Taiwan 2024 - Chenjean's General Village Area, Tumbledown Shot #2

Some of these sheds were obviously built to serve the tourist population in days gone by, but now are used for storage of yet more relics.  Now that the waterfall has reopened in a big way, we were surprised that more of these didn't come back to life.  However there's no telling where the owners are now...

Closeup of vehicle below:

Taiwan 2024 - Chenjean's General Village Area, Tumbledown Shot #1

Anyone that's followed this blog for any length of time knows that I like the "tumbledown" shot...that is, pictures featuring long-neglected artifacts of civilization.  The older and more rundown the better, especially if overgrown by plants and weeds.  Since there was an exodus from Chenjean's little village when the waterfall was closed off to tourists many years ago, there are plenty of these shots to be had around town.  The pic above is a good example, with a rare black and white success as a bonus.

Taiwan 2024 - Chenjean's General Village Area, Village Entrance Lights at Zoom Extremes

Occasionally I'm asked to show someone the incredible zoom capabilities of the Bigger Cahoona's walkabout vacation lens.  Here is an example of a pair shot from the gazebo mere steps from Chenjean's front door.  The pic above is zoomed all the way out at 28mm...

and this one is zoomed all the way in from the same place at 300mm:

This is what the fixture looks like from the other side, approaching the village:

Taiwan 2024 - Chenjean's General Village Area, Camouflaged Lizard

Pictures of this critter have been posted in the blog before, but this one stands out because the effectiveness of the camouflage is obvious.  There's even a yellow patch along its sides that resembles a type of lichen found on the rocks of the area.  Interesting how creatures evolve to be perfectly suited to their environments.

A picture of this species is in fact partially responsible for my launch into photography.  On our very first visit to Taiwan I took a film shot of a big one standing up at an angle on top of a cement fixture.  After showing a print to a friend at church, he complimented the composure and declared that it would win a prize.  First time I'd ever received feedback of any kind for a picture, and it stuck until this day.  Wish I could find that old print...

Taiwan 2024 - Chenjean's General Village Area, Backlit Leaf

Using the sun to backlight a plant often results in some pretty good pics, such as this one published back in July and the one above.  These giant leaves were sometimes used by Chenjean to hold over her head if it rained on her way to or from elementary school, which was a walk of just over a mile.

Taiwan 2024 - Chenjean's General Village Area, Street Vendors

As mentioned in an earlier series from this trip (about the temple dedication), many if not most folks living along the streets leading to the waterfall use the space in front of their houses to make a little money.  Chenjean's house is to the left here, with a vendor set up on the very small property next door.  In about half of these the people selling things don't live in the houses, but rent space from the owners during the high tourist season.

The scenes below were directly across and down the street from Chenjean's place.  Naturally this all vanishes mid-summer, when it's unbearably hot, or if the waterfall should be closed to visitors for some reason:

The picture immediately above was captured with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which demonstrates a far superior dynamic range than either of my two DSLR's (Nikon D300s and D850).  Seeing this gave me pause in concluding that phone cameras are inferior in all cases.

Taiwan 2024 - Chenjean's General Village Area, Eggplants in the Most Literal Sense (LOL)

These plants were for sale, the target market being tourists on their way up to the waterfall.  Imagine my surprise upon discovering that they actually grow their eggs on these bushy shrubs here...

Taiwan 2024 - Chenjean's General Village Area, Nice Pink Flower

 

Taiwan 2024 - Chenjean's General Village Area, Seed Stalk with Contrast

This is another sight that you see a million times while traipsing up and down the mountain roads surrounding Chenjean's village.  The contrast is what drew me to the scene...

Taiwan 2024 - Chenjean's General Village Area, Grassy Brush

These abstracts are the Found Edges and Glowing Edges renditions of some grassy brush near Chenjean's village.  The colors that popped from the Found Edges effect were surprising, considering the dull brown of the grass itself.

Glowing Edges and original pics below:

Taiwan 2024 - Chenjean's General Village Area, Twisty Tree

A pic of this tree has already been posted here from an earlier trip, but decided to snap another one for comparison purposes...

Taiwan 2024 - Chenjean's General Village Area, Monkey Shot #'s 2-4

This little mama was especially noisy as she crunched away at whatever she was eating, dropping plenty of twigs and crumbs on the forest floor to betray her presence.  She was a little less skittish than they normally are, probably because it was high tourist season for the waterfall visitors and the monkeys were used to being in closer proximity to the throngs walking up and down the road.  I was able to snap away for a full minute before she decided to move on to higher ground.

And when she did I got a surprise.  Not only was she sitting there in plain sight, but further into the brush was her entire family!  In these pics you can see another monkey to her left, better hidden by the leaves in the jungle foliage.  There were no fewer than three or four that went crashing through the treetops as they retreated.

Through the weeks we were there I discovered that this particular family had a routine; they stayed on the higher ground late in the day to eat, while in the morning they migrated to the river below.

Couple of other shots here.  The clatter of the Bigger Cahoona evidently caught her full attention, as evidenced in the pic at bottom:

 

Taiwan 2024 - Chenjean's General Village Area, Monkey Shot #1

Whenever we head over to Chenjean's little village in the Far East, I am most eager to see the wild monkeys.  As explained in posts from an earlier trip, these guys are proliferating at a fast rate due to the protections in place by the government.  So on this trip I didn't have to look long before finding some, including this guy silhouetted among the tropical vegetation.

So how does one go monkey hunting?  I learned that, though they are everywhere now, you don't see them before hearing evidence of their presence.  They are messy creatures, and constantly drop seeds and husks as they are eating away at the nuts and fruits of the area.  All you have to do is look up when this is heard and it's either a monkey or a bird...occasionally we get lucky, as the monkeys are otherwise masters at hiding from prying human eyes.

Taiwan 2024 - Chenjean's General Village Area, A Hero

This man is one I've grown to respect immensely, Chenjean's father.  His history and a more detailed description of him is posted here already, but just wanted to post a pic of his morning walk up and down the mountain roads around his house where Chenjean grew up.  When this picture was taken he was 93 years, 4 months and 26 days old.  He uses a cane now, but hasn't slowed down much.  I saw him doing his morning pushups with my own eyes, 100 OF THEM, while we were there back in March.  The man is amazing.

How has he fared so well for so long?  Good genes, much daily exercise (part of his job as a doc doing house calls on foot through those mountain roads), excellent diet, and good sleep no matter how hot or cold it gets.  And it gets plenty, plenty hot and humid in this little town.

On our way back from this particular walk I got a pretty good picture of the hometown:

Taiwan 2024 - Waterfall Area Near Chenjean's Village, Green Snail

Here we are with another snail pic, from the same general area in which this one was captured.  Had to clean him up a bit, though.  Good for a bookmark later on, if I take that up again.

Next we're going to see some other random things in and around Chenjean's little village up in the mountain...

Taiwan 2024 - Waterfall Area Near Chenjean's Village, Distant Horizons Silhouette

This shot, and the one to be featured in tomorrow's post, are my two favorite pictures from the excursions to the waterfall.

There was so much jungle around, and so much cover for wildlife, that I looked in vain for monkeys, which were surely there.  Maybe next time.  Meanwhile, we saw some much closer to Chenjean's village, which will be posted in a couple of weeks.

Taiwan 2024 - Waterfall Area Near Chenjean's Village, Flowers With Rock

This is a view from the temple, some distance up the mountain.  Note the thin waterfall in the background, which partially feeds the larger one featured earlier.  These were live flowers; cropped in for a larger view below:

Taiwan 2024 - Waterfall Area Near Chenjean's Village, Temple Altar

...and of course the altar area of the temple itself.  So full of dazzling color and interesting objects.  Suppose some spend a lifetime studying all this to know just what everything means.

I once knew someone that was so dogmatic and anal about things in church that he wouldn't go near something like this.  This post describes more specifically how this fellow, a photographer, managed to get a shot in despite his aversion to anything not in line with his dogma.  How ridiculous!  I view these things as components of culture, some of which are beautiful, and have participated in several ceremonies out of respect for the culture and family being honored or memorialized.

Taiwan 2024 - Waterfall Area Near Chenjean's Village, Interesting Incense Setup

Also seen on the extensive patio area...never have seen a setup just like this for incense.

Taiwan 2024 - Waterfall Area Near Chenjean's Village, More Money

These small statues were situated in an alcove going into the wall of the temple building.  Lots of money here...

Taiwan 2024 - Waterfall Area Near Chenjean's Village, Buddha's Money

There was nothing outstanding about this statue of Buddha, but found the tradition of laying money at his feet interesting.

Taiwan 2024 - Waterfall Area Near Chenjean's Village, Incense Basin at Temple

This being a temple, these are the kinds of accoutrements found here and there on the spacious patio leading from the temple itself.

Very fortunately, they had a restroom for public use also...

Taiwan 2024 - Waterfall Area Near Chenjean's Village, Steps to Temple

Even after reaching the main waterfall, there is still a ways to climb up to the temple via these stairs.  Or you could drive it using a road that leads up to the back.  Not sure how far up the mountain all this is, but it must be pretty close to the top.

The next series will be photos captured from this place that offers a magnificent view of the mountains on either side of the valley.

Taiwan 2024 - Waterfall Area Near Chenjean's Village, Waterfall Shot #4

This one is posted by request.  Sun wasn't shining at the moment, but I stuck with a faster shutter speed anyway, which preserved the water blobs, as I call them, as if they were frozen still.

This was a more obscure fall, the same one featured in yesterday's post.  It was captured from a couple hundred feet above the main fall (posted two days ago) that serves as the attraction that draws the tourists to this area.  There is a Buddhist temple way up there, and it is from that vantage point that this shot was taken.  Imagine it looks much more impressive with a little more rainfall fueling the current...

Taiwan 2024 - Waterfall Area Near Chenjean's Village, Waterfall Shots #2 and #3

This is much more typical of the type waterfall shot that we're after.  The afternoon sun was shining bright, so at my preferred 1/10th sec shutter speed it was very difficult to get a picture that was not over-exposed, as I didn't have a density filter.  This is actually at the very bottom of the fall, where shadow and dark rock combined to make this one possible.

Wider shot below of same from a different angle:

Taiwan 2024 - Waterfall Area Near Chenjean's Village, Waterfall Shot #1

Now for the falls themselves.  Actually there are several.  Once you make your way up the 500+ steps to the first major flow, here's what you see.  It had been unusually dry for several weeks before our arrival, so this isn't nearly the volume of water that you'd normally see.  But it was interesting and kind of pretty nonetheless.

Being a tall waterfall, it's possible to observe something at work here...the simple effect of gravity.  The water at the top isn't yet going very fast, so the water appears as the series of blobs that it is.  However, close to the bottom, when the pull of gravity has accelerated its descent, with an exposure time of 1/200th of a second one can see the drops as silky lines, as if the shutter speed were slower in a typical, artistically-crafted waterfall shot.

Taiwan 2024 - Waterfall Area Near Chenjean's Village, More Steps

More steps further down the trail.  Would say that it's a young man's game with the 500+ steps leading up to the falls, but I saw plenty of oldsters negotiating the climb with no apparent trouble.  As for me, I took advantage of every lookout and bench along the way...

Taiwan 2024 - Waterfall Area Near Chenjean's Village, Tower of Steps

This is the tower of steps on the way to the falls.  I was pretty sick the first time I tackled it (by myself), so barely made it up then.  Later on, after the kids arrived, I was feeling better and it wasn't so difficult.

Closer shot below:

Taiwan 2024 - Waterfall Area Near Chenjean's Village, Beginning of Hike to the Falls / Vance's Hillbilly Elegy

Within an easy walk from Chenjean's village is a very picturesque waterfall.  It was a tourist attraction when she was growing up, and her earliest memories include selling little trinkets to the tourists breezing through town on their way to the falls.  For a time her mother served them meals in what amounted to a tiny restaurant, complete with tables and chairs set up on their front patio.

Then one of the myriad hurricanes hit the area hard enough to wash away the infrastructure leading up to the falls, effectively cutting them off to visitors.  It took a long time - decades in fact - to plan and build what you'll see in this series, but they did a good job (pic here of construction equipment during that period), and the throngs of visitors have returned to the little village.  This year we were there in March, so the weather was good enough to entice wave after wave of these tourists, deposited by bus mere feet from Chenjean's front door.  Once again, most residents have taken to selling trinkets and food from their front patios.

The photo above is looking back toward the road leading into town; below is a view from the foot of the bridge toward the falls showing a tower of steps in the background.  This was just the beginning, as there were more than 500 steps leading to the attraction.

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Just finished reading Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance.  What a book!  Glad to see someone coming into the top federal level that has some real character.

Speaking of Trump...good gosh, he's not even president yet, but already has expressed his desire to:  1) take back the Panama Canal; 2) make Canada the 51st U.S. state; 3) purchase Greenland from Denmark; and 4) rename the Gulf of Mexico!  God knows we need a wall, but this is something else.  And he's already acting as president, pushing foreign leaders to treat him as though already sworn in.  This is going to be a very interesting ride...

Taiwan 2024 - Perfect View of Chenjean's Village

For the longest time I've struggled to get a decent picture of Chenjean's village, and finally found it.  Took a hike by myself up a road until it ended close to the top of the mountain.  Then, on the way down, I saw the perfect view.  Trouble was, it was from the patio of a house that was currently occupied.  It was a large patio that extended to about 50 feet from the house, so I thought What the heck, I'll just walk over there and take the picture.

And that's what I did.  Making my way down a semi-lengthy driveway, I passed an open window from which the sound of a radio could be heard.  Nobody yelled at me, and I didn't get shot, so I continued onto the property.  Positioning myself on the far edge of the patio I snapped a few, including the one you see above.  This was fairly zoomed in; the picture below shows what it looked like zoomed all the way out:

Curious as to what my perch looked like from the town looking up, I took the following two pics.  Looking closely at the first one you can see the banana leaves that are in the foreground above:

From the same position in town I zoomed all the way out:

While I'm at it, here's a pic of Chenjean at the intersection of the two main roads along which sits her little town, the place where she grew up since the second grade.  Her house is the first one behind the big purple umbrella: