The Very Best of Hong Kong, 168,000 + of my personal images

Me Jamie, English and 52 years living in Hong Kong and I know the know the place - I personally completed 2,324 Private Tours (6,000+ guests) from 2011 - 2020 and was considered one of the finest Private Tour Guides in Asia.

**A blog post with a difference - Please do visit Hong Kong in 2024 | Travel, Tourism, Tours, Tips, Daily Life and my personal thoughts on Hong Kong - Pearl of the Orient**

A Unique Talking Tour of Hong Kong with Jamie, your passionate Hong Kong local expert, host and storyteller with 2,324 Private Tours of Hong Kong completed.

Book Now | A Talking Tour - Cultural Tourism at it’s very best

Learn more | Book a J3 Private Experience with Jamie

Learn more | The day I did a Private Tour of Hong Kong with a famous Princess

Learn more | The day I shook hands with an alleged Triad boss on a Tour

Hong Kong Photographs - The very best of Hong Kong

Click on the menu link that says J3 Hong Kong Images

I was a pioneer of Private Tours of Hong Kong, putting up my website in 2010 and doing my first tour in April of 2011, I completed 2,324 private tours of Hong Kong before Covid essentially destroyed tourism in Hong Kong from January 2020 to March 2023 with Hong Kong closed to non residents and harsh quarantine regulations.

I was a bit of a photographer as a kid in Hong Kong and as I got older I purchased a Hasselblad Film Camera and started to take a keen interest in photography and I came very close to making photography a career but in the end I decided I wasn’t actually that good despite my impressive camera and willingness to learn so I shelved that idea.

Digital camera’s became mainstream really from 2000 onwards but I never had much of an interest in getting back into photography, sad to say, in hindsight I wish I had, I might have 500,000 images by now!

When I started doing private tours of Hong Kong in 2011 I rekindled my interest in taking images again I figured I could use Flickr to promoted my tour business and Hong Kong, I took a few hundred with a very old Iphone but that was just a waste of time, I invested in a cheap digital camera, an Olympus XZ 1 which I used for 2 years, it was barely adequate so I saved up and bought in February 2014 a high quality Sony digital camera, used that for 2 years and upgraded to the Mark 2 version in 2016 which I sill use today.

One of the problems with using a site like Flickr (and it is far superior to any other image site out there) is you have to be “all in” they offer a free version of the site that allows us to upload 1,000 images - well I soon used up that quota and then I stopped my photography for a while whilst I considered my options, to be “all in” I had to commit to make the site easy to use and have some sort of logical method to allow people to easily find specific images, trust me, after uploading 168,800+ images I am “all in” and it has required a significant effort on my part.

I also wanted each image description to have a clickable link to my website specifically my blog post page, the thought of editing 168,800+ images one by one put me off completely until I went onto the Flickr forum and spotted a post by complete chance that gave a solution and this was only the second time in 10 years that this piece of advice was made public on the forum, in a nutshell, they had a way to instantly change 500 image descriptions at a time rather than copy and paste one by one, so in early August 2024 I went for it and in 4 days I had changed all 168,800 image descriptions to a detailed new one with my blog link - doing it the old way one by one and 500 images a day would have taken me 337 days! assuming I had the patience to do that.

I have no interest in taking images with my IPhone, the quality of the images are laughable when compared to my camera images besides, I take a lot of images of fast moving cars, mobile phones cannot handle that!

I have certainly got my money’s worth from these two Sony camera’s, I learnt a lot from our 3 son’s who are all photographers and digital artists and the best decision I ever made was to become a member of Flickr in 2012 and I have now been a pro member for over 10 years.

My collection of Hong Kong images has grown to over 168,800 images and I am always fascinated at how much improvement I have made in taking photographs, some of my early (actually make that a lot) was just rubbish and let me be clear, I do not pretend to call myself a professional photographer, not even close and as much as I would love to have US$20,000+ worth of camera gear it will never happen.

I work with what I have and within my limits.

I specialise in a few area’s

Hong Kong Cars and Hong Kong Car Licence Plates
Hong Kong Trucks
Hong Kong Buses and Vans

Unlike a lot of “photographers” I see on the streets, I actually take photographs and lots of them, a lot of young guys strut around with US$10,000 camera’s but do not seem to use them much., I speculate they are just showing off or something like that, a lot of young girls are impressed by their equipment, I am not that much into photographing people, vehicles is my thing!

Cars are my passion and the quality of my images has really improved since 2011, I have done a lot of research as to the best spots to photograph cars, I like to get up close and personal, I do not like standing on bridges looking down and I avoid the places where 200 photographers go on a Sunday morning to photograph parades of super cars…. oh and I do not stalk people with fancy cars and try to find out where they live, I figure eventually I will catch them! which is all part of the game.

The Real Hong Kong Car Culture

Hong Kong Car | Automotive Photography since 2011

For a detailed introduction | guide on Hong Kong Car Licence Plates | Car Vanity Plates click on the link below to learn more :

Learn more | My popular Blog post about car vanity plates in hong kong

I am considered to be an expert on the Hong Kong Car Vanity Plate Culture

One of the largest collections of quality Hong Kong Car Images and specialising in Car Licence Plates | Car Vanity Plates or as the Hong Kong Government likes to call them - Vehicle Registration Marks

I photograph any day of the week and a session normally lasts for 4 or 5 hours with over a thousand images taken.

I spend a lot of time cleaning the images up but Photoshop is a very light touch for me and I upload these days images in their full size (I have super fast wi fi where I can upload 100 full size images in less than a minute)

If you have a look round my site you will see I have over 2,600 albums and each image has an accurate title and a full description, I have a huge fan base for my car and truck images, on an average day I get 25,000 - 30,000 hits and have over 61 million views.

I figure that if people spend the time to look around my site then I have an obligation to make my site as “professional” as possible with solid attention to detail.

My Camera - Sony RX 1r Mark 2

**I have been using this camera, Mark 1 and Mark 2 since early February 2014, I have gotten better over the years and people particularly like my car images (100,000+)**

Below is just a partial list of my private tour guests and their rather diverse occupations, I completed 2,324 Private Tours of Hong Kong in just 9 years with almost 60% of these private tours being 6 - 8 hours long and the ability to talk to so many wonderful people from all walks of life is a gift I acquired, I had over 6,000 guests, not bad for one person!

I have done private tours with so many wonderful people who have the following diverse occupations:-

A REAL Princess, Very close relatives of a US President!, One Star Admiral of the US 7th Fleet, Nuclear Missile Operations Officer (Missileer) for the USAF, Plumbers, Postman, Supplier of ALL frozen burger pattie’s to McDonalds, Nuclear Sub Commanders, Farmers, Chip Shop Owner, Teachers, Pulitzer Prize Award Winning Journalists, Photocopier Repair Guys, Lawyers, Rocket Scientists, Movie Producers, Consul Generals, Police Officers, Homicide Detectives, Travel Agents, House Keepers, Linguists, Retired and Serving CIA Officers, Fighter Pilots, Army and Navy Guys, Socialites, Students, Judges, Journalists, Software Geeks, Nuclear Power Plant Inspectors, Surgeons, Doctors, Forensic Pathologists, Nurses, Coroners, Venture Capitalists, Hospice Directors, Town Planners, Accountants, Psychiatrists, Nuclear Physicists, Professional Athletes, Ferry Captains, Commercial Pilots, Airline Crew, Social Workers, Veterinarians, Musicians, Theme Park Executives, Professional Photographers, College Professors, Gaming Geeks, Inland Revenue Tax Officials, American Airforce B 52 Bomber Pilot, Senior Engineer / Ballistic Missiles, Bodyguards, Beer Salesmen, Park Rangers, Scuba Diving Instructors, Popcorn Machines Makers, Coastguard Officers, Firemen, Structural Geologists, Veterinarians, Architects, Surveyors, Hooters Waitress, Dentists, Ski Instructors, Civil Engineers, Air Traffic Controllers, Electricians, Top Law Professor's at major US Universities, Librarians, Steel Guys, Economists, Homemakers, Novelists, Book Publishers, Currency Traders, Carpenters, a Rabbi, Boiler Maker, Strawberry Farmers, Food Bloggers, Morticians, Financial Advisers, Corporate Video Makers, Private Investigators, Bounty Hunters, Chiropractors, Air Traffic Controllers, Builders, Stonemasons, Botanists, Dog Sitters, Spy, Geneticists, Interpol Agents, Prison Food Suppliers, Radio Announcers, Military Cryptologists, Forklift Drivers, Locksmiths, Icecream maker, Pastry Chef, Baker, Zoo Keepers, Explosives Experts, DEA Agents, Coffee Traders, Diamond Buyers, Wedding Photographers, Google Guru's, Geologists, Professor of Medieval History, Navy Chef's, Camp Site Operators, Animal Embalmers, Telecomms Engineers, Helicopter Pilots, Oil Industry Divers, Navy Seals, Editor for USA Today, Landscape Gardeners, Mary Kay Super Agents, Hotel Owners, TV Actors, Optometrists, Gourmet Chef's, Acclaimed Plastic Surgeons, Barristers, Travel Bloggers, Politicians, Funeral Home Directors, Former Gang Member, Anthropologist, Children's Book Author, Geophysicist, Chicken Artist, Priest, Movie Makeup Artist, Expert Witness, Bail Bondsman, Opera Singer, Master Brewer, Child Prodigy, Debt Collector, Victoria Secrets Store Manager, Head of a major Charity, Celebrity TV Talking Heads (!), Fortune 500 CEO's, Corporate Trainer, Futures Trader, Waitress (quite a few) General Manager of a Worm Bait Company, Owner of a RV Dealership, Convenience Store Owner, Owner of an Amusement Game Manufacturer, Elephant Conservationists, Chemist, High School Students, Crematorium Operator, Concert Pianist, Vet from Honduras, Hair Stylist for a Funeral Home, Calendar Maker, Pedicab Operator, Poets, F16 Fighter Pilot USAF, Steve Jobs Doctor, Major US Democratic Politician, Big cheese Executives from HBO and CBS, Famous journalist and a Journalism Professor, former Secret Service Agent, Famous Rare Coin and Stamp Collector, Major Charitable Foundation Owner ... and some really, really senior people from J. P. Morgan, Starbucks, United Airlines, Boeing, Google and Microsoft.

Learn more | The amazing view from Victoria Peak in Hong Kong and the view that nearly all visitors | tourists miss out on

Learn more | My how to get to guide so you can visit Victoria Peak Garden at Victoria Peak

Learn more | My How To get To Guide so you can visit Barker Road at Victoria Peak

Learn more | my how to get to guide to visit the Lugard Road Lookout at Victoria Peak

The truly stunning and amazing panoramic day view from the Lugard Road Lookout at Victoria Peak

The truly stunning and amazing panoramic night view from the Lugard Road Lookout at Victoria Peak

Learn more | The amazing Victoria Peak, Hong Kong

Learn more | click here for details of this fabulous audio tour of Jamie's spot on Lugard Road at Victoria Peak, Hong Kong

**Lugard Road Lookout at Victoria Peak**
If I had any followers on Instagram who liked views rather than my car images then this would be a classic, Mum, Dad and 4 kids aged from 12 - 22 from England, perfect weather, the planets aligned as they do on most days at the Peak.
This rather sums up Jamie’s spot at the Peak.

Learn more | This is a list of the best Private Tour Guides in Hong Kong that I have prepared, please feel free to contact them directly - they are amazing

J3 Group Hong Kong

J3 Consultants Hong Kong | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong

J3 Consultants Private Hong Kong Experiences are tailored for individuals who prefer to explore Hong Kong independently but would like a Hong Kong Expert to tell them about Hong Kong

This unique experience offers an authentic insight into the real Hong Kong, providing a deeper understanding of the city's culture, history, and local way of life.

Led by Jamie, a dedicated Hong Kong specialist and resident for 52 years, the experience covers many aspects of Hong Kong's identity, spanning its time under both British and Chinese rule.