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...and this is the business end of those banana plants. Don't remember seeing these at the house in Orange growing up.
It's amazing how many varieties of banana there are, particularly in the tropics. While there we must have sampled two or three different types, each with a very distinct flavor and texture.
Interesting how sometimes snakes end up getting exported along with bunches like these to faraway places (usually boa constrictors from Central America). Maybe we should have looked a little closer here for signs of the elusive reptiles...
When I was a kid we had a banana tree growing in our back yard where I grew up in Orange, Texas. Didn't get many bananas, though, if memory serves...all I remember is that it never grew very tall and the giant leaves were sometimes fun to play with.
After we encountered the temple posted yesterday we consulted the GPS on my phone and decided to take a different route back to the house. The way showed a clear path, but we only ended up getting deeper into the jungle until it finally just petered out. Rather than hack our way through undergrowth for an uncertain outcome we backtracked along the way we came and regained our bearings. It was while we were going down this dead end that we explored an orchard, where this leaf had recently been rained on.
There was a fairly large temple encountered on one of our hikes, smack dab in the middle of nowhere. Made for some pretty interesting contrasts, as seen above.
View of entire complex below:
This shot includes two elements that I like: a good fog shot, and a composition that will make for a good promotional card for this blog. I knew as soon as the shutter snapped that this would be a good one for both of those objectives.
And I say "promotional", but don't do very much to promote this blog; the only reason I make so many of these cards is to practice creative skills and learn more about the things you can do with Photoshop. I do carry a few around with me, and give them to those that ask about it or share a passion for the creative arts, whatever they may be. It's a fun little exercise, and at times helps break the ice in social situations.
I've taken to calling these window shots, with the silhouetted trees in the foreground making up the frame. Same concept in this post, and this one also, to a lesser degree.
This is a common sight all over the mountains east and north of Chiayi...
As stated in yesterday's post, in spite of the nature of the harvest I sort of like these trees from a visual standpoint because they stick out from the rest of the foliage and provide contrasting colors in shots like this and this.
As mentioned in earlier posts, these betel nut trees were not part of the landscape when Chenjean was growing up; much of the native foliage was cleared to make room for this cash crop. And why is it such a cash crop? Like chewing tobacco, it contains a substance that gives a buzz, is very addictive, and makes a whole lot more money than the bamboo or fruit that was there already. So here it is. The villagers in the area don't seem to mind much.
I don't mind much either, as they are interesting trees and have a beauty of their own. And conveniently, they stick out from the landscape, providing for photo-ops such as this and others you'll see in this series.
Much more interesting than the trees themselves, however, are the people that use the stuff. Like cigarettes, kids that try it get hooked young, and by adulthood their teeth betray their habit for all to see every time they open their mouths. It's nasty...often there are several teeth missing, and the ones that are left are stained multiple shades of dark red. And it seems that the kind of people that get hooked on betel nuts don't much care about showing the world the grotesque evidence of their addiction.
Surprisingly,
my nephew Terry knew very little about betel nuts, so it was up to me
to show him how the little fruit was ingrained into the culture. In the
larger towns and cities, places that sell them have very distinct
flashing signs, and when you see a whole row of them in an area you know
you're not in the best part of town. One day when we were shopping in a
nearby market I took him to one and explained how they wrapped them up
in leaves as packaging for sale. (The guy doing it couldn't understand
English - that I know of - but seeing our interest he offered us one for
free, which we turned down.) And to press the point of how seedy the
business is, I shared that they had to crack down on these places
because the shops at one time were very brightly lit with bikini-clad
girls prominently displayed behind glass to attract attention. It got
so risque they started to resemble venues for prostitution, which the
relatively-virtuous Taiwanese found repugnant.
Terry had
heard me talk about how the habit affects an addict's teeth, and I found
a great opportunity to show him first hand at Chenjean's elementary
school reunion a little later in the trip. While visiting in the
restaurant one of her classmates showed up with a propensity to open his
mouth wide whenever he laughed, revealing the nastiness inside
resulting from his life-long habit. Terry was out wondering around at
the time, but when he came back inside I gave him 30 seconds
to pick out which of these adults chewed, a quiz he had no trouble passing.
Whole lotta life in that jungle. I've said before that a photographer that can spot wonder or beauty could spend a whole day in just his backyard and come out with hundreds of awesome photos. Surely out here one could spend a lifetime doing the same, and come out with a million from just one mountainside.
And while I'm there it's amazing to think that I'm actually in the jungles of Formosa, a land I read and dreamed about in elementary school. Here I am, taking pictures of monkeys and giant spiders and plants such as this. And it is here more than anywhere that I harken back to a conversation I had one day with my mother, when I was six years old.
I remember sitting at the kitchen table and we were having a talk about the birds and the bees. This led to marriage as the most appropriate venue for such activity, which in turn led to the fact that there is somebody out there for everybody. Mom and I then entered into a guessing game on where these individuals were at that very moment. "Is there someone for Allan?" (my nine-year-old brother) Yes. Where is she now? (turns out it was two different girls in two different places) Tentatively I approached the inevitable, scarcely believing it could be true: "What about me...is there really someone out there right now that I'm going to marry?"
Mom said, "Yes there certainly is!"
My imagination filled with the possibilities of what she looked like and where she was at that very moment. "Wow, where could she be right now?"
In a heartbeat her reply was, "Anywhere...even on the other side of the world!"
And here it is, 54 years later, where my darling bride-to-be was living at that moment, on the other side of the world, being prepared by God for a life with a naive, and sometimes challenging, husband-to-be:
I'm thinking this must be the same species, with only a slight variation in the shell color, which could stem from a slight variation in diet.
As it turns out, THIS is my number one favorite photo of the entire trip, that of a snail. You never know...
This pic also serves as a reminder that you often capture much more than you notice when the shutter snaps (going back to this recent post as a prime example). During post-capture, which I enjoy just as much as taking the pictures, I do a bit of cleaning up. After cropping I usually lighten shadows and darken highlights to increase dynamic range. Lens distortion is corrected if needed. Even though my vacation lens on the Bigger Cahoona is tack-sharp I usually sharpen more, especially in shots of buildings and architecture. Then I clean up, removing distracting or otherwise unwanted elements from the picture. THIS is when I usually discover the little, sometimes very interesting, things not noticed before.
In the case of the photo above I was impressed that what appeared to be just debris were actually tiny bugs, as seen in this very highly cropped portion of just the shell. You can see their little tiny legs supporting their little tiny bodies:
And who's to say that if you used a super-duper macro lens and shot one of these little bugs you wouldn't discover even tinier creatures crawling around on them. It can go on and on, and probably does, way down to what is to us a microscopic level.
This scene reminded me of a Zedler Mill shot taken and posted some years ago. Wider view below:
This shot surprised me in the way it turned out. It was getting dark in the evening on one of our hikes. I saw this stand and snapped the shutter; being so dark it stayed open a full tenth of a second, which was expected. What I didn't expect, however, was that it would be so clear, and one would never suspect that it was late evening and so dark outside. I've got to get used to the idea of carrying a tripod around on jaunts like this, which would allow more freedom to try shots like this that gather light over a longer period of time.
Crop of same below, with Glowing Edges and Find Edges effects in Photoshop:
Had a friend over the other day that said he likes "road shots". I do too, so showed him this panorama from the Lake District in England, plus the one below which features another angle of the old vendor stall posted more recently:
The remainder of the posts from Chenjean's Village will not follow a theme or be in a particular order, just the images captured here and there that I found interesting.
Had trouble naming this guy in the title because there's really nothing else quite like it that I've seen. Wish I'd had the presence of mind at the time to go topside and look down into this trunk, as we were in a constant futile search for snakes. The only ones I've seen during our many trips here were road kills...
_______________
I was relating to some of my friends the other day about my football playing career under Coach Wade Phillips. Yes, the storied Wade Phillips of pro football fame and son of the equally storied Bum Phillips of the Houston Oilers.
It was 1972 in Orange, Texas, where he started his career at Lutcher Stark High School. I was in the 9th grade, and there were 50 of us boys in 6th period PE, a class taught by Coach Phillips along with a Coach Misch and someone else whose name I've forgotten. At the beginning of the semester we were divided up into teams to play football.
Once we were divvied up my team got into its first huddle, where it was decided that I would be wide receiver. Sure. Got no problem with that. So we crouch for the first play of the season and the QB says the proverbial "Hut!" Off we go, me swinging wide like a wide receiver should, and before I know it the ball comes wobbling my way. Instinctively I turn to catch it and the ball is in my hands.
This is where harsh reality came to light about the person who has the ball: 1) You are immediately the target of everyone on the field, but for different reasons. The O-line is coming your way so they can protect you, and the defense is after you because they wish they could have the ball instead of you. 2) When the defense reaches you, they are willing to resort to violence to get that ball, be it pouncing, striking, knocking you senseless, or whatever it takes. On this particular play I was hit hard and struck the ground with some force, but managed to hang on to the ball.
And I gained yardage, so after dusting myself off and joining the huddle for our second play it was decided to send the ball my way again.
But I'd made a decision of my own. I did not like all of the extra attention the ball carrier gets, or the means by which the opposing team tries to get the ball down or into their possession. Thus, I did swing wide again, but when the ball came sailing my way I ran as far away from it as I could! I was clear as a bell so it was not intercepted, but there was nothing anyone could do but watch as it ignominiously bounced to a stop.
Phillips glared at me in disbelief. "COME HERE MAHOOD!!" I trotted over to him, he handed me a tennis racked and told me to stay on the courts for the rest of the semester. Thus ended my football career playing for the venerated Wade Phillips.
Of all the spider shots I attempted to capture, this one was by far the most difficult; had to crouch down and fight the movement of the web swaying in the breeze. After some heavy sharpening decided this was a keeper.
Another one with slightly different coloration. Note the silk strand running from the spinneret in the specimen below, with fangs that can kill a small bird:
Another one with at least ten babies scattered around the web. The coloration and pattern in this specimen is quite different than the one featured in yesterday's post, so am not sure it's even the same species; there is also the golden silk orb weaver spider in the area that is the same size. Both are known to eat even small birds unfortunate enough to fly into their webs.
Made an 8x10 of just the adult in this highly-cropped image. Yes, let's put this one in the hallway...
Note the two baby spiders on the left side...yes, we were there in May, which is giant wood spider baby season. Didn't even notice them while we were out there, but in post-capture saw about ten of the orange-colored juveniles in this web. The one closer to the middle already has begun to take on the yellow color in its leg joints that you see in the adult (click on image to enlarge).
Yes, these are big, giant spiders. The common name is giant wood spider, and often span the size of a large man's hand, fingers included. As stated in this post from another trip there, they look mighty ferocious and intimidating but are not aggressive and rarely bite people.
Occasionally you'll see a betel nut tree strangled by a parasitic vine...
Because the daily hikes that Terry and I took were either at the crack of dawn or late in the evening, there was plenty of opportunity to capture some silhouettes, one of my favorite things to shoot. Though many bemoan the ubiquity of the betel nut trees, a cash crop that replaced the bamboo and other trees that were there naturally, they make for some interesting profiles. This shot was cropped from the image below; note the fog/clouds in the lower right:
Featured in a recent post at the terminus of New Bridge #1, I called this "Lettering" in the title because don't think "Charactering" is a word, though I'm not above inventing words. Note the frog sculpture in the background.
Just for fun took out the background colors in the shot below:
As stated in an earlier post, construction equipment stood out in stark contrast to the surrounding jungle. Focus shifted in shot below...
Here we have two sculptures, this time formed of cement, that span the riverbed.
...and this is the artist, seated at right in the blue shirt. Told us that it took two years to complete these and many other sculptures not featured in these posts.
One of the things they've done to gussy up the place in anticipation of visitors is install a variety of stone sculptures. We actually met the artist who created these, as he is the husband of one of Chenjean's elementary school classmates who attended a reunion while we were there.
I had been eyeing this tree, with its open branch pattern, as an interesting prospect when Terry, ever the eagle-eye for nature, pointed out that there was a MONKEY sitting there WATCHING US THE WHOLE TIME! Whether this was a favorite spot of his or whether he was acting as sentry for a troop somewhere we had no way of knowing, but he stayed in that nook for a while, and did not appear to be too excited about us being there.
As in the first time we saw a wild monkey I immediately went crazy snapping away with the Bigger Cahoona, and was amazed at this guy's acute sense of hearing. There was noise all around - the water in the sort-of-waterfall right behind us and wind blowing briskly through the trees - but at the very first snap of the shutter, being a different sound, he did a double take and stared right at me, holding his gaze as long as the clacking continued. And this was from a fair distance away; the pic featured here was captured at the full 300mm, and highly cropped to boot in post-capture.
Were it not for the camera noise I think he would have hung out a little longer, but when I failed to stop the racket he began to act agitated and scurried down into the vegetation below. We'd heard that they're everywhere now in great numbers, and to be honest it made me a little bit anxious to see the evidence. We had a long way to go back to the house...what if this guy told all his friends and they decided to ambush? Didn't happen of course, but the possibility stayed in the back of my mind on every hike we took from then on.
There was another time when I felt very, very vulnerable after seeing a large animal in the wild. We traveled to far West Texas with some good friends from church, and took a hike in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, some pics of which are posted beginning January 2012. We had gone around this nice little area and were headed back to where the car was parked when, due to my stopping to take pictures so much, I found myself alone on the trail. It was getting dark when I noticed movement in a small shallow valley below us. Glancing over, in the not-enough-distance I saw a huge black cat traipsing across the expanse, traveling away to the other side. When it got to the edge of the river bed it turned, looked in my direction (in the near-darkness I imagined it was directly at me!), and after a moment slipped down the embankment and out of sight. I was stunned at the absolute silence that this cat maintained while walking in the dry grass, and the size - due to the distance it must have been at least the size of a German Shepherd, which means it had to have been a mountain lion or panther. Then I realized that this huge cat was around as it was getting dark, with me alone with my stupid camera. Worse, with my wife and children ahead on the trail! True fear took hold, and the hundred yards remaining to the car was a very, very long walk for me...and I vowed never to put myself in that position again.
In spite of what to us was a disappointing waterfall experience there was plenty to shoot in the area. Ever in search of the perfect tree branch pattern, I thought this one was worth keeping, with Find Edges effect applied below:
Once we crossed the second bridge we made our way down to the river, where these photos were captured. We thought, "Hey, this is neat, and sort of pretty, but don't see why it would draw a flock of tourists from anywhere". As it turns out, we were NOWHERE NEAR the cause of all the construction. After doing research to pinpoint the true location, I discovered that we were probably more than a mile away from the real focus of all this attention. That would have meant more than a mile through undeveloped jungle, and probably through the broken down infrastructure they were replacing. If memory serves, there was no obvious path or old road to follow, so it's probably a good thing that we didn't realize it at the time.
View below of the end of this cascade, with overall view at bottom:
