Rob and Lou are a travel-influencer duo from Banff, Canada — Rob is a photographer, Lou is a travel writer, and together they run the travel blog EliteJetsetter.com. KLM sponsored their trip to Asia, and somewhere inside that bigger itinerary, I had the honor of becoming part of their Hong Kong story. No pressure, right? Just two people who actually know how travel looks when it is photographed well. Hehe.
As with most of my Hong Kong couples, Lou wanted a Wong Kar-wai-vibed shoot. I remember telling them in one of our emails that I had been “heavily borrowing” from In the Mood for Love for the longest time, but if they were willing, I wanted to bring in something a little different this time: Fallen Angels. Not a direct reenactment, not cosplay, just that late-night, transit-heavy, slightly restless Hong Kong mood — bodies moving through the city, lights bleeding a little, romance happening somewhere between the last train and the next street corner.
So we made our way to Sai Wan Ho MTR, just about an hour shy of the last train. That was the anchor: the yellow station architecture, the escalators, the kind of location that only really makes sense if you love Hong Kong cinema enough to chase a feeling underground. And of course, we also did a RedSheep staple: Mong Kok at night. Public light buses, red taxis, neon signs, commuters, crosswalks, and the city doing what the city does best — refusing to sit still.
I also bought my newest and widest lens specifically for this shoot: the Panasonic Lumix 18mm f/1.8 S for my Leica SL2. That was not a casual purchase. I wanted something that would take me a little closer to that Wong Kar-wai / Christopher Doyle visual language, with a tiny side door toward Chivo Lubezki’s wider, more immersive sense of movement. Wide enough to feel the station. Wide enough to let the city lean in. Wide enough to make the couple feel like they were inside Hong Kong, not simply standing in front of it. (I can still remember the camera salesperson at the shop in Singapore, saying, "This lens is too wide for people shots." "I know, I know..." I said deep inside, with a proverbial "I Got This" wink.
By the end of the night, the set became less about “doing a Hong Kong couple shoot” and more about letting Rob and Lou move through a city that already knows how to be cinematic. A photographer, a travel writer, a sponsored Asia trip, one very late MTR station, and Mong Kok glowing like it had been waiting for us. Typical redsheep.
//
A cinematic Hong Kong night couple shoot with Rob and Lou of EliteJetsetter.com, photographed on location across Mong Kok, Admiralty MTR, and Sai Wan Ho MTR. Captured by redsheepphotocinema using the Leica Q3, Leica SL2, and Leica M11, with a candid, available-light approach shaped by Wong Kar-wai-inspired night photography, Fallen Angels location references, neon, motion blur, red taxis, public light buses, and the natural rhythm of Hong Kong after dark. May 2026.