Freaking Rainbow

4/30/2012

The long trek back from Hualein was crazy as we drove all around the mountains during fog and rain. It was, for a moment, like living in one of those street racing shows; of course we did not actually live the drifting part, at least not on purpose. The trip was supposed to be short, a straight shot back to Taipei after visiting the Taroko National Park, but we decided to follow the road all the way to Taichung before heading home. Through all the fog and rain, we stopped a few times to take in the sights and the beauty of being up so high above the world; this is where you stand super high and pretend to squish people between your fingers like ants. On the brighter side of things, here’s a freaking rainbow.

After passing Taichung we headed to the next county and got some food from the night market before heading home. The food, like usual, was amazing but I could already feel the heart attack to come. A huge bowl of stewed meat (with all the heart-stopping fatty oil) over rice made for a delicious meal because of all that rendered fat; it’s things that you never dream of cooking yourself that makes it that much better. All this for about 6-7USD; pretty soon I’m going to blow up like an oversized balloon (if I haven’t already).

Cliffside

4/29/2012

Amazing day for landscape photos. Also the day I started that roll of black and white. I’m super excited to get that first roll developed and to scan in the negatives to see how they turned out. But anyway, drove around a bunch today and took in some scenery. Just as we decided to head onto our way home the weather turned sour but created an amazing opportunity for some unreal photos. Here is one of the many.

It may look odd but driving along the coast it was beautiful. A purplish hue in the center with some light breaking through the clouds gave it some juxtaposition toward the rain clouds in the far rear. I wish I didn’t forget to bring those glass ND filters I left at home.

More contrast. Edited by Vivian from back home! Very nice job, oh how children grow before your eyes.

Gridline

4/28/2012

Today I spend most of my time in HuaLien. I ate some of their famous wontons and visited a night market here. Although that was all fun, what came next was crazy. We decided to drive up a mountain to get some night landscape in; the only problem was that we had no idea what we were doing. The road was curved in all sorts of sharp turns and completely dark (which at least made for good photography). So getting up the hill was a task in itself but after we reached a few prime places for some photos, it was worth the wait. Although the photos I took did the scene no justice, I thought I would share them all the same.

On another note, we hit a dead end and were backing down a narrow road when a car pulled up to block our way. We got out to ask the guy to back out first (and that he was going toward a dead line) and when we got to the car, I swear the entire car went dead silent thinking we were up to no good.  

First in Line

4/26/2012

One of the many benefits of being overseas in Asia: faster movie release dates. I watched The Avengers in 3D today and it held up to all my expectations. Generally I’m not one for the theaters and rather watch it in the comfort of my own home but in the end, I’m glad I went. The movie is just one of those most-see-in-theater type ones that was action packed with a decent story. I don’t really care much for 3D but that was the only opening they had. Time flew by watching such an amazing piece of Marvel history. 

Ninja Camera

4/22/2012

Hey guys! Sorry for all this waiting for a new post (for all 7-10 of my followers). It’s just been so completely hectic these last few days. I again have been recovering from being a little sick; but despite that I still got in a little sightseeing here and there. A lot of these places I could not bring myself to bring my heavy camera walking through these dense crowds. Also went to the beach and walked around there taking a few photos. Overall, nothing too exciting to share to all my devoted followers.

Today, there is something interesting to share. I finally bought a few rolls of black and white and am ready to shoot some. Hopefully I’ll have some scans in over the next few weeks if I’m lucky. My cousin also got some black tape that’s not supposed to leave any sticky residue. We spent the next few hours performing some surgery on a few cameras to hide brands, labels, symbols, etc. to make our cameras as street friendly as possible.

Ninja-fied. 

Wulai Waterfalls

4/13/2012

Waterfalls give a sense of power along with a certain bit of calmness. I love the overall blur of water as it comes down and hits rocks. With a longer exposure (sadly I forgot my ND filters) I was able to get that nice ‘soft’ look of the water all blurred together. Such a shame that I’m not yet ballsy enough to just hope the fence and waddle right up to get a better shot.

After all that hiking I went out to a restaurant called Deja Vu which was opened by the famous Jay Chou. He had two awesome vehicles inside; a bat-mobile and some type of motorcycle [more like a tricycle if you ask me]. 

National Taiwan University

4/12/2012

Today I walked around National Taiwan University, Taiwan’s most well-known school. The campus is stunningly beautiful and has little cafés dotted around the campus. I saw a few interesting photo ops from an architectural viewpoint and grabbed a few. The shots only turned out mediocre so this only solidifies my love for night-time architectural and landscape photography. For lunch I headed out to the campus commons where I got a vegetarian plate for about 2USD (50NTD). Taiwan culture has an amazing point of keeping college kids fed [a bunch of local entertainment shows touch upon vendors who gives student discounts and let them have free refills]. Needless to say I was relatively stuffed and the food was great and all too my satisfaction: lighty salted, mildly spiced, and good priced.

Another thing I did was to visit a somewhat famous temple around Taipei. Now this generally isn’t my thing, but I don’t think it would be a bad idea to go in, light a few incense sticks, wish for things, and be on my merry way.