The past few weeks there has been a lull in my street photography. I haven’t been able to make any images that I would even like to consider looking at. It is moment like these where “passion” needs to feed me purpose. I know my images are not up to my standard. I know these images are not representative of what I want my images to communicate. Therefore it becomes even more important for my passion to push me forward. I continue to shoot with intention to the point where I have fewer excuses and have more time to make meaningful images.

To remind myself to keep making images, I submit the following…

All photos were shot on black and white film on various film stocks during the Lunar New Year in 2025. For such a jovial season, I found myself noticing the bland expressions of those who were participating in the motions of the festive holiday, and not necessarily the emotional investment the traditions require.

Perhaps I was projecting my own feeling of the Lunar New Year celebrations on to these images. Earlier that week, I also called the many expected mechanisms and obligations and expectations of the festival as a “Placebo.” Historically a very effective medication. An individual who ambitiously and happily participates will project that happiness and ambitiousness onto other aspects of their lives. However, like a placebo, after being revealed as a placebo, it loses all power. It eventually leads me to the presumptuous cliche of a conclusion, ignorance is bliss.

In spite of the new and unique features, it cannot replace my fastest snapshot camera, the Leica if with the voigtlander 25mm snapshot. I really enjoyed the novelty of the Pentax 17. It has a lot going for it. However, when you look past the novelty (which will eventually fade), the Leica is easier to use, more reliable, makes better images to by virtue of the larger negative.

Pros of the new Pentax 17

• It is new!
• Size and weight. I can wrap the neck strap around the bag strap and the camera can hang without feeling distracting. I would not do this with my smallest Leica combo.
• Film economy. The half frame means I get approximately 76 frames on a roll.
• Options to attach the strap in two different orientations. On the Leica, i add a clip on the bottom where i can easily and a shoulder strap.
• Zone focusing. That being said, the zone focusing is a bit better on the Leica with the Voigtlander 25mm snap focus which have indents at 1 meter, 1.5 meter, 3 meters so I can focus by feel.
• Interesting format where the default is portrait. I get to compose differently.
• The grip and finish of camera is a wash between the Pentax and Leica. I do like the titanium finish of the Pentax and the hand grip. The battery screw isn’t uncomfortable to me. The Leica has the timeless vulcanite that it is known for.

• Film counter is too small and hard to read. I have to angle my head at a specific angle from the side to read the counter. Single digit frame numbers can’t be read at all. When you get past the 10th frame it becomes easier to read the first digit but the ones one slightly obstructed moving in difficult to get nice the ones digit.
• Mushy shutter button. There have been frames where I was not sure whether the shutter was released.
• There is a funny hole for the shutter release cable. And I’m not able to use it with a soft release.
• On / Off button. When compared to the Nikon slrs where closing the film advance turns the camera off and prevents the shutter from being released, the extra button on the Pentax is vestigial. The Leica doesn’t have one or need one. Pentax had to add one because they couldn’t integrate it into the film advance and they needed a way to prevent the meter from draining the battery. The on off button on the Pentax is halfhearted. By trying to borrow design elements from Leica and Nikon, it accomplished nothing worthwhile.
• Mode button is easy to knock. A lock would have been useful. There were times when I looked down and noticed that I was in the wrong mode, such as bokeh on night mode. I lost frames because I was in the wrong mode.
• When you use a step up ring (40.5 to 46mm), the step up ring blocks the focus ring.
• Battery cover and unconventional battery size
• Max shutter speed 1/320 speed. It gets harder to use my default film on 1600 during the day. I had to hear this online. I couldn’t find it in the manual.
• No shutter speed dial. This is self explanatory.
• The LED lights are distracting and difficult to understand. I think I worked it out. Red means the flash is charging and is charged. Blue is the show a low shutter speed warning.
• No hot shoe or cold shoe.

• Not having any filter thread is a dealbreaker for me. I use coloured filters regularly for black and white photography. I use them in lieu of any lens cap and the orange filter brings down the exposure to a manageable level on bright sunny days.

Take Away:

I do not believe these images represent what I am hoping to communicate with my street photography. However, there is both an overlap with my past work, and a clear departure of the kind of moments that I hope to capture. This became a good exercise about composition, patience and discipline.

Challenges:

• Unwanted attention: Most individuals are too busy or too oblivious to notice what’s happening around them. However, there are a few types of people I will encounter in Hong Kong. The silent observer who will refuse to interact, make eye-contact or speak to you, but will hover for an extended period of time. They will try to discretely sneak photos with their phones. The extroverted observer, who will make eye contact, smile. Then a pleasant conversation blooms. I enjoy this interaction, but it is also distracting as I need to juggle the conversation and preparing to get my shot. If I have had taken my shot, I have let people look under the dark cloth and at the ground glass. The security guards that I have encountered are doing their job but they tend to overstep what their responsibilities and liabities are. As a result, I try to find the balance of not being walked all over and listening to their concerns. I do what I can to stay right by making sure that all the images are made in the public space and made for non-commerical purposes. 

• Size and Weight: Packing and planning so that I can set up and move relatively quickly. A healthy body and a strong back is a must. It will dictate the amount of time you are functionally capable of moving about with 25 kg of equipment on your back. I have recently been experimenting with a pelican rolling case and a think tank commuter. The think tank commuter is a lot more maneuverable. While the Pelican rolling case has provided a better environment to set up, a place to sit when shooting from a low angle or stand when shooting from a higher angle. Confronting stairs, which is inevitable in the hillier sides of Hong Kong Island, renders the advantages of the pelican case completely mute. 

• Composition: Even in the fastest hands it will take minutes to set up and and compose a shot. The decisive moment seems almost ridiculously impossible to capture when you account for the time it takes to set up a shot. I approached this problem by approaching scenes with planning. First, I preferred subjects in the distance. The further away they are, the easier it would be to nail focus. Second, I looked for scenes with some type of static control. It taught me to look for patterns or shapes more. Even without any subject, the pattern or other graphical element would be somewhat unique, if not interesting. Third, I would also plan where and how subjects would be most likely to interact within the frame. Then I would wait for the subject. for example, with the street crossing, it is fairly easy to predict where the focus will be. During which time, many different characters will have crossed the street. Finally, if a moment repeats occurs, I take the picture. 

• Focus and exposure: The physical limitations of the shutter of the lens limits my options and makes planning even more imperative. The lens’ widest aperture is f/9 and the fastest shutter speed is limited to shoot at 1/125th of a second. Most of the time I’m shooting somewhere between 1/4th second or 1/60th of a second. I take this into consideration when choosing the subjects. Once I’ve chosen the scene and the background, I plan for the plane of focus where the subject is going to be. I focus there and hope that I made the right call. Sometimes, it doesn’t go to plan. Other times, if I am lucky, I nail it. 

A few takeaways:

(1) It is nice to see the original prints in person. I’ve, for a long time, admired these images from afar through digital representations or through the eye of the magazine printer. These were all original prints vetted by the photographers so you get a higher sense you are viewing the images as the photographer originally intended.

(2) There a lot more imperfections in these prints. Some stains were because of old age and poor storage. Some prints have travelled around the world in dozens of exhibitions. Some images weren’t spotted very well. In Henri Cartier Bresson’s print of the Decisive Moment, was especially worn with some creases in the corners. It doesn’t hold a candle next to Ansel Adam’s prints in terms of contrast and depth.

(3) Observing the other guests in the gallery, I noticed that most looked over the academic masters, like a few Ansel Adam prints. The guests instead focused on the image next to Ansel Adam’s print about snow fall in Japan. Both prints were beautiful, but the opportunity to see a Ansel Adam print with all the skill was a wonder. I spend most of my time staring at Ansel Adam, Henri Cartier Bresson, William Klein, Liu Heung Shing, Diane Arbus. While I was focusing and studying these prints closely, I could feel the other guests wafting by to some other print that caught their attention. For me, I came for the names of the legendary photographers I’ve long admired.

(4) The moment is more important that the image itself. This is a sentiment often repeated. It doesn’t matter whether the image was made on an iphone or a lomo camera, the moment you’re witness and the story the image tells is much more important that the image quality. Out of the photographs I saw those days, I was least impressed by Diane Arbus’ prints, or Henri Cartier Bresson’s, which seemed to have a lower contrast and looked flatter than what I’ve seen online. However, that doesn’t matter as much as the interactions Diane Arbus had with the disenfranchised twins or Bresson’s moment. The image would be just as impactful and relevant if it was filmed with any other camera. On the other hand, if it was recorded just a half second later, the image would not be one of those revered street photography images today.