Early in March last year last year Mrs. Ha and I went to Macau. I have reworked three shots from the trip which I hope you like.
Morning paper.
A selfie but not mine
And a well earned rest.
Mrs. Ha is out playing mahjong, I have been deserted. Oh woe is me.
All downhill from here 
I also like the third image the best – there is something about the wisdom, patience, sadness of age that captures well. Is she sitting ion a folded carton? And what is in the boxes she is wheeling around town. I also like the flowers o one side of the column and the elderly woman on the other. From the peak of youthful beauty to the deep beauty of a well lived life.
It’s striking how many elderly folks there are in HK who continue to work, often in menial jobs, to earn a living… Just as striking is the sharpness/details captured in this particular photo (e.g. the lines on her hands).
I find hands fascinating. I used to look at my father’s and see the work they had done over 50 years. HK and probably Macau have much the same issues in respect of the elderly. Quite sad.
Going off on a slight tangent about hands – have you ever had your palms read by a fortune-teller in HK? I’ve only done it once for fun, partly to challenge this pseudoscience.
I wonder if the difficulties faced by the elderly in HK & Macau are due to the lack of a strong social/welfare system + missing family support (which seems unusual for a predominantly Chinese society).
I’ve never been to a fortune teller. We have been to the temple to do the sticks and see if we should buy a house. And we’ve hired a fung shui lady to check the house. But my future specifically, no. Family support is reducing in HK. I can say that from experience 😡. I don’t think anyone is going to look after me in my old age.
I had a weird experience the one time I did the stick-shaking in HK – I had “24” (inauspicious in Cantonese) and this was the very number that I was talking about with someone the previous night and saying out loud that it’s unlucky!
Aie, I hope the best for you!
The face of the elderly Lady really tells a Vita… 😉
The well-earned rest is poignantly detailed, Andrew. There are poems, song lyrics and stories waiting beneath the surface of the woman’s face, her hand on her knee, the pose of her feet as she leans against the tree and rests and waits. This is beautiful.
These are really good. Each one is quite individual in the manner of pose and expression. I like the bottom one the most. The old lady has the expression of how I’m feeling about life since about this this time last year. Dejected, sad, woeful, deserted, and so on. Maybe you could title these a bit more when you post these on Flickr and elsewhere? Or not.
Shut yer face, Andrew! – the unfortunate woman needs a break from time to time, even if it is to play mahjongg. [grin] Love the pic.s – terrific subjects! – but agree the top one needs a bit of a gamma uplift.
Yes I do like. I like how the centre picture of young Macau is wedged between the two older people. The three pictures together probably catch the true essence of life there right now.
I like the contrasts in these, Andrew. The image contrasts look great with you setting your white and black points in the histogram. Those simple adjustments can make such a big difference subtle though they may be.
I think the pairing of the youthful selfie and the aged person appearing tired makes a nice life contrast.
You mentioned shooting from the hip in a recent post. Is that how most street photographers operate? I’ve never clicked a single street shot and wonered how you guys operate without getting a broken nose.
It depends as always, Steve. Some people you can strike a rapport with even if there is no common language. Others I shoot candidly simply because if they know they are being photographed their behaviour will change. Some shots are opportunistic and others planned. I see someone from a distance and try to work the angle and light. I shoot in the main with a 35mm lens on a rangefinder and I need to be 6-8′ max from my subject. That works well from the hip or tummy. A 24mm is better but then you really do get in their face if not up their nose. In Macau I was playing with the 5D3 so had different lenses. I like the 85mm F1.2 a lot but its not very flexible – just great for portraits though. I usually try to set the lens to F4 so I get a little DoF. If someone sees me and says no photo or waves me away, then I leave it. Unless they are obnoxious in which case I may shoot anyway 🙂
I guess that all would change if you were shooting for commercial use, at least here, where model releases are required. One reason I try to stick with nature and as much as possible on public lands is the requirement often for a property release as well. The way things are developing with privacy intrusion the ideas of releases seems about to be on the way out.
If you wish to see just how little of our privacy remains, check out Dragnet Nation on Amazon. I don’t know how to link on the phone. It is not reading material for the overly paranoid and although dealing mostly with the US I imagine all and maybe more is taking place worldwide. I am sure WP and FB are free because of the data mining sales.
black and white slices of life,.. makes them seem more ‘lifelike’ if that makes any sense. x
My life is lived in black & white, Pen. I’m still waiting for colour to arrive. Mrs. Ha claims all the birds in HK are either black or white or a combination of the two. Even when they are manifestly red.
I like them all, each person is so self-absorbed, the camera pointing at them is irrelevant. In the last the box marked Vita next to someone who has already lived a long life is great.
Thanks Hilary. Yes the box was a lucky juxtaposition. Well observed.
Super!
Thanks very much.
I cannot believe that it’s already a year since you went to Macau; it seems like yesterday that I was reading your post and ohhing and ahhing at your photos from that time. Golly. These are great, and I agree with Ms Rough, the bottom one (??) is my fav too.
How did you rework them? They look quite dark to me. My fave is the bottom one. I feel like that.
Bugger. Wrote a long reply and it disappeared. Basically I use the histogram to assess how far I can push exposure, brightness and shadows. Maybe the upload process has messed around with the images.
Isn’t that so annoying. I often do mine on textedit and then copy across, been caught too many times like that.
It’s ok, I know what a histogram is so I can work out what you did, although I never have any success with it so leave it well alone. Maybe you should write a post about it?