Don’t look on the map. You won’t find More Street in my neck of the woods. Today I’ll post a few more shots taken with the M9, just wandering around whilst Mrs. Ha was out with her ‘buddies’ group. First though a rare word of praise for the interweb.
When we were in Britain last autumn we hired a car and I was stung for £16 per day for a GPS system. Regular readers may recall that when I put in the postcode for the cemetery where my mother is buried it took me to a fish and chip shop. In Hong Kong cars are not fitted with GPS. I am not sure why and no doubt you can buy some sort of kit but I have never tried. However recently we wanted to try a new route to a familiar location. I had the bright idea of looking on Google Maps. I found the route easily enough and suddenly a voice said “turn left at the junction of CY Road….”. Was there a genie in my phone? Was I under attack from malign spirits? It seems not. The answer is simple. I can now use my iPhone in the same way that I could the GPS system in Britain. I had just inadvertently pressed the ‘start directions’ button. And it worked. I just put the phone in the centre console and drove off and the genie directed me door to door. I found it perhaps a fraction late in giving me directions but provided I was alert it was fine (be a lert, Britain needs lerts). No fish and chip shop as my destination. And of course it was free. I pay for the streaming as the phone downloads from the satellite but the 40 minute drive used 3mb out of my 1gb monthly allowance. It says it is in beta testing but hey, I am happy. And it was all in English too. Miraculous. Here endeth the diversion and beginneth the photos for the day. Apologies to FB and Flickr friends, who may have seen one or maybe even two before.
Outside the temple.
The bike lady – gave me a very cheery Good Morning in English. Lovely lady.
Another cheery smile from the cook. She and her husband never object at my taking photos. Here she was busy but she did look up and smile.
Finally, a warning to all Porsche drivers, don’t drink coke and drive.
As usual all images shot from the hip and converted to B&W using Silver Efex Pro v2. I used a 35mm F1.4 Summilux ASPH lens.
All downhill from here 
I know you love photographing birds and you a very good at that. However your street/candid b&w portfolio is fantastic. Such interesting characters and locales for a Canadian like me to view. Really enjoyable to see.
Thanks Barry. I seem to go in phases depending how much time and energy I have and what the weather is like! I’m glad you like the street images. Strange how a lot of people here envy the Canadian lifestyle and many HK Chinese have Canadian passports. I guess not all of them are street togs though!
Does the M9 have live view or were these shot blind from the hip. Either way you have framed some nice moments here Andrew. Good to see you are still in tune with street photography. And I absolutely love the tones and the rendition from the M9. You are clearly optimising the beasts potential.
No Kaushal, no live view or articulated screen. Just shoot blind and hope. I zone focus at F4, set to 6′-8′ on the lens and aim. Mainly shooting at iso 800. 400 in good light, 1600 in poor light.
Shooting from the hip certainly ‘captures’ great photo’s Andrew, I’ve never spotted a ‘lert’ in Britain, but now you’ve warned me I’ll ‘b a lert’ definitely, I will. Now tell me, as you were looking up I was looking down, are the streets always that clean? totally jealous here, for I fear litter droppers are the bane of British life. xx
Generally the streets are pretty clean, Pen. They get dirty for sure but are quickly cleaned up. Shooting from the hip requires practice. I am not very good but getting better. Yes, do look out for lerts. There are lerts of them about as Inspector Clouseau might say.
I can’t see your pictures Andrew – are you having trouble with WordPress too?
Intermittently, Jenny. Each post has been appearing in my Reader 3 times. Yesterday WordPress crashed on me several times. What a shame.
I’m most impressed that you got your iphone to talk to you, that’s really cool. I’ve used my iphone for maps and directions a lot but never knew that it could speak to me (aside from Siri of course)
I’m enjoying your street photography very much. This is another great set of pictures.
Thanks Lottie. I genuinely found out by accident. Its very useful.
Great portraiture especially shot from the hip.
Thank you Victor.
I have a love/hate relationship with our Garmin. One time it directs me perfectly the next it’s Mr. Toads Wild Ride. It seems to know that I’m foolish enough to trust it again no matter how crazy the previous route.
This group of street photographs is great! The bike lady is my favourite.
We also had a bad route on our way to somewhere in the South of England. After 20 minutes I was starting to get suspicious but wondered if the GPS was taking me to a motorway for a faster overall journey time. Then I saw a sign I recognised and we were going in completely the wrong direction! I did a U turn and started driving the opposite way and suddenly we were on the right road. I have no idea why the GPS went walkabout but it cost me time and petrol.
The bike lady is nice, isn’t she.
These are great looking B &W photos. I really like the street scenes. The various facial expressions is what interests me. I think the porche guy is the most interesting. He seems to be walking in a trance unless he happened to close his eyes when he saw you with the camera. 🙂
And thanks for adding camera and lens info. Now I need to go to Google and read about the camera and lens.
“You have arrived at your destination”, my GPS told me. It was an awfully quiet street with a solitary man mowing the lawn and young boy sitting on an old tyre. We were supposed to be in the centre of Brisbane, Australia surrounded by millions of people.
The trouble was right street but wrong town.
I reckon the lady is looking over you head and not at the camera held at the hip, unless your hip is behind your head.
I like B&W Andrew.
we used a sat nag guy i Scotland – and most of the time it was very helpful. I too found the Google maps started to give me directions. Very cool (I think that’s the phrase) but you do need to be a lert as you say, as these devices can also be distracting. Very nice street-life shots.
Thank you Rod. Cool is indeed the word. Similar to awesome I think.
When you say “shot from the hip”, Andrew – do you mean your subject didn’t know? The woman in the second frame seems to be looking into the lens …
The idea is that they don’t realise, MR. I try to frame the subjects naturally. Maybe she did sense I had pressed the shutter. I see her regularly. It’s a very small place.
Gotcha. Tenks dullink. 😀