Saturday, August 2, 2014

Cloudy and Hobby (This week's Photo Hunt themes)


This is one of those rare weeks when Sandi's and Gattina's Photo Hunt theme choices, even when combined together, leaves me spoiled for choice.  After all, if you count photography as a hobby, every photo you take illustrates your practice of your hobby, right?  And since hiking is another hobby I like to indulge in, I can safely say that I've got hundreds, if not of thousands of outdoor shots taken in cloudy conditions and/or featuring clouds in them!

Although I'm not all at adverse to going out hiking on super cloudy days, I've noticed while looking through my photo archive that I prefer to take photos of the sky when they're actually not so very cloudy and consequently have more bits of blue to brighten them up some.  Also, because Hong Kong is full of hills, super cloudy weather is not super optimal hiking weather since it often means that you end up walking in the clouds and thus having pretty low visibility! 

As it so happens, all the days when the photos in this blog post were taken were ones that were great hiking as well as outdoor photography days.  As a result, I took plenty of photos while out hiking -- and so many good ones, in fact, that those three photos didn't end up in my double photo-essays chronicling those particular excursions!  

So... if that makes you curious to see more images from those hikes, please go here and here for a two-part photo-essay of a trek along the western section of the South Lantau Country Trail from Pak Kung Au down to Pui O, here and here for a hot summer day's excursion from Pak Tam Road to Chek Keng, and here and here for a two-part photo-essay of a trek from Lantau's Ngong Ping Plateau down to Shek Mun Kap village. :b

13 comments:

Trekcapri said...

Hi YTSL, perfect take on the two themes. I love your photos and that middle one is pretty cool. The views while riding up must be amazing.

Have a wonderful weekend.

magiceye said...

Loved your takes!!

Sreisaat Adventures said...

You've hit two birds in one stone! I love your photos. I'm awfully scared of heights but I want to ride on a cable car again! Was that photo of cable cars taken from the Ocean Park?

eastcoastlife said...

What happens if it starts to rain? are you prepared for a rainy day?

Would love a 2 week stay in HK and explore the places you photographed and blogged about. Oh, I could cook and invite you for a meal. haha....

Gattina said...

Good combination of both themes ! Photography is my hobby, my son is professional !

YTSL said...

Hi Trekcapri --

I'm glad you liked the middle photo. I actually thought it'd be the least attractive because there are fewer blue sky bits in it. ;)

Hi magiceye --

I'm glad you did! :)

Hi Sreisaat Adventures --

Nice to see comments from you again after some time. The middle photo's cable car ride is actually Ngong Ping 360's, not Ocean Park. The Ocean Park one is not so lengthy and also not so high up. ;)

Hi EastCoastLife --

I carry an umbrella with me on hikes, and also have a windcheater that can double up as a fairly good rain jacket. They have served me well on occasion. :)

A 2 week stay in HK sounds good. If you rent a service apartment and have a kitchen to cook in, count me in for at least one meal! ;b

Hi Gattina --

Cool re your son being a professional photographer! :b

Mike said...

Wonderful photos! Too many to choose from is a good problem to have!

Iowa Voice

Carver said...

I love these shots of clouds over the beautiful landscapes. It is funny how these themes have fit in with sky watch a few times since I stopped doing the hunt. I should remember to check PH and see if there are open themes I can quickly do or combine with sky watch. The main reason I dropped the hunt was it took more time than sky watch.

YTSL said...

Hi Mike --

It's better to have too many than too few photos, right? And I must say I do like Photo Hunt for its getting me to look at my photos in different ways. :)

Hi Carver --

Yeah, do please check out the Photo Hunt themes and see which ones you can take part in. I do miss your entries because they often were very interesting. :)

RR said...

Fantastic clouds! The photos make me want to get out to do some hiking myself.

YTSL said...

Hi RR --

Hiking is often such a joy for me -- not least because I get to see many beautiful sights when doing so. :)

alejna said...

Excellent choices! I do love cloud photos, and have taken quite a few myself! And I even got quite a few dramatic cloud photos during my lovely stay in Hong Kong 3 (gasp!) years ago.

I alway enjoy seeing your hike photos, too.

YTSL said...

Hi Alejna --

Am not sure if you can recognize it but photo number 3 from the top of this blog post was taken in the area where I took you hiking when you visited Hong Kong! ;)