Tag Archives: taiwan

March 30, 2013 · 9:57 pm

Experimenting with Film

These shots were taken with a not-so-recently acquired Olympus OM-2S, an excellent SLR from the 80′s. I love the mechanical feel of film cameras (and DSLRs as well, to an extent) but can’t say I love the cost per-click or the hassle known as film. For this reason I find this to be a great learning tool as I have to think about each shot. This roll was started in 2011 and I’m just now posting it – so it shows you the lack of turnaround that makes me thankful that I started on digital!

Above: first shot. Film was ISO 400 Kodak Tmax. I got some more “grit” and problems as they scanned my photos at a pretty low resolution, but oh well.

Above: Flushing, Queens, New York City, USA, December 2011.

Above: United Methodist Church, Wellington, Ohio, USA, 2011.

Above: Crocker Park, Westlake, Ohio, USA, 2011.

Above: Wedding in Taoyuan County, Taiwan, 2011.

Above: Taiwan Streets, 2011-2012.

Above: Taiwan market, 2011-2012.

Above: Taiwan park, 2011-2012.

Above: Taiwan drinking water hoses, 2011-2012.

Above: Taiwan temple 2011-2012.

5 Comments

Filed under taiwan2010

Tagged as 400, 50mm, black, film, jhubei, kodak, nyc, ohio, olympus, om-2s, photography, street, taiwan, tmax, usa, wellington, westlake, white

March 5, 2013 · 3:00 pm

Year of the Snake: Lunar New Year 2013 in Taiwan

With a vacation to Korea, an apartment move, and a visiting family member, I didn’t go out to document this year’s Lunar New Year as much as in the past.

With that said, it was a great time of relaxation for me even if it was a bit busy. This time of year always sorts of reignites the spark and excitement of living in Taiwan for me and this was no exception.

Above: Mazu, goddess of the sea, at Cixian Temple, Taipei.

Above: Cherry blossoms on a (very) foggy day at Lion’s Head Mountain (獅頭山).

Above: Temples on the same foggy day at 獅頭山.

Above left: worshippers walk under a lantern for blessings at Longshan Temple, Taipei. Above right: temple lanterns hang at Cixian Temple, Taipei.

Above: temple worshipers gather at Longshan Temple, Taipei.

Above: lanterns hang at Longshan Temple, Taipei.

Above: an incense burner at a temple on Lion’s Head Mountain.

Above: fried noodles being prepared at Shilin Night Market, Taipei.

Above: the calm before the crowds at Liuhe Night Market, Kaohsiung.

12 Comments

Filed under taiwan2010

Tagged as chinese, county, cultural, 獅頭山, d5000, head, hsinchu, kaohsiung, lions, lunar, mountain, new, nikkor, nikon, photoblog, photography, taipei, taiwan, temples, travel, year

October 31, 2012 · 12:22 am

Taipei Gay Pride Parade 2012

Last weekend marked a few steps for me: the inclusion of a few of my photos through Flickr to Getty Images as well as the acceptance to Alamy’s photo wire service and stock image database. I’m very excited to be a part of both services even though it’s a small deal for most photographers. I see this as a chance to put more energy (and hopefully, eventually more earned cash!) behind my photography in the coming months.

For an Alamy news submission, I took photos at the 2012 Gay Pride Parade in Taipei. Knowing that the first Buddhist marriage between two women took place this year in Taiwan – which was huge international news – I thought I’d have a chance to get some exposure through some submitted shots. Unfortunately, I was wrong for now, but this was a great chance for me to work on taking photos in a new sort of “culture shock” type setting.

Above: two men walk in Taipei’s 2012 gay parade near Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial. The annual parade, which drew thousands, was aimed at promoting same-sex marriage rights in Taiwan.

Above: a man receives face paint before the start of the 2012 Taipei gay pride parade.

Above: two participants carry a rainbow banner in the 2012 gay pride parade.

Above: a Google cheerleader performs at the 2012 gay pride parade. Google Taiwan was out in full force, as the corporation has recently been pushing for the rights of same-sex couples.

Above: people march with a banner advocating same-sex marriage legalization in Taiwan.

Above: a woman carries a sign representing a university LGBT organization at Taipei’s annual gay pride parade.

4 Comments

Filed under taiwan2010

Tagged as 35mm, asia, cultural, d5000, equality, gay, nikkor, nikon, parade, photography, political, politics, pride, protest, rally, taipei, taiwan, taiwanese

October 23, 2012 · 1:57 pm

Jhubei Temple Parade, October 2012

Last Sunday, a celebration of San Tai Zi ( 三太子), a major figure in Taiwan’s popular and religious culture occurred throughout the streets of Jhubei, heading north toward Hsinfeng. I’m always excited by the chances I get to see these parades as I really get to experience the culture, practice my bad Chinese, and interact with the people.

Above: a spirit medium representing who I believe to be San Tai Zi dances in front of a moving altar with onlookers watching. This was taking place, as you might see with the truck in the background, on a busy highway bridge to Hsinfeng.

Above: a temple leader shows off his sash.

Above: a two-faced god, representing Yin and Yang (陰陽).

4 Comments

Filed under taiwan2010

Tagged as 35mm, chinese, cultural, culture, d5000, history, jhubei, nikkor, nikon, parade, photoblog, photography, religion, san, tai, taiwan, taiwanese, travel, zi

September 27, 2012 · 10:01 pm

Long(ish) Exposure in Taoyuan County (Single Shot)

This shot is a longer-than-usual exposure, taken while braced against some rocks at 1/3 of a second, an eternity in terms of my usual exposure lengths of at least 1/60 of a second.

For this shot, I stopped all the way down to f/22, which is ridiculously high for me, and switched the ISO down to about 100. This let me get a nice silky feel to the water. Unfortunately, while the day was not overcast, it was cloudy when I took this shot, so I decided to go black and white.

This was taken near a “swimming hole” near Fuxing Township (復興), Taoyuan County, a very rural area of Taiwan – close to the “Xiao Wu Lai” waterfall (小烏來瀑布).

2 Comments

Filed under taiwan

Tagged as 18mm, camera, chinese, d5000, exposure, f22, fuxing, lai, long, nature, nikkor, nikon, photography, shot, taiwan, wu, xiao

August 21, 2012 · 12:00 am

Single Shot: Welcoming the Ghosts

I’ll take a break from posting a recent series from my last trip to Okinawa to show off something I saw last weekend at the Hsinchu City God Temple. This is part of a ceremony allowing and welcoming spirits to roam sort of “finish business” from the earthly realms. During this month, spirits are appeased and/or kept away from homes through incense and offerings and spirit money, or ghost money, is burned as an offering. I have some more shots from last year here.

As school is about to start, this is a bit of a culture shock to many foreigners entering Taiwan for the first time. It’s hard to believe this is the start of my third year on the island!

Single Shot: Tainan “General”

This is a repost of a reprocessed image I took in Tainan a year and a half ago. I decided to redo the RAW file as I’m trying to improve my processing skills by bringing new life to old photos. The original can be found partway down the page here.

For this shot, I warmed up the image’s white balance, increased some sharpening and contrast, and balanced the stark dark and light levels to even out the image but still put a focus on the faces. Any improvement here shows the importance of keeping RAW files, among other things.

4 Comments

Filed under taiwan

Tagged as chinese, culture, d5000, eight, face, generals, nikkor, nikon, painted, religion, tainan, taiwan, taiwanese

June 26, 2012 · 11:03 am

Single Shot: Tourism Tricycle in Lu Kang

This was taken quite a while ago during a trip to “Lukang,”, or 鹿港, an old town further south in Taiwan that was once an important harbor. Apparently, this cart is from the nearby Presbyterian Church, and I forgot about this picture as I was getting other shots posted and moving along.

Lion Dance and Temple Ceremony, Guqifeng (古奇峰), Hsinchu

A month ago, I visited Guqifeng, or 古奇峰, a temple in Hsinchu marked with a very large statue of the god of war, Guan Gong, on top of a mountain just east of the city. Last weekend, while visiting the general area, my wife and I noticed something going on inside and saw a lion dance troupe preparing to perform. Here are some shots from this performance.

Above: the drumline beats out the rhythm for the dancers. These guys were very talented and drumming is an art of its own in Taiwanese and Chinese culture.

A performer tests the stands before the performance by jumping between them. These performers will rarely make mistakes, but an important safety procedure for this was a group of performers underneath, holing the stand steady and acting as a buffer for falling friends. This did happen – the first time I’ve seen this happen before – and the performers who fell were perfectly fine, their fall being broken as they were caught. During this time, the drums kept going and the lion dancers were back in no time.

A confetti-covered ground marks the main ceremony area before the lion dance performer took the stage.

A walking god watches as the altar of another god “visits” the temple god. The confetti canons were set up at a climax during the ceremony and I was happy for a wider angle lens here.

Lion dancers jump across. Notice the drummers yelling below.

2 Comments

Filed under taiwan

Tagged as 18mm, 35mm, chinese, county, culture, dslr, festival, hsinchu, nikon, photography, religion, taiwan, taiwanese, temple, 古奇峰

June 5, 2012 · 10:51 am

Hsinchu Air Show, 2012

Each year, the local air force base hosts an event for the public which is open to all to visit the base for an air show. Growing up, I frequented events like these with my grandparents taking me each year. It was exciting to see this again, even if we were a bit limited for time and the weather could’ve been better.

The stars of the show were the ROC Air Force’s “Thunder Tigers,” a stunt group much like the US Navy Blue Angels or US Air Force Thunderbirds. They flew AT-3 trainers, which is a Taiwanese-created and engineered aircraft. They aren’t too fast, but are very maneuverable and actually quite quiet compared to the louder engines of a Mirage or F-16.

I noticed that tigers play a big role in ROC squadron art – I’m guessing this is partially due to the involvement of the American “Flying Tigers” who flew against Japan for the Chinese Air Force before Pearl Harbor. Their history is a bit fascinating and serves as a sort of basis to the rest of the ROC Air Force.

After the Thunder Tigers was a Dassault Mirage 2000:

Unfortunately I didn’t get this “sweet spot” over the crowd, but I survived. It was quite humorous to see them moving their cameras in unison as the planes flew by:

One of the main issues facing the ROC Air Force is its weakening relationship with the United States. Ever since ties have warmed between the PRC and United States, the ROC has found itself short on weapons to buy as the US fears it will anger China. As a response, the IDF or Indigenous Defense Fighter, was created in the 1990′s: