Our old house on Lamma is now a school

In keeping with the pedagogic and altruistic flavour of our old house, it has been turned into a rather lovely school for twelve 3-5 year olds.

More sounds of HK

We went in to town today and recorded some of the many noises of HK.You can listen to all of them through this small mp3 player.

The frogs in Yung Shue Long Valley

After the first big rains of the year the frogs start to get all excited and the noise at night is almost deafening. Some of the frogs are tree frogs, the others hide in the reeds.




There are two recordings above. The first is of the high pitched cacophony, the second all the big deep frogs. Click to enjoy.

A view of Lantau from the ferry

Lamma ferry pier and HK harbour by night

My second attempt at HDR. Three blended exposures. It's OK, but not much better than just a normal shot....I think it's the wrong kind of thing to do HDR on. You need detail in different lights for it to really add to the photo.
Anyway it's Lamma ferry pier so that's nice enough!!

Lamma - Tung O Village

Here'a great little house near Tung O beach at the other end of Lamma. I just love the roof. It's incredible that people really live like this, 3km from HK. The path actually goes through their house, and you have to ride your bike past several old men playing Mahjong, with all the tiles clacking on the tables, old ladies shuffling about. And that roof on top of it all!! The village itself is about 4 houses and chaos everywhere, bits of rusting iron, umbrellas, guttering, no air con and lots of grannies.

Lamma Waterfront Views

This is a HDR - High Dynamic Range photo.
I took 3 photos on a tripod with different exposures and then blended them so that the best exposures of each picture were in the final photo.

This is just before sunset from by the Lancombe restaurant.

Wild pineapple closeup

Victoria Harbour view

The 'Eejits' climb Sharp Peak

We had Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Sai Kung with AYP and the group that we walked with decided to climb Sharp Peak. We had a great day and ended up on the beach, swimming and playing in the surf at the end. What a great thing to be paid to do.



Full Screen Slideshow Here

The Lamma Shipping channel

Every day when we go to work in Aberdeen we have to cross the shipping channel between Lamma and the South coast of Hong Kong Island. One morning the light was fantastic and I used my new 70-300mm lens with it's image stabilizer to capture this shot.

Tai Long Wan Video

Have a look for Sonya's brilliant attempt at killing me with a kite and also her rather stylish little jump

Tai Long Wan from Simon Taylor on Vimeo.

Another weekend at Tai Long Wan

Full Screen Slideshow Here

A Junk Trip to Beaufort Island

We spent the day on a junk with Sonya last weekend. The weather wasn't great but me, Isa, Sonya, Andy Fish, Lexi & little Isabella swam to the rocks and had a great time exploring while everyone else played Trivial pursuits and relaxed. It was a superb day but I forgot the waterproof bag for the camera so the photos are restricted to those on the boat.

Chi Lin Nunnery

Today we took Didi (Isabelle's mum), and Ugette (her Aunt) to the sterile but beautiful Chi Lin Nunnery and the nearbye Nan Ian Gardens.

Rebuilt to allow developers to create a more modern temple of shopping on the original site (and roads) the place lacks heart and warmth despite all the beautiful craftsmanship and amazingly the original materials (plus some concrete)

The gardens were beautiful but had that don't touch sort of feel, don't sit down, don't enjoy yourself, just be peaceful and walk along this path at this pace so that you can arrive at the gift shop full of shopping energy.....

When will the Chinese chill out? I got told off for touching a plant.
On the MTR on the way to the nunnery I counted 10 stickers within 2 metres of me telling me about things I wasn't allowed to do.....oh well!



Full Screen Slideshow Here

Snake in our House

Snake in our house from Simon Taylor on Vimeo.

Walk to Quarry on Lamma

Full Screen Slideshow Here

Superb walk with AYP students up Sunset Peak

Full Screen Slideshow Here

Quebequois Visitors

Here's some photos Isa took wandering round Temple Street with our guests:
Fullscreen Slideshow Link

Tai Long Wan kite flying

Full Screen Slideshow Link