I have organized nearly 200 of my China images into four separate articles. This is the third, concentrating on China's great economic engine, Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese control in 1997.

You may view my images of the other three portions of my China adventure at:

China's North: Imperial Beijing and Xian:http://www.worldisround.com/articles/58823/index.html

China's Center, from Sichuan to the Sea: http://www.worldisround.com/articles/58821/index.html

China's West: Tibet, roof of the world: http://www.worldisround.com/articles/58817/index.html

If you've viewed previous articles I've posted on this site, you'll note that my photographic intentions are focused on interpretation, rather than description. I've continued to do this in these articles on my Chinese adventures. I want my pictures to express how I feel about what I see, rather than just recording what I've seen or where I've been. Aside from sharing my pictures with you on this website, I also use some of them to teach the principles of expressive travel photography through my galleries on pbase (www.pbase.com/pnd1) as well as in my Sedona workshops for corporate photojournalists, and in my tutorial workshops in Phoenix for newcomers to digital photography.

These impressions of Hong Kong were gleaned from the more than 2,000 digital images I shot during our entire trip. I used three digital cameras, primarily a Leica Digilux 2 and a Canon G5 -- both five megapixel fixed lens cameras. Most of the Canon photographs were taken with a Canon .7x wideangle converter placed over my zoom lens, which provided me with the equivalent of a 24mm wideangle lens, a focal length that I feel is essential for effective travel photography. Others were made with a Canon 1.75x telephoto converter, which is the equivalent of a 245mm telephoto lens. (Only a few of these photographs were made using just the G5's 35mm-140mm zoom lens.)

The Lieca Digilux 2 offers an incredibly sharp 28mm-90mm zoom lens, and an oversized sensor, which creates images with extra fine detail. It also functions without noticeable shutter lag, allowing me to stop action as desired. I also used a tiny four megapixel Canon S-400 Digital Elph for some of these images, allowing me to keep my camera virtually out of sight at times and even out of mind.

I've edited all of these images with Photoshop to correct and refine the hue, color, contrast and sharpness levels, hopefully making my pictures more vibrant and meaningful. Although all of these photographs were digitally enhanced to some degree, none of the content has been digitally manipulated. The facts are all here, exactly as I captured them.

I hope you will enjoy my photographic impressions. Please post any comments at the end of the article, or ask me any questions you might have via email.

Phil Douglis Director, The Douglis Visual Workshops, Phoenix, Arizona, pnd1@cox.net