Sheila Bocchine, Photographer

I spent a lovely afternoon in Hong Kong Park with Julie Chiu, author of Mindful Eating Adventure Time, a week before her due date. Radiant with baby glow we meandered through the park, a conservatory, a bird park, and had afternoon dim sum at a quaint tea museum.

Julie is also into LOA (laws of attraction) and can help you manifest to your hearts content.

Here are my favorite pinhole portraits from our shoot. Want a pinhole portrait? Click here for info and pinhole portfolio.

Isn’t she the cutest!

I like long walks on the beach  photographing people taking long walks on the beach…

Enamored with the rapidly changing horizon and fine cast of characters leisurely strolling by, their silhouettes stood out, like canvas without color.

My grandmother’s house. Concordia, Missouri. July 2012.

I am always so grateful when my pinhole photographs are published, and this time by one of my favorite websites, Visual News. A blog with multiple uploads (daily!), oozing with creativity. It’s one of my go-to websites for inspiration, and to be featured on it, well, it’s a pretty good feeling!!  They featured ‘Sleeping. Dreaming’, an ongoing 10 year project, pinholing all the different places I find myself sleeping.

Please enjoy the article on Visual News!

I think the most unusual place I’ve slept is Kowloon Park, a bird sanctuary in Hong Kong. It was New Year’s Eve and my friends and I didn’t secure a hotel. We were unsteadily stumbling around the city trying to find a corner to rest and we asked a jogging pilot if this tunnel would take us to the waterfront.  He said yes, but was curious as to why we wanted to go there at this hour.  We told him, and he lead us to this park, a much safer location.  We cautiously looking both ways before we tucked ourselves in behind some trees. Two hours later a park attendant poked me, waving her hands around, and speaking Chinese.  Even if I didn’t understand her words, I’ve gotten pretty good at charades to know it was time to go. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I listened to a concert announcing the first sunrise of the year and realized I was surrounded by birds! So Magical!

Where is the most interesting/unusual place you’ve slept? 

Kowloon Park (bird sanctuary). Hong Kong. January 2012.

On Saturday I spent the afternoon at the Hong Kong Affordable Art Fair, researching and looking for inspiration. I definitely found some pieces I want in my collection. The best part of the art fair was finding new galleries in Hong Kong I didn’t know existed and talking with some of the curators. I love a good conversation about art!

Below are my favorite pieces from the show:

 Untitled, Ayako Rokkaku.  In my head I like to think my doodles look like this!

 Beach scene II, Igal Pardo. I could really get lost in these beautiful pieces.

 Laura Jordan – These city portraits were positively amazing. I couldn’t decide which one I wanted.  Pictured above: Hong Kong, NYC, NYC detail, Hong Kong detail.  Laura Jordan Flickr.

 Jasper Knight . That yellow is to die for!

 Palani Mohan.  Every piece in the story ‘A Rush of Colour‘ is bursting with gorgeous colors.

Liquid gold melting into the juicy insides of a blood-red orange.

I promise watching the sunsets in Koh Lanta, Thailand will leave you feeling rejuvenated. If an immediate trip isn’t in the works, just meditate on these photos!

A taxi to the train station; an overnight train from Kuala Lumpur into Thailand; the back of pickup truck to the bus station; a bus to Krabi, Thailand; a van that went on two ferries; and finally a motorcycle taxi to our hotel in Koh Lanta. Phew. You’re probably tired, just reading that!

The upside to this 24 hour journey was transportation outfitted with large windows, perfect for endless hours of daydreaming!

Of course, the reward was quiet pristine beaches, the wonderful sound of waves washing ashore, mouthwatering Thai food, and glorious sunshine that cast trails of glitter on warm ocean water. We stayed in darling bungalows at Lanta Pearl Beach Resort, a hop, skip, and a jump from the beach. A true vacation!

More street art, this time, from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Enjoy!

Introducing the Petronas Twin Towers. Sexy glass and metal married into pure breathtaking beauty. Standing below, taking the tour to the top, or enjoying drinks from the Traders Hotel at sunset are equally wonderful ways to experience these towers. I highly recommend going to Sky Bar in the Traders Hotel around 5pm to get a window seat, and stay to watch the sunset as the towers illuminate the sky.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia had wonderful neighborhoods teeming with life and vibrant colors. The architecture was beautiful, and the Muslim influence was unlike any I’d seen before. The city center was circular and we walked around and around and around, the focal point being the stunning Petronas Towers (don’t worry, I’ll do a whole blog post dedicated to them).

A fellow world traveler told Amanda and I we could take a ferry to Batam Island, and get a glorious full page visa in our passport. When two girls obsessed with their goal of filling up every page in their passport finds out a detail like that, well, it would be a tragedy not to act immediately!

So, after conquering Singpaore, we had one crazy day in Indonesia.

We wanted to see the Indonesian island we were on, so following our massages we started walking back to the ferry terminal. It turned into the most dangerous walk of our lives!! 3 hours of walking into traffic, few sidewalks, and the midday sun beating down on us. We came across only a handful of walkers, but 100′s of friendly faces in cars and on motorcycles waving, saying hello how are you, and do you need a taxi. Delirious from our power walk, possibly dehydrated, and slightly lost with 20 minutes to spare before the ferry was to take off back to Singapore, we haggled with a guy in an alley, next to a run down taxi to rush us back to the ferry terminal! We made it!!

Some photos from our walk:

There’s something about people working that draws me to their space like a magnet. My camera and I have peeked into many a scene in which we drew questionable faces, like most of these kitchens, but I can’t help it! I startled quite a few chefs, but have found if you say hello with a curious smile and friendly wave, that they smile back, or at least don’t call the cops!

Quick movements, harsh lighting, sizzle of a hot pan, chaos. More please!

East Coast Lagoon Food Village – most of these were taken from the alley behind the kitchen.

Durian – You always know when you’re near a durian fruit market, for the pungent smell hits you, even before you see it.

Dinner in the red light district.

Introducing our naan maker in Little India.

I started my Chinese New Year holiday in Singapore.

Always obsession with street art. Enjoy these highlights from Singapore!

I started off my winter holiday in Singapore. What an absolutely gorgeous and posh city! The eclectic architecture and hidden streets of colorful 2 story buildings was wonderful. My friend Amanda and I walked the entire city in 2 days. It was so easy to navigate and the metro system was one of the best I’ve even seen.

I particularly loved Little India, Arab Street and the food hawker stands. The ArtScience Museum was really incredible as was the LEGO exhibit by Nathan Sawaya. We went to eat dinner in the Red Light District and found a taxi driver who gave us a tour of the neighborhood. He sure knew a lot about that business!

An intriguing red door in Little India.

My love of all things Bollywood was fed extensively in Little India! One day, oh one day, I’ll be in a Bollywood movie!

The lobster shells looked like touchable, red textured wall paper. Aren’t they stunning!

We were drawn to the over-sized bird cages we saw from the street, but I fell love with the view from the infinity pool.

Chinatown. Happy year of the snake!

Sri Mariamman Temple in Chinatown.

Red Melon seeds in Chinatown.

We stumbled upon a festival in Little India called Thaipusam.  There was a never ending parade of people with hooks, cages, and large needles inserted in their body. It was surreal, I had never seen anything like it before.

Amanda and I met Maggie and her friends and they took us out for a delicious Singapore dinner at the East Coast Lagoon Food Village.  We tried Stingray, Chili Crab and Cereal Prawns.

ArtScience Museum.  As amazing inside as out.

I was loving these 2 story buildings.  The second floor windows were so colorful and interesting.

Seen from the ferry ride to Indonesia. This city was full of truly gorgeous buildings.

My darling friend Kiki, a teacher at my kindergarten, asked me to be in her beach wedding! I was so excited to participate in a Chinese wedding.  Although it had many western influences, the bridesmaids wore pink qipao’s! You know those gorgeous floral dresses that China dolls wear?  That’s a Qipao, a traditional Chinese dress, AND I got to wear one!  I was pretty excited (as if you couldn’t tell)!

Kiki looked absolutely gorgeous! I took some pinhole photographs of her wedding at Xi Chong Beach in Shenzhen, China.   Enjoy!

Check out my other pinhole photographs too! 

Part 1 – snowflake bombing

I absolutely love any kind of art that makes the street more beautiful, so I’ve made a goal to do so at least once a month (also number 14 on my list). In December, Amanda, her mom who was visiting from America, and myself, set off for Da Fen Painting Village to peruse art, and bomb the village with snowflakes that I cut out of coffee filters.

We had a lovely time picking the best spots to hang our beautiful snowflakes.  I had one snowflake left and on our way out of the village saw police motorcycle, number 1. My favorite number. I love finding it. Even when I lived in New York City I would always look for taxi number 1. I saw it a few times and was giddy with joy each time.

I was a little nervous but Amanda said ‘do it’, so I did. Damn peer pressure! I casually walked by and snowflake bombed my last snowflake on police motorcycle, number 1. My heart was racing and I hid behind a van for a few minutes before I walked back to take a photo of my work. My first photo was from a safe distance, but I wanted to get closer, and when I did a man notified the cop of the snowflake on his motorcycle.  He angrily marched to his bike and ripped the snowflake off, and I ran away after I took my victory photo. Ha.

Check out my newest pinhole photographs! 

Below is police motorcycle number 1. You can see I put a beautiful snowflake on it. In the 2nd photo you see the guy in the middle with the stern look on his face, that’s the cop I angered!!