A few weeks ago I had heard that US photographer and co-host of the This Week in Photography podcast, Joseph Linaschke would be passing through Hong Kong. He also runs the ApertureExpert.com website, an invaluable resource for Aperture 3, Apple’s professional photo management software. So I got in touch with him to help put together a small workshop in Hong Kong for the recent Aperture release. My entire image library has lived in Aperture 2 for a long time, and I recently upgraded to A3 and have never looked back. Needless to say, the app is critical to my workflow and I am still discovering how best to use the new features for every shoot I post-process.

Here are some snaps from the session which took place at the Random Art Workshop space in Causeway Bay.

Earlier in the week, I took Joseph around for some HK grub. If you’ve ever followed his twitter or photo blog before, you’d find that the man has an iron stomach. I gave him the choice between clean, air-conditioned dim sum (Luk Yu Tea House) or grimy, chaotic dim sum (Lin Heung Tea House), and he immediately opted for the latter. A few dishes of chicken feet and cow tripe later, we walked off the meal with some ad hoc shooting around Sheung Wan. Here is a shot from another photowalk that weekend in Sham Shui Po, organized by another HK photographer.

I follow so many international photographers for inspiration, but rarely do I actually pinpoint a single image that directly influences one of my own shots. But this was definitely true with the below shot I took at Saosin’s concert earlier this year which I realized HAD TO have somehow been influenced by Joseph’s work touring with Seal (see his awesome concert shot here). I was happy to be able to let the original artist know that his work had inspired me.