Sheila Bocchine, Photographer

A little piece of heaven on Earth, Yuen Po Street Bird Garden, is a delightful refuge in a bustling city. It’s a garden, with vendors that sell birds and bird accessories. If you are smitten with talking parrots, love birds, and other exotic beauties, this is a must see in Hong Kong.

I’ve been there twice and it’s a miracle I haven’t left with a new best friend. Sometimes I think I have’t an ounce of willpower, but surely I do, or I’d be feeding grasshoppers to a sweet pink and grey parrot right now. I definitely have one picked out. She’s grey and hot pink. She likes to cuddle and look into your eyes. If she were a he, he’d be perfect! Maybe she is a he, what do I know. I just assume it’s a she because of her glorious hot pink feathers.

I also met the most adorable older woman, she’s the keeper of the birds and too sweet for words!  She kept telling me how beautiful I was! So naturally we bonded over her kind words! That was all she knew how to say in English, but one of the guys in our group spoke Cantonese and translated for me.  She said I was so nice and friendly!

Looking for a pinhole photograph to hang in your home? I think you’ll find what you’re looking for here!

There’s a little village, with houses built on stilts, on Lantau Island, called Tai O Fishing Village. The textures. The peeling paint. The rust. The odd materials used for building. I wanted to photograph every little nook and cranny. Every wall. Every corner. Every doorway.

Every where you looked, mixed media masterpieces. Poetry made with bare hands. A paradise of abstract graphics. Layer built upon layer of stories, waiting to be discovered. Just so beautiful.

If you’re looking for a pinhole photograph to brighten your home, you can find them here! Thanks for looking!

I love Chinese New Year and what a treat it was to finally experience it in China. I have celebrated in Chicago, NYC, Phoenix, South Korea and the Philippines, but I have to say China was the most spectacular. I feel so lucky to be living in China during the year of the dragon!

Unfortunately I missed the parade, fireworks and horse race in Hong Kong due to rain but enjoyed plenty of fireworks from my balcony. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced. I live on the 10th floor, surrounded by hi-rises in a city of 20 million and watched countless rooftop firework displays. It was totally surreal. Roman candles blasting off balconies, so close, like fiery ping pong balls coming towards me. Glittery explosions illuminating the neighborhood, reflections of prosperity and good fortune on slick facades. The sound of an entire city launching fireworks ricocheting and echoing through the deep canyons of the city. The sound. The sound was so robust, teetering between celebration and battlefront.

At one point I was skyping with my sister. I wanted her to hear the absolute insanity that started 6 hours earlier. I counted 8 different shows going on at the same time. She kept saying ‘take a video, take a video.’ If only I had started my video a few minutes earlier… in all of the excitement I couldn’t find my camera and was fumbling when I did. So enjoy the tail end of 8 rooftop firework shows, going on at the same time in my neighborhood:

Chinese New Year is largest human migratory movement in the world. Families leave the city and go back to the villages where they are from. This collection of photographs from The Big Picture is amazing.

Fireworks. Dragons. Lions. Flower markets. Red lanterns. Red envelops filled with money! Kumquat trees. Paper cut window decorations. Banners hung over and next to the door. Whole fish and dumplings. It’s such a beautiful holiday.

I’ve been learning about Buddhism for quite some time and the more I learn, the more I want to learn. The philosophies and teachings resonate with me, making me a better person. Part of what I love about living in Asia is the easy access to knowledge, temples and Buddhas.

The Buddha at Tian Tan is the world’s largest, seated, outdoor, bronze Big Buddha statue. I took the cable car to the top, opting for the crystal cabin (glass bottom). I felt like I was in a floating glass balloon, hovering atop turquoise water, dangling above treetops, and disappearing into grey clouds. The first glimpse of Buddha nestled peacefully among the trees and rolling mountain tops was an incredible sight. He’s one of the few Buddha’s that face North.

I ducked into a gift shop to buy some winter gloves, as I wasn’t expecting it to be freezing up there. If I wanted to take any photos I needed warm fingers! I meandered in and out of over priced gift shops, taking the chance to warm up where I could. I reached the gorgeous Big Buddha and climbed the 240 steps to the top, stopping along the way to photograph and pinhole.

At the top people were doing sun salutations, and sitting posed like Buddha himself. Tourist destinations bring people from all over the world and I love listening to their conversations, their beautiful words, their sexy accents. I’m always asked to take photographs of happy couples, and delight in the fact that my photographs are in numerous vacation albums worldwide.

It started to sprinkle and that was my cue to head back down (I melt in the rain). The cable car back was intense. I could only see clouds. I was sitting in a glass box, completely surrounded by clouds. It was truly spectacular.

To view the complete album, click here.

Windows of the World is a fabulous little theme park in Shenzhen, where you can travel (walk) around the world.  Unfortunately you don’t get to collect the coveted stamps in your passport, but hey, you don’t have to sit next to a screaming baby for 16 hours either!

Overall I thought it was a great way to spend the day.  Some of the attractions were more cared for than others (NYC definitely needed a hug and a good cleaning). They could have put a little more effort into the details, and put a western toilet in America.  We don’t know how to use squatter potties! I’d go again if my visiting guests were dying to check it out (of if they’d let me do a pinhole series of the miniatures… I’m still working on that, but you know, language difficulties).

Angkor Wat.

The same little people used through the park.

Japan.

Hungry Koi.

Taj Mahal, India.

Obligatory self-portrait in Venice. I looked everywhere for the gondolas…

Pisa, Italy (I’ve actually climbed to the top when I was a kid).

The Eiffel Tower and the view from the top.

Egypt.

Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota.

Brazil.

To view the complete album of photos, click here.

Now that I live in China, I’m trying to learn more about Chinese artists and contemporary Chinese art. So I will occasionally post my findings for you to learn as well.

*In Shanghai you can see a break-dancing Confucius by Zhang Huan. Although the exhibit sounds really interesting,  I don’t understand most of it, probably due to my lack of knowledge in Chinese history.

*A small city in China, Lianzhou, about 5 hours from where I live, has been holding it’s Foto Festival every fall for the last 7 years. I love what they’re doing. They wanted their city to be known for something and chose photography! The curator and assorted yearly co-curators are quite distinguished in their fields, so the festival is quickly becoming a must-see.

This is one of my favorite lines from the article:

For 2011, Phillips and Duan Yuting fixed on the theme of “Toward the Social Landscape,” focusing on documentary photography. This may seem a little worn to a Western audience used to the work of U.S. photographers like Lee Friedlander and Diane Arbus, but in the context of a rapidly evolving China where society’s borders are ever fluid, documenting the social landscape still possesses a real and vital urgency.

This is such a wonderfully exciting time for China. I love documentary photography and wish to do my part using my pinhole camera. Read the article. Do a little research on the photographers that strike your fancy.

*Accidental Chinese Hipsters – is a blog I check weekly! For those who care less about fashion and more about wearing what makes you feel good, then you’ll probably love this spunky collection of photographs.

(Part 2)

Ronja, Manu and myself inquired at every hotel we passed by for a room.  No such luck. We happened to run into a jogger who walked us to Kowloon Park.  We thanked him and found the perfect sleeping spot behind some trees.  We slept peacefully with the sounds of birds singing in the background. A security guard spotted us and told us we had to leave.  It turns out that we were in a bird sanctuary! We slept next to flamingos! Beautiful flamingos dancing in the early morning light of the new year, sunlight bouncing off their smooth, pale pink feathers.

We went to Starbucks, ordered coffee, plugged in our iPhones and camera batteries and drifted off to sleep for the next two hours. Once awake, we piled into a taxi and headed into Central Hong Kong to watch the Record Breaking Dragon and Lion Dance Extravaganza! Guinness Book of World Records was there. 88 dragons. 15 lions. A new world record! It was brilliant!

Finally we headed up to The Peak to catch a glimpse of Hong Kong from above. We watched the sun set and the transformation from day to evening as the lights below twinkled on.

Too cold and tired to do anything else, we found ourselves with the most knowledgeable taxi driver in all of Hong Kong. Instead of having to take the metro back to Shenzhen, he drove us the bus station and informed us about a bus that goes directly to Shenzhen. He was a life-saver with a few jokes up his sleeve as well.

Hong Kong is amazing, dare I say, my new favorite city?!?!!

To see the complete album, click here.

Fireworks! Glamour! Champagne! All night parties! Confetti! Midnight kisses! New Year’s Eve is my favorite holiday and has been since my parents gave me nose-tickling Spumante and shiny noise-makers as a child. I’ve celebrated in numerous cities around the world, in the most wonderfully memorable locations!

This year was celebrated in Hong Kong! Ronja, Amber, Michelle, Kevin and myself crossed the border from Shenzhen through No Where and into Hong Kong, hopped on a train and exited into a world of glittery holiday lights and police barricades. With magic on our side we found a darling restaurant with a table for 5, followed by a most brilliant spot to OOoh and AAahhhh at every colorful burst of pyrotechnic wizardry.

While drinking a bottle of bubbly we asked a friendly face to snap a group photo. This German man soon joined our group and together we roamed the streets of Hong Kong looking for adventure. The first bar we wandered into said there no tables, we said we’d wait, but tables were immediately available for natives. We kept walking. The second bar, which saw an explosion of confetti on their sidewalk looked promising. We sat down and were given a menu with beers costing 80-90RMB! That’s absolute robbery. We knew their tricks and asked for a Chinese menu but when they refused, we left.

The night was young and with beer in our hands we continued our quest… and from a distance we saw a jumble of neon lights. Dodging double decker buses we hurried across, being delightfully swallowed into a street oozing with happiness and drunken banter. A table appeared in front of Pattaya BBQ. Laughter, drinks, grilled squid, mushrooms and eggplant were in abundance.

Sunrise drawing near we bid farewell to our cozy drinking spot and looked for a place to sleep. Paying for a KTV room for a few hours seems like the most logical except, it was closed. Next we inquired at nearby sauna’s, but unlike sauna’s in Korea, these are for men only. So half of the group took the subway home, but myself, Ronja and Manu stayed behind.

To be continued!

*Also, I get to cross off one part of #7 on my 32 before 33 list. Go to Hong Kong – check!

To see the complete album, click here. 

A few weeks ago, I went to Da Fen painting village in Shenzhen, China.  It was incredible.  I’m definitely going back with my pinhole camera and a million rolls of film. So today, on Tuesday, I will highlight my favorite 10 photos from Da Fen Painting Village.

Da Fen is a neighborhood teeming with art galleries and painting studios. Painters create some original paintings but mostly reproductions that are sold around the world. You know, those Van Gogh reproductions and paintings you see in shopping mall art galleries and Target.  Yup, painted right here in Shenzhen, the city I live in. The neighborhood was beautiful, inspiring and full of amazing photo opps! I bought a gorgeous painting of a bird.

If you want to see the whole album, click here.