The Amazing Life

ABC Wednesday: V is for A Beach with A View

2011-12-13T19:08:00.000+08:00

A few weeks ago, I took a day off to drive to central part of Taiwan for a photographic trip. I have shown my visit to the Camomile Tea Plantation and sunflowers field of a flower show in my two previous blogs. My final stop of the trip was for a beach near Taichung harbor. It is a location well known for photographing sunset. When I was on the highway driving west toward the beach, I saw an amazing colorful sunset. The sun went down earlier than I thought in the winter month. I was not too worried, photographing sunset does not always mean having the bright red sun in the picture.

As I arrived at the beach, the light in sky and the reflection from the water surface was just perfect. The beach is a wide open mud plan of a river outlet by the Taichung harbor. The wind mills built by the Taiwan Electric add interest to the sunset scene.

The mud is as smooth as silk, many young people walking miles out to the ocean and play the mud with their feet. As sun was setting, I have to move quickly and have little chance to set my tripod in the mud. The VR on the lens worked reasonably well which allowed me to photograph till really late. If I used tripod and slower shutter speed, It would not be possible to freeze the blades of the wind mill.

Finally it was really too dark, I walked back to the parking and took this final picture with the light from Taichung harbor as back drop. I leaned my camera on a lamp post and used slower speed to blur the action of the wind mill.

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ABC Wednesday: U is for Upstairs, Downstairs

2011-12-06T17:02:00.001+08:00

Upstairs, downstairs, we are not talking about the British television drama of the 70's. We are talking about the two restaurants of Musée d'Orsay, of Paris. Grace was in Paris for several meetings a few weeks ago and went to the museum. It has been totally renovated (I first saw the museum when it was under construction in the 80's). She was late for lunch and went upstairs to the Café Campana just by the Impressionist Gallery. It is a typical Parisisn brasserie and designed by the famous Brazilian designers, Campana brothers. As you can see it was almost two thirty in the afternoon, the restaurant was packed. No place for her to sit.

She could not get close to the clock at Campana, instead, she went through the Impressionist Gallery and photographed through the clock at the opposite end facing towards Louvre.

Down stairs, there is Le Restaurant, the former restaurant of the Hôtel d'Orsay. It was first opened in 1900, when the place was the Gare d'Orsay. The new construction was by the architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte. It is as magnificent as ever.

Here is a more detail view of the ceiling from the original 1900. You can imagine where Grace finally ended up having her late lunch.

These photographs were taken using the new Nikon V1, a much smaller mirrorless camera with interchangeable lens. Consider its size, the results are not too bad.

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ABC Wednesday: T is for Camomile Tea & Today's Flower #172

2011-11-29T11:21:00.001+08:00

Camomile tea is one of the favorite for Chinese, now it is also a popular herbal tea in the Western world. In China, it is planted in large area and produced in huge quantity. But Taiwan still claims to have its own camomile fields. It is mainly concentrated in 銅鑼 at Miaoli (苗栗) county. Every year there is a camomile festival. This year, it was held between November 13 to 21.

More scientifically, Camomile is known as chrysanthermum. In the US, they are commonly known as mums and are planted in Fall. It is a major color attractions in the garden during the cold Fall and early Winter season. The chrysanthermum used in Chinese medicine is Chrysanthemum morifolium (菊花 juhua). There are usually two colors: the yellow kind called 杭菊 (huangjuhua) and the white kind called 甘菊花 (ganjuhua). Here is a detail description of the medicinal useages of the two types of camomile.

Huangjuhua, the yellow flower, which is sometimes called hangjuhua, as it comes from Hangzhou....Huangjuhua especially enters the lung meridian; it is more effective for expelling wind-heat in the upper burner and is often used in cold infections, feverish sensations in the head, and headache. It can also be used for acute infections of the eyes, such as acute conjunctivitis...the steam from juhua decoction can be used for painful and itchy eyes...moreover, the cool decoction can be used externally to wash the affected eye.

Baijuhua, the white flower, is also called ganjuhua, which means sweet juhua. It is also sometimes call chujuhua because the white juhua growing in Chu county is considered to have the best quality. Baijuhua is sweeter and cooler [than huangjuhua], and can slightly generate yin and clear heat. Because it enters the liver meridian, it is more effective in cooling and pacifying the liver and benefiting the eyes. It is used for dizziness, blurred vision, dry eyes, and a tired feeling in the eyes, which are caused by yin deficiency or yin deficiency with uprising liver yang....

Sum up, if you have a cold drink yellow camomile tea. If you have too much heat (火氣大) drink white camomile tea.

Grace has been in Europe for two weeks already and I have been planning of going out for a photographic trip by myself. However, the weather has been miserable and only clear up till last Monday. Thus, I grabbed my camera and headed south to 銅鑼.

Nothing romantic of farming camomile flowers, the hand picking process is hard work. It is carried out by old weather beaten farmers. They usually covers themselves completely to protect from the sun, a very Asian farmer's tradition. Her garment was quite fashionable!

I arrived at the end of the festival, the flowers were in full bloom and ready to be picked. One more week and they will be all gone.

Here is the yellow kind, of cause it makes more colorful photographs.

The palm trees in the background, which make the scenery so Southeast Asia, in reality is not your common palm trees often linked with the South Pacific Islands. Locally, it is called pinang, the malaysian name of the tree. The scientific name is Areca catechu. The seed has medicinal use in Chinese medicine. But all over Southeast Asia, including Taiwan, there is a culture of chewing the pinang seeds. It is addictive and can give person a high. Thus the hard labors and truck drivers especially like to chew on the seeds to keep their spirt high during the long hours of working or driving. On Taiwan's highway, we can often see scantily clad girls maned the pinang stand selling the seeds to passing by drivers, a distinct Taiwan culture phenomena. Chewing pinang is a major cause of oral-pharengal cancer for all Southeast Asia region.

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ABC Wednesday: S is for Sunflower & Today's Flower #171

2011-11-22T23:02:00.004+08:00

It has been raining and miserable for the past two weeks in Taipei. On Monday, the weather finally clear up a little bit. I grabbed the chance and drove to Sinshe District of Taichung City in the central part of Taiwan to see the yearly flower show. The show has been famous for the mass planting of flowers in the field, from a distance, they look like multicolor carpet.

I headed straight to the sunflower field. For the sunflower, its head often bending downwards. From the first picture, you may think that the day was so brilliant bright. In reality, it was still a very over cast day as show by this HDR image.

Here is a more normal image that I did not shot the flower against the sky, but using other sunflowers in the field as background.

Or I can turn around with my back to the sun and use the blue sky and distance farm house as background.

I also always like to get closer to have detail image of the flower.

When I get really close, the image becomes almost like an abstraction.

We can shot the flower from the front, but do not forget the back.

The future sunflower seeds.

Finally a busy working bee covered itself with pollens.

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ABC Wednesday: Seeing Red

2011-11-15T23:50:00.000+08:00

Red bench at Exchange Place, New York.

A tern at Exchange Place, New York.

Tiffany stained glass in New York Metropolitan Museum.

Sunset over Taipei Harbor.

Fireworks of National Day of Taiwan, Republic of China.

A cross at Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica, Guam.

Stained glass at Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica, Guam.

A Dancer at Pacific Island Club, Guam.

A male marron oriole at forest near Taipei.

Toco Toucan at Taipei Zoo.

A butterfly at local park in Taipei.

101, one of the world tallest building in Taipei.

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ABC Wednesday: Q is Formosan Rock MacaQue

2011-11-09T10:11:00.001+08:00

Formosan Rock Macaque (Macaca cyclopis), is endemic to Taiwan. It is now a protected species. 50 years ago, our neighbor used to keep one chained as pet. One night it escaped and it just walked into the living room and went to sit on the sofa.

I still remember when I was young, we can often see them up on the trees in the forest during our train ride to the local port city.

Even today, in some area of the island, we can still see them coming into the farm or houses to steal food. One collage campus is famous for this activity.

I took these pictures in Taipei Zoo.

They seems to have a very good and leisure life there.

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ABC Wednesday: P is for Photography

2011-11-01T22:04:00.000+08:00

Last saturday, I was with a small group to see migratory birds at Yilan county east of Taipei. The tour was organized by Natural Kingdom, a local ecotourism company. I was the only photographer. Although, I did do some preparation on Friday night. But still, I forgot my tripod and took the wrong camera (my old D300 instead of Grace's newer D7000).

Rather than taking the highway, we drove on the country road, following a stream to cross a mountain range to get to Yilan. It was such a nice and comfortable Fall day. Can you see the heron on the rock waiting for its pray?

We now live in Taiwan most of the time. It still amazes us how beautiful Taiwan is.

Even we do not have the color change of tree leaves in the subtropical forest at lower attitude of the mountain, we have no shortage of color.

We can see different color pop up everywhere.

Half way up the mountain we arrived at the mountain lake that provides drinking water for Taipei. You can see why our water is so sweet!

Over on the other side of the mountain range is the Pacific ocean.

Along the way, I have photographed birds by the mountain stream, in the subtropical forest, by the ocean and at abandoned fish/shrimp farm. Come see them at my other blog, The Amazing Birds.

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ABC Wednesday: M is for Marble Statues

2011-10-11T22:24:00.002+08:00

When my sister and I went to visit the Metropolitan of Art of New York in August, other than to photograph the amazing architecture of interior, one of the objectives was to photograph the amazing collection of marble statues.

It was almost like going back to the art lesson when I was in the primary school. We were taught to use charcoal to draw statues made of plaster. The marble statues in the museum have perfect pose and perfect natural lighting. It is up to us to find the best way of photographing them.

I have fully anticipated the exercise and brought with me the 70-300mm VR lens for long shots, 20 mm mainly for the architecture and 85mm f1.4 for taking portraits of the statues in available light. No flash is allowed in the museum and tripod needs special permission. As a hind-thought, I should bring the 135mm f2 which should give me better prospective for portraits.

In addition to all the lenses, I have also paid attention to what I wore. I have all my camera equipments in my camera beg, but I also wore a photographer's vest. I had to check in my beg and put all the equipments in the vest to bring them into the museum.

The museum not only paid attention to the lighting of the statues, but also paid attention to the background. It was just up to us to find the best angle to isolate our object.

She is often figured in the museum promotional materials. It is hard to imagine the marble can be transparent too.

This statue is called "Cold". She is even more sensational when you realize she is wearing nothing under her shawl. No wonder she feels cold.

She was laying right in front of the elevator. I was sure that the museum hung the 18th century wall carpet behind her in order for us to have a perfect background. I finally got the shot by laying down also, on the floor.

One of my favorite! I climbed to the second floor of the American Wing and photographed downwards. The two ladies gazed at each other over a separation of over 2000 years.

This is probably my best shot of the whole exercise.

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ABC Wednesday: L is for Lighthouse

2011-10-04T23:24:00.000+08:00

This was the second time that I specially went to photograph the Nobska Lighthouse. It is located at Woods Hole on Cape Cod. It is sitting right on the division of Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound. I went there during the last day of my visit to our Cape Cod home at the end of last August.

It was first built in 1828, then rebuilt in 1876. The lighthouse is fully automated in 1985. Since then, the station is the home of the commander of US Cost Guard Sector Southeastern New England.

Here is a better view of the lighthouse and the home of the Cost Guard Commander. I think the beacon behind is now the real modern lighthouse!!

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ABC Wednesday: K is for "To Be Kids"

2011-09-28T10:22:00.004+08:00

We had three kids in our house on Cape Cod this August for the summer holiday. Carmin, the big blond boy is only six months older than our granddaughter, Sailee. But he is such a tall kid and looks like a 5 or 6 years old boy already. He is the son of our daughter's best childhood friend in France and was visiting the US for the summer. Maxime, our grandson weighs almost as much as his sister, but he is 2 and half years younger than Sailee.

Kids to be kids, just a simple ball in hand, there could be so much fun! Carmin is funny, rolling on the grass all the time. Sailee is very agile and runs like a rabbit. Maxime is a sumo wrestler, he does not run fast, not yet.

When there was a water hose in hand, everything just went wild!

Oh! it is just so much fun with grandma's straw hat and sunglasses!

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ABC Wednesday: J is for Joyous

2011-09-20T23:00:00.001+08:00

We have one daughter and she gave us two marvelous grandchildren, Sailee and Maxime. Sailee is 4 years old and Maxime is 1 1/2 years old. They live near Washington DC and we do not see them often, but they are our pride and joy. We try to have summer vacation with them at our home in Cape Cod each summer. Sailee has come to Cape Cod twice already. Since Maxime was too young last year, they were not able to make the trip. We had been looking forward to their visit this past August. They like to sit on the floor of our gazebo.

Sailee is petite and absolutely a beauty. She is enthusiastic and curious about everything; keeps on asking "why...?" and "why...?". Even she only sees us a few times of year, she is very close to us. She chats with us like a six-year old child.

Maxime is a very big boy, at one and half years old, he almost weighs as much as his four years old sister. In contrast, Maxime is shy and not really talking yet.

As you can see, it was a gorgeous day with perfect blue sky and miles of green beach grasses. We visited our friends near the beach of Brewster (the Bay side). Our daughter and granddaughter were walking along the sand flat, quiet and peaceful!

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ABC Wednesday: I is for the Interior of Metropolitan Museum of Art

2011-09-13T23:02:00.001+08:00

I have seen photograph of Great Hall of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and would like to photograph it myself. But when I arrived at the museum with my sister during our second day of photo safari at New York City, I was so preoccupied of rushing to get the tickets and went in to see different exhibitions and I did not raise my eye to see how impressive the Great Hall is.

It was only at end of our tour when we were ready to leave, I raised my head and saw the magnificent roof of the Great Hall.

This is the Grand Staircase of the Great Hall leading to the 19th century art gallery.

One of the main photographic objective for the tour of Met is to photograph the glass enclosed court yard. Here is the American Wing.

Here is the Greek and Roman Art Gallery.

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ABC Wednesday: H is for City Hall Park

2011-09-05T10:57:00.002+08:00

When my sister and I took the express underground from the World Trade Center to Grand Central Station, there is only one stop in between, which is City Hall Park and Brooklyn Bridge. That peaked my interest. After we took a break at Grand Central Station and took some pictures, we headed back to the City Hall Park. Coming out from the underground, the view is typical New York, tall impressive buildings lining two sides of the street. There is no where to look but up. Here is a view on Chambers Street towards the Manhattan Municipal Building. The Tweed Court House is on the right and City Hall Library is on the left.

A closer look of the Manhattan Municipal Building.

A very impressive Tweed Court House.

Every where we looked we could see these highly ornate structures on top of the buildings.

Here is a detail view outside of City Hall Library.

What is this building? 100 Centre Street, the infamous New York Criminal Courts Building.

The weather was so nice that day. There were hundreds of people, locals and tourists alike, walking on the Bridge.

I have seen the photographs of this bridge many times and was glade to be able to photograph it myself.

Well everything about the Brooklyn bridge, at least for photographer, are the lines!

We had a marvelous day of photo safari of New York City. We would visit Metropolitan Museum of Art and Central Park the next day.

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ABC Wednesday: G is for Grand Central Station

2011-08-29T10:23:00.001+08:00

Following our trip to the World Financial Center and World Trade Center, My sister and I took the subway to visit the Grand Central Station.

I have often heard of this New York landmark but have never visited. For this trip to New York, I was determined to make a visit to the site and be a real tourist.

After taking my first photographe of the Main Concourse and got my postcard perfect picture, I was wondering what else I could photograph. Well, there are many many interesting opportunities.

We stayed all of our time in the main concourse, not knowing that there are two levels underneath us, all underground. the Upper level has 41 tracks and the lower level has 26. It is the world largest train station in terms of the number of platforms. It covers an area of 48 acres.

The Grand Central Station were to be demolished in 1968 if not for the opposition from general public and celebrities such as Jacqueline Kennedy. The case went all the way to the supreme court. We are lucky that the Grand Central Station has been preserved and now completely restored.

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ABC Wednesday: F is for World Financial Center and World Trade Center

2011-08-25T02:44:00.000+08:00

This is the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center of New York. My sister and I took a ferry from the Exchange Place at Jersey City, New Jersey across the Hudson River and arrived at the World Financial Center. It has office buildings, food court and shopping center.

This is a full view of the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center. When we turned around at this spot, we then facing the observation deck of the World Trade Center Site.

This is the 1 World Trade Center now under construction. The 911 memorial will be finished this year and will open to the public on September 11 this year.

Coming out from the World Financial Center, looking up, we can see the 1 World Trade Center at the left and the 7 World Trade Center at the right. 7 World Trade Center also collapsed following the collapsing of the twin tower in 911. The reconstruction was finished in 2008.

Here is the 1 WTC and 7 WTC as seen at night.

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ABC Wednesday: E is for Exchange Place

2011-08-17T10:11:00.001+08:00

Exchange Place is a district of Downtown Jersey City, New Jersey. It is directly across the Hudson River from Downtown Manhattan. When I stayed with my sister at New Jersey last week, we went to visit a young friend at Exchange Place. Here is the Goldmen Sachs Tower.

A detail view of the Goldmen Sachs Tower.

Here is a panoramic view of the Exchange Place. Our young friend worked in one of the three smaller buildings in the waterfront.

From the Exchange Place, we can have a fantastic view of the lower Manhattan. The building in the center which is under construction (with two cranes at the top of the building) is the new 1 World Trade Center.

We took a ferry across the Hudson River from the Exchange Place to New York City. Here is a view from the ferry port to the midtown with the Empire State Building in the center.

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ABC Wednesday: D is for Dragonfly from My Sister's Garden

2011-08-10T22:05:00.000+08:00

As I was on my way from Taiwan to Cape Cod. I stopped by my sister's home in New Jersey for a few days. The weather was very nice. I photographed this dragonfly in her garden. I have not be able to find the scientific name of it yet.

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ABC Wednesday: C is for Cape Cod

2011-08-02T13:59:00.006+08:00

I have not been back to Cape Cod for a while. I usually will make a trip to our home on the island in Spring or early Summer. But this year, we could only manage to go back in August. I came out from Taipei on Monday at 6:35 PM and arrive at Newark airport at 9:25 PM the same day, a not too bad 15 hours flight. Since I am still hang out with my sister at New Jersey. I have not yet gotten my pictures of Cape Cod for this year. Here are the photos from June last year.

What we think of Cape Cod, naturally our mind drifts to the leisure Summer afternoon close by the water, fresh ponds, salt water marsh land and ocean. Here is an old boat house at the center of the century-old town of Sandwich, Cape Cod.

A beach of a saltwater marsh land, which is only accessible by canoe.

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Skywatch Friday: Southern View from Danshui

2011-07-21T23:14:00.000+08:00

ABC Wednesday: A is for Amsterdam

2011-07-19T16:48:00.001+08:00

Grace was at Amsterdam for an international conference in early July. We transited through the city several times before and I have made an extensive visit about 20 years ago. This was the first time Grace really visited and stayed in Amsterdam. This is the famous Dam Square.

The devil was not asking for Grace's soul, he was asking for money, since Grace took a picture of him.

I am glad that Grace did not go into the building!! She only took a picture of it.

A very interesting wall decoration!

What a contrast between old and new wall decoration! Can you see the Picasso's influence in these paintings. Of course, Amsterdam has a world famous Picasso museum.

Beautiful houses, I think these have neck- or bell- gables. In the old days, the merchants used the lifts on top of the gables to haul merchandise to the storage at the loft.

What a beautiful ornate archway!

How can a trip to Amsterdam without a boat tour of the city's famous canal. How I would also like to have a house boat and cruise on the water with a little boat like this.

Looking at the beautiful houses along the canal, one cannot not admire the once domination of world ocean by the Dutch merchants.

The sun was down and it was time for Grace to go back to the hotel and pack up for home.

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ABC Wednesday & Camera Critters #171: Z is for Zoo

2011-07-13T00:00:00.003+08:00

I cannot imagine that my English vocabulary is soo poor. All I can think of for "Z" is zoo or zebra!

I went to Taipei zoo in mid-March, a perfect Spring day to test my ability of using my 80-400 mm lens on the D300. Its lower ISO performance and the 1.5x factor made the combination much more difficult to use than with D700. I have to use a very solid tripod and pull out all my skill and trick to get a very sharp image.

A hood crane (Grus monacha), the avery has been closed for renovation. I could only walk around for the caged birds.

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ABC Wednesday: Y is for Yellow

2011-07-05T20:28:00.000+08:00

We have been absent from the blogosphere for several weeks. Grace has an intensive traveling schedule that took her away from Taiwan for almost a month. I was in the meantime moving our house. Now things are bit settled finally. Last May, I went to a close-by beach intended to photograph a famous scenery of sea weeds on the beach rock. The weather was not collaborating. It was cold and windy with big surfs. I turned my attention to some local colors. This is a graffiti of tiles on the sea wall. The Chinese characters on the wall is the name of the village and the literal translation means "Old Plum". I think you can see some yellow color on the wall.

Near by there is this very colorful pub. The owner seems very artistic or he knows that many photographers come to this location to photograph the sea weeds on the rock, thus he makes his restaurant as photogenic as possible.

It is really very interesting structure. Although it was a very overcast day, I had my tripod with me and be able to get some very clear images.

After turning away from the colorful pub, I saw this house by the beach almost completely put together by the clapboards.

I do not think there is a very romantic story behind this buildings as the colorful pub. I think the house is at the fringe of the village bordering the beach. The land owner is prohibited from building a permanent structure. Thus he put up this temporarily looking house using different clapboards.

Do not ask me what is the round things, I have no idea.

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ABC Wednesday: U is for a Usual Trip to Paris

2011-06-07T21:37:00.001+08:00

Several weeks ago, Grace made another of her Usual trip to Paris. She did her Usual things of seeing her scientific and business advisors. She went to her Usual restaurants and clothing stores. One thing a bit Unusual was she took a lot of bracketed shots, which means the same images photographed at different exposures. I was then given the task of doing the HDR images for these bracketed shots.

She took quite a few pictures from this window. I tried all kinds of combination using my limited HDR skill. None of them came out good till I had this one into black and white. It is so Unusually good, so Parisian.

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ABC Wednesday: T is for Taroko Gorge

2011-05-31T16:22:00.001+08:00

Taoroko Gorge is part of the Central Cross-island Highway and belong to the Taroko National Park. It is the most scenic place in Taiwan. On impulse, I made a day trip from Taipei to the park two weeks ago when Grace was on a trip to Paris. The meaning of the Taroko is "magnificent and beautiful" in local tribal language. Central Cross-island Highway was built in between 1956 to 1960 by the veterans of Communist-National conflict of China . The 20 km of highway that goes through Taroko Gorage was the most difficult part of the whole construction project. The road had to be carved into the marble cliff. It was purely built by hands and dynamites with the lost of 212 life.

The above picture was taken at Swallow Grotto. The legend has when the road was built, there were a lot of swallow living on the cliff. Most of them probably scared away by the dynamite. From the picture you can see how tall is the gorge. The black hole in middle on the left is the road. Today most of the original roads are footpaths for the tourists, the major road is further inside in the mountain as tunnels of two-lane highway.

This is the Bridge of Kind Mother. It is located at the junction of two rivers. The legend has that a local tribesman was lost in the river during the road construction. The mother who brought lunch for him everyday came to the same spot each day hoping for his return. The little gazebo on top of rock, which is called Frog Rock, was built by Jiang-Kai Shek's son to remember his mother. There is another gazebo built by Jiang-Kai Shek to remember his mother at the other side of the bridge. This is not the original bridge, like most of the original bridges along the gorge, they have been often destroyed by flood water.

This is the most impressive part of the Taroko Gorge, Tunnel of Nine Turns. During my trip to the gorge two weeks ago, I found that this area is no longer open to the public. The entrance to the tunnel was littered with broken rocks. A few years ago, a Chinese tourist was killed by the fallen rock. I have to take out this photo from my previous travel to show you how impressive the gorge is. The rock below the road was pure white as original color of the marble. It has been washed by the flood water. I surly do not want to be at that road spot when Typhoon hits Taiwan and the flood water in the mountain explodes.

At the narrowest part of the "Tunnel of Nine Turns", when we look up, we can see the sky through a space formed by the cliffs at the two sides of the gorge. It is in a perfect shape of Taiwan. It illustrates how narrow the gorge is at this area.

This is Eternal Spring Shrine located near the end of the gorge where it joins the Pacific ocean. It was built in memory of the life lost during the construction of the highway. The shrine looks different from what I remember when I visited the area as a college student. Do not take lightly of the gentle spring water that coms out from the mountain. The shrine has been destroyed many times and rebuilt many times due to the flood water.

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ABC Wednesday: S is for Strange Lights over Su-ao Harbor

2011-05-24T23:10:00.000+08:00

I was making a day trip to Taroko National Park yesterday. On the way back, arriving at the port city of Su-ao, it was almost dark. Su-ao is at northeast side of Taiwan facing Pacific Ocean. It is both a fishing harbor and a navy base. I stopped by a scenic point by the highway to take a few pictures of the beautiful harbor at night. Can you see the strange lights over the ocean at the right hand side of the picture.

Here is a better view. Are they UFOs?

Well, they are not! They are squid boats out doing squid fishing at night. They use very strong light to attract squid to the fishing vessels.

Here is some detail for those of you into technical aspect of photography. With my D700 and the 28-300 VR lens, I could photographed all these images hand-held. However, ISO would be high and the images may not be as sharp as they could be. I dutifully set up the tripod, set exposure compensation at -2, aperture at 8, ISO200, turned off the VR and used mirror-up with a remote trigger. Since Nikon 28-300 VR lens has 9 round blades for the diaphragm, Ken Rockwell claimed that he could not get sunstars out of the Nikon 28-300 VR lens. If you click on the last images, you can see, even at aperture 8, the perfect sunstars of each light, everyone has 18 rays, a classic for Nikon lens (Canon only has 6 or 8). May be the lights were just so strong and so concentrated.

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Today's Flower #144: Our Home

2011-05-22T21:41:00.002+08:00

No, this is not our home, it is a 民宿, Bed and Breakfast at Jinguashi northeast of Taipei named "Our Home". It is up in the mountain facing Pacific Ocean. Two weeks ago, we made a reservation beforehand for dinner. It is a Greek-styled building with beautiful garden. We arrived just before sunset in the rain, a magic moment.

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Bronzed Drongo and Black-crowned Night Heron

2011-05-22T20:18:00.001+08:00

Taiwan had a draught for most of the Spring and the situation has been getting serious. Even a typhoon in early May did not bring much relieve. The temperature reached over 30 degree C. Finally, since last week, the raining season started. We had a nice rain and the temperature finally cool down.

I have not seen Paulownia Flower Blossom this year. I took Taipei metro to a local town then car pooled a taxi up the mountain to the Paulownia Flower Garden. Most of the flower have gone due to the rain, I can only see some flowering tree in the distance.

I walk down the mountain through a well organized path by the mountain stream. The temperature was cool that made the walk a very pleasant one.

Here is my first surprise, a Bronzed Drongo (小捲尾) Dicrurus aeneus.

Then I saw this very young Black-crowned Night Heron (夜鷺) Nyticorax nyticorax. The light down in the valley by the mountain stream created this natural concentration of light on the young bird.

I had my 28-300 VR lens with Nikon D700. Imanaged to lean on the railing and shot at 300mm, f5.6, 1/20. The picture came out very nice and sharp.

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ABC Wednesday: R is for Rainbow

2011-05-17T10:22:00.001+08:00

Have you ever dream of walking into the origin of a rainbow, to be inside of a rainbow, and may be find a chest of brilliant treasure that gives out such beautiful color. The unexpected surprise when we visited 十分 Waterfall was seeing the rainbow at the bottom of the waterfall. It was late afternoon, the sun shine through the back of the waterfall and a rainbow appeared in the water mist.

It separates brightness from shadow, light from darkness, goodness from evil and right from wrong!!

When we walked down to the bottom of the waterfall and looking back, we could see the sunstar through the trees.

Closer we finally see what is inside of a rainbow.

It is a dreamy fairyland!

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Today's Flower #141: Carnation

2011-05-08T23:18:00.000+08:00

I post this carnation for all the mother in the world. Happy Mother's Day!

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Camera-Critters #161: Little Egret (小白鷺), Egretta garzetta

2011-05-08T10:12:00.001+08:00

This is my favorite

After photographing Eagret so many times now, it is not the detail of the bird but its pose and its surroundings that matter more.

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ABC Wednesday: P is for Poorly Preserved

2011-05-03T20:24:00.002+08:00

Jinguashi (金瓜石) is a old gold mining town in the northeastern part of Taiwan. It is not far from Taipei. The gold was discovered in 1890. After 1895 Japanese occupation of Taiwan, the mine was further developed.

The mining company has its up and down and went through two World War and was eventually returned to Taiwan government at the end of World War II. With the exhaustion of mineral deposit, it eventually ceased operation in 1987. However, some international mining concerns believe that the site is still containing enough mineral deposits and can be extracted with modern technology.

The building of the de-functioned mining company was painted in this very peculiar blue and make it very photogenic.

Much of the old village and some of the factory is now tourist attraction. However, many area are off limit to ordinary tourist. The toxic material that was used for the mineral extraction was too toxic to be cleared away.

Here I only showed the ruin of one of the buildings. The whole building complex occupied half of the mountain slop with 13 rows of buildings. From a distance, it almost looks like a fort.

Over one thousand of British prisoner-of-war were detained on this sit and used as hard labor for the mining operation during the WWII.

The rain water seeps into the mine shafts then resurfaces through the cracks in the surface rock. It creates this natural wonder of "Gold Waterfall".

The water continues in the mountain stream and empty into the Pacific Ocean. The mineral in the water interacts with the sea water and turns into yellow color in contrast to the crystal blue water in the surrounding sea. It is another natural wonder that is called "Yin-yang sea", which I have shown here.

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Today's Flower #140: Just a Pretty Close-up

2011-05-02T08:35:00.000+08:00

Camera-Critters #160: White-breasted Waterhen (白胸苦惡鳥), Amaurornis phoenicurus

2011-04-30T00:02:00.001+08:00

When I was at Taipei botanical Garden two weeks ago, I saw something moving in the distance by the water way. I have the inking of what it is and confirmed my intuition when I observed it with my telephoto lens. I have only a glimpse of this creature once before and had a not very clear photo of it. It is the White-breasted Waterhen. It was moving quickly away from me. I stalked it by circulating to a bridge upstream. There it was just right under the bridge. The sky was getting dark and amid the excitement, I did manage to get some clear shots of it. The pictures were taken in ISO over 1000. But with the D700, they are at least good enough for the web. If I had to shoot them with a tripod and at speed slower than 1/100, I doubt that I would get any of these pictures.

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ABC Wednesday: O is for the Origin of Keelung River

2011-04-26T21:18:00.002+08:00

One of the biggest challenge of 19th century European exploration of Africa was the Origin of Nile River. All the famous explorers, Livingston, Stanley, Speke, Burton and Baker were figured in the search. Speke is the first person laid the claim that Lake Victoria at Uganda is the origin of the White Nile. Ripon Falls was the northern outlet of Lake Victoria. Speke named the Falls after the then President of Royal Geographical Society.

Last weekend, Grace and I set out for our own exploration of the Origin of Keelung River of Taipei. Keelung River has its origin at the northeast mountainous region of New Taipei City (old Taipei County). It flows northeast then making a 180 degree turn near Keelung City and passing through Taipei, eventually flows into sea at Danshui. There is a narrow track railroad follows the river valley from Taipei into the mountain. It was built by the Japanese for coal mining.

The whole area is now a well organized tourist attraction. And we have our own waterfall at the Origin of Keelung River, the Shihfen Falls. We have been to the waterfall twice before. Once specifically to photograph the waterfall and the second time with Grace's sister and father.

Shihfen Waterfall is the largest waterfall in Taiwan. Looking at the picture, you can see it is a perfect waterfall. As those African Explorers, we well also fully equipped. Grace brought with her the D7000 with 18-200 VR lens and I brought my D700 with 27-300 VR lens. For the people in-the-know, we basically have the same set up. I have an additional 20 mm lens with me. We also brought neutral density filter, polarization filter and remote trigger release. We used the neutral density filter for most of the pictures but not the other two accessories (too lazy). More importantly we brought two professional Gitzo carbon fiber tripods. It was using these tripods that enable us to use shutter speed at 2 to 5 seconds to generate this cotton cloud feeling of the water.

We can walk from the top of the half crescent shaped fall through a footpath to the bottom of the fall and bath ourselves in the water mist. When the afternoon sun shining from the top of the waterfall, if we are lucky, we can even see a rainbow. But that is for next time.

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Today's Flower #140: Taipei Flora Expo

2011-04-24T18:46:00.001+08:00

This weekend is the last weekend for the Taipei Flora Expo. The event has been very successful with over 8 million visitors. I went for the last time this past Friday. As you can see from the above image, there were people all over the place.

Here are some of the images that I took on that day.

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Skywatch Friday: Spring day at Boston Common

2011-04-21T20:37:00.000+08:00

Grace took this picture on a chilly but sunny day at Boston Common in late March.

ABC Wednesday & Camera-Critters #159: N is for Narcissus Flycather

2011-04-19T21:08:00.008+08:00

Yehliu (野柳) is a small peninsula at the northern end of Taiwan. According to my bird photography guide book that it is one of the premium spot to watch migratory birds. They will congregate at the peninsula before making a dash across the ocean toward north in the Spring.

When I arrived at the place, I was not quite sure about the guide book's description. The peninsula is also the premium tourist attraction of Northern Taiwan. There were 10s of tour buses in the parking lot and hundreds if not thousands of tourists. The guide books said, watched for the bird activities in the wooded park near the entrance. Sure, except the noise from the a tourist operator's speaker, I heard no bird sound. Not to be discouraged, I continued my hike with the tourists. Occasionally some encouraging signs appeared. A few serious looking photographers dressing in camouflage outfit carrying huge tripod and camera lens the size of an elephant walking passed me.

At the end of the hiking path where the tourists stopped, there it is: "Bird Watching Trail". I climbed the stairs into the woods and saw a group of photographers apparently from a club gathered excitingly. Finally, I saw what they were gathering for. One tiny colorful bird was flying and jumping in the woods. I took out my camera and squeezed in between the photographers. I got my first shot. Leaving them, I continued hiking into the woods and saw the same bird in two more occasions.

I love this last shot I got for this bird. The out-focused tree branches, leaves and light gave the image an almost painting-like feeling. I found out later the name of the bird is Nacrissus Flycather (黃眉姬鶲), Ficedula narcissina. It is a rare bird in Taiwan. Its normal summer habitat is northeastern China and Japan. I wish it luck on its way back home.

In case you are wondering what the mass of tourists came to see at Yehliu? Certainly not the tiny colorful migratory bird! They came to see this amazing rock formation at the ocean front of the peninsula, a real nature wonder!

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Today's Flower #139: Taipei Flora Expo

2011-04-17T18:44:00.000+08:00

I was at the Taipei Flora Expo again on March 31. Rather than go for the flowers in the beautiful landscaped ground. I joined the line and tried to get into various exposition halls.

Many of the more dramatic and famous expositions, require lining up for tickets as early as 4 o'clock in the morning. I opted for the less crowed but still very beautiful Expo Dome. It hosts various flora competitions.

Here are my first series of takes in the Expo Dome. Because it is indoor, I have relative more relax time to do some close-up.

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Camera-Critters #158: Malaysian Night Heron

2011-04-16T06:57:00.001+08:00

Malaysian Night Heron (黑冠麻鷺), Gorsachius melanolophus

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Skywatch Friday: Longfellow Bridge, Boston

2011-04-14T22:28:00.000+08:00

The Longfellow Bridge also known as Salt-and-Pepper Bridge, it crosses Charles River and connects Boston with Cambridge.

B & W version, which one do you prefer?

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ABC Wednesday: M is for Milan

2011-04-11T21:05:00.004+08:00

This is the second of ABC Wednesday that we use M for Milan. We visited Milan last October right after our photographic tour to Tuscany. Grace was in the city for conference and I got some time to walk around. I am showing here of my trip to Castello Sforzesco.

The original castle was constructed in the 14th century.

During the 15th and 16th century, the castle was built up to a huge star fort with 12 bastions. The external fortification reached 3 km long and covered 25.9 hectares.

The star fort was developed during the age of gunpowder. The ring-shaped fortification of the Medieval era can no longer effectively defend the city. It is particularly developed in the Italian peninsula against French invasion.

The Italian engineers who built these fortifications become in high demand during the next three centuries throughout Europe.

After the unification of Italy in the 19th century, the castle was transformed from military use to the civilian use of Milan City. A restoration was started.

The castle was severely damaged in 1943 by Allied bombardment. It has been restored again and now the complex consists of several museum.

It was a very fine Fall afternoon. I did not go into any of the museums, rather I just walked around the compound and took pictures.

I was practicing what our photo instructor, Dave Hoptman, try to drill into us during our one week with him in Tuscany. Basically how the vertical line should be vertical and how horizontal line should be horizontal.

Here is a remnant of the original fortification.

I saw a professional looking photographer climbed on top of a garbage bin to get a better prospective of the central court yard. So I did the same thing, with some cleaver post-processing in Photoshop, all my vertical lines now are vertical.

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Camera-Critters #157: Cattle Egret

2011-04-08T22:05:00.001+08:00

Cattle Eagret (牛背鷺), Bubulcus ibis

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Skywatch Friday: Sunrset at Paris

2011-04-07T22:43:00.000+08:00

Grace took this beautiful sunset of Paris in October, 2010

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ABC Wednesday: L is for Light

2011-04-04T21:56:00.000+08:00

October 3, 2010 arriving at Proceno, Italy for our photographic workshop of "Tuscan Light".

October 4, soft Light coming in through the window of a castle museum in Sorono.

October 5, view from the top of castle tower of Proceno under the Light of a late aftenoon sun.

October 6, bright Light reflected from the sand on a fishing boat at Marta by the Largo di Bolsena.

October 7, reflection of Light in an otherwise shaded alleyway at Pitigliano.

October 8, Italian mother under the Light of an archway after shopping at open air market in Acquapendente.

October 9, Light at the ceiling of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II at Milan.

October 12, Light coming in from a doorway at Como.

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Today's Flower #138: Taipei Floral Expo

2011-04-03T14:43:00.000+08:00

I have shown the Taipei International Floral Exposition a while ago. With the Spring arriving and the weather is getting better. I went to the Expo once again.

This time rather than the usual zoom lens, I brought with me my 105 mm macro lens. The type of flower in the Expo also changed. There are a lot of mass planted Dahlia.

The weather was really sunny, I have to put my subject shaded in my shadow in order to get good shots. The temperature is close to the summer temperature in Northeast of America, thus most flowers are colorful annuals.

I have a good time to get a lot of close-up shots.

With the lens, I can get really close. The is a Johnney-Jump Up.

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Skywatch Friday: Sunrise at Boston

2011-04-01T11:33:00.002+08:00

Grace took this image of Backbay of Boston in the early morning about two weeks ago from her room at Royal Sonesta Hotel. The Hotel is at Cambridge side of Boston by the Charles River. The bridge is Longfellow bridge, which also known locally as Salt-and-Pepper Bridge due to the shape of the central towers. The Red Line of the Boston MBTA subway system goes over the bridge. You can see the train on the bridge in the image. The main pier under the central towers has sculptures resemble Viking ship. Some legend states that the Viking on their way to Iceland and the New World has reached as far as Charles River.

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ABC Wednesday: K is for Koala; Camera-Critters #156

2011-03-28T23:18:00.003+08:00

My first and only visit to Australia was on a Quanta flight leaving Los Angles on 17 January 1991. The reason that I can still remember the date is because when I was at Los Angles airport waiting for my 24 hours flight to Sydney, the CNN was broadcasting live from Bagdad for the first American air raid to the city during the Gulf War.

My trip lasted for almost a month, I got to visit the zoo and actually held a Koala. This Koala is from Taipei Zoo. The first two male Koala arrived in Taipei from Australia in 1999 followed by two females in 2001. Several baby Koala have been born since. They are one of the biggest attractions in the zoo.

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Today's Flower #137: Taipei Botanical Garden

2011-03-26T21:50:00.001+08:00

Even in the most dull season, I can always count on to find some colorful flowers in the Ginger Family (Zingiberaceae) section of the Taipei Botanical Garden. Not all the colorful flowers in this section are from the Ginger family. This is Red Heliconia (紅鳥蕉) Heliconia psittacorum Sessé & Moc. of the Strelitziaceae Family.

This Ornamental red banana (指天蕉) Musa uranoacopos Lour. is also from the Strelitziaceae Family.

Here is the flower of Turmeric (薑黃) Curcuma zedoaria (Berg.) Rosc. It is from the Ginger Family.

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Skywatch Friday: Sunset at Munich

2011-03-24T19:39:00.000+08:00

Grace was at Munich, Germany in late November for business. It was only a month after we came back from an almost three weeks tour in Europe. Here is the view of Munich skyline just before sunset from her room.

The sun went down and the moon rose.

The sky finally exploded into this kaleidoscope color.

Here was the final golden sun light of the day filtered into her room.

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ABC Wednesday: J is for Joy; Camera-Critters #155

2011-03-21T22:22:00.001+08:00

Joy! What a joy to have your buddy picking your ear for you!!

What a joy to sit high up on a tree with your buddy and check out the silly photographer down below!

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Today's Flower #136: Fu-shan (福山) Botanical Garden

2011-03-20T09:39:00.001+08:00

My trip with Nature Kingdom on Thursday, February 24 started with a visit to the migratory birds of the wetland of Yilan and a stop by the King Car Orchid Park. We arrived at our destination of Fu-shan Botanical Garden at lunch time.

The park is a high attitude valley surround by mountains covered with subtropical rain forest. The geology is very similar to Yosemite but in a smaller scale and totally different vegetation. It rains over 2/3 of the time during the year. The center of the valley is a lake, the river run out from the lake, winding through the mountain range eventually reach Taipei and it is one of the water source for Taipei's drinking water.

It was the Formosa mountain cherry blossom season. I almost come out every year to take pictures of them.

Fu-shan Botanical Garden is a branch of Taipei Botanical Garden, thus it is not a national park or conservation area. It is an experimental and research center. It belongs to the Forest Ministry of the Interior Department.

But even more than a conservation park, the area is highly restricted. It only allows no more than 600 visitors per day. Every March, the Garden is completely closed to outside visitors. It has a lottery system, every visitor needs to submit his application one month in advance then counts his luck.

The Garden is planted with a great variety of plants, most of them native to Taiwan.

Our guide was very good, it was as if we took a botanical class in the University all over again.

Although the weather was not warm, but it was the spring season in Taiwan already.

We could see many new leaves coming out.

Here is a view to the lake that is the center point of the Garden.

Other than the abundant of plant species, the garden also team with many native animals.

Our guide pointed out a Green-backed Heron (綠簑鷺), Butorides striatus inside the bushes across the lake. Can you see?

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Skywatch Friday: Sunrise at Dasyueshan (大雪山) National Forest

2011-03-18T09:42:00.001+08:00

We were greeted with fantastic sunset and a view of forest night dwelling animals when we arrived at Dasyueshan National Forest. The next morning, the temperature was near freezing. We braved the cold just before dawn to go out for some early morning bird watching.

We were again greeted with a spectacular sky of sunrise.

Here the sun showed its face for a very fine day.

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ABC Wednesday: I is for Idle; Camera-Critters #154

2011-03-15T11:19:00.003+08:00

Do you ever feel inferior, and a slightly guilty when photographing birds. Why they always turn their back on us? Are we so unworthy of their attention?

This Idling sea gull is Lesser Black-backed Gull (小黑背鷗), Larus fuscus. Two-weekend ago, Grace went with her lady friends for a weekend trip to Southern Taiwan. I got an Idle Saturday and went to Daxi Harbor at Yilan county. Daxi always gave me some unexpected surprise. The last time I saw some amazing demonstration of flying skill by Greater Crested Tern. All sea gull (Laridae) are relatively rare in Taiwan. The Greater Crested Terns are only seen occasionally in Taiwan during the summer when they migrates from the South Sea. Lesser Black-backed Gull is even rarer. Its normal habitat is at Northern Europe and migrates to North Afterica and Middle East for the winter.

I was sure that it did not like me. It only raises its head whenever I put down my camera. Lesser Black-backed Gull looks very much like the Herring Gull that I saw on Cape Cod, but a lot smaller. After much soul searching, I realized that the bird did not necessary dislike me so much. It may all to do with the wind direction. I repositioned to the upwind-side. Now, they all are facing me!!

The younger sea gulls look completely different from the mature ones, much less colorful.

Also probably more playful, this one almost landed on an elder.

It is time for it to take to the air. May be after all, I am too close to its confort.

The younger one also followed suit.

The whole colony consists of several dozen birds. After some idling moment in Taiwan, I hope they will make their way home safely.

Click on the images to see the detail of the birds. I took the pictures with my Nikon D700 and the Nikkor 80-400mm VR lens. It is the first time I really used a tripod for bird photography, but of course the pictures of birds in-flight were still shot offhand.

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Today's Flower #135: King Car Orchid Park

2011-03-13T11:24:00.000+08:00

Following a short stay to see the migratory birds at the wetland of Yilan county, my trip with "Natural Kingdom" continuos with a visit to the King Car Orchid Park.

The name "King Car" sounds very strange, it is the name of a company that started its business in soft drink. It makes a particular brand of canned coffee called "Mr. Brown", which can be seen in most Chinese supermarket around the world. It is also very popular in Taiwan.

After the success of its coffee business, they have branched into many other businesses, from growing orchid, shrimp farming, human disease diagnosis to whisky making.

Yilan was separated from Taipei by a huge mountain range. A few years ago, it was finally connected through a tunnel, which is the third longest tunnel in the world. The tunnel shrink the traveling time between Taipei to Yilan from 2 hours to half an hour.

"King Car" has been quietly investing in Yilan for a long time, purchasing many large stretches of land. For example, the wetland where we watched migratory birds is right next to a "King Car" future shrimp farm.

Its biotech research center, also located in Yilan, developed the first approved in vitro diagnostic test by Taiwan health authority for human papilloma virus using microarray technology.

The other amazing business venture of "King Car" is to develop a whiskey making business in Yilan. The county has been famous for the purity of water from its mountain spring. The company hired engineers from Scotland and built a state-of-art whiskey making factory.

The whiskey is called "Kavalan", named after the aborigine tribe native to Yilan. It has won many awards since it has been marketed. It is perfect to pour into the "King Car" coffee to make a Yilan version of "Irish coffee".

"King Car" has been into orchid business for many years. Taiwan is one of the world largest Orchid producing country. Because of its tropical climate, many exotic orchids are originated in Taiwan.

One of the three world largest orchid exhibitions and trade shows is held in Taiwan this week. "King Car" is one of the major industrial orchid producers and exporters in Taiwan.

With such good business mind, it is not surprise, that "King Car" is also in the tourism business in Yilan. We can wonder at the natural beauty of Yilan in its natural park, admire the beauty of orchid in its orchid farm, have a good tasting of Kavalan whiskey in its distillery and finally have a cup of coffee at its coffee house headquarter to keep us awake on the way back to Taipei.

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Skywatch Friday: Sunset at Dasyueshan (大雪山) National Forest; Camera-Critters #153

2011-03-10T17:09:00.001+08:00

After my trip with "Natural Kingdon" on Thursday, January 24 to Fu-shan Botanical Garden, we went with them again for a two-day tour to Dasyueshan National Forest for birdwatching and natural tour. The mountain range is about 3000 meters heigh and is located at the center of Taiwan. It used to be a major area for timber production, now it is completely preserved and famous for bird watching. When we arrived at the top of the range, it was almost dark. We were treated with this amazing sunset.

We were not idle after dinner, the guide took us out for a drive in the forest and searching for animals using spot light. We were very fortunate to see this Formosan serow (長鬃山羊), Capricornis crispus swinhoei.

This is White-face Flying Squirrel (白面鼯鼠), Petaurista alborufus len. They stay high-up on the pine trees. Their eyes shine like ruby when we scan the tree top with spot light. They are so puffy and cute.

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ABC Wednesday: H is for High Speed Chase

2011-03-08T22:57:00.002+08:00

I am not talking about the High Speed Chase that we have often seen in the police movie. I refer to chasing the bird in the mid-flight what the photographer often called "panning". This Spot-billed duck (斑嘴鴨), Anas poecilorhyncha was taken at a wetland in Yilan county, east of Taipei.

I was on a tour with "Natural Kingdom", the only government registered natural tour operator in Taiwan. The trip was to go to the Fu-shan Botanical Garden at Yilan county, but the guide took us first to this wetland to see migratory birds. It was a sight that I have never seen in Taiwan.

I have seen the massive colony of Sandy Crane in New Mexico, and heard of the large number of migratory sea birds on the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge on Cape Cod. But I have never expected to see this massive showing of migratory birds in Taiwan. The main species at this location are Black-winged Stilt (長腳鵴), Himantopus himantopus, Gray heron (蒼鷺), Ardea cinerea and Egret.

The most impressive showing was by the Black-winged Stilt.

Hundreds of them would suddenly take off into the air all at the same time. It is a sight to behold.

The area used to be rice fields and shrimp farms, now it is under heavy pressure from land developers. I hope there will always be enough wetland left for this natural wonder.

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ABC Wednesday: G is for Gold Reflection

2011-03-07T17:58:00.002+08:00

Grace went to San Francisco for the ASCO GI meeting. She had some time left after the meeting and went to visit her old colleague at Stanford University. It was late afternoon. She got the chance to see the beautiful gold reflection from the fresco of the Memorial Church.

Here is the church just before sunset.

Here is a closer look. She did not get the chance to go in. But she heard that the inside is also very impressive. Only the alumni of the University can get married inside of the church.

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ABC Wednesday: F is for Taipei International Flora Exposition

2011-02-22T21:46:00.000+08:00

Taipei International Flora Exposition is held from 2010/11/6 to 2011/4/25. It is an International Horticulture Exposition recognized by AIPH, the International Association of Horticultural Producers and by BIE, Bureau International des Expositions. The first exposition is held in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 1960. Taipei is very proud to host this event and the city has spent a lot of efforts and money to organize this exposition. By mid-February, there had been over 5 million people visited this event. Since last December and most of January, the temperature was around 10 degree C. For your people in the Northern Hemisphere, that is such a nice comfortable temperature. For us it was too cold. Only till last week. we had a nice warm half day with beautiful sunshine. I went for a nice walk around the beautiful ground.

The most impressive exhibition is revolved around several exhibition halls. However, that requires standing in line for long hours. I took the next best, to walk around the massive planted flower beds.

Not many exotic flower plants, but it is the massive planting that is impressive.

All the flowers are in perfect condition and in full bloom.

You can imagine the amount of work needed to put in to maintain these flower beds. They are replaced according to the flowering season.

As always, photographing flowers is not the easiest thing. The exposure meter always tend to over expose. I have to read the RGB histogram of the image on the LCD at the back of the camera to make sure the exposure is correct, especially the red is not over exposed.

Many countries come to participate in the exposition. These beautiful tulips are from, guess who, Holland!

I did not bother to bring my macro lens with me. However, my new 28-300 VR lens performed quite well in close-up.

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ABC Wednesday: E is for Excursion in Victoria Harbor

2011-02-15T23:22:00.000+08:00

We went to Hong Kong on Friday, February 6. There were two reasons for the trip. One is to attend the wedding of Grace's niece. She already had a formal wedding in LA, but came back to Hong Kong, her birth place, to have a wedding banquet for all her relatives and friends. For a very long time, the ceremony of the wedding banquet is more important than the formal registration to the local magistrate. Thus a man can be charged for marrying twice, simply because he has a wedding banquet with another women other than his wife. It has happened quite often to Taiwan merchants doing business in China.

The second reason for the visit is to visit Grace's parents in Hong Kong. They have been living in Hong Kong for over 20 years to be closeby to their youngest daughter, who married to Hong Kong. Chinese New Year was February, 5 this year. It is the Chinese tradition that married daughter should go back to visit her parents' home on the second day of the New Year.

The newly wed invited us and many of her friends to have an excursion in the Victoria Harbor. We had fantastic view of the Hong Kong cityscape on the boat. But the real highlight is to see the Hong Kong Chinese New Year firework.

We have never seen fireworks from the boat before. As you can imagine, there were a lot of boats on the water, from giant cruise ships, smaller yachts to typical Hong Kong junks.

The added advantage of viewing the fireworks from the water was that we also had a fantastic view of the reflection of the fireworks from the water.

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ABC Wednesday: D is for Door

2011-02-08T22:20:00.002+08:00

This Door opens to a cave carved into the mountain. It is on the roadside where we stopped for overlooking the Tuscany Town of Sorano, which we have shown in our previous post.

Here is the detail of this very old, but colorful Door.

How an old stone wall, steel-barred window and an old door in an old Tuscany town, such as Sorano can be so beautiful.

Here is the detail of the Door.

Not everything is old in Sorano. The arch of this Door way to a local restaurant is real stone. The stones on the right hand side of the picture is painted. They probably ran out of the money during the restoration.

Here is the detail of the stone Door of the restaurant.

This photograph of a very colorful garden door was taken by Grace outside the lakeside town of Marta, Italy.

Who said we have to travel half of the world in order to take photographs of some colorful old door? This door is not too far from our condo. It is the door of some old houses that have not been taken away during the road expansion project. The letters on the left hand-side mean No. 22.

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ABC Wednesday: C is for China

2011-02-01T22:49:00.001+08:00

This Wednesday is Chinese New Year Eve, So Grace and I are saying Happy New Year to everybody. We were in China last October and was in time for the Shanghai World Expo. Even in September, the weather was too hot for us. We only visited the Expo in the late afternoon and evening. This is the China Pavilion. There were so many people, we did not even attempt to get in. Same thing were true for most Country's pavilion.

But at night, most pavilions were lighted up and looked probably better than at day time. To the right of the China pavilion is a huge rabbit lantern. The coming Chinese New Year is the year of rabbit.

Right next to the China Pavilion is Taiwan Pavilion which was a giant cube with a giant ball in the center. The images on the ball are flying lanterns for good luck . After China Pavilion, it is one of the next most popular one.

This one is for Korea. We have not anticipated to do so many night photography. Although both Grace's DX 18-200 VR and mine 24-300 with VR can do a descent job. But we sure hope that we had our prime large aperture lenses with us. Anyhow we did have some good fun. So follow us and let us have a tour of the Shanghai World Expo as we saw it.

Qatar Pavilion

Sweden on the left and Iceland on the right, do you see the full moon?

Ireland

A special Pavilion, I think it was made by Germany and the whole structure as the big beams that you can see from this photo were made of bamboo.

The folded "paper cut-out panel" inside of the Poland Pavilion.

Russian Pavilion

Serbia Pavilion

Luxemburg, the "Gelle Fra" (Golden Lady", the most important national symbol of Luxembourg, traveled outside of the country for the first time.

Spain Pavilion was completely made of hand-weaved wicker.

Angola Pavilion

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Skywatch Friday: Okinawa sunset

2011-01-27T21:30:00.001+08:00

When we arrived at the Hotel during the first day of our trip to Okinawa, we saw this amazing light from our room window.

Afterward, during the last day of our trip, we saw this amazing sunset when we were on the tour bus. I quickly snapped several shots. This one came out really good.

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ABC Wednesday: B is for Battlefield Blue

2011-01-24T20:55:00.004+08:00

I think for most of us, the most significant meaning of Okinawa is the Battle of Okinawa. It was a 82-day long battle just before the end of WWII in 1945. All together, Japan lost 100,000 troops and Allies suffered more than 50,000. After 1945, Okinawa was under US administration till 1972, when US returned the islands to Japanese administration. But little has been know to us that Okinawa is an independent country for over 1000 years. It was a tributary nation of China till it was annexed by Japan in 1870. Countless life of island people were lost during WWII. Even today, Japanese Emperor dares not to set foot on the island. Neither the present emperor nor his father has formally apologized to the island people. Shuri castle was the formal capital of Ryukyu Kingdom of Okinawa built in late 1300s. It was completely destroyed in 1945. It was rebuilt in 1992. The Shureimon Gate is a symbol of Okinawa. The writing on the gate means "A Nation with Good Manners" was given by Chinese King to Ryuku Kingdom. I dramatize the picture a bit in memory of the Battle of Okinawa.

Here is a normal look of the gate. We were visiting Okinawa on a company trip last December. 75% of the island is still US military base, the other 25% is under Japanese administration. On the highway we can see the US base behind the barbed wire. It was hard to tell which side is inside of the cage.

A lovely Okinawa girl in perfect pose inside of the Shuri castle.

The tour was well organized, we ate in several local restaurants that few tourists visited. Here is a perfect Japanese house in one of the restaurant. Click on the photo to see the detail inside of the house and the reflection on the door. This is my HDR image without the HDR-look.

The sky and ocean was amazingly Blue. It was so peacefully calm, and it was hard to imagine what the marines on the landing craft thought when they first saw the same image some 55 years ago.

We also had the chance to visit an underground cave. It is not the world grandest, but quite interesting.

Of course, we also visited the world famous Churaumi Aquarium.

The Deep Blue Kuroshio tank took us right to the botton of the ocean, with its giant whale sharks and manta rays.

The water tank is spread out over three floors. Through the glass we could have some close encounters with many colorful tropical fish.

Here is a lionfish, the only one that I know the name.

It was not too easy to photograph them. Both focusing and white balance were difficult. We have to do some adjustment to the RAW images on the computer to bring out the true brilliant color.

Have I seen you in Chinese restaurants?

There is also a giant sea turtle tank. I have seen a sea turtle in the open ocean during one of the diving trip in Hawaii. They have so many in the tank and some look really old.

Here is a final look of the aquarium building that housed the Kuroshio tank. It is a B&W HDR image.

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ABC Wednesday: V for What a View

2010-12-14T20:40:00.002+08:00

I (Grace) visited Sanya (三亞) at Hainan Island (海南島). It is the southernmost city in China. I stayed in an exclusive resort by the ocean. The View of the sunset was magnificent.

Can you tell what the View is in this picture? I took this photograph in the late afternoon in Hong Kong Park which is right in the center of busy Hong Kong Island. The shimmering color and the water reflection make the View look like a watercolor painting.

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ABC Wednesday: U is for Upside Down

2010-12-07T23:42:00.002+08:00

We have been showing pictures of Tuscany during the last several weeks. I thought it is about time to show some images back home in Taipei. A week ago, I went to the Taipei Botanical Garden. It was the first time after the trip to Italy that I had time to do some photography in Taipei. This Intermediate Egret, Egretta intermedia was Upside Down cleaning itself in the lotus pond.

Well, to be fair, here it is right-side up.

The lotus was completely dry up in the winter.

At closer look, I could see the dried seed pod was bending over and dipped its head Upside down on the surface of the water. The nature is so smart, the dried stem cannot bear the weight of the seed pod and bend over, the seeds in the pod then naturally fall right to the button of the pond and wait for next spring to germinate.

Grace went with me to the Taipei Botanical Garden last weekend. She took this picture of Black-crowned Night Heron, Nycticorax nycticorax with her new Nikon D7000 and her beloved 18-200mm VR lens. One of the first ten D7000 arrived to Taiwan last week. Can you see the Upside down reflection of the bird.

Here is a proper look of the bird with its amazing bloodshot eye. We even took HD movie of the bird with the D7000...., not much different from the still picture. It hardly moved.

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ABC Wednesday: T is for Tuscania

2010-11-30T21:24:00.003+08:00

It was the third day of our tour at Tuscany. We went straight to the town of Tuscania. It is a very old town with history going back to the Etruscan period. We went straight to the city square and was instructed to photograph the fountain.

It was really hard, the surrounding was very crowded with buildings, restaurants, small shops, people and cars. We got a really good lesson on how to do composition and how to eliminate the unnecessary.

We then went up to the rampart, which has a very good view to the surrounding countryside. Can you see the wire at the left hand side of the picture? It is actually strings of an experimental musical instrument.

Here is a beautiful medieval building across the town that we can see from the rampart.

Here is a beautiful archway in the old town. It is a very beautiful city to walk around.

We have shown this picture not too long ago in one of the ABC Wednesday posting.

The day was very beautiful. We only stay at Tuscania till noon before heading out to Marta on the shore of Largo di Bolsena for more photography, but that is for another blog.

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ABC Wednesday: S is for Sorano

2010-11-22T22:56:00.003+08:00

We visited Sorano the first day of our photographic tour at Southern Tuscany. The first town after Proceno, where we stationed. You can see our amazement when we first laid our eyes on this picture perfect medieval castle/fortification.

The houses almost look like LEGO and they are so well preserved.

We spent half an hour photograph this walkway, practicing using the fill-in flash for the foreground. This one was by Grace.

This one was by Bradley. Do not vote on which one of us took the better picture, of course Grace!!!

We got the chance to go into the old church that is semi-restored and use as exhibition space for the artists living in the region. This is the entrance doorway. I think Grace got this one perfectly

Grace took this one again and I did some clever exposure blending to get the scenery outside the window.

This is one of the artist's exhibition.

Outside the church, we were high above the village and had a good view over the rooftops.

Soon in the afternoon, it started raining. We were stuck under an archway. The wet stone walk added more interest to the photograph. Then the street light was turned on, perfect! Can you see the reflection of the light on the stone pavement?

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ABC Wednesday: R is for Round

2010-11-17T00:11:00.005+08:00

Round as upper half-Round of an arch, the systemic use of the arch started from ancient Rome, no wonder we saw them almost everywhere during our trip to southern Tuscany last month. Here, I am taking you for a Return trip to the town of Pitigliano, which we have shown its Roman aqueduct from a distance a few weeks ago. Pitigliano is a very old town started from Etruscan era (before Rome). Here is the Roman aqueduct up-close, see also the shadow of the arch on the ground.

It is at the entrance of the town, and has quite a lot of traffic. We have to wait for our chance to have the road cleared of cars and people. However, a couple of local people in the picture also definitely add interest to the image.

I also love this almost abstract presentation of the aqueduct taken by Grace. Sorry, no Round arch shown here.

Here is from the opposite side of the road, the weather was amazingly nice that day.

Grace took this one and I love the composition and the reflection of the light on the wall.

There are many more archways inside the Town. They were particularly challenging to photograph. This one was a blending of two photographs taken at completely different exposure, one for the stairs and the other for the scene inside the distant arch. The foreground of the stairway was further lighted by the camera flash.

This picture was taken similarly, the two persons in the arch certainly add interest to the picture. Pitigliano is at the border of Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Papal States in the middle-age. Therefore the town has a flourishing and long-lived Jewish community. Although no real Jewish community existed now, the old Jewish quarter has been restored. The couple was admiring a Jewish bread shop.

Finally the sun has moved and it is time to head back.

A final look of the town and the Round arch of the Roman aqueduct.

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ABC Wednesday: Q is for a Quick Tour to Lake Como

2010-11-09T21:40:00.002+08:00

It was the last day of our trip in Italy. We had stayed in Milan for three days already. Grace's conference also almost came to the end. One of her important meetings was cancelled due to the air strike in France. She asked me whether there is somewhere nearby Milan that we could make a Quick day trip. I opened the map, and why not Lake Como.

When we were young and lived in Nice, France, we often talked about that we would drive to visit Lake Como. But we never made the trip. Now it is the opportunity! We took an early train from Milan to Como. The train ride took just over an hour. These two pictures are Chiesa accanto al Duomo di Como.

Here is Torre e cupola del Como. By this time, it was approaching noon and we started to look for something to eat. I was really scared by the microwave pasta and risotto of tourist restaurants in Milan.

Grace saw people walked into this Charcuterie and she followed them. To our surprise, there is a small restaurant in the courtyard behind the store. We can pick the food in the store and they can serve us in the courtyard. We had one of the most marvelous and inexpensive lunch in Italy!

After the meal, it was time for us to take the ferry for a Quick tour of the lake. Here is a photo taken at Piazza Grimoldi on the way to the lake front.

While we were waiting for the ferry, we saw this old lady feeding pigeons by the lake. The way she dressed made us feel going way back into the 1800s.

There were many sea gulls by the lake. Click on the photo to see how clear the bird in the center is. I have my new Nikon 28-300 lens. I often think the sharpness of the lens at 300 mm may not be at optimum. This image of the bird proved me wrong.

We did not have time to go too far into the lake. This is our ferry destination Torno and we did not even came down the boat and took the same boat back.

There are many beautiful villas and palaces along the lake.

This one is at the town of Cernobbio.

This one is also at Cernobbio, can you see the castle ruin in the background half way up the mountain.

Finally we came back to where we started. We can see the Duomo di Como in the background.

It was a fantastic day trip, but too Quick. We hope one day we will visit Lake Como again and spend a few more days to visit the palaces and villages along the lake.

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ABC Wednesday: P is for Proceno

2010-11-02T22:01:00.001+08:00

Proceno is our home base during our Photographic excursion of Southern Tuscany. This is the view of part of the village photographed from our window the afternoon that we arrived at the Castle by car from Rome.

The hill top village/castle has several thousand years of history and is one of the rare example of medieval fortification surviving in its original state. You can see the tower of the castle in the early morning mist of this Photograph.

The Castello di Proceno, where we stayed, has belonged to the Cecchini Bisoni family for over 300 years.

Every morning, we walked down this street from the castle to a local bar in the village square to have breakfast, and met with our teacher and a fellow photographer to start the daily tour to the surrounding countryside.

The Bisoni family was kind enough to allow us into their private quarter. Here is the view of their lovely living room in the castle. We spent many hours practicing still life Photography in this room.

We were also allowed to venture into the castle tower. Here is a view of the tower from the garden. We even went back after dinner to Photograph the stars!

We also did a lot of still Photography in the Tower under the available dim light. It was very challenging but also very rewarding. Here is a view taken from inside the tower.

At the top of the tower we have a fantastic view of the Proceno village below.

The weather was a bit cloudy when we reached the top of the tower, then the sun came out. We can see the light moving across the valley below. What a beautiful scenery!

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ABC Wednesday: O! What is it?

2010-10-24T10:18:00.002+08:00

O! What is it? Can you tell? Grace took this series of photos.

Now, let me back out a little bit, can you tell what it is now? Still can not!!

How about back out more, almost getting it?

Now, let us back all the way out, see the shadow down under the aqueduct. It was photographed at Pitigliano, Tuscany.

Now. let us show you the entire village. We were there for a whole day and took some amazing photos.

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ABC Wednesday: Natural and Unnatural

2010-10-20T07:50:00.004+08:00

This shot was taken at Tuscania during our tour at Southern Tuscany, Italy. This is a highly difficult scene to photograph due to the very contrasty lighting condition. However, it is amazing how the modern digital camera can do. This is the most Natural look of the scene, taken using my D700 then worked in Nikon Capture NX2 to lighten the shadow and darken the highlight.

This one is an HDR image using three different shots with three different exposures. The images were merged and tone mapped by Photomatix Pro. This is the most Natural looking imaging that I can get from the HDR. Actually for me, to get a natural looking image from the HDR is much more difficult than to create the more dramatic HDR image.

As I said that I was not too good at HDR and on how to use the Photomatix Pro. After seeing a partner in the photo tour on how he used the Photomatix Pro, I realize my program was very much outdated. After back to the US, I updated my program and it now consists of several presets that I can choose from as a starting point of manipulating the HDR image. This is the "default" setting that I worked a little bit more with Capture NX2 for contrast and saturation.

This one is from "Painterly" preset. It got this more Unnatural look, almost like a painting.

This one is from "B&W" preset. Either the Natural look or the Unnatural look, I like them all. Which one do you prefer?

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ABC Wednesday: M is for Milan

2010-10-14T21:34:00.004+08:00

Last two weeks, Grace and I were traveling in Italy. The first part of the trip was at southern Tuscany participating in the photographic workshop of David Hoptman. The latter part of the trip was spent in Milan. Grace was in a conference and I got the chance to walk around Milan and practice what I have learned from the workshop. This is the famous Plazza del Duomo with Duomo di Milano on the right and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II on the left.

This is the view of the plaza at night.

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is a glass covered huge shopping mall that has all the famous European brands and many roadside restaurants. In the center, the right side is Louis Vuitton and on the left is Prada. However, a word of caution, all the roadside restaurants around the area only serve microwave version of pasta and risotto, and twice as expensive as the authentic version in southern Tuscany. For the name brands, the better way to do is to shop around Via Monte Napoleone.

This is the Basilica Di San Carol Al Corso on the way to Corso Vittorio Emanuele II when I walked from Duomo to the area of Via Monte Napoleone. It was great fun to mingle with the well dressed Milanese people and watch Ferarri, etc. drove on the cobblestone paved streets.

This is the famous Teatro alla Scala at night. It is not as an impressive building as the Paris Opera. It can be reached easily from the Duomo through Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. We have the chance to hear a concert by José Carreras during our stay in Milan. It was a fantastic experience.

This is the Castello Sforzesco view from Via Dante. The castle was first constructed in the 14th century. It has been destroyed and rebuilt many times in the history and the latest was the allied bombardment in 1943.

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ABC Wednesday: K is for Kill Time

2010-09-29T02:36:00.003+08:00

The second day of our visit to Shanghai, the morning started with a fantastic view of the Bund across the Huangpu River. Grace had to go to her meeting for the whole day. I had some time to Kill by myself. I decided to take a walk on Huaihai Middle Road. For tourists, the most famous road to walk is Nanjing East Road, which is a pedestrian street now. It is too touristic for me. Huaihai Middle Road is a totally different fashionable street.

The area is original French Concession part of Shanghai, thus all the street and park is lined with London Plans that was first introduced by the French.

Although Huaihai Middle Road is now line with the most fashionable shops from around the world, it is the little side street, Changle Road that really lead the Shanghai fashion. All the little shops can be as fashionable as any clothing stores in London, Paris or New York.

We can see the most expensive and exotic car parked by the road but also see plenty of ordinary hard labors go about their everyday business.

Further down the road, I arrived at Shanghai Xintiandi (Shanghai New World). The developer rather than torn down the old building of the area, it totally restored the structures. It became one of the biggest tourist attractions in Shanghai.

The buildings in the area form big contrast to the surrounding highrise.

The area has many fine restaurants and interesting shops

Not only tourists, also quite a few photographers like me around try to catch a glimpse of the old Shanghai.

You can see me here from the shop window of the famous clothing store Shanghai Tang.

I continued my way arriving at the waterfront, the Bund, just before sunset. With the sun now behind me I had a fantastic view of the new financial district of Pudong. If you enlarge the picture, you can see the sunstar at the International Convention Center.

The final highlight of the day was crossing the Huangpu River, not by car or by boat, but by the underground tunnel. It was a 5 minutes ride on a small cart with a fantastic show of light display. It took me right where I started in the morning, in front of the hotel at the International Convention Center.

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ABC Wednesday: J is for Our Journey to Shanghai

2010-09-21T23:26:00.002+08:00

Shanghai has a very special meaning for us. Although both of us were born in Taipei but our parents came from Shanghai. We have been to Shanghai several times when Bradley's parents were still with us. The trip that we took last week was the first one since both of them have passed away. We have planned this trip for quite a while for the purpose of visiting the World Expo.

The above picture was taken from the famous Shanghai Bund toward the new Shanghai district Pudong. It was the ancestor home for Bradley. His grand father used to own several houses right at where the Shanghai World Financial Center is now. He ran a business of several ferry boats across the Huangpu River between Pudong and Shanghai.

This picture was taken from our hotel window at the Shanghai International Convention Center, looking across the Huangpu River toward the Bund. The Bund is about 1 km long and lined with colonial buildings left from the early 20th century.

We will show more pictures of our journey to Shanghai and World Expo in the near future, so stay tuned.

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ABC Wednesday: H is for Happy

2010-09-05T19:48:00.002+08:00

Last week our post for "Green Pond" brought about some sad history of the small lake. However, it has always been a popular playground for Taipei residents. I still remember went there during summer nights, the adults sat on the lounge chair drinking tea under perfect moonlight. We were running around just for fun. It was a Happy time 50 years ago.

The park around the Green Pound went under major renovation last year and just reopened this summer. One of the major attraction is the water fountain and water cascade beneath the suspended bridge.

The fountain came up from the ground every few minutes. The temperature was over 35 degree C. The kids all had so much fun and Happy time.

Here, as every happy kids would do, climbed up the water cascade.

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ABC Wednesday: G is for a Green Pond

2010-08-31T22:40:00.000+08:00

Green Pond (碧潭) is a small pound in the middle of one of the rivers that flow through Taipei District. It is really only right at the city limit and only 20 minutes from our home. It has been a favorite place for young lovers to date and paddle the small rented boats. The pond can be crossed by a suspended foot bridge. Many tragedy has happened in the lake, either young couples drown in the pond from tipped over boat or heart-broken lovers jump over from the suspended bridge. We were warned not to go to the pond to play the water when we were young. Things have been much improved since.

Chinese Valentine Day is at the 7th of July in the Chinese lunar calendar and this year it falls on August 16. It is kind of tradition that young lovers should cross over a bridge during that day. Although when we went to the Green Pond, it was not exactly the Valentine Day. Nonetheless the county has a Valentine Day Festival during that weekend. Many people were walking across the bridge.

Here is a more artistic view of the suspended bridge.

The lakeshore and on the lake also packed with people waiting for the sunset and fireworks.

Notice the little figure on the rock. The gentleman has been showing off jumping off the rock for many years. The local policemen have given up on stopping him.

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ABC Wednesday: F is for Fisherman

2010-08-23T22:55:00.004+08:00

We have been quite busy recently. Grace's father has not been in very good health and came to Taiwan with her sister from Hong Kong to see doctors in Taiwan. His condition was a bit better last weekend. We decided to take them for a trip to the Northeast Coast National Scenic Area. Bradley has posted his trip to the area not too long ago. We arrived at Daxi Fishing Port just after lunch. There were no Greater Crested Tern for us to photograph this time. But we arrived just in time for the returning fishing fleet came into the port.

Here one of the Fishing boat was steaming into port with Turtle Island in the background.

The waterway inside the port is quite narrow and it was amazing to see how the fishing boat maneuvered through the waterway like a car.

Here one of the colorful Fishing vessel was docking by the harbor ready for unload.

The labors on the vessel were quickly sorting out the fishes. Most of them are foreign workers from Southeast Asia.

It is really hard work, not many local people are willing to take on this type of job anymore. Here they were sorting out beltfish.

Here is a closer look of one of them, a very colorful looking guy.

Here the Taiwanese Captain was unloading a bucket full of fresh fish with the help of his assistant.

What a weather beaten, hard living character, a real Fisherman!

But look, he is really enjoying his life as the Captain of a Fishing vessel.

Now his assistant was pulling the bucket to shore. The land based crew quickly sorted the fish for the buyer. Bradley was one of the enthusiastic shopper. How much? He asked. NT$500 (US$13) per kilogram! Could I have this piece? He asked. How they laughed!! They only sell the fish by the bucket!!!

She must be an owner of the Fishing vessel or daughter of the owner. With earrings and fake eyelashes, mixing with the labors and carefully took down all the numbers.

Daxi Fishing Port is at Yilan county. It is famous for the green mountains and sweet spring water which are said to produce beautiful girls. Seeing these Fisherman's daughters in the mid of hard working Fishermen, We have no doubt of that.

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ABC Wednesday: D is for Dandelion

2010-08-10T21:10:00.002+08:00

I always consider Dandelion as a weed and a nonsense for the lawns. However, I must admit that it does have lovely yellow color flowers.

The yellow flower heads turn into balls of silver tufted fruits, which every kid loves.

That includes our lovely granddaughter. Whenever she got a chance in the Spring, she would pick up every Dandelion in the neighborhood and blow on it.

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Today's Flower #105: Orchids at Restaurant Sixteen

2010-08-09T09:06:00.000+08:00

I (Grace) was at the Restaurant Sixteen of the Trump International Hotel and Tower in early June. The table setting included a single green orchid in a frosted glass vase.

The dessert is a key lime pie which matched the orchid very nicely. It is not only good looking but very delicious indeed, moist and creamy!

On another side of the dining table are orange orchids which stand out from the white tablecloth and simple tablewares.

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Skywatch Friday & ABC Wednesday: C is for Chicago

2010-08-03T23:42:00.001+08:00

I (Grace) went to Chicago in early June. Chicago has become a more and more livable city with many historical landmarks and modern ambiance. Here are some famous buildings along the Chicago River. On the far left hand side is the newly opened Trump International Hotel and Tower. The building with the clock tower is the Wrigley building which is the Headquarter for the Chewing gum company. Behind that is the Tribune Tower which is the Headquarter for the major daily newspaper, Chicago Tribune. The road between the two buildings is the Michigan Avenue, also called Magnificent Mile.

Here is a close up of the clock tower of Wrigley building and the neo-gothic style of the Tribune Tower.

I took the photograph from the lobby of the Restaurant Sixteen at the Trump International Hotel and Tower. Here you can see that the Wrigley building has two towers: in the front (South Tower) is 30 stories tall, and in the back (North Tower) is 21 stories high.

Here is the small dining room beside the main dining room with fantastic view, clean design and more intimate seating.

I took this photograph from my hotel window at 5:30 AM. This is the other side of the Chicago River. The twin "corncob" towers are the famous Marina Towers Condominium. You can keep your boat at the lower dock, park your car at the lower levels, and live on the top levels. A true Marina City with shops, restaurants, and cinemas.

Here is the same place late at night. You can see the dark blue sky and the reflections on the Chicago River.

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