When the first ever iPhone launched in 2007, YouTube was still very 'young' and it was the first year of my professional photography career. A tutorial was not a thing back then and the closest thing to a behind the scenes of a professional shoot was probably from Chase Jarvis' YouTube channel, "Chase Jarvis RAW". I figured this YouTube/video thing would be a great addition to my business. In 2012, I got a couple of Facebook friends to do some BTS videos of my shoot for a small amount of money. Mind you, the job that I take was not some big fancy advertisement campaigns and it was coming out of my personal pocket. Coming from a stills background, creating motion pictures made no sense to me - technically or aesthetically. I have no idea what was the "correct shutter speed" to shoot at, I do not have any idea to construct a basic 3 act narrative; I was bad at story telling through motion pictures. Throughout the years, I have watched countless of tutorials and other artworks from different filmmakers. I was trying to figure out how to construct the visuals from start to end. It wasn't until 2018, when I gathered up enough courage to shoot, edit, and publish my own video. The buzzword of that time was "cinematic" and "travel", so that was what I shot. Since then, I have been trying different styles of story telling. Travel, fashion, corporate interviews, event highlights, vlogs, tutorials, documentaries. Moving forward, I am glad that I took the first step back in 2018 to step into an endless rabbit hole 😅 . . . #filmmaking #filmmakinglife #filmmaker #filmmakerslife

𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘭𝘶𝘹𝘶𝘳𝘺…? 👩🏻‍💻 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #DigitalDetox is a buzzword which we, ironically, see all over social media. We’re so often told that we all spend too much time online, moving from one screen to another. Going on a digital detox is a great way to exercise mental self-care but is it unattainable? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Our screens undoubtedly play an integral part in our lives and, in light of the pandemic, we are online more than ever - both for work and for our personal lives. We use digital for cinema, for education, for news and as an important medium for staying in touch with our loved ones. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ My work involves me being online A LOT, very much looking like this emoji > 👩🏻‍💻 99.9% of the time. So, if a digital detox is not possible what else can you do to take care of your mental health? For me, I’ve learnt to be mindful of what I’m consuming daily, just as we are mindful of what we are putting into our bodies, i.e. eating healthy and exercise, the same applies to our minds. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Every piece of content that you ‘consume’ online makes you feel something and social media can be filled with unhealthy comparisons, heavy topics and above all, it can be wasting your time - mindful and intentional use is the alternative. Nourish yourself with content which makes you happy or which educates you and be honest with yourself about how social media makes you feel, it’s ok to walk away from any accounts which upset you. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Social media can be a powerful platform, filled with information. When used in a positive way it can enrich your life and I love using it to connect with like-minded people and learn new things. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ And, if you have the time to disconnect, take time to put your phone down and connect with the world around you. Make your content work in your favour but don’t forget that inspiration can also be found outside, in the pages of a book or a magazine, or by really connecting in conversation with those around you. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #mentalhealthmatters #whatweseeiswhatweare #offlineisthenewluxury

#TechforChangeAsia : 亞洲大城市的大數據與新科技應用 在星期二參與「經濟學人」的 Technology for Change Asia 網上論壇中 “Big cities, big data—Accelerating digitisation for safety and wellbeing” 的環節，在香港時間下午2:30播出，在網上也可以重溫，討論大數據與創新型基建對智慧城市發展的影響。 提到智慧城市，過去十年成為老生常談的buzzword，或者各大城市爭相排名的題目。然而，在城市管理者努力找新點子之餘，有多少真的把市民福祉放在中心點，或者真正根據指標性地改善城市管理質素，甚至把綠色和環境保護放在首位？ 例如，不久前我在行山後於大埔公路等巴士，看見一部巨型掃樹葉車，同行的朋友讚嘆把馬路掃得很乾淨，但我卻想，現在又不是秋天，路上的樹葉不算多，這部車消耗電油一定不少，有需要嗎？其實可能幾位清潔員工已經可以處理，固然，在馬路作此工作有一定安全問題，但真的有沒有別的更好方法，或者使用比較輕盈的設備？ 在今天的社會，面對大數據，市民想到的不是方便，而是私隱被監察，無論是政府還是大型商業機構，要得到市民或客戶的信任，不能高高在上地假設人家一定要信，信任必須建基於透明和開放。早前香港關於智慧燈柱的爭議，後來政府也從鏡頭攝錄技術改用雷達，如果發展過程能更透明開放，容許市民有參與的程序，過程會更順利。 不過，在城市推出這些新項目時候，也應該關注這些新技術應用，是否能令更多甚至所有人都能夠負擔、受惠。以數碼服務而言，疫情已經把一些根本而多年都未能完全解決的問題，例如，貧窮家庭沒有電腦和寬頻上網的實況，在所謂「停課不停學」下暴露出來，這個也是全球各地普遍情況，包括香港。 而我心目中另外一個更屬於「大白象」的本地例子，就是講了三十多年的中環核心商業區電子道路收費。還先不討論政府建議採用的技術是否未用已經落伍，以及監察車輛進出的私隱問題，更基本的是，政策將令中環成為有錢人才能開車經過或進入的地區，也令商業車輛成本增加，例如貨運，間接增加對所有人的成本，卻難有數據保證能改善交通擠塞問題，結果，恐怕只會是令多數人討厭的科技項目，那又何必當初？ 在論壇上講者的討論中，大家都提及對數據監管的問題，的確，這已經是全世界熱烈討論的大題目，然而，我指出，亞洲的情況特別複雜，因為各國對監管的法律有異，不像例如歐洲有較統一的歐盟框架，而不少國家如中國、印度等，近年都非常執着於「數據主權」(data sovereignty)，的確不是容易解決的問題。 論壇的主持似乎對食水問題特別有興趣，要求我們就這方面的基建提出建議。其實，香港的水管基建老化，傳送過程中滲水流失量高，說要搞「智慧水管」多年，多利用物聯網技術，但政府是否真的重視這問題，以高層次的力量解決？這個問題，很多城市同樣遇上。不過，我們繼續從境外購入更多食水，和投資海水化淡，雖然後者有令本地供水能更自給自足的好處，但這些方案在經濟上昂貴，在能源消耗上高，相反，我們有否考慮把水塘掘深這些簡單但更智慧的方案？ 在疫情下的日子，很多城市的所謂智慧項目，都拖慢了，倒不如利用這個機會重新審視項目優次，也非壞事。如果各亞洲城市能重新設計，更採納整體性的思維，更綠色，減少在數據收集方面的入侵性，以更公平的政策目的為本，爭取市民的信任和支持，焉知非福。 #EconomistEvent #smartcity #bigdata #大數據 #智慧城市