I've mentioned this before (I think) that one of the things I love about Taiwan is how compact it is. I can transport between city and country urban and rural in just minutes (and that is on foot). Often during my morning photo walks I'm moving between both of these spaces. Maybe that is why I got my home on the edge of the city. Another dynamic of that is how in Taiwan you can go from near Alpine mountain conditions like Ali Shan with elevations up to 8000 feet to the coast in just a couple of hours or so. Quite amazing!

Music: I mentioned the mountains so let's go with Mountain-Mississippi Queen. A killer song by a great band who is the de facto American Cream.

I was coming back from TungHai University recently with my son and we veered off of crowded main road for a short cut. Little did I know we'd encounter a photographic treasure trove, especially for someone like me that loves grungy urban decay-type subjects. I made a mental note to come back to this Third Trading Village ASAP. I still don't know why the military housing compounds near the Air Force base in ShuiNan, Taichung are called Trading Villages but I do know there are at least 9 of them.

I have many good images from 2 different shoots so I will post more and here is link to the set on flickr. During the first shoot one of the residents of the neighboring community stopped and asked me why I was shooting there. I told him because I could feel the ghosts of the community. I re-stated that to indicate I was talking more of a stream of consciousness, artistic meaning than metaphysical. So many had lived there, some died, given birth, wedded,  fought, loved, etc. You could sense that while passing through. That with the decaying structures made it a must for me.

Music-Rich Kids: Sound of Marching Men

Firesky my oh my-nuff said.

Under the Pomelo-Pomelo is a fruit that is popular in the autumn in Taiwan. It is like a jumbo grapefruit but not as juicy. I just liked the serenity of this image and the color palette.

Hi Officer-keep us safe, keep us sound, keep us away from where H1Ni1 can be found...

Crowding-so nice to be alone, here I feel so at home, I'm invisible, I'm  empowered...

Music: One of my favorites by David Bowie(that is a long list)-Sound and Vision

Face Washing-Wu Dang Dao say's:

The form of tiger
In Chinese traditional culture, the tiger was the symbol of power and unruliness. In the five elements, the tiger belongs to soil. Practicing the regimen often can cultivate the spleen and stomach, strengthen the bones and muscles.
1.Starting position
2. Guarding the breath into the pubic region
3. The tiger washing the hands and face
4. The tiger crouching down to listen to the wind
5. The tiger attacking at the prey
6. The tiger standing there still to look around
7. The tiger swallowing the prey
8. The tiger turning back the head

Pink hope- on a mundane early morning. Stillness she brings movement and color yet in a subtle way.

Catching a bus-which one is it? There are so many to choose from with every color from the candy store rainbow to guide...

Red balls on blue-floating like balloons that don't pop. Bobbing on the waves yet no fish will come and nibble...

Music: Duke Ellington-Take the A Train

Flickroom has been in active development for almost an year now. Flickroom’s first public beta was released on July 05, 2009 and there have been 6 updates released thus far.  The team has continuously been trying to improve the user experience by adding the most important features of Flickr as well as providing some innovative value-added functionality.

Being a heavy Flickr user, I was always looking for ways to improve the Flickr experience as it currently is on the website. Inspired by the proliferation of cool AIR applications like TweetDeck and many others, I got together with my friends and started working on an AIR application for Flickr users. Since Flickr is all about photographs, we really wanted the application UI to present the images in the most engaging manner. This is how Flickroom came into existence. Right now we are a small but enthusiastic team of experienced photographers and Flex developers who just keep coming up with new ideas and implementing them as best as we can.

Collaboration is a big focus area for Flickroom Team. We are witnessing the power of interaction and crowd-sourcing in every field. And even though Flickr website has a wealth of photographers and hence photography information, there are limited options for real-time collaboration.  Flickroom is trying to bridge this gap and Flickroom Chat is one such platform. We have seen a lot of interesting discussions already, ranging from sharing of techniques and set-ups for specific pictures to what lenses were used for what images. Consider the possibilities – you see a picture you really like and you can immediately ask the photographer what settings, lens, post-processing s/he used! Another big area where we see that photographers on Flickr are lacking is catching up with each other via numerous kind of events, like Photowalks, Trainings, Exhibits etc. Flickroom provides a seamless way to get to know about them. And of course, you can use Flickroom to Tweet about your photos.

I think I have been a photographer all my life, I’ve only discovered it now On a serious note, buying my first DSLR  about a couple of years back really made me serious about photography and the endless possibilities it unfolds. I started photography as a medium of creative expression and I’m not exaggerating when I say that it has become a way of life now. Things I would not have given a second look earlier, have magically transformed into ‘subjects’ for interesting photographs. You can find my work here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashumittal/show/

Flickroom is the first full-fledged desktop application for Flickr and it has been extremely well received. We are proud to have crossed 10,000 authenticated users in just under 5 months of its release. We have also been featured on all the key technology sites like Lifehacker and Cnet which is an achievement in itself. You can find a whole lot of information about Flickroom’s features and its reviews here: http://flickroom.org/blog/. We are also on twitter @Flickroom and eager to hear what you have to say!

Undie Wares-get your exercise at the park then shop til you drop with breakfast,meat and veggies for dinner and of course the best and cheapest in lingerie! practicality and convenience with a vengeance!

Feeling those peppers-how can you not. Nothing better than fruit and vegetables that are beautiful as well as nutritious and delicious.

Face Washing-wax on, wax off...oops wrong train of thought. I think this might actually be a TaiJi thing. I see many morning exercisers doing this??

Oh honey!-Boy how to fill in the suggested blank thought here, let me count the ways. OK let me be literal and not clever...don't forget to get some of those pretty red dragon fruits right next to you...

Weather Report was a fine instrumental band made up of Miles Davis alumni Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul and whoever they chose to play with at any given time including bass luminary-Jaco Pastorius. Here is Black Market.

Vivid-A world where smile man wears his hat while the octopus worries about good deals on shoes...

Tribal-Looks like the Mayans made it to Taiwan via some spray cans.

Gangsta-that from some nasty kind of insect bite?

Bear-hanging tight with the mummy

Dabu-that buck-toothed bunny-hatted baby gonna giggle until doomsday comes.

Cissy Strut-The Meters

Well I admit it! Mea Culpa on the tabloid-style title of this post. I recently did a shoot with my son Kevin at Taichung's Art Street (Guoji St.) near DongHai University. We both like this area for laid back people watching and shopping. I've used this area as background previously on shoot for Moshang and Chris Bailey's Sun Cake Lounge here.

No sons were injured during this shooting. In fact son ended up with a nice shirt afterwards...

The other day I asked a friend about the photogenic qualities of the ChungHsing University campus on the south side of Taichung. He said it ws quite good, mentioning they had a small lake (a pond really) and that it was large and layed out nicely. So I was motivated to see it and shoot some stuff. Well you can imagine my delight when I got on campus and 2 minutes into my journey I discovered that the whole school was engaged in an intra-school cheerleader squad competition. The colors, action and energy were all great. I will do a featured post on that later this week.

The lovely young ladies looking like extras from Sheena the Queen of the Jungle were mistaken by me to be CosPlay(ers) since my friend told me they were often around the school on weekends. They corrected me and informed me that they had just been in the aforementioned cheer leading event.

The lake/pond area had quiet of few people hanging around toting big Nikons and Canons(here in Taiwan anything else lacks the status) even a wedding photo shoot going on there. I decided to shoot some ducks (I'm not a big wildlife photography guy but I have my moments) and was pleased after shooting that I caught the coppery reflection of one of the buildings in the shot.

While I was sitting down shooting I saw a tortoise and this older man stopped by to see what I was looking at. I ended up having a nice conversation with him.

Finally I needed to head over by the Taichung Station to meet my son for our weekly Fri. night father/sons's street food outing. I liked the look of the moon peaking through the buildings so here it is.

It just so happens I'm listening to this song now-Cameo : Word Up.