Daily Inspiration #424 by Peter Lee

June 27, 2013 Daily Inspiration 63

Hi Steve,

How are you? I am a fan of your site and really like the pics you take with the Leica. At the moment I don’t yet have a Leica, but I’ll get there one day. 🙂 I currently live in Guangzhou, China. I moved there about 4 years ago from Los Angeles. After I settled down here, I started walking the street at night and slowly my pics have become very “night oriented” There is just some mystiques that attract me to the night time, night life. Someway I feel the world is actually more alive at night and its true colors come out to play. Below I am including a few photos and a link to my Flickr, hopefully you’ll like them. Thank you very much for your time and best of luck on your photography endeavors and your website!

regards,

Peter Lee – My Flickr

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63 Comments

  1. Love the cinematic style, been a fan of your imagery for a while. Very Wong Kar Wai/Drive/Only God Forgives-eque!

  2. I have to agree with the previous comment. Really like the cinematic feeling of Peter Lee’s work, I believe in part it is due to the very particular lightning of his dusk pictures, that forces shooting wide open, which sometimes is associated to the ever-elusive “film look”.

    I have added Peter as a contact in Flickr, his images are worth keeping in touch 🙂

  5. Fantastic images!! Love the rendering of the canon fast primes and your tags are epic!

  6. WOW just looked at your flickr, Peter. Awesome Street work! Very cinema-like

  7. WOW! Thanks for the kind words everyone! 🙂 And of course thank you Steve for posting this.

    I currently shoot with a Canon 6D, 50mm f1.2L and a 24mm f1.4L. I do have a Fuji X100 as well, but lately it isn’t getting too much action. Haha. Had a Nikon D90 with a 50mm f1.2 Ai-S in the past. That camera is gone, but the 1.2 Ai-S is still with me, glued to a Nikon FM, collecting dust.

    Again, thanks so much everyone!

    • Well done Peter. Very nice work and particularly like your PP method. Has a real cinema type feel to it.

      Interesting your comments around the 6D. Get the impression you enjoy the FF and can see you shooting wide open in some of these with that 50mm vs. that of x100.

      I found the night shots were great, yet a lot of similar themes and obviously this is where your brain is drawn to in photography. As an out there challenge in cyber land I’d be keen to see more day time based photography and variation in theme to see where that takes the diversity in your photos.

      This is not criticism, in fact it’s a compliment. You are very very talented and I’d like to see what else you can do! Just contacted you on Flickr!

  9. Hi Peter,

    Wow, your picture proves one thing. It’s not what equipment you used, it’s the photographer that counts. Great job!

  10. Peter,
    Superb photographs,who cares what equipment you used,would you ask da Vinci
    what kind of a paint brush he used to paint the Mona Lisa? Whatever kind of
    camera you use you are far more skilled with it than many Leics users.

  11. Yes, you have something very exciting going on with your nightly images. I really enjoy the ones that imply a story, almost like cinematic frames with hints to read from.

  16. Viewed your flickr streams. Your images are very captivating, drawing in the viewers to ponder what’s the story in each image. And you achieve the effect with ordinary sights but with masterful uses of lights, framing and timing. I’m so impressed!

  17. Excellent work. The last photo, and a good chunk of your photostream on Flickr scream “Wong Kar Wai” to me (especially the Hong Kong night scenes in Chunking Express) 🙂

  19. Love the shots. Then I checked out your flickr stream. I’m blown away. I love your work. Very romantic!!

  20. Wow ! Really nice photos. Very cinematic atmosphere.
    Congrats.

    I can’t believe I’m reading comments like : “without a Leica …. you capture wonderful moments.”
    Oh excuse me Matthias W, I didn’t know that was possible… Really…

    No comments on the other guys asking which camera and lense Peter used…
    Since when it is important ? Laughable.

    A typical example of what today’s Leica customers are : people who are no more attracted by art but by the red dot hype.

    Boring at best…

    • Don’t think Matthais was getting at that Kais…… I read his comments as meaning “Peter…you don’t really need a Leica given your photos.” It was Peter himself who mentioned Leica in his introduction!

  23. I really love your style. Extremely moody and nice use of shadow. I like the slightly softness of the 50 1.2L and it’s making me want one again.

    What kind of processing do you do with color?

  27. Lovely pictures!
    To those asking which camera… you can see the info in the jpg-files if you inspect them…
    The first one was taken with Fujifilm X100
    The second and third one was taken with Canon EOS 6D.

  28. Hi Peter
    Great Photos.
    And on your Flickr, even without a Leica …. you capture wonderful moments.
    Going on.
    All the Best
    Matthias

  29. Peter, you don’t need a Leica to catch such pictures, just a pair of eyes.. I really enjoyed your photos, thanks a lot.

    Cheers,

    PS: by the way what do you use?

  36. Kind of conflicted about the first picture. I mean, it’s really nice, but part of the reason it looks so nice is the air pollution. Unless it’s regular fog? Still, very atmospheric!

  37. These picks are fantastic (specially #1 and #3)! I wish I were able to do anything as good as them.

  38. I love your photos, full of atmosphere with nice composition,and a movie film feel great.

  40. Beautiful photographs here and especially in the Flickr website. It doesn’t matter that you do not have a Leica; you are getting the shots with the camera that you have right now and that’s all that really matters… Well done 🙂

  41. Wow Peter, I love the shots on your Flickr page (as well as these). Wonderfully atmospheric, rich and the composition is great. Can I ask what you shoot with?

  49. Hi Peter,

    really enjoyed looking at your flickr page, great atmosphere, very cinematic

  51. Dear Peter,

    This is the first time I have commented on a daily inspiration. I really enjoyed your images which I found incredibly atmospheric. The best of them capture all the possibilities and promise of a night stretching ahead. They also give a profoundly personal and intimate glimpse into the unremarked lives of the denizens of an anonymous and bustling city. Very inspiring — keep shooting!

  52. Hi Peter,

    those pics are great! I love the atmosphere und the mood. How about telling us about your gear and how you took those?

    Thanks for sharing.

    Dirk

    • Not “Blade Runner” (not enough smog & skyscrappers), but a “Wong Kar Wai” film as khoa_sus2 said below.

      • Sorry; I thought those were “skyscrappers” in the background of the 1st shot, and I thought it had the backlighting of “Blade Runner”, and the rain of “Blade Runner”, and the headlights of “Blade Runner”, and the wet reflections of “Blade Runner”, and the colour palette of “Blade Runner” ..but of course you know best, Mak..

  57. Super! Lots of atmosphere. What gear were you using – in the absence of a Leica!!

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