Yesterday I did a chopper shoot for a corporate client.

At one stage I flew eastwards along the dotted line of the helicopter GPS, between Hong Kong and Chinese airspaces.

In the background of the above image, the sprawling metropolis of Shenzhen. And in the foreground, on this side of the Shenzhen River, the rural northern New Territories of Hong Kong.

At the centre of this image, in between the two hills, can be seen the Lo Wu border crossing. You can spot the MTR railway track snaking up to it along the river from the right.

And where's this? Up the Amazon?

The Congo River? No, it's the Mai Po Marshes WWF bird sanctuary.

And here's the Shenzhen Bay Bridge, complete with oyster farms in the foreground. Shenzhen on the left, Hong Kong on the right.

On the whole, the weather was great. A blue sky, with fluffy white clouds, and a nice clean south westerly wind blowing in off the sea. No pollution at all.

All these photos were shot in RAW, a third of a stop under, with a polarizer and a very, very, clean CMOS. No Photoshop necessary!

ALEX HOFFORD : HONG KONG CHINA PHOTOGRAPHER