ABC Wednesday: L is for Luxury

Quanta Computer is the largest notebook computer ODM manufacturer in the world. The vice-chairman of the company has three lovely daughters. One day, one of the daughter told the father that she had an idea of opening a coffee shop. Several years and 300 millions US$ later, they opened the most luxurious shopping center in Taiwan, Bella Vita, in September. The building was completely built by marble. The lower building is three stories high and houses the shopping center. The taller building contains spa and private club.

The shopping center has the most prestigious stores from Europe. Some of the stores have private viewing room and the shopping center provides valet parking for its VIP customers. But when we visited the place two weeks ago, only a few shops were ready for business. The grand central hall with its marvelous skylight was packed with curious visitors just came to admire the most luxurious shopping center in Taipei.

At the side entrance, we photographed the window of this expensive dinnerware store. You can barely see Grace in the picture. The blue reflection on the top is the reflection of the ceiling of the side entrance.

Van Cleef & Arpels is the very prestigious jeweler from Paris. It brought some of the best of its collections for the opening. One diamond ring worths over US$3 million was sold on the first day.

Here is the set of "Jardin d'Extrême Orient" from the new "Les Jardins" collection of Van Cleef & Arpels.

Apparently Far East is recovering economically faster than the rest of world.

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Today's Flowers #60: Flowers of Colorado

This picture of this beautiful flower field was taken in front of the Colorado State Capital at Denver.

This the truck of the aspen tree that Grace took when she visited the Kenosha Pass, Colorado two weeks ago.

We believe these are the wild Aster flowers.

Is the color of this picture amazing!!

Grace was glad that she got to it before the wind did.

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Camera-Critters #78: Cattle Egret

After coming back from Cape Cod, I have not shown any bird photography at Camera-Critters. We have posted four series of butterflies from the Flying Cow Ranch. I thought I will change the scene a bit and post the Cattle Egret that I photographed at the Ranch.

Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) likes to stay around buffalos and cows in the field thus the name. The feathers of the head and neck change to color yellow in the mating season of spring. I photographed it once in that color early this year.

I took the picture with my Nikon D300 and 70-300 mm VR lens. I usually do my bird photography with my D700 and 80-400 VR lens. 400 mm on a full-frame D700 is just a little bit shorter than 300 mm on a D300 (450 mm). But I love the high ISO capability and the resolution of the D700. This time I have the 105 mm micro lens on the D700 for the butterfly photography and have no mood of carrying the heavy 80-400 mm VR lens under the 100°C temperature. However, as you can see from this picture, the combination of of D300 and 70-300 mm VR lens still did a magnificent job. It is a lot lighter in weight to carry around.

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Cattle Egret in Mating Season

As I described in my Camera-Critters post that the Cattle Egrets change part of their color from white to yellow during the mating season in spring. I photographed this one in flight alone a river near Taipei. It was taken with my D300 and 80-400 mm VR lens. At the time, I just purchased the lens and have not yet had the D700. The shot was taken at 35 mm equivalent of 600 mm hand-held. For more technical detail: the lens was on VR; Exposure: spot metering, f5.6, 1/2000; Focus Mode: Continous; AF-Area Mode: Dynamic-area AF. How marvelous the modern technology is!!

Skywatch Friday No. 64: Denver, Colorado

Colorado State Capital

Civic Center Park

Denver Art Museum.

Civic Center, Culture Complex

Denver Public Library

Civic Center, Culture Complex

I (Grace) was at Denver, Colorado for a business meeting two weeks ago. When I arrived at the airport on Friday night, it was pouring rain. However, the next day, the sky was gorgeous. I got to comfortably walk around the city to photograph some of the old and new architectures of the city.

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ABC Wednesday: K is for Kenosha Pass

I (Grace) had a chance to spend a weekend in Denver, Colorado ten days ago. The autumn colors just started around that time. My friend took me to Kenosha Pass which is southwest to Denver. It is about 10,000 ft in elevation. As you can see from the picture above, the day started with a beautiful blue sky and a few clouds.

Notice that the clouds began to gather, and started to rain after we finished our sandwiches. The next day, the temperature dropped from low seventies to low thirties with about 6 inches of snow!

Here is a closer look of the aspen trees with white barks. The leaves of the aspen trees have just turned yellow against some evergreen conifers in the background.

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Today's Flowers #59: What is it?

We saw this lovely plant during our walk in the "Flying Cow Ranch". It is a shrub/tree almost 2-meter high. We have no idea what it is.

We tried to ask the little boy fairy by the tree, but he just laughed at us.

She was nicer and tried to whisper the name to us, but we could not hear her little voice.

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Camera-Critters #77: Danaus

Common Tiger, Striped Tiger

Danaus genutia

黑脈樺斑蝶

Plain Tiger, African Monarch

Danaus chrysippus

樺斑蝶

This is our fourth posting of butterflies of "Flying Cow Ranch". These two very closely resemble the American Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus). They are so colorful, not common and plain at all. Can you tell the difference between them? One has veins on the wings marked with broad black bands.

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Skywatch Friday No. 63: Sunset over Taipei Harbor

I visited the West side of the Northern Coast of Taiwan last weekend. We normally drive by on the highway and never really stop over this part of the coast. Along this area, the coast is less ragged with long stretch of sandy and rocky beach. I waited on the beach for the sunset and in time to catch a glimpse of an ocean-going container coming in slowly to the container port of Taipei Harbor.

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ABC Wednesday: J is for Jagged Coast

The east coast of Northern Taiwan is very rugged but also very beautiful. Many areas, the cliff comes almost directly into the ocean with only enough room for a highway. It is now the Northeast Coast National Scenic Area. There are many small working fishing ports dotted along the coast. We can often see fishing boats unload their today's catches by the harbor. The restaurants at the fishing ports serve some of the freshest seafoods. The coast is connected by several highways to Taipei which is only about one hour drive away.

Along the coast we can see many different geological rock formations. The waves are from Pacific Ocean and can be very big and severe especially when a front is coming in from the Northeast.

But it also has its quiet moment.


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Today's Flowers #58: Squash Flower

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Camera-Critters #76: Tirumala septentrionis & Ideopsis similis

Dark Blue Tiger

Tirumala septentrionis

小紋青斑蝶

Ceylon Blue Glassy Tiger

Ideopsis similis

硫球青斑蝶

This is our third posting of butterflies of "Flying-Cow Ranch" for Camera-Critters. Can you tell the difference between these two butterflies?

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Skywatch Friday No. 62: Lois' House

Lois is a very nice lady living just across the street of our house on Cape Cod. One late afternoon this summer, I noticed the amazing light from the sunset shone on her house. I went out and took this picture.

ABC Wednesday: I is for Invaluable Friendship

This Invaluable Friendship is referred to the friendship between "The Republic of China (ROC)" and "The United States". We know what the US is but for the ROC, it is much more complicated. In 1911, a revolution overthrew "Ching", the last dynasty in China and ended the 5000 years of dynastic rule of China. A new republic was formed, The Republic of China. ROC was an ally with the US during the World War II and a signatory for the founding of the United Nation. Immediately after the end of WWII, a civil war between Communists supported by Russia and Nationalists supported by the US erupted which led to the defeat of the Nationalist government in the mainland China. The Chinese communists took over the power in China and formed "The People's Republic of China (PRC)". The nationalist government of ROC retreated to Taiwan.

The Korean War and Vietnam War following suit and ROC maintained as a strong ally during the cold war with the US. The formal relationship ended finally with Henry Kissinger's secret mission to China for President Nixon and the recognition of PRC as the legitimate government of China by the US. ROC withdrew from the United Nation in 1971 and its formal diplomatic relationship with the US ended in 1978. The US relationship with ROC, now also more popularly known as Taiwan, has been governed by the "Taiwan Relation Act".

Both our parents followed the nationalist government from mainland China to Taiwan. We all grew up in Taiwan under the shadow of Cold War and the threat from PRC. The US was a major support to Taiwan throughout that period of difficult time. We went to the US for our graduate studies and eventually became US citizens and now we have been back to Taiwan again. Our experience is a small cosmos of the US-ROC relationship.

The building we shown here was the former residence of the US ambassadors for Taiwan. Six US ambassadors lived here. It is the last remaining free standing house in this part of central Taipei. I have to Photoshop the first picture a bit to remove the high-rise buildings surrounding it.

The building ran into disuse and deteriorated after the withdrew of US ambassador from Taiwan. Eventually the TSMC Education and Culture Foundation sponsored a restoration of the building. Many of you may see TSMC in your mutual fund portfolio. The founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) was born in mainland China, educated in Harvard and MIT. He attained his highest position as global VP for Texas Instrument in the US. He came back to Taiwan to head the Industrial Technology Research Institute and founded the TSMC, now the world largest semiconductor manufacturer. He is another product of US-ROC friendship.

The building is now operated by Taiwan Film and Culture Society and is know as SPOT-Taipei film House. It consists of a cinema, a book store, a coffee shop, an exhibition gallery, a wine lounge and a multi-media conference room.

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Today's Flowers #57: Flowers of Begonia Garden

These two images are from the "Begonia" garden that we visited two weekends ago. These are Angel's Trumpets (Brugmansia), 蔓陀羅. Don't be fooled by the pretty flowers, they are highly poisonous.

This lovely flower was soaked in an afternoon torrential rain. It looks like Bird of Paradise, but apparently it is Canna Lily.

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Camera-Critters #75: Swinhoe's Chocolate Tiger (Parantica swinhoei)

This is the second posting of butterflies of "Flying-Cow Ranch". On the two sides of the walk leading to the butterfly greenhouse, they are planted en mass of these white flowers. So many butterflies dotted on the plants. At first glance, they all looked alike. In reality, they are many different species.

This one called Swinhoe's Chocolate Tiger (Parantica swinhoei) 小青斑蝶. Apparently, it is a unique species of Taiwan. If you look for it in Google or Wikipedia, you will not be able to find much information.

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Skywatch Friday No. 61: Flying-Cow Ranch

Grace wanted to take me to take some photographs of butterflies. From the internet, I found this place called "Flying-Cow Ranch". The "Flying" actually refers to the butterfly walk and greenhouse in the ranch. It took us two-hour drive to get there. It was a very hot sunny day.

What really surprised us was the landscape of the place. It is located in a kind of valley. The landscape does not look like what we have ever seen in Taiwan.

It has a distinct European flavor, almost looks like an Alpine meadow of Swiss Mountain.

We have a lot of rice field in Taiwan, but rarely any grazing field for cow or sheep. This image almost looks like it is from Africa.

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ABC Wednesday: H is for House & Garden

"House & Garden" is the magazine that we often read when we were in the US and when we have a full size garden to take care of. We do not have a garden in Taiwan now, and we also rarely see garden filled with different types of flowers in Taiwan. The weekend before, after we made our visit to "Flying-cow Ranch", Grace persuaded me to drive to this coffee shop in the middle of a mountain range. The garden of this coffee shop has been featured in several TV shows.

The owner bought this piece of land several years ago then went ahead to create a marvelous garden around several bungalows. She calls the place "Begonia" (山芙蓉). The cooler air in the mountain allows her to plant many different types of flowers. We saw many that we used to plant in our own garden in the US and UK.

In the meantime, we also appreciate how much work she has put in to create this garden. Here is a photo of a begonia that the garden is named after.

It was very hot in the morning when we visited the "Flying-Cow Ranch". It was pouring when we arrived at "Begonia". However, It added certain mood to the place that we would not otherwise feel if it was a hot sunny day.

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A Photographic Riddle

My friend just bought the New Nikon 35mm, 1.8 lens for his relatively new Nikon D90. Since now he apparently grows up to a more advanced photographer. I put this riddle for him to solve:

400; 125; 8

200; 500; 2

400; 250; 5.6

What are these three sets of number have in common? Too easy right!!!