As good as Danny Chau is at capturing both the beauty and the grime of Hong Kong, and as much as his pictures look professional, the fine art printer considers photography as strictly a hobby. But when art lovers want to buy his photos, and art dealers want to sell them, what is an amateur to do but oblige?

It is not difficult to understand the demand. Through Chau’s lens, we see a real Hong Kong. He translates onto paper all that makes the city unique, sometimes magnified in nostalgia, sometimes heightened in grandiosity, but always captivating.

Chau has professional training, but his greatest asset is the keen eye of a hunter always looking for the “next kill,” as he says. He carries a camera at all times to record everyday street scenes. “It might seem mundane, but if you project 20, 30 years ahead, looking back on the bus, cars, clothing, signage – everything changes,” Chau says with a sense of wonder. “So to me, it’s a record with a lot of sentiment.”

This habit of toting a camera has paid off – many of his popular photographs for sale at Picture This gallery were taken on the fly. One of his bestsellers, taken on one of Central’s famous ladder streets, showing a woman and man walking up the steps, is just such a shot. “It was one of those fantastic moments. I’ve been back there many times and you just don’t get those magic moments,” he says.

As a photographer inclined to taking pictures of people in urban cities, a challenge arises when potential subjects simply do not want to be photographed. But Chau is well-rehearsed in the procedure of sticking a camera in front of strangers without stirring up trouble. The trick: pretend to be a tourist even when you aren’t one. “People always worry about what you’re going to do with the picture,” he admits.

Chau uses Photoshop unabashedly to increase contrast, change the light levels and maybe insert more grime here and there to create a more palpable mood. He even prefers taking pictures of the iconic harbour when visibility is low. “I quite like Hong Kong foggy. Most pictures you see at tourist shops are all sunshine pictures, but I like moody images,” he says.

Always on the lookout for something new to photograph, Chau takes pictures every single day. “You’ve got to keep your eyes open. Hong Kong is a beautiful place to be in,” he says. It’s a good reminder of something so simple.

Some of Chau’s photographs can be purchased through Picture This gallery (tel: 2525 2803).