Sun Moon Lake is one of my favorite spots in Taiwan. It's in the foothills of Taiwan's Central Mountain range so there is already a nice mountain drive to get there. It is also Taiwan's largest lake. The scenery is great and it is being enhanced (ruined) by progress (greed) daily. This site is promoted heavily to Southern Chinese tourists and there were plenty of them about chattering in Cantonese. I still enjoy the place and best to go on non-holiday or week day. In fact, I never noticed this staircase before. It is next to the scenic overlook of the lake and docks below, from the front of the WenWu Temple-the largest one at the lake. It was precisely because of some of the aforementioned tourists congregating over there with cameras in hand that I took notice. All the medalliions/trinkets on the railing are a prayer memorial that you purchase in the temple opposite. The temple is quite large and features classic Chinese styling and I'll feature shots from there in upcoming posts.

Google Map Flyover link here.

Update-Staircase Poem

It might have been night
With the world asleep
And in that crazy silence
It might have been I
Waiting on the staircase
For your footfall

The anklets or bangles
May have given you away
And would I have
Gladly taken

But it was past noon
When you wandered
Down my stairs
And I had to go

Many a verse have I written since
Many a long night have I spent
In reflection
But those were contemplations
Of afternoon
And perhaps
Now I still sit
And wait for your footfalls
On another staircase
But the banister
That separates us
Calls for evening

And I wonder
If there will be
Another night
Another staircase
But the same footfall
I ought to have heard
An eon ago
But didn't

Pratip Sen Gupta

Music-David Bowie-Low:Speed of Life
Talking Heads sang, "This is no party, this is no disco...". Well while KTV is not really a disco it is a synthetic party place. It offers your own room for your karaoke partying madness. These guys are getting ready to close-up and go home. Some how the party is never as much fun for the people that have to clean up. No one wants to be pushing the broom behind the elephants...

Wasn't looking for a streetcar named Desire when I found these buses. Wasn't looking for them either, so we'll count it as them finding me. Would like to ride them some day, maybe sipping a Taiwan Iced Coffee with Taiwan rum inside...or maybe just a bubble tea. Red energy on a blue/yellow day. Color this full.

Let's Dance! Let's exercise...One of the things I love about Taiwan and China is how people utilize public spaces as their extended living room. People think nothing of dancing,taichi,exercising, etc. in large groups in public. Bravo! I <3 it!

The new Transformer movie is out(snore) like the toys way better than the movies. Memories of son driving me crazy with transforming his transformers. One fo the coolest Japanese toys ever(no mean feat from a land of cool toys). Surrounded by machines-do you ever get the feeling they're watching us?

Definition:

• arousal of the mind to special unusual activity or creativity
• a product of your creative thinking and work; "he had little respect for the inspirations of other artists"; "after years of work his brainchild was a tangible reality"
• a sudden intuition as part of solving a problem
• divine guidance: (theology) a special influence of a divinity on the minds of human beings; "they believe that the books of Scripture were written under divine guidance"
• arousing to a particular emotion or action

Some of my inspiration lately has come from Flickr friends : their work and comments on my work. Colors, music, people's smiles, some kind words, etc.  How much and in what way this affects my work can't be measured but then again who cares? The fact that it's there is enough and I'm glad it is.

This shot and treatment are kind of different than a lot of the edgier/moodier stuff that I've been showing. That is fine with me. I don't like living in a  box or being formulaic in my art. If I catch myself doing that I try to correct it abruptly by trying something different. This shot taken near my wife's family house in Yunlin, Taiwan but in feel can be farm country anywhere. Thank God for farmer's and the fruits of their hard labors that keep us alive and healthy.

I don't record my settings when I do post-processing work. Partly because I'm lazy, partly because I don't want to. I believe much of art and most art for that matter are happy accidents. I like keeping it that way. This is one piece that I was very pleased with the result.

I've had so many temple shots here in Taiwan. I love lanterns in particular for their iconic status and boldness of color and shapes. Here I was trying for a different feel.

My good friend GuoWen took me to a coffee shop. When we got there we were greeted by the energetic and friendly proprietor who I later found out was in his 70's and had just had a mild stroke. I would have never guessed by talking to him and seeing him move. Mend well Mr. Coffee!

Some of the things I've seen and have captured my attention lately at YiZhong St, FengJia Night Market and at in-laws in ShiLo.

From the time I was a young basketball playing kid in Brooklyn sneakers have always played a big role in my life.
Sometimes you see someone that just captivates you when you are in hunt mode with camera in hand. MJ did that for me. I tracked him down and he surrendered to the lens.
In this case was a man with cute little girl that I couldn't resist shooting. How much beauty and mystery lives within people is amazing to me. That's what helps me put up with the bad stuff.
I've been wanting to get out and try some high ISO night shots. Thought FengJia Night Market would be the perfect spot and allow for some road-side empanada and other goody snacking.
We went for a visit to ShiLo to see my mother-in-law. While there got a shot of one of the neighbors going mobile.
I so love the textures of wood and old brick adding a doorway with it's perspective and light/shadow makes for a happy photographer.

Small Kingdom

BY SAMUEL MENASHE

In their doorways women sit sewing
By the good light of afternoon
And nothing is beyond knowing
Though the sun shall go down soon

A shepherdess near a bramble ditch
And the Princess in the Alcazar
Keep the same precise stitch
And they both can see far

And when the knell tolls
All are wondering who—
If it is a lady, many bells
For a beggar, one will do

Need to say special thanks to my friend Brian for loaning me his Pentax DSLR. Been getting lots of great shots with it. I've really been enjoying Flickr more and more. It's great meting other people from all over the world who enjoy and/or produce photos. Some really talented creative people there. Always being challenged to sharpen my eye and skills.

I am absolutely crazy about old wood, stained, raw, varnished and especially painted with paint fading. This is the door on my friend's family house dating back 3 generations.

Something about windows in dark rooms that call out to me. A little haunting, a lot fascinating and beautiful.

What amazes me is how you set out to shoot something and maybe you do but later you find what was waiting for you like a surprise gift that you were meant to shoot.

Maybe someone crossing the street will give you a glimpse into their being for a split second. Only the image serves as a witness of the micro-encounter.

Perhaps the whole time I've just been reflecting on myself?

 Haven't posted photo essay in a bit. I've been getting more and more involved in PP(post processing) of my images. Why? 1) Because I can, 2) Because I like it. I feel that tools like Photoshop allow a photographer to better reproduce his feelings and vision. I also feel certain photographs(many for that matter) speak for themselves just fine with minimal processing. In Digital photography everything is synthetically processed to some degree.

These little retro style Nissan's are very common here in crowded Taiwan. Doraemon stull maintains some iconic presence as well.

It is not uncommon to see some crazy modifications of motor scooters here in Taiwan. I thought this EPA one was kind of cool.

I have always been fascinated with the markets here in Taiwan and still am to this day. Maybe it's the variety of merchandise that's available from delicious food to worthless crap (it's all in the eye of the beholder). Maybe it's the way it's merchandised or just the vibrancy of the marketers and marketees networking.

I seem to be becoming a fan of Art Street up by Dong Hai Universwity. It is the closest thing Taichung has to a Greenwich Village or Sausalito-type bohemian vibe. There are several cool shops nicely decorated and more and more nicely dressed hipsters floating around there.

This lady noticed that I had shot her and her dog. She asked me if the young man next to me was my son. I replied, "Yes." She said, "This is my son too."

Sometimes the temples in Taiwan become very vibrant on auspicious days pre-ordained so in the HuangLi, kind of yellow emperor's Almanac. All the auspicious days and festival days requiring sacrifices and prayers are in that book.

So what are you seeing and hearing these days? Here and elesewhere?

Ezra Pound-The Seeing Eye

The small dogs look at the big dogs;
They observe unwieldy dimensions
And curious imperfections of odor.
Here is the formal male group:
The young men look upon their seniors,
They consider the elderly mind
And observe its inexplicable correlations.

Said Tsin-Tsu:
It is only in small dogs and the young
That we find minute observation

I've been realizing more and more that people's faces tell the best stories in the best way possible. So much is conveyed in a  glance, a smirk, a frown... One tiny gesture contains much more complexity than all of the Grand Canyon IMHO. Anyway enough babbling let's have a look.

This man got what he needed and begins to take off on bike with his purchases in tow.

The apple guy for the masses. Not pitching fanboy geek goodies just the crunchy kind that keeps the doctor away.

Lot's of attitude rolling off this youngblood. He's got the look, found in a book and happy to pay for it, but he's owning it now. Might even say his reputation is on the line.

This lady seemed so poised and dignified even among the throngs. That isn't affected, that comes from within. Mighty aura mojo with her.

Working busily to finish up work on his Year of the Ox entry for the Lantern Festival pageant. Bright colored cultural goodness.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, worked hard to attain, has had wars fought over it and drives economies. Soothing to the eyes like a cool breeze on a hot summer day.

Musical inspiration while composing essay: Miles Dewey Davis-Panagea/Gondwana

I'm sure I mentioned getting inked before. What made me do it? There were no Miami or LA Ink's on TV at the time to inspire me. In fact I had no plan to do it. My girlfriend at the time had a day off and wanted to go for a tattoo. I ended up with mine because it sounded like a good idea at the time, the artist drew a good dragon on my arm, and my rebellious urge to piss of my mother and grandmother needed to be sated. I was still 19 at the time.

The muse for this tattoo talk was a collection by Korean tattoo artist Kim Joon. Kim's work is really expressive and involves materials other than tattoo ink. Check out Kim's collection and you can see the level of artistic expression there that goes beyond even the modern tattoo artists boundaries. 

My tattoo was inspired by the dragons on the sleeves of those US military servicemen's  jackets from their Asian tours: Korea, Vietnam, etc. I bought one at a thrift shop in Tucson and absolutely loved that thing. So while I was waiting for my friend to make up her mind I asked the tattoo artist how much a dragon's head would be like on my sleeve? He said, "$35 bucks." I said, "Do it." The rest is history. I think it has aged pretty well, even though colors have faded some. Maybe I'll go for a touch up here in Taiwan.