A little... "Street Photography", I suppose.

PatrickCheung · May 30, 2012

It's about 1:27 AM here in Hong Kong, the city where I was born, though not raised. Toronto is my home. I can't sleep tonight, despite being dead tired at the bar a few hours ago. The buzz is gone, my friends have left, and I'm here, sleepless, with nothing more than the desire to share with others the people I've met, passed by, or the people (or should I say... person) that means the world the me.

I don't normally post here, so forgive me if my photos and words are not welcome.

And I suppose that since I don't normally post here, I should introduce myself a little! I'm a 19 year old student studying architecture at the University of Waterloo. I began taking photos as a hobby about 2-3 years back. That's when I started posting here (I must say, you guys were rather helpful to me back then!) My interest in photography has changed and developed a lot ever since I began... I now find myself interested in what the people of the city have been through, I want to know what they have to say. I also find myself intrigued by emotions and characteristics. When possible, I like talking to my subjects and finding out their stories. Though, if I can't communicate with the people of the city I'm in (as is the case now, my cantonese is not good enough), then I attempt to capture certain characteristics of the people.

If it means anything... or if anyone's interested, these were taken with a Leica M8, with either a Canon 35mm f2, Canon 50mm f1.8 Serenar, Voigtlander 28mm f3.5, or a Zeiss 28mm f2.8 mounted.

PatrickCheung · May 30, 2012

I'm also in a relationship with an amazingly beautiful girl, Hillary. She's the most honest, patient, kind, and understanding person I've met! There's no one else that can make me feel as comfortable as she does. As a bonus... she also has quite an interest in photography, often bringing along her little Epson R-D1 with her whenever we go out!

bhop · May 30, 2012

Nice shots.

DiskoJoe · May 30, 2012

Really nice work. Love the montage of your girl. Shes a keeper for sure.

C.l.a.y. · May 30, 2012

Hey, I really like your work. In fact I actually have been looking through it on flickr to try to find what it is about your work that I can apply to mine. I really like the moments you captured. If your looking for a little critique, and take my words with a grain of salt, because I haven't been photographing for very long, is the composition in 1 and 12. I would have like to not have the ladies feet chopped off in 1 and in 12 his hands are half in the picture, which is a little distracting. Other than that I find your work inspiring! Keep it up for sure!

Tarayn · May 30, 2012

I really like the last photo of your girlfriend. You captured her personality very well, she looks like someone who enjoys herself.:thumbup:

PatrickCheung · May 30, 2012

Thanks!

Clayton,thanks for the kind words! The compositions,I'm aware of! It bugs me a little sometimes too, but when cropping a photo, I usually try to eliminate the most distracting bits about it... maybe weird signs in the background, people in the background, objects in the background that detract from the photo. Of course, keeping the horizon flat is also important. Removing those artifacts sometimes come at the cost of cutting off bits. I feel that as long as what I want to portray comes through with the least amount of distractions possible, then I'm satisfied with the outcome. Of course, thre are those times where you just have no time to compose, or can't compose because you're shooting from the hip (as is the case with number 1)!

Tarayn, thanks

I think that's what I wanted to do... capture who she is!