Aftermath

Well Usagi gave us a friendly wave and passed us by, missing Hong Kong by 100km. The winds took it North West of us. Overnight we had torrential rain and gusting winds. I woke at 3.30am and hear them. However we are used to T8s and a direct hit is much more frightening as the folks up the coast discovered. This was pretty standard in the end.

This morning we have been putting everything back in its rightful place and normality has been restored. I drove 10 minutes up the road to see whether any birds had been blown in but nothing of interest. The waves were underwhelming.

It is an anti-climax and a welcome one. Thank you all for your good wishes.

Just to add some context, here are 2 images taken a few days apart – before and after Usagi.

 

 

 

Aftermath

Well I’m a bit miffed at all the comments Lulu received. I thought it would be a bit of a damp squib but no, it seems she struck a chord. Leica Laika – groan.

Despite her rather cutting critiques I did venture out with a camera again today. I can’t post any images because I was using the camera Lulu wanted, the M3. I didn’t finish the roll of film so I have no idea whether the exposures are good or not. I used a Gossen Digisix to meter with. It was bright overcast day and with ISO125 film I shot mostly at F8 and 1/125s. I only had my 50mm Noctilux lens. What I was grappling with was the gap between incident and reflected light readings, with the incident metering telling me there was a lot more light than I thought. So in the fullness of time I may get a lot of wildly over-exposed negs back.

The M3 is capable of some nice results. This is an old shot.

And from the younger generation:

Central HK on B&W film ……

And some recreation

But I still came home feeling vaguely irritated. On the way into the town I heard a loud cracking noise. And being a birder I felt instinctively it was made by a bird. And lo and behold there were 6 or 8 Chinese Grosbeaks sitting in the tree beside the road, feeding away. And all I had was a 50+ years old film camera and a 50mm lens. About as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike. This is not a particularly rare bird but it is certainly a new ‘tick’ for me in Sai Kung and a rather good bird anyway. Not dissimilar to a Hawfinch. A scarce visitor is, I think, the expression. And there was nothing I could do but watch as the small flock worked its way further away from me. Still, CGs do tend to hang around and I might get another chance.

And that’s it for today. A busy evening ahead and lots of jollity tomorrow. And some friends of ours have already started their year of the snake by finding a couple of Burmese Pythons in their garden. Some people get all the luck. But I doubt very much whether Lulu would get to blog again if the pythons turned up here. So if she pours scorn on my work a second time, I shall adopt a python. So there.