GUIDE TO HONG KONG´S BEST PHOTO LOCATIONS PART.4

Nothing screams more Hong Kong than layers and layers of apartment buildings one beside the other like infinite waves of concrete that surf the green hills of the main island, the lack of land territory oblige them to build up in stacks.

After Hong Kong was ceded to the British Empire during the first opium war, the island had only fishing villages and a population around 8,000 people, then it came the second opium war, and then World War II and the Japanese occupation, shortly after the communist party held power over Mainland China, many people fled into Hong Kong; today it has an estimate population of 7.5 million habitants with a density of 6,500/km2.

In Quarry Bay you get a glimpse on how local people live, local markets, businesses, neon signs and a beautiful cityscape. Quarry Bay started to get attention from foreign photographers after a scene of the Transformers movie was film in here, now it has become a favorites place for filming movies. You’ll find clusters of buildings one after the other that are very appealing for urban landscape photographers.

If you do visit Quarry Bay, please remember that this is a residential area where people live, so please, be respectful and do not invade anyone’s privacy.

The best way to get there is by MTR subway, get off Quarry Bay MTR Station Exit A, you’ll be on King’s Road, head south for about five minutes until you reach Mount Packer Road, there is an elevated walkway, then take a left at the signs that says “Municipal Services Building” until you reach “Cooked Food Centre”, to your left will be a walkway up to the courtyard of the Yick Cheong Building.

In my personal experience, I visited during day time because I was scouting, I was supposed to come back for sunset and shoot through the blue hour, at the end I couldn’t make it back; remember on the my first post that you should travel light and that I never follow my own advice? Ok, I payed the consequences of that personal choice, later that day I couldn’t take one more step, I was so sore, really, really sore and tired that I wasted one last sunset in Hong Kong and stayed on my hotel room resting and regretting not being able to back up there. I got over it next morning.

But as you can see, even though I didn’t shoot in good light conditions, the shot came alright! And this is thanks to the amazing place and to a strong composition. On my next visit definitely I’ll come back to shoot this place at dusk.

The classic composition for this place is to shoot straight up, but you can do things differently, as Dutch angles seems to work well also; I’m not a Dutch angle kind of guy, but, I have seen many compositions in this place that works, you find your what’s best for you.