Photo of the day No. 32 - The 2nd best selfie spot in HK
The Best Instagram | Social Media Photo Spots in Hong Kong
Me Jamie, your host, I am English and I have lived in Hong Kong for 53 years - I know the place.
I have personally completed 2,300+ Private Experiences (over 6,000+ guests) since April 2011 and I am considered one of the finest Private Tour Guides in Asia.
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Photo of the day No. 32 - The 2nd best selfie spot in Hong Kong
The Best Instagram | Social Media Photo Spots in Hong Kong
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The Big Buddha, also known as Tian Tan Buddha, is famed as the most iconic attraction of Lantau Island in Hong Kong. Sitting next to the old and venerable Po Lin Monastery, it is only a 10-minute walk away from Ngong Ping Village (NP 360)
“The majestic outdoor bronze Buddha statue sits solemnly atop the peak of Mount Muk Yue. It is seated south and facing North towards Beijing, the capital of China. Divided into two parts, the statue’s body is 26.4m tall and 34m in total measuring from the lotus throne and the base. It was cast with 250 tonnes of bronze and built over 12 years. The statue was modelled after Siddhartha, who achieved enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. The “imparting fearlessness” mudra of the right hand indicates compassion to save all sentient beings from their sufferings; the “fulfilling wishes” mudra of the left hand resting on the lap, implies the vow to grant blessing and happiness to all.The Big Buddha, also known as Tian Tan Buddha, is famed as the most iconic attraction of Lantau. Sitting next to the Po Lin Monastery, it is only a 10-minute walk away from Ngong Ping Village.”
The statement above is mostly courtesy of the NP 360 website, in other words the NP 360 attraction has put the Big Buddha on the map big time.
… and yes, this image is one of my favourite ones that I have taken, right up there with my iconic panoramic Hong Kong city view from Victoria Peak.
I will get back to the image above of the Big Buddha after some thoughts I want to share.
If you had not already guessed I am a bit of a photographer, I am NOT in any shape or form a professional photographer nor would I wish to be and these days people with a smart phone can add stunning images to Instagram and other social media platforms that are worthy of the highest praise because of the Instagram filters.
Honestly to an old fogey like me is is rather deflating to watch how social media has made everyone and I mean everyone a photography star.
Smart phones still cannot match the best camera’s so there is still a niche for professionals and enthusiastic amateurs such as myself with expensive equipment (I grew up taking pictures of Hong Kong with a Hasselblad camera) and am currently using a Sony digital RX 1r Mark 2 camera which cost me with accessories around US$4,000 - it serves up amazing images and I dream of taking the next step up and getting the new Hasselblad digital camera X2D 100C
So despite what our 3 sons think about my knowledge of Instagram and social media, I do know a little bit and I have been on Instagram since it launched.
I originally posted images much like the Big Buddha image above and for a couple of years I tried very hard to build up a following, a total failure, no matter how brilliant I thought my images where, no one could care less, so I quietly dropped traditional Hong Kong Images, so for 10 + years I have been posting images of cars, 4,800+ followers and 8,300+ posts later I am still lucky if I get 50 views for a car image (the Big Buddha image would get 10 views if I was really, really lucky)
So why do I do it? well simply as a small business you have to be on Instagram.
Contrast this to my Flickr account - Flickr is a site for proper photographers (professionals and amateurs) to showcase their images, I have uploaded 173,000 + images with over 64 million views and my Big Buddha image above has 14,700+ views and has been downloaded countless times.
Basically in conversations I have had with people about Instagram I always say the same thing
You are only as good as your last post
Instagram is not like Flickr in how it showcases your work and on Flickr there is no limit (if you have a paid account) on how many images you can upload or the size of the image and I allow anyone to download my images in a choice of 5 sizes, no charge - my images pop up everywhere!
To access my Flickr site simply go to the site menu and click on J3 Images
I should also point out that doing posts and creating content demands a lot of time, a lot of people forget this.
I wish I could explain the rationale on what makes a particular image popular on Instagram and I get a lot of requests to do “Instagram” themed tours which I generally refuse as you would need 7 - 10 days to cover all the great spots, people forget that Hong Kong is 430sq miles or 1,114sq km and as good as our transport is it takes time and physical effort to see some noteworthy sites.
If you read my blog posts every now and then I can tell you that my posts on how I hate the cliches “hidden gems” “secret spots” “travel like a local” etc are by far the most popular.
In a nutshell, when it comes to Hong Kong there are no hidden gems or secret spots, every such place has been visited and photographed many thousands of times and posted on social media. (ie Instagram) and they pretty much all look the same because of filters.
I believe it is much more important to see it and appreciate it with the naked eye and not through the lens of an Instagram filter which warps and changes reality. by all means take a picture (and most people do) but even Instagram filters cannot change cloudy and rainy conditions, I have taken hundreds of pictures of the Big Buddha for every day you get brilliant blue skies and sunshine you get 20 cloudy and or rainy days and everything looks very drab with no vibrant colours.
It makes me laugh when I see images of young ladies in online news articles and such (including Instagram) and you just know that in real life they look nothing like the filtered image you are seeing, I always comment that if you want to see how a person really looks then look at a Police mug shot or a passport photograph!
I should also point out the popularity of Xiaohongshu which is known in China as the Little Red Book and not to be confused with the quotes of Chairman Mao. it is a social media app and is basically the Chinese versions of Tik Tok | Instagram, remarkably well over 70% of its users are young females. It is known in the West as RedNote
It was originally a shopping app but has morphed into something quite different and any and every instagrammable place in Hong Kong is now visited by thousands of young people looking for fame and fortune on social media as influencers - just thought I would mention it.
So if you had not already guessed, my point is, is that Instagram is NOT reality if you use filters on your image and many social media images online of Hong Kong look totally different to actual real life., with my Big Buddha image above I got lucky, late afternoon, deep blue sky, lots of shadows, a few clouds, I have never come close to taking another image like that of the Big Buddha.
So for me this is my 2nd best social media image I have taken! and if the weather gods play fair it is entirely possible to replicate this image with you in it!
….. so please, when you come to Hong Kong bear in mind that with Photography, an Instagram worthy shot can happen anywhere at anytime and most of the time it is blind luck (which some photographers are loathe to admit) just enjoy the moment and take a snap shot to preserve the memory.
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Consultants Hong Kong | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong |
| 2010 - 2025 All rights reserved. |
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Current images from my Instagram feed
