[Leica] Hong Kong LUG Meeting December 1

[peter choy <pmcc@mail.com>]

: 
X-Mailer: mail.com
X-Originating-IP: 208.139.123.102

Fair warning:  the following post is rather long.

After lurking on and off for the better part of a year, I am now breaking my
silence with my first posting to the LUG. The occasion for my giving voice
is the happy turn of events that unexpectedly allowed me to attend the LUG
dinner in Hong Kong on
December 1 that was graciously organized by Joseph and Sarah Yao.

After finishing my work in Thailand earlier than anticipated, I rang
Joseph’s house early Wednesday morning and reached Sarah, who let me know
that I could still be squeezed in for dinner that evening at the Foreign
Correspondents Club.  I caught  the next flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong,
and by afternoon found myself becoming reacquainted with the familiar buzz
and bustle that is street life in the Tsim Sha Tsui district.  This area is
home to two of Hong Kong’s iconic institutions, the Peninsula Hotel,
redolent of Hong Kong’s colonial history, and the Star Ferry connecting
Kowloon with Hong Kong island, which at HK$2.20 is one of the great
transport and sightseeing bargains of the world.

I chose that initial reconnaissance as a good occasion to pay my custormary
respects to Mr. Chin, proprietor of my favorite Leica shop on the planet. 
Who should I encounter there but fellow LUGGER Adrian Bradshaw, whom I last
met in Shanghai,
accompanied by Shintaro Yaghinuma of black paint Leica fame, whom I had
known only by  reputation. Both were laden with an assortment of Leica Ms,
Rs and LTMs, with all the Ms fitted with Tom A Rapidwinders.  We fell upon
each other with glad cries, engaged in the tea ceremony with Mr. Chin, and
caught up on old times.  Shintaro amazed me not just with the virtuousity of
his paint jobs on Leicas but also with his mechanical wizardry as well. 
Among other marvels, he showed me his 21mm
Biogon for G2 which he had personally retrofitted for Leica M by using the
helical focusing mount cannabalized from a Russar 20mm LTM.  This struck me
as the photo-mechanical equivalent of black magic.

We reconvened later that evening at the FCC, where 20 of us were gathered
for the third HK LUG dinner.  I think that the participants must have set
some kind of record for
distance travelled:   I had flown in from Bangkok, Adrian from Shanghai,
Shintaro from Tokyo,  Ting Lee from New York (returning to his place of
birth after a 32 year absence) and Helen and Alastair Firkin from Australia
byway of Japan.  As we were
meeting  in the Foreign Correspondents Club (Joseph is a member), our
gathering was crashed by various photojournalists who haunt the FCC bar --
most entertaining.  The meal was great, the wine flowed freely (selected
bySarah, who is a leading local wine importer), lots of show and tell of
gear and photos, but best of all the warm fellowship and company of good
people brought together by common interest.  Absent friends, including
Howard Cummer and Ray Tai, were noted and missed, and Adrian read to us a
warm and gracious greeting  from Tom Abrahamsson.  All in all the evening
was a success and a delight, and I thank and congratulate Joseph and Sarah
for their thoughtful initiative in organizing it.  I think it should inspire
others to arrange similar events wherever fellow users can meet. It is a
wonderful way to put a face on someone known previously only by e-mail, and
for me has led to warm personal relationships with friends in far flung
corners of the globe.

Part II

The next day, Adrian, Shintaro, Joseph and I met at the Hong Kong Macau
Ferry terminaland embarked on the hour long journey by jetfoil to Macau, the
Portuguese colony  founded in the 16th century (?) as a base for Jesuit
missions to China.  Macau, like Hong Kong before it, is to be handed back to
China later this month.  This was our opportunity to make a photographic
record of the last days of Portuguese Macau.

A very different feeling from Hong Kong.  Macau is older, gentler and
quieter --
where Hong Kong is about modernity and commerce, I would say that Macau is
more
rooted in tradition, and draws deeply from its Portuguese heritage.  The
sense is one
of gentle decline, but one of sweetness not of regret.  We started at the
ruins of  St. Paul’s Cathedral, which stands at a high point commanding a
view of the city below.
All that is left is the magnificent baroque (?) facade, with statues of
saints peering out from niches high above the hill.  We worked our way down
the flights of steps leading up to the Cathedral, taking pictures along the
way.  It must have been a slow news day because Adrian and Shintaro were
interviewed by a Chinese television video crew who were also covering last
days of Portuguese Macau. At one point, Adrian had a problem getting his
60mm Elmarit-R Macro to focus to infinity -- the helical had worked
loose.  Shintaro proceeded to amaze us all by performing a field CLA of the
lens,
taking it apart and reassembling it on the spot, restoring it to full
working order.  He did this while standing up.  Handy guy to bring along on
a photo shoot, I would say.

In the course of proceeding down the winding streets leading to the center
of the old city, we ran into a French photojournalist, Franck Regourd, who
had been living and
working in Macau for about 10 years.  A fellow Leica shooter, he was
attracted by the sight of aBrit, a Japanese and a Hong Kong Chinese with a
good dozen Leica M and R bodies draped about their persons (I identified
myself as the only member of the group not to be taken seriously, being
feebly equipped with only a Minolta CLE  and 25mm neo-Voigtlander Skopar).  
To be brief, yet another spontaneous convention of the international
fellowship of Leica enthusiasts resulted, unexpected and unplanned.
Franck showed us his work documenting the daily life of the Macanese,
introduced us to John, another local journo, and took us to meet his friend
Ng Chi Ho, staff photographer for the Macau government tourist bureau. 
After short visit there, Franck
and John kindly introduced us to a purely local Portuguese restaurant called
the Alphonse III, where we spend the next several hours enjoying a delicious
multi-course
Portuguese lunch, washed down with a couple of bottles of the typical vinho
de mesa.
Franck and John engaged us with details of how they have lived and worked
and learned to enjoy the people and life of Macau.

The finale of our day trip was a foray into the local camera shops in the
back streets of the old city.  This was a great success for Joseph and
Shintaro.  Joseph acquired a new-in-box classic M6 .85, at the original
price,  and Shintaro acquired a Leica RE,
also new old stock, at an advantageous price.  Shintaro also picked up a
limited edition, Chinese-made Phenix SLR, commemorating the hand-over of
Macau back to
China. The shop owner offered to sell one to Adrian as well, to which Adrian
sniffed,
in his best priggish manner, “No thanks.  I’m a photographer,” leaving the
“as
opposed to a souvenir collector” unspoken but clearly understood.  It was a
priceless
moment  and the high point of a altogether memorable 2 days.  Since I can’t
top that,
I will stop now and run off to dinner with Joseph and Sarah, from whose Hong
Kong
flat I am posting this.  After dinner I will gloat over the new  Utlron,
Nokton and
Color-Heliar lenses that I have acquired through Joseph’s kind
ministrations, and
then pack my luggage and get myself ready for my flight back to the bosom of
my family and prepare myself  to resume the quotidien duties of
end-of-milennium life in the USA.

Kind regards,
Peter  C.

__________________________________________________
FREE Email for ALL! Sign up at http://www.mail.com