Sponsored by HONOR
We recently announced the winners of the HONOR Night Photographer of the Year competition, a unique night and low-light photo contest organised in partnership with the major smartphone maker and AI pioneer.
Sponsored. The overall winner was Ming Cheng from London, who attended the recent MWC mobile phone show in Barcelona as part of his prize (as well as getting to keep the flagship HONOR Magic8 Pro handset sent to him during the shortlisting process).
In addition to visiting the show, Ming had plenty of time to enjoy Barcelona, and used the opportunity to take some more memorable shots with the Magic8 Pro. He shares more of his impressions of the phone below.
Powerful yet unobtrusive
‘I have been to Barcelona before, but discover new things each time, and really enjoy taking photos of urban life,’ Ming explains. ‘The HONOR Magic8 Pro was great for taking pictures around this very vibrant city as I didn’t want to draw attention to myself with a big camera or disturb the scene.
The choice of shooting options on the phone, from the 50MP Ultra Wide Camera to the 200MP Ultra Night Telephoto Camera, also gave me a lot of flexibility.’
Strong telephoto performance, particularly in low light or at night, is a big attraction of the Magic8 Pro, and Ming was very happy with the results.
‘It was really useful to be able to zoom in to something across the street and capture the moment, and the phone was great for night photography – particularly architecture. I am an architect in my day job, so I am always attracted to buildings!’
Building on success
Ming was delighted to discover that his number-one favourite building in the world is located close to an HONOR event he attended as part of his trip. ‘The German Pavilion, built for a world expo back in 1929, was designed by a famous architect called Mies van der Rohe,’ he explains.
‘I enjoyed getting up early and capturing it in the blue hour, before the sun fully rose – the images taken with the Magic8 Pro were of exceptionally good quality.
Indeed, the Magic8 Pro was great to use around Barcelona as it’s so small and light and offers excellent image stabilisation. As seen with my winning image in the competition, I do sometimes mount the phone on a tripod when taking long exposures, but my Barcelona shots were taken handheld – and the phone nailed the exposure and focus every time.
The colours of the JPEG shots are punchy without being oversaturated. I took a couple into Lightroom for some simple colour editing but most of them were fine straight from the phone.’
For more of Ming’s photography, see his website and Instagram page. Meanwhile check out all the current deals on the official HONOR site.
Ming Cheng’s gallery from Barcelona
Enjoy a selection below – you can see all Ming’s shots from the trip here.
