After working for more than 1 year, I began to have a little savings to realize my childhood dream of photography. When I was 17 years old, I visited a Chinese corporate shopping mall located in the North Point area and bought a Seagull DF2 manual professional camera with a standard Chinese brand lens which at that time was the cheapest professional camera with a standard lens on the market.

Don't have money to take photography courses and only learn through books

At that time the Internet was not yet common all over the world, so the option to study photography at that time was to take expensive courses. Unlike now, many communities or camera companies hold free photography courses, so at that time I learned photography only through books in the library and bought books when the bookstore was on sale or bought used books.

My first professional camera was a Chinese brand camera, the Seagull DF2.

The first 2 photography books I bought in 1994 to learn photography techniques. I still keep the 2 books as a memento.

Learn using the cheapest accessories and film

At that time camera accessories were not as easy to reach as they are now, so at first when I studied photography I always bought accessories such as tripods, cheaper Chinese brand camera flashes or second-hand items.

Unlike now photos use memory, if the results are not satisfactory, they just need to be deleted and then re-photographed. Unsatisfactory results can also be edited via computer. At that time one roll of film could only hold about 34 photos and could not be re-photographed. So before pressing the photo button I have to make the right settings on the camera to get the photo I want. The results of the photos also have to wait a few days because the photo washing process takes time.

David Chan Camera 陳烘相機 is one of the used camera shops in Tsim Sha Tsui that I visit most often to buy used cameras, lenses and accessories when I was still studying photography.

The second professional camera is the Minolta X-700 that I bought at the used camera store David Chan Camera.

Frequent visits to Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport for airplane photos

One of the places I liked to visit the most for photos at that time was Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport. Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport is Hong Kong's old airport located in the Kowloon City area before the airport was located in Chek Lap Kok. I often visit Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport. Besides I like airplanes, it is also because when I see Garuda Indonesia airplanes I remember my friends in Indonesia.

Photograph I took at Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport in 1995.

Starting to make friends to practice photography together

When I was in high school, I always did photography activities on my own, because at that time I didn't have time to find friends who shared my passion for photography. None of my co-workers were interested in photography either.

After I started working in the office, I started making the same friends as me who loved photography. Some of them were due to my invitation so they also started to like photography.

Photo with 2 office friends (I'm far right). They were my first friends who also loved photography in 1996. My friend standing in the middle is also working as a photographer at this time.

When I was shooting after work in 2000 to take a view of Victoria Harbour from Wan Chai with some office friends.

The results of my photos at the beginning of studying photography in 1994-1996 In the next article, I will tell you about my process of looking for an office job after I graduated from high school in Hong Kong.