ABC Wednesday: Seeing Red

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

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

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

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

 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"

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

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

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

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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