Taiwan - Heading Home from Taiping Suspension Bridge, Apts Through Trees

It seemed a long wait for the bus, so while we were sitting there I roamed a little and snapped a few.  This and the photo below were captured for the obvious reason, as they are pictures of something through something.

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Food Stall

Reminiscent of this post from back in January, there were a couple of these lining the road on our way back from the hike across the bridge and back down...

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Ground Cover Plants #2 with Glowing Edges

Cropping a chunk out of the pic from yesterday's post (above) and then applying Glowing Edges (below):

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Ground Cover Plants #2

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Purple Flowers Through Fence Rails #2 / Happy Birthday Andrew!

Gotta love the spider web, so made an 8x10 I'd like to have printed on metal some day:

Today is our son Andrew's birthday - Happy Birthday Andrew!  Yes, our children are exactly five years apart in age, to the day.  Couldn't have planned it better, and couldn't ask for better kids.

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Purple Flowers Through Fence Rails #1 / Happy Birthday Allison!

Among my favorite flower pictures of all, these purple things as shot through fence railing...

Today is my daughter's birthday, born in 1996 - Happy Birthday Allison!

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Ground Cover Plants #1 with Glowing Edges

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Ground Cover Plants #1

Pretty plants, though common in nurseries back in Houston.  Tomorrow will feature two renderings of this shot using the Glowing Edges effect in Photoshop.

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Pink Star Flower

Was really impressed with this flower, and was commenting on how beautiful the flora is in these exotic parts of the world, when Chenjean reminded me that we have one growing under the pine tree back in Houston...

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Street Light Silhouette

Taking advantage of the foggy conditions, thought this would make a good silhouette.  More natural light preserved below (not sure what the chicken means):

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Hanging Flower

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Awesome Hat

This hat caught my attention while hurrying to catch up with the family.  Literally was walking while I snapped the photo.  Original pic below:

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Tree Silhouette

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Iron Railing / Thelma Reid at East Main

Being a member of East Main in Nacogdoches was a treat because I got to interact with the members of the community apart from the college environment at SFA.  As stated in the post a few days ago, it was small, but steeped in the East Texas culture, as some of the families had been in the area for generations.  There were times of grief and times of joy as well at East Main, and memories of my associations with those good folks always brings a smile.

One occasion that I'll never forget was during a visit with Thelma Reid.  I'd stopped just to say hello one day when she began telling me stories of her childhood.  At the time she was well into her 80's, but remembered childhood events as if they'd occurred the day before.

It was during this visit that Sister Reid (as I called her) related something that happened to her when she was in the 10th grade in school.  This was 1979, so she would have been in the 10th grade about 1915 or so.  The class was gathered for a picture, and in those days taking a picture was no casual event.  Everyone wore their best to school on the day, and had to sit still for some time under the glare of lights and that huge flash they held up on a pan.  But first all eyes had to point to the lens.

Sister Reid was in the front row, and she looked down momentarily.  When the photographer scolded her, their teacher told him that she was so poor that she was looking for a dime on the floor.

All those years later Sister Reid still got teary-eyed when she told that story, and her voice became so soft as to be almost inaudible.  She was obviously still hurt by the teacher's crude remark.  I was in training as a teacher at that time, and took it to heart that even a seemingly off-hand remark - even told in jest - can put a permanent stain on the hearts of our charges in the classroom...

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Carnation-like Flower with Glowing Edges

Sure don't know the names of any of these flowers, but fortunately that's not necessary to capture their beauty.  As it turns out, this one rendered pretty well in Glowing Edges:

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Red and Purple Flowers

The tropical beauty and variety of Taiwan is stunning.  And every region offers something different.  Caught these guys in passing while keeping the family in the corner of my eye so as not to lose them.

Closer-up shot below:

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Bamboo Stalk / Charles Westbrook at East Main

This is the story about an interesting fellow I met while attending the East Main Church of Christ in Nacogdoches, Texas.  As stated in this post, I switched from the Lutheran Church to the Church of Christ in the summer of 1978.  So upon returning to Nacogdoches I began searching for a church home.  Not being one to fit very well in the mainstream congregations such as North Street, which focused on the student population with its Yellow House, or Mound Street, which was also large but a bit hung up on doctrinal fine hairs, I hit the phone book and called the smallish, more rural congregations dotting the countryside.  The preacher at East Main seemed to be excited that I called, so there I went and never looked back.  One of those times in life where it felt good to be in the right place at the right time.

In those days there were probably 35-40 in attendance on a given Sunday morning, with the usual decreases on Sunday evening and especially Wednesday night (which I rarely attended).  Names that come to mind are Kurth and Jackie Booker, Inez Campbell, Marie Lundsford, Daisy Chancellor, Thelma Reid, Kennie and Donie Sanford, and of course Charles Westbrook. Those were the older members, with whom I got along best, but there were a few other families of varying ages.  These were all town folks not associated with the university or college population in any way, with the exception of Kurth Booker who worked in the chemistry lab.

Charles Westbrook was singled out in the list above because there are a few things that stand out about Charles:  he never sang, he always had a tickle in his throat that caused him to lightly cough every few seconds, and he was a mortician.  His mother, who was probably in her late 80's or early 90's, lived in an apartment he'd set up next to his in town.  Being a mortician, it was no surprise to anyone that when he discovered her dead in her bed one morning he simply wrapped her body up in a blanket, plunked her in the back of his old green pickup, and drove her to the funeral home to be processed.

But what I remember most about Charles is what happened during a visit to his apartment one day very soon after joining East Main.  I'd stopped just to say hello and found him sitting outside his door whittling on a piece of wood.  We chatted a minute or so and someone he knew stopped by.  Who was this young whippersnapper?  Charles introduced me as a college student that was going to East Main, and was a "hard worker" for the church.  Wow.  I wasn't really doing much for them at the time so hearing that was a surprise.  But it's the little things that stand out, and the affirmation felt good, confirming that it might have been the right decision to hook up with these folks...

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Bamboo Snack

This is one of the delicacies made from bamboo shoots - harvested, prepared and sold right there next to the bridge.  Really a treat, as they don't sell it like this anywhere else (that I've seen).

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Bamboo Stalk

Ah, bamboo.  The fastest-growing grass in the world.  If the tip of this shoot were at eye level you could stand next to it and literally see it rising as it reaches skyward.  It's an excellent food, too, an example of which you'll see in tomorrow's post...

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Fog Shot from Underneath

This is it for the fog shots of the bridge itself.  Thought there'd be five, maybe six blogworthy pictures when I first went back into all of the pics captured here, but was surprised at how many ended up being keepers.  Some of the photos that continue this series do make use of the fog, but in a much more subtle way.  Some were kept due to cultural interest, and some were snapped haphazardly as we were walking along.  Goes to show you that during post-capture there's a lot that can be extracted while sitting quietly at home on a desktop...

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Fog Shot from Side

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Cloud Cover

The good thing about being in a cloud on a bridge is that those up front disappear and you seemingly end up having the place to yourself.  Observing that there was nobody behind me, I slowed down to capture these people-less fog shots.  The one above is continuing ahead; the one below is after crossing and looking back:

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Cloud Break

Along about in the middle of the bridge a break in the clouds suddenly appeared, showing the valley below.  Didn't last long but captured what I could...

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Initially Crossing

Here you can see the family beginning to cross.  After snapping a few I hopped on and thought I'd join them, but never did because the Bigger Cahoona and I kept finding things to capture.

Below we were a little further along on the bridge.  After cropping to left found this to be one of my favorite fog shots:

Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Entrance Sign

One day we decided to go to the Taiping Suspension Bridge.  This is an interesting experience not just because it's a cool bridge, but also because the of the road getting there; it is officially County Road 162 but commonly known as the Taiping 36-Bends Road because of the hairpin turns.  The original background color of the sign above was dark brown with off-white lettering, but I got to playing and photoshopically transformed it to my liking.

We arrived to find a well-worn tourist spot, but interesting nonetheless.  There was general disappointment because, as you can see below, the entire valley over which it crossed was shrouded in a cloud.  Didn't bother me - I was eager to dive in and get some good fog shots.

Taiwan - Kaohsiung Buddhist Museum, Bus-Shaped Restroom

Interesting to conclude a series on a religious shrine with this kind of photo, but thought it was clever how they dressed up the bathroom to look like a bus.

Next stop - a suspension bridge near Zhuqi township.

Taiwan - Kaohsiung Buddhist Museum, Flower Bud / Before-and-After Series

This was captured at the entrance to the Great Hall, where the wood carving was.

There's something soothing, calming, about sitting down and cleaning up a photo, making it look better than it was before, and time flies while absorbed in such an exercise.  The original pic is below:

The first time I learned how to use the clone stamp to change something in a photo I stayed up until almost three o'clock in the morning getting it just right.  And if you're removing something, what's behind it has to be painstakingly cloned into place from the surrounding scenery.  That was in 2003, and even then I had in mind to do a before-and-after series of some sort.  Click on the photo below to enlarge, then use the arrow keys to toggle back and forth.

Before:

After:

Later, when I'd had a little practice, a picture from Zedler Mill was doctored to remove the power lines and a log that had fallen into the creek, among other improvements.  This was in 2008.

Before:

After:

Taiwan - Kaohsiung Buddhist Museum, Pagoda Walkway

Nothing spectacular about this shot, really - just thought it'd make a nice panorama-like photo...

Taiwan - Kaohsiung Buddhist Museum, Bell Tower #3 / More Tinker Stories

[continued from yesterday's post]

Yes, Tinker was a hoot to be around and we loved hearing his stories.  Some sounded fantastical, but over the years he never wavered in the telling, and the facts remained consistent each time they were told.

There was another one from the Great War.  They were about to cross a river in the Battle of the Bulge in tanks, one of which was to be driven by Tinker.  During the pre-briefing they asked for volunteers to be in the first wave and Tinker's hand went up.  A risk taker, Tinker said he always wanted to be the first into danger.

So the time came, and off they went to battle.  Tinker went into great detail on the topography, enemy positions, and the difficulties they faced as they traversed the waterway.  When they finally did get across, his tank was in front of everyone else's and he stepped on the gas to pick up speed.  During this run toward the German defenses they were hit by mortar fire.

Tinker described the huge noise and bright flash as the tank was hit right where the turret was connected to the body of the vehicle.  He, as the driver, was positioned down low, between the treads, so almost immediately experienced a rain of shrapnel from the exploded round, shredded tank parts, and body parts from his buddies that were in other parts of the tank.  He was the only survivor.

After the initial shock of being hit, Tinker, once he realized that he was alive, knew he had to get out of there pronto.  Through the newly-made hole created by the mortar round above him, he picked his way through the shredded mess, trying to avoid touching any flesh from his tankmates, one of whom was torn almost exactly in half.

Once they saw the movement of someone who'd survived, the Allies, who had been taking up the rear, engaged in a fierce firefight to cover for Tinker - and others from other crippled tanks - so he wouldn't be blown to bits as he struggled to exit.  Finally he made it back to friendlier territory and lived to tell his stories to softies like us decades later.

One day while at Tinker's house he pulled out a box with some old medals, some of his own from wartime experiences and some from others.  We were sitting on his living room floor when he pulled one out, explaining that when they liberated a town in Germany they were parading down the street, which was lined with thankful residents.  One woman stopped him, and in appreciation a daughter that was with her gave him the medal that he'd handed me to look at.  Turns out the girl was a twin, and the medal had been given to her personally by Adolf Hitler.  He gave Teutonic twins these medals as awards for contributing doubly to the purity of the race that he sought to proliferate.

Another story he used to tell, one which interested me even more than his war stories, took place when he was a kid about six years of age.  They were raised up in northeast Texas, and one day Tinker and his older brother were out shooting rabbits for the family supper when they chanced upon a couple with their car way out in the middle of nowhere.  As they approached the clearing Tinker saw the man shaving, using the mirror of the car.  The woman was leaning against the car looking at something in her hand (a pistol).

Tinker and his brother froze into place, watching and wondering who these people were, when after a minute or so the man noticed them standing there at the edge of the clearing.  Suddenly he jerked up, face still half-covered with shaving cream.  He opened the door of the car, pulled out a Tommy gun, and asked gruffly who they were and how did they get there?!?  His female companion stared at them with mouth agape.  Tinker's brother managed to peep that they were just out hunting rabbits, and the man replied that they had better get out of there NOW and if they said anything to anyone everyone would die.  Both kids managed a hasty retreat and ran all the way back home.

When they told their mother what happened, she turned white and locked all the doors and windows, for none other than BONNIE AND CLYDE had just been robbing banks in the Dallas area!

These and many more stories, and all of the history that was locked into Tinker's experiences, prompted me to encourage him to either write them down or tape them verbally using a cassette recorder.  He liked the idea, so one day I brought an old tape recorder to his house.  We set up a studio of sorts in a closet, I turned the machine to record and started asking questions, beginning with early childhood.  We anticipated doing a series of these for an undetermined length of time so were in no hurry to get to the war or some of the other events of his adulthood.  Very unfortunately, however, after our first session Tinker's wife, Lena, got cold feed about the project and what it might do to him mentally, so it was ground to a halt after just the first one.  Even today I cringe at the opportunity lost, but fortunately have been able to preserve that one recording.

Taiwan - Kaohsiung Buddhist Museum, Bell Tower #2 / Dead Germans and the Christmas Feast

This post from ten years ago mentions one of the most fascinating people we've ever met; his name was Cletus B. "Tinker" Slatter.  He was a combat veteran of WWII, but unlike many veterans Tinker enjoyed talking about his time overseas and the battles he helped fight.  And rather than describe events with a grim demeanor, he saw most of it with a sense of humor.

For example, during the Battle of the Bulge, which went on for weeks, he got so tired of being there - in the cold, dirty trenches where being on constant alert frazzled the mind - that he actually stood up, met the eyes of a German across the way, raised his foot where the guy could see it and vigorously pointed.  He was inviting the German to go ahead and shoot his foot so he could qualify to go into the hospital and get out of that miserable place.  His enemy, partially submerged in his own trench manning a machine gun, simply laughed and shook his head, not giving in to the request.

Another time Tinker and his fellow soldiers were marching through the cold and snowy countryside when they came upon a farmhouse, long abandoned because of the war, and spied a chicken wondering around the yard.  It was Christmas day, so they decided to catch that chicken and cook themselves a Christmas dinner.

After building a fire out there in the yard they caught it, killed it and plucked its feathers, eagerly anticipating the first fresh meat to be had in months.  Trouble was, there was no place to sit.

During an earlier battle that was fought there the grounds were littered with dead Germans, frozen solid in all kinds of grotesque positions.  Then an idea hit..."Why not?"  So, as if gathering logs, Tinker and his comrades collected enough frozen dead Germans to arrange around the fire.  Then they sat on them, using them as benches while Christmas dinner finished cooking.

They'd just started eating when they heard a buzz, and within seconds recognized the sound as a Messerschmitt approaching fast.  Very tired and without time to even react, they watched as the plane went into a shallow dive, expecting to be strafed any moment as they sat perched on the pilot's dead comrades.  But to their amazement and surprise, the guy leveled out at 50 feet and actually made eye contact as he flew by, wagging his wings on the way back up, disappearing in the distant sky.

Thus it was that Tinker and his men not only were able to enjoy a rare treat for Christmas, but lived to see another day thanks to a Christmas reprieve granted from a very unexpected gesture of goodwill on that special day.