Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Rose Bookmark

Haven't done much with bookmarks lately, but once in a while find something that's a good fit.

This'll be the last post from the fantastic rose garden on the residence grounds of the venerated Chiang-Kai-Shek.  More to come of surprises discovered elsewhere...

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Red-and-White Rose with B&W Background

Thought of this post back in 2018 and decided to try something similar with this guy.  Doesn't have quite the same effect, but was fun to do nonetheless:

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Prototypical Yellow Rose

This is much more typical of what we think of as a "rose".  Dedicated to Abdel Hadi Mahrous, a good family friend who passed away in 2001.  I shall write more of him one day...

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Yellow Rose Facing East

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Head-On Shots of Red/Pink Roses

Here's a head-on shot of a pink rose, that of a more "jumbled" variety, as I call it...that is, one that doesn't feature the usual wrap-around petals we normally associate with roses.  Below are two more red/pink head-on shots of different kinds of roses:

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Peach Pair

 

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Lavender Rose with Buds

 

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Light Lavender Roses

The color on this one was so subtle I decided to increase saturation by about 40%, while darkening the background.  Saw another one nearby that gave me the opportunity to take a picture of something through something:

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Pink Rose

It just takes a small positive comment here and there to keep me going with this blog.  When I showed my friend Brian this pic on the camera screen he did flip-flops over it and made the comment, "No wonder you have a blog."  Little did he know the value of that comment in propelling it forward (for better or worse!).

So I cropped, did some work on the petals, and decided to make it first in this section of the series.  We discovered a huge rose garden of an acre or more with every size, color and type imaginable.  Though pictures of roses are available in their millions already, I naturally had to capture a few with my own touch...

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Forbidden Pond

Is there a subtle message here?  Does anyone know what will happen to you if you decide to take a swim in this pond?

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Amphitheater Stage

Don't know what they do here, but there was a little amphitheater with the stage you see above.  The shot below was taken going the other way later, on our way out.  A few compositional tricks were necessary to exclude construction going on at the time:

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Cattle Egret Shot #4

And finally, our friend here is seen against a backdrop of complementing colors.  Catching this guy when we did was a real bonanza, and we hadn't even entered the park yet!

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Cattle Egret Shot #3 (with color variation)

Same guy but a few steps over where he ended up against a much darker background.  Seeing the consistency of its coloration, I decided to make a layer of him and fiddle with the hue.  How could I not?

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Cattle Egret Shot #2

I just absolutely love this bird, adorned as it is with the color of our wedding (peach).  This opportunity to capture it with the flowers of the same hue was way too good to miss.  Those flowers were color-desaturated by about 20% so as not to outshine the star of the frame...

Taiwan 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Cattle Egret Shots #1

This remarkable bird, a cattle egret, was wandering around on its own at the entrance, pecking around for insects or anything else that was edible.  I saw this species at the Taipei Zoo doing the same thing...wandering around where the people were, picking up French fries or any other scrap dropped by the visitors.  Not too skittish, therefore an easy target for photo capture.

Later that morning we saw two of these guys doing a low duet fly-by.  Neither I nor the Bigger Cahoona (lens-wise) were fast enough to do it justice, but the frame below was a near-keeper:

Taipei 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Dandelion Garden

Another pic of the Dandelion Garden, this one captured with the iPhone.

Taipei 2025 - Chiang-Kai-Shek Residence, Dandelion Sculpture

One thing that Chenjean and I hadn't done in a while, and thought our friends the Bishops might enjoy, is touring the Chiang-Kai-Shek residence in Taipei.  They've done some remarkable things there, and the actual house where he and his wife lived out their days is open to visitors for a small fee.  The Bigger Cahoona and I ended up with some 40 keepers from this remarkable venue.

The pic above was captured at the entrance on Fulin Road, and immediately brought to mind this series, from back in 2011, of the Wortham Fountain on Allen Parkway in Houston.  Little did we know of the wonders that lay ahead...

Taiwan 2025 - Interesting Building in 101 Area

 

Taiwan 2025 - The Biggest Billboard You've Ever Seen

Taipei 101 certainly doesn't stand in isolation with regard to shopping, business, entertainment, and living space.  It's a swanky area with very expensive real estate...might be compared to Times Square or Fifth Avenue in New York City.  But the billboard seen here is undoubtedly much bigger than anything that can be found in NYC, or anywhere else for that matter.

Taiwan 2025 - Flowers on First Floor of 101

These were captured on the first floor of the mall...

Taiwan 2025 - Ceiling Pic from 101 Shopping Mall

The huge mall at the base of 101 is just as much an attraction as the observation floors atop the building.  This is a ceiling shot from one of the levels below; the tower itself can be seen through the glass at the top of the frame.

Taiwan 2025 - Wavy Blue Lines Along Highway from 101

Think I've posted a pic of this building before, but don't remember the concentric circle patterns on the sidewalk below.  Then, during post-capture, I got to looking at those blue curvy lines at the top along the highway; what could they be?  Thanks to the Bigger Cahoona's awesome full-frame, 48MP ability to crop WAY in, they are revealed to be barriers to prevent debris from ending up on the buildings nearby, and possibly to dampen highway noise as well.  Just a guess...

Taiwan 2025 - Twisted Building from 101

Our good friends the Bishops came up from the Philippines to spend a few days, so it was an opportunity to show them the sights.  Naturally Taipei 101 is a must, but so many pics from up there have already been posted that I didn't bother to take many on this excursion.  This I considered a keeper, however, because of the weird twisted building to the middle right and below:

Taiwan 2025 - Morningtime 101 from the Grand Hotel

We were up early on our last morning at the hotel when I went back to our spot to see how 101 was doing.  This is sort of a silhouette shot and sort of not.  I liked the picture, but didn't know what to do with it really, so fiddled with a couple of the settings per below:

Taiwan 2025 - 101 at Night from Grand Hotel

As we were walking the property admiring the nighttime scenes of the surrounding city, I was ecstatic to see that 101 was actually unobstructed by clouds or fog.  Holding the Bigger Cahoona as steady as possible, planting  my elbows on top of the property's stone border wall, I went crazy trying to capture a clear, non-blurred image.  What I would have given for a tripod then!  Zooming all the way in and holding my breath as I snapped the shutter (a practice I learned in competitive rifle shooting as a kid), I managed to extract the passable picture above.  Still, it required heavy sharpening and only a very small amount of rotation, but nothing else.  I'm happy with what we see here.

Taiwan 2025 - Night Shot of Grand Hotel

Since the Grand Hotel is relatively isolated from the hustle and bustle of the city (though it's smack dab in the middle of it), night shots were easier to capture without nearby distracting lights and activity.  After snapping the entrance view posted yesterday, I turned around to get a night shot of what is, indeed, a grand hotel.

Taiwan 2025 - Grand Hotel Entrance

A view of the hotel entrance in the daytime above, and night below:

Taiwan 2025 - Grand Hotel, Lobby Views from the Staircase

...and two looking in the other direction.

Taiwan 2025 - Grand Hotel, Lobby Views Toward the Staircase

Two perspectives looking up the staircase from the lobby floor...

Taiwan 2025 - Grand Hotel, Lobby Staircase

The hotel lobby, with an angled staircase leading up to retail space and the main restaurant.  The pic above was taken at night, while below we have a similar perspective taken during the day.  Note the grand piano at left; while we were there a pianist and violinist played duets after the dinner hour each night: