Taipei 101 - Glass Bricks

There is a display on the sidewalk directly in front of the tower...a sculpture of sorts with a number of these glass brick structures.  At night it's fantastic because each one is all lit up from the inside. Don't know what the orange words said in the middle, but each of the structures had a different message.  And of course, lots of posing with all of the tourists around so it was hard to get a shot of just the bricks.

Taipei 101 - $300,000 Watch

Have you ever wondered what a $300,000 watch looks like?  This is what a $300,000 watch looks like.  That's U.S. dollars...

There are several floors below ground level under 101 that hold an upscale mall, and the watch above was displayed in a jewelry store (of sorts).  Everywhere in the tower complex and surrounding neighborhoods was a pricey place to be.  One billionaire had a daughter that aspired to own a tea shop one day, so a block from 101 he built a three-story retail complex that resembled the Galleria here in Houston, only a tick higher in terms of class.  The daughter's tea shop was on the bottom floor.

Taipei 101 - Model and Diorama

...a very good model of the structure and diorama of the entire complex.  In a photo such as this the biggest obstacle is reflections.  In this case there were reflections on the glass case protecting the model as well as the window to the outside.  They can be minimized with adjustments to color, contrast, and/or levels.  The clone tool could also be used.  Either way, it is difficult to eliminate a reflection while at the same time preserving the integrity of the subject.

I've thought about making a device to mitigate the reflection problem while shooting to the outside from a window.  Those styrofoam covers that are used to protect outside faucets from the cold could be coated black on the inside, with a hole cut on the narrow end to poke the lens through.  The edges of the hole could then be sealed.  The broader, distal edge of the device would be ringed with the black foam rubber to seal out light that might enter from the sides.  Pressing this whole contraption against the glass would at least prevent reflections from inside the room.

Haven't made it yet...just an idea.

Taipei 101 - Office Building

Love the patterns in so many of the buildings.  Had to use the skew tool to "distort" this into a relatively symmetrical image from the original below.  Observe the guy in the yellow shirt on the balcony about a third of the way up...

Taipei 101 - Flowing Life

Zooming out from yesterday's posting, this shot clearly shows the tributaries of life flowing up into the mountains.

Taipei 101 - Colorful Rooftops (1,000th Post!) / Brush with Slavery #1

The patchwork of rooftop colors shot from above make for a compelling image, in my opinion.  This might make a good 16x20 someday...
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One of the most fantastic things about this day and age is the ability to get your hands on information instantly.  This includes books.  Not long ago a friend visiting my house for a Bible study recommended a book by John McCain, Character is Destiny.  While he was discussing the virtues of its contents I grabbed my iPad, pushed a few buttons, and PRESTO, a copy was in my possession, ready to read.  All before he finished his description.  Did not regret it, either; after having read it I believe it to be one of the more important books of our time.

Another book obtained recently with the iPad was the Complete Works of Frederick Douglass.  I became interested in Frederick Douglass during my studies of the life of Abraham Lincoln.  What an awesome communicator Douglass was!  Such a command of the language, and such a fertile mind.

As any student of history knows, Frederick Douglass was a slave who ran away into freedom in his early adulthood.  He subsequently poured his soul into helping others who were or had been trapped in the evil bondage of the South.  I highly recommend reading Douglass' works and others such as Twelve Years a Slave to get an accurate portrayal of what those days were like for the Africans brought here against their will.

And one day, while a student at SFA in the late 1970's, it came home to me that those days weren't really that long ago, and still had an impact on those yet living.

As often happens with college students, I was taken in by a family who occasionally invited me over for lunch after church.  (Actually, I had a string of such families, and rarely lacked for a good Sunday afternoon meal!)  On this occasion it was an elderly couple by the name of Jasper and Dolly Pitts.  The Pitts were real East Texans whose family had been working the same land for many generations.  It was a real honor to be invited into their home out in the country and hear their stories.

One Sunday afternoon Mr. Pitts and I were standing next to his fence, chatting about the history of our surroundings.  At one point he began telling me about a piece of property nearby that his grandfather had owned and maintained with "black help".  It didn't register at first, but the second or third time he said "black help" I started doing some math in my head and wondered if by "black help" he meant slaves.  After determining that the math could work, I got the nerve to ask, "Mr. Pitts, by 'black help', do you mean slaves?"

He looked at me, stunned.  His aged face became taught, and his eyes swerved from my direct gaze.  After stammering a moment, he said simply, "Yes", in a manner that suggested surprise and sheepishness at the same time.  It then dawned on me that he himself had not thought of them as slaves, but that they were slaves indeed, and all of his young life at the knee of his grandfather the term "black help" was nothing more than a euphemism.

The span from the 1860's to the 1970's was only a little more than a hundred years, easily encompassing just a few generations and even fewer lifetimes that were touched by such events.  I was floored by the proximity, and had no idea that slavery would again touch my life before another decade was to pass...

(Next Week - "Brush with Slavery #2")

Taipei 101 - Bridges

Due to the variety within the frame this is one of my favorite shots from the tower.  Tried to capture the essence of it with the s7000 a few years ago, but did not do it justice.  The Big Cahoona, however, grabbed it just fine.  Only required minimal sharpening and color saturation.

Makes me wonder - how much more detail and vibrance could have been captured by the 810?  Hmmm...

Taipei 101 - Outside Up

This is Taipei 101 - the tallest building in the world from March 2004, when it was completed, until March 2009, when it was surpassed by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.  And one of the ugliest, in my opinion, jutting up from the jumble of skyscrapers below like a jagged quadrangular saw blade.  Never liked it.

But from a photographic point of view it offers interesting possibilities.  The interior observation decks occupy the 88th and 89th floors, from which some good photos can be captured on a good-weather day.  The obviously-green glass that you're shooting through requires a bit of color correction in post-capture, but that's easily fixed.  The only consistent problem I ran into was the distortion caused by the glass, shooting at such oblique angles.  In many of the shots of subjects below, one side of the photo would be in pretty good focus while another portion of the frame would be noticeably fuzzy or out of focus.  Not so easily fixed.  Nevertheless, I got some passable shots in with the Big Cahoona.

Below is a similar shot, taken just a few yards over:

Taipei - Glowing Edges of Centered Tower

The glowing edges effect created from yesterday's photo was so distinctive that it deserves its own posting.  This and another glowing edges pic of a bridge in Tokyo (to be posted much later) will be printed on metal for a first try in that medium.

Taipei - Centered Tower

A typical cityscape in Taipei, with its mix of tall and short, old and new, attractive and ugly.  This was taken on the move from a car as we crossed a bridge.  A little straightening and cropping was necessary to take out the bridge railing and place the tall building dead-center.  When that was done the building was darkened to make it stand out better against the cloudy sky.

Taipei - Staircase Angle

The angle in the foreground is what drew me to this scene...

Taipei - Apartment Building

This and the next three or four postings will be of buildings in the Taipei area, captured from street level (as opposed to from the top of 101, which will come later).

These are some of the most interesting pictures to examine, because the more you look at them the more you see.  For example, do you see where the bicycle is in this one?  And the motorcycle that's not too far from it?  (Clicking on the photo will bring it up to full screen.)

To look at this pic you would not think that you're smack dab in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world.  It's an interesting exercise to frame a picture in a large city so that the upper stories of a building are surrounded by nothing but vegetation such as trees or, in this case, lush jungle mountainside.  Three such photos captured in New York City are here, here, and here, all taken with the FinePix s7000 back in July of 2010.  A year before, in June of 2009, this one was captured in Paris.

Taipei - Jesus Sign / Brent Says Hello in Church

This is certainly a rare sight in Taiwan, though there are Protestant and Catholic churches there.  Right next door to one of the "glitzier" areas of town is an impoverished, slummy neighborhood, where this sign was posted on the side of a building.  The scripture referenced is Matthew 16:26.
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Back in 1980 I decided to spend my summer in Old Mexico.  in the postings of July 3rd and 4th of 2010 there is a description of how I was converted into the church with the help of a fellow named Ramón García.  During the first two summers we were friends, Ramón encouraged me to go down and enjoy the hospitality of his family, who lived in an ejido outside of Allende, Coahuila, called Charcos.  That summer of 1980 I decided to go ahead and take him up on the offer, and moved down there to live for the summer.

I told a life-long friend named Brent of my plans.  We'd been on many adventures and journeys together, and it seemed natural that he'd take some time to tag along with me for the first week or so of my stay there.

When the time came we piled our stuff into my old 1964 Rambler American and headed down.  It was good to be traveling together again, and I enjoyed having Brent along for the ride.  We took Interstate 35 south from San Antonio to where it intersects with 57 near Bigfoot.  By then we were in sparse territory.  Brent didn't know a word of Spanish, so I took the opportunity during the long hours on the road to teach him the basic necessities, such as how to count to ten and how to say hello to the pretty girls we would encounter.  After about 50 miles he'd mastered both.

We got to our destination in Mexico and passed our days learning the environment and getting to know new friends and neighbors.  Before long it was Sunday and we found ourselves in church.

It was a smallish congregation there in Allende, perhaps 50 in attendance, and the preacher's name was Rubén Medina - an awesome speaker and powerful force for the church in the area.  After Rubén completed the sermon he began to speak about us and the fact that we'd come from the United States and it was great to have us, etc.  Seems he went on for a good five minutes, but Brent, oblivious to the fact that he and I were the subject of his talk, just sat there, bored.

To my surprise, at the conclusion of his talk Rubén called on me to stand up and say something to the congregation.  We were sitting close to the front, so I stood up, turned around and said something in Spanish to everyone there about how happy we were to be there, what a fine place it was, etc.  Then I sat down.

Unbeknownst to all of us, Rubén had plans for Brent to speak as well, and indicated for him to stand up and say something.  Meanwhile, in his boredom he'd taken an interest in grooming his fingernails with his teeth, and was so engrossed in that activity that I had to nudge him with my elbow.  He seemed surprised, and somewhat aggravated at the interruption.

"What?"

"Brent, Rubén wants you to stand up and say something!"  I whispered urgently.

"What?!?" he asked, while all looked on.

"Stand up and say something!"

He looked at me for a second, then shrugged his shoulders as if resigned to his fate.  It was assumed, I think by everyone, that he would say something in English for me to translate.

Unfortunately, Brent did not operate on the same assumption.  He stood up, turned around, and said, «¡Hola muchacha bonita!  ¿Cómo estás?»  Then he counted on his fingers, «Uno, dos, tres, cuatro...»  After some giggling among the girls and no small murmur generally, we got him to sit down after he reached cinco or seis...

Taipei - Dragon Fruit

Down there in the tropics the variety of fruits is astounding.  This is a type of dragon fruit...small ones about the size of golf balls.  I've lately grown hesitant to point the Big Cahoona at goods being sold in stores, but managed to sneak this one while on the move through a market.

Taipei - Mountaintop Trail Tree

This was a tree I'd pass on my way up Mountaintop Trail.  By itself it wasn't that great, so it was time to revert to the ole' standby, Glowing Edges!  Even if the photo is average, the effect certainly forces you to look at mundane objects with a different eye.

Taipei - Elephant Wood

This is a classic example of something I could never have done with the Fujifilm products.  Taken with the Big Cahoona in the waiting area of a doctor's office, this was captured hand-held at 1/10 of a second (800 ISO), then lightened considerably in post capture.  Not possible with the other two cameras...

Taipei - Spokes

While in Taipei I had the opportunity, so tried to duplicate a posting from a previous trip, this time with the Big Cahoona.  It was shot in the same exact location at the same subject, but in my opinion the earlier posting - captured with a Fujifilm FinePix s7000 compact - looks better.  What do you think?

There was just something magical about the FinePix cameras...something I haven't been able to replicate with the Nikon D300s, aka the Big Cahoona.  Initially it was the FinePix 3800, which got me started in first place back in 2002.  Then the FinePix s7000 the family got me for Father's Day a few years after.  I was anxious, however, to learn on a rig that would allow me to take my skills to a new level.  Being disappointed that Fuji didn't have a DSLR, I ended up buying the Big Cahoona.  In a technical sense it is a fine machine, and the sky's the limit for a novice like me.

Even so, if I were to pick out my ten all-time favorite photos since beginning digital photography in 2002, a majority of them would - as of now - be from the Fujifilm cameras.

Taipei - Photoshoot

This was in the vicinity of Taipei 101.  One can tell by the shadows that the tower is serving as a backdrop for this couple.

It's pretty common to see photoshoots like this one in the more fancy areas.  And for engagements and marriages they really put together some neat stuff.  To my dismay, however, I observed during this trip that the camera of choice for the Taiwanese is leaning more and more on the Canon side, such as in this case.  Used to be almost all Nikon.

Taipei - Night Shot

Rested the camera on a balcony ledge of the apartment for this shot, selecting the best of three in the bracket.  The Big Cahoona handles these shots beautifully.  The shadows were lightened some, and the highlights were darkened by about 10%.

Taipei - Solitary Lamp / The Time I Got Shot At

This and the next few postings will fall under the category of "miscellaneous"...just a few things here and there, not connected with any place or theme in particular.

I like pictures like this.  This much earlier posting comes to mind as being very similar in the way the subject stands in solitude.

I spent a long time selecting out the lamp in Photoshop so that it could have its own layer, the purpose of which was to desaturate for a black and white background.  Liked the original better, though, so here it is.
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The Time I Got Shot At

Well, shot near is more accurate.  It happened in Boy Scouts.  It was during summer camp when I was 12 years old, at Camp EO Siecke.

I was just a regular camper for the week, but had befriended a staffer my age who was there for the summer.  We all knew there was a Girl Scout camp right next door, separated only by a barbed wire fence, but had not yet braved a visit.  I was walking with my new friend one day when it occurred to us that it was time to change that.  After all, wouldn't the girls be just as anxious to see boys...wouldn't it be a treat for them as well?  This would be a neat and risky venture, because word was that capture earned you a QTH (Quick Trip Home).  Just too irresistible.

Off we went, picking our way through the woods toward the fence line.  When we finally got there it was easy going, because it had been cleared on either side by about ten feet.  We just started walking along, and arrived at a point where some of the cabins came into view.  Since cabins meant people, we started to get a little nervous, but kept walking.  Wow, what if we did see some girls?  What would we say?  What would they say or do?  What if we were captured and held prisoner?  Then it occurred to us that there might actually be some adults walking around keeping an eye on things.  Oh, the things we think of when it's too late...

Some voices from the other side of the fence fell within our hearing, and the prospect of actually interacting with anybody was just too much.  We decided to turn around and head back.

We had walked all of 20 feet on our way back when suddenly, out of nowhere, BOOM!!!  Very loud and very near.  That scared us enough, but adding to the drama were the sticks, pine cones and bark crashing down on top of us.  We high-tailed it as fast as we could, dodging the falling debris.  In what seemed a very short time we were more safely within our own territory and slowed to a nonchalant walk to avoid attracting attention.

By nightfall word got out that a couple of idiots were too close to the Girl Scout camp and the old man that served as a guard there gave them a warning shot into the trees.  Don't know if it was rock salt or buckshot, but he sure did his job, because we never entertained the idea again!

Taipei - Motorcycle City

Right after we stopped I snapped this.  Can you imagine if these were all cars instead?

It is interesting when an entire family of three or four all stack against each other on the same scooter.  Often the youngest kid literally stands up on the surface in front of the driver, hanging on to either the instrumentation or handlebars.  I hesitated to take pictures of these, with respect to privacy and the fact that it's just not right to take pictures of children in public unless you know them personally.

The depiction below makes use of Glowing Edges in Photoshop:

Taipei - Shooting En Route

This is Chenjean and our sister-in-law in the joy of the moment.

Taking pictures on the back of that motorcycle was a bit of an exercise.  Handling the Big Cahoona pretty much takes both hands, so most of the time I wasn't holding on to anything while we were puttering through the streets.  At times my lens hit the helmet of my driver, and turns were precarious while I happened to be leaning out for a shot.  At one point, to snap some of what was going on behind me, I actually held the camera behind my head, aware that they would come out upside down but would be easy to flip in post capture. (none turned out well)

Such is the life of an adventure and travel photographer...

Taipei - Motorcycle Mama! / Being a Motorcycle Dude

I'm sure some men fantasize about having a MOTORCYCLE MAMA!  Well, I had one, even if it was a short time in a foreign country.

Chenjean is in the back there with my sister-in-law.  I snapped this photo while riding on the back of my brother-in-law's bike.  As you go through the city as a tourist, observing the frenetic pace of traffic with all kinds of vehicles, it seems a privilege to actually be a part of it for a while.

I was similarly clad with helmet and face mask, and got someone to take a picture of it, but managed only to look like Michael Dukakis while he was on that tank in his dismal run for president.  I was not much of a MOTORCYCLE DUDE.

Something interesting happened very shortly after this pic was snapped.  We stopped to wait for the girls to catch up, and for that brief time I got off to stretch my legs, and my brother-in-law put the motorcycle's kickstand down.  I hopped back on after the girls pulled up behind us.

My wife and my brother-in-law had a brief conversation, after which she began to laugh.  After about 30 seconds she was still laughing, unable to stop, while at the same time trying to tell me something.  Meanwhile, I'm perched on the back of his motorcycle seat, looking around and being a motorcycle dude, wondering what the holdup was, because the traffic was having to go around us all this time.

Chenjean was finally able to get it out that my brother-in-law could not go anywhere because he couldn't get the kickstand up while I was on the back!  I hopped off so he could get the kickstand up, an we were off again.  The picture below was captured a short time afterwards, while the girls were ahead of us.

Taipei - More Banyan Roots / Desire to Write

These banyan roots are remarkable.  They seem to crawl down from most any height, wending their way to soil even if they have to crawl around or through something like this brick wall.  The example below is an extreme case.

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I was visiting with some friends last night, and we got to telling stories.  Got me to thinking I need to get some down on paper myself.  After all, I've been supremely blessed with a varied and interesting life, full of blessings and experiences.

My greatest story-telling hero is Jim Wight, out of Thirsk, England.  He's the vet who wrote the All Creatures Great and Small series as James Herriot.  It's not too often that I'll read books - much less a whole set of them - twice, but I did with his and enjoyed it just as much the second time as I did the first (some twenty years earlier).  After the second reading I found out that his son wrote a biography, so I eagerly snapped it up and learned of the dedication and hard work that went into writing those books...and more publications later on.  The message was clear:  It doesn't come easy.  Once he identified his craft he worked at it patiently over a long period of time, starting in youth.

So how does one start when he's 57 years old?  There are dozens of stories shared over the years that my listeners have often said must be written down.  And at the end of the day, no matter who reads them, at least there will be something to leave for the children and their children to get to know Dad/Grandpa just a little bit better.

Taipei - Bamboo Fence with Banyan Roots

This simulated bamboo fence, with simulated logs serving as posts, was at the base of Mountaintop Trail flanking the larger temple of several postings ago.  The background blur was created by utilizing medium depth of field with my walkabout lens.

These fences were not limited to the boundaries of religious grounds; they appeared here and there throughout the city.  The photo below shows another one with banyan roots slithering around its base.  It's easy to image these things coming alive, feeling their way across the sidewalk...which is in fact what they're doing, only in motion too slow for us to notice.

Taipei - Mountaintop Trail Walking Man

This is at the very top of the trail and shows how a good part of it is constructed.  Naturally I didn't care as much about that as the chap that is walking with his hands raised straight up in the air.  I was lucky to catch him just as he was between the two poles.

Some of the things the Chinese do may seem odd to the American observer, but no one can argue with 5,000 years of history - and they do live longer than the typical American...

Taipei - Mountaintop Trail Funerary Shrine

This is something else that is more common that you would think alongside a road or trail...a funerary shrine.  Some are fancy, others plain, but almost all are built like this one.

Taipei - Mountaintop Trail City

As one of my favorite ways to shoot is of things through things, took advantage of opportunities such as this since the trail is basically surrounded by city.  Had to stick to city that was close by, however, because anything further away - especially the distant buildings of downtown - were almost completely obscured by smog.

I commonly decrease the color saturation in a photo - at least in some areas of the spectrum - but in this case I cranked it up so the structures would stand out better.

Taipei - Mountaintop Trail Branch

Scenes like this were common on the way up.  The angles of this branch caught my eye, and I kept the exposure dark to contrast with the leaves that were struck by sunlight.

You'd think that I would have known this already, but it was on this hike that I used bracketing for the very first time.  I knew the Big Cahoona was capable of bracketing for flash, exposure and a few other things, but never tried it until now.  Almost 100% of the time during a shoot I keep the mode on P, with exposure compensation set at two-thirds of a stop dark so the highlight details aren't lost.  I figured that using bracketing would at least allow me during postcapture to choose a better one if my normal settings were not optimal, so I set it to bracket for two-thirds of a stop in each direction.  Worked pretty well on shots like this one, where darker is better.

Taipei - Mountaintop Trail Incense

This was at another temple along the way.  My knees aren't what they used to be...took quite a bit of straining to maintain position in capturing this one.