity Arches Aquarelle Rag or the Canson Infinity Baryta Photographique.

For your viewing pleasure we have photographed the prints and you can get a good idea as to the texture and quality the Aquarelle Rag has to offer.

After a little lie-in we got ourselves ready and headed out into the hustle and bustle of Hong-Kong. We wanted to explore the area on foot so we hit the streets and wandered the many little alley ways and roads. Far more Christmas decorations were here than in China and it started to make us feel a little bit seasonal especially around Times Square. The streets are very much alike to those in London with the same traffic lights, double yellow lines on the roadside and even double-decker buses. We headed to Soho as the Lonely Planet had recommend the area for something a little different and more creative. There are hundreds of trendy restaurants and bars situated around Hong-Kong and you have a good choice to pick from, with many all ready very full with patrons.

We found a cool little place at the top of Soho so we sat inside and enjoyed a few drinks. Helen’s pear Halmsted cider (from sweden) was lovely and made for some easy consumption. Just up the road we popped into a small gallery and also found a Canon powered photography exhibition at the former jail in the centre of Hong Kong island. We could feel a lot of history here and quite a few areas were sealed off, we have spotted a fair amount of asbestos in China and we bet this place could have been the same. The exhibition (hkphotofest.org) was ok with a selection of old photographs showing the old Hong-Kong in its Colonial days and also some more modern photographers exhibiting their work. The building for us was the highlight, both wanting to use the space for a photography shoot. We even took our Christmas card photos of each other here, ready to be comped together with our Christmas best wishes.

After purchasing some Santa hats for some festive fun we continued to explore the streets on foot and found a great local restaurant that specialised in Wonton. We had a clear broth, with a free refill, and then started on the noodles. Helen’s wonton was packed with around 5 or 6 prawns and the lemon and honey cold beverage was great. Jumping on the underground network we made our way to Kowloon were on Christmas eve we were informed by the Alison Guest House that there would be fireworks on the Hong-Kong island and looking across the bay was the best way to see them. We asked a local police officer and they told us no fireworks, but there is an event taking place up the road, a street carnival.

People in the Hong-Kong territories really celebrate Christmas Eve more so that the actual day and there were lots of people walking the streets as a lot of the roads were sealed off to traffic. For a few hours we wandered around Tsim Sha Tsui and were absorbed further into chaotic streets and neon, they were getting ready for street parties and around the pier looking across to Hong-Kong Island thousands of people were waiting and photographing the Christmas decorations. It was rammed!

Not wanting to get stuck on the wrong side of the bay once the street procession had passed we headed back to Causeway Bay via the Star Ferry. For 1 HKD it’s a great view of the skyline and an essential part of any Hong-Kong visit. Not far from our accommodation was City Super which is like a food hall at Selfridges in the UK. They had some very nice items to buy so we invested in some Christmas Day luxuries and a really good smoked salmon wrap and a chicken caesar salad.

The streets were packed with people at any time of the day or night, maybe last minute shopping, some carol singers and others just out to feel the Christmas vibe. Once the sun had gone down the streets were even brighter with neon fluorescent and shop interior lights. We felt like we were inside the indent for Channel 4 in the UK which uses neon lights and signs to create a big number four. The inspiration must have come from here.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

As we are staying in a Hutong it makes sense document the way of life here. On the surface many of these alleyways look pre-historic and worn, but we know that inside they may be completely the opposite and often you will see a huge 40 inch TV screen through the window. There is always construction occurring throughout the Hutong area and it seems that the community are the one’s who get behind the backbone of the work. Washing is left to dry on the street and many still don’t have wash/toilet facilities so every 50 meters or so there are public toilets. There is a huge element of trust and respect in the Hutong, children safely play in the streets whilst old women chat on the corner selling oranges or dried fruit. The alleys are always busy and where we are staying we’ve noticed a games room of a night time packed with locals playing the local board game. We’re not sure what they’re doing but it sounds and looks like they’re having loads of fun. You can get good street food and since we’ve settled into out area we often get the nod from our service operators for the apartment block. This is certainly an experience we will never forget.

In contrast to this we have The Village in Sanlitun. If you’re ever feeling homesick as a westerner in Beijing this is the place to go, however it’s very easy to forget that you’re in China at all. The Village is a huge shopping, restaurant and apartment complex with stores ranging from Adidas through to Prada. Although parts of the Village are bustling with expats, at the northern end the designer stores seem to be lost in an architectural maze of glass, lights and space. We walked around one of the malls at 6pm and it was completely empty. We’d been to see the Frank Gehry exhibition, which we enjoyed and Helen enjoyed a new hair cut, afterwards we couldn’t stop ourselves from photographing the empty vast spaces that surround us. It all seems a little eery but also as if everyone is waiting for something to happen. The designer retail market hasn’t quite hit off over here yet but we’re sure that in the next few years Gucci will be frequented more and more as the capital grows.

So tradition and culture versus modern urban living? We don’t think we could live in a Hutong area all year round but it certainly has character, charm and atmosphere. The Village offers comfort but you could be anywhere in the world in a sterile shopping mall with lift music ringing in your ears. We would rather have the crude neon BBQ signs and locals riding around on bikes shouting to collect your rubbish. They are protecting the Hutong around the Forbidden City which is a relief to hear as this is where the history lies and where the real Beijing exists.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

For both of us, traveling will enable us to continue with our photography, exploring places old, new & exciting. This will form the basis of a body of work that we hope to share with you on this blog & on flickr, updating as we go & using a laptop to edit, backup, skype, email & to book our next room for the night!

With differing styles & approaches to photography we hope to capture a wider range of imagery, as well as two pairs of eyes to keep a look out for interesting moments, inspiration and people.

I have been a Canon user in the past, whereas Helen has taken the Nikon route. They both have their positives & negatives, but have equally provided us with the tools necessary to get the jobs done. Now… here is the issue. Weight! We are both concerned about the weight of our equipment and the size of the bag we will need for our journey. It would be great to take 2.5 – 3kg each in camera equipment (not including a tripod, it’s head and a laptop!) but this would be insane for the length of time we are traveling. We want the cameras but don’t want to become a slave to them every second of every day.

Also these cameras look very conspicuous. They are large, bulky & make you look like a traveling paparazzi. They tire you out very quickly & by the end of the day you really don’t want to be shooting anymore, when the best light of the day could be during early evening hours. Insurance also becomes complicated with these cameras as specialised camera bags are required along with the need for specific padlocks on lockers etc.

Well… a big headache for us both. We don’t want to go all that way & leave our photographic capabilities here in the UK. You don’t need the most expensive cameras to make the best shots, the photographer makes the photograph, not the camera, but at the same time we want to have the best chance of capturing interesting & documentary style photos. Hence, research into cameras that would fit our needs. Film or digital? Medium format, 35mm or 4/3rds? Pinhole?

I very quickly came across the only full frame, non SLR camera out there. The Leica M9. A rangefinder! A small(ish) camera that could produce the images we want but at the same time weigh only 0.8kg including a lens. However they do not come cheap. We would need to sell both sets of our current gear to cover the cost of this camera. Ouch! After doing research & looking at the Leica website I spotted that they do workshops called Leica Akademie which offers a brief introduction & the chance to explore the full potential of what these cameras can offer. We got in touch & booked ourselves into the M9 introduction course.

Below are a few shots that we took during our little exploration of the backstreets of Mayfair: (Leica M9, Summarit-M 50mm f2.5, processed in Lightroom)

In a nutshell we both loved the camera, a different style of photography to what we are used to. We each got to play with an M9 in the street outside the shop in Mayfair. Brett who ran the workshop was great & we would highly recommend the four hour session to anyone interested in these cameras. There were only four of us in the session & we all got to keep the 1Gb memory card from our cameras.

So lots to think about & consider. Also we need a secondary camera that is a good travel companion. More research needed, but looking into the Olympus Pen as a possibility. Time to get the thinking caps on!