GEORGE CHEN

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Sai Kung, Hong Kong

The Way Ahead

January 09, 2022 by George Chen in Hong Kong, photography, travel

Title: The way ahead
Camera: Nikon FM2/T
Lens: Nippon Kogaku Japan Nikon 50mm f/1.4 non-AI manual focus
Film: Kodak Gold 200

My long Christmas + New Year holiday is coming to the end. Let’s be honest: the year of 2022 apparently didn’t start in a nice way, from Hong Kong to Kazakhstan, not to mention the new wave of Covid-19 almost everywhere in the world.

But, yes, there is always a but, whatever the challenges or opportunities facing us. But the only way ahead is to go ahead. Keep going and let’s solve the problems and make impact together. This is the only way the world can move ahead.

I took this photo during my short trip to Sai Kung in Hong Kong. It was shot on a Nikon FM2/T film camera, recently acquired by me from someone who decided to migrate to the U.K. with his family. Ironically he acquired the FM2/T during his trip to London many years ago from a local Nikon collector and now I become the new owner of the camera, still in mint condition. It will stay with me in Hong Kong.

Nikon FM2 was invented in 1982 and the 50mm lens I use was first manufactured by Nikon in 1962. I went to Sai Kung in the first week of 2022 and got this photo on my FM2/T (T means titan, a special edition of FM2) and the very old lens.

Time and space are all relative. So are big or small problems facing us today. Whenever we get into the next chapter and then look back, the world may feel simpler than it was.

Btw, Sai Kung feels like Japan in this photograph, or perhaps it is because I miss flying and a real holiday too much.

January 09, 2022 /George Chen
Nikon, street photography, Hong Kong, Sai Kung, 香港, 西貢
Hong Kong, photography, travel
My “magnet wall” at home

My “magnet wall” at home

Till We Fly Again

December 16, 2020 by George Chen in Hong Kong, travel

I’m a magnet souvenir collector.

Wherever I travel, I will buy one or two local magnets of my destination and then bring them home. Every trip has an end but somehow those souvenirs can make my home feel more like home.

But my world travel paused in 2020. It’s not about cabin fever or get a bottle of champagne at the 35,000 feet high, but suddenly that I feel my world is smaller and don’t have the freedom of move any more. That in fact frustrates me the most.

You know the old Chinese saying? Like the “frog of the well” (井底之蛙), so it won’t get a chance to see the ocean and the real world.

In 2020, we are all like frogs now. Just sad.

December 16, 2020 /George Chen
travel, Hong Kong, 香港, souvenir, tillweflyagain
Hong Kong, travel
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