Late Entries

I have started taking photos eight years ago.

The first camera I have ever had is the Pentax K1000, a fully mechanical film camera that despite its compactness comes with great versatility and functionality. I used to carry it with me to the street when I needed a break from schoolwork, and during my university years I took a hell lot of random photos around Hong Kong only to find a few of them decent retrospectively. Nevertheless, taking photos is an ongoing journey. A process of trial and error. You keep failing but you don’t want to give up. When you finally get the shot, all the effort is worth it. No shot or moment is truly ‘wasted’ in the end, I think. The cumulative sum of them is what shapes your style and character, what makes you the way you are. 

My second camera is still Pentax. The medium format Pentax 67. It is too heavy to be carried around casually for candid street photography. I got it secondhand at a good price on Carousell from a very nice seller. Before we met, he kept addressing me ‘si1 hing1’, that is, ‘bro’ in Cantonese, because the camera is too chunky that he thought the buyer must by default be a guy, perhaps with considerable biceps strength, and probably had even doubted the purpose of me buying the camera. He couldn’t help to ask me not to re-sell it to others because he cherished it so much that he genuinely hoped its successive owner could treat it well, so I sometimes send him photos I took with 67. Hey, look, it is still with me safe and sound!

I recently started reviewing all the photos that I took in the past, and I hope to put my favourite, or most memorable ones in compilation, perhaps to serve as a reminder that I, too, can be so passionate and motivated doing the things I love.

So all that I have to say or feel about these photos is somewhat a retrospective documentation, a compilation of late entries.