Yesterday, I visited Dihua Street [迪化街], Taipei’s biggest Chinese New Year market.  The last time I visited was during Chinese New Year, so most of the crowds and many of the stalls were already gone.  This time was extremely busy.  Despite how crowded it was, everyone was in a good mood and in the holiday spirit.  If you visit, be sure to go on an empty stomach, because most of the vendors give out plenty of free samples.

There were a couple of different crews filming when I visited, the young woman above was hosting either a travel show or a news piece.  Another crew I encountered later was filming the crowds, I gave one cameraman a  “台灣加油“ [Taiwan GO!] and received a thumbs up in return.

At Dihua Street you can find traditional New Year foods, Chinese medicine and herbs, fabric, toys, and other Chinese New Year items.

Since it was really crowded, I didn’t have much time or space to compose shots, so I usually just held out my camera at arm’s length and pressed the shutter.  I got various results this way, it wasn’t until after I left that I remembered my camera had a Live View function.

I originally planned to walk the length of the market on one side of the street and then walk back on the other side of the street.  Just walking halfway through the market took longer than I expected so I scrapped the idea of walking both sides.

I’ll leave you with the goods:

Photo by Angus

Despair is a post from: Taiwan Photographers

Im Anwesen der Familie Lin in Banqiao 林家花園.

• EMFIS: Eingliederung Taiwans in einen "Greater China"-Aktienindex. (05.01.)

• Standard: Comic-Lektüre für Staatsanwälte. (06.01.)

• Wissenschaft aktuell: Taiwanische Studie: Grüner Tee verringert möglicherweise die Wahrscheinlichkeit einer Erkrankung an Lungenkrebs. (13.01.)

• Zeit.de: Während seiner China-Reise betonte Bundesaußenminister Guido Westerwelle sein Festhalten an der Ein-China-Politik, womit laut Artikel gemeint sei, "dass Deutschland Tibet und Taiwan als Teil der Volksrepublik China betrachtet." (15.01.)
  

• Spiegel Online: Ein Taiwaner nach Avatar-Aufführung an Hirnblutungen gestorben. (19.01.)

• Focus: hat ein Video der neuesten Parlamentsrangeleien (19.01.) und der Standard den dazu passenden Kommetar. (28.01.)

• Hispaniola.eu: Taiwan spendete Motorräder für die Polizei der Dominikanischen Republik. (20.01.)

• DerWesten: über eine taiwanische Austauschülerin im Praktikum bei einer deutschen Bäckerei (20.01.) und deutsche Steinbildhauer im Marmorparadies Hualian 花蓮. (26.01.)

• Tagesspiegel: Konkurrenzkampf zwischen China und Taiwan beim Wiederaufbau in Haiti trotz "diplomatischen Waffenstillstands"? (25.01.)

• Reuters: Neue Handelsgespräche zwischen China und Taiwan. (25.01.)

• AFP: Taiwanischer Whisky setzt sich gegen schottische Konkurrenz durch. DPP kritisiert Kostenaufwand für die beiden "geschenkten" Pandabären aus China. (25.01.)

• Seilbahn.net: stellt die Gondelbahn am Sonne-Mond-See vor. (26.01.)

In eigener Sache: Besser spät als nie: mein Beitrag zum letztjährigen Hakka-Yimin-Fest und die Dezemberlinks.

Weitere Links von Interesse: Präsident Ma Ying-jeou im Interview mit der Taipei Times. Das Deutsche Wirtschaftsbüro in Taipei veröffentlichte (bereits im Dezember) seinen InfoBrief zu Taiwan. DPP siegte in allen drei Nachwahlen für vakant gewordene Parlamentssitze. RTI mit Bildern und einem Video von den Neujahrsfeierlichkeiten an verschiedenen Orten in Taiwan. Im letzten Jahr kamen so viele ausländische Besucher wie noch nie zur Insel. Taiwans Beitrag zur Katastrophenhilfe für Haiti; auch ein Schuldenerlass für das vom Erdbeben verwüstete Land wird in Erwägung gezogen.

Freak Out Beast (吵年獸), a music festival featuring a huge line up of Taiwan indie bands, took place on Saturday and Sunday in the space around the Red Theatre in Ximending. I attended both days last year but this year I was only able to attend for one day on Sunday.

The event took place on multiple stages around the Red Theatre. At the entrance there were turntables and mixing decks set up for DJs to perform. I had seen this crew performing in Ximending a couple of months earlier. In the evening Kou Chou Ching (拷秋勤) performed their Taiwan-style hip hop.

On the south side of the Red Theatre there was a small performance area for acoustic bands. The band playing in the photo is Xiasheng (夏生).

Plover were performing only their third live show. They were a well practiced outfit though and put on a good performance.

I have seen The Peppermints (薄荷葉) play several times in the past few weeks including at the Sanying Community. After their performance I bought a copy of their recently released CD “Banished”.

The last time I saw The White Eyes (白目樂隊) perform was at Freak Out Beast a year ago. They put on an awesome performance that had the crowd jumping. Gao Xiao Gao (高小糕) is incredibly energetic on stage and provided non-stop entertainment for the crowd. She even jumped into it at one point!

Someone broke out a bunch of sparklers while The White Eyes were performing. Freak Out Beast is based on a tradition related to the new year and scaring away the beast. With a lot of loud music and plenty of screaming from the crowd I am sure the beast was well and truly scared.

*More photos in the Freak Out Beast 2010 set at flickr.

Update: Check out Joshua Samuel Brown’s blog with some great videos of Kou Chou Ching and The White Eyes.

• Freak Out Beast in Ximending
• Freestyle motocross at Freedom Square
• Photo in Sky Couch magazine
• Another Lonely Planet
• Taiwan still free but problems with judicial rights: Freedom House report

MSW: Today, I am proud to bring you MSW’s latest interview with Mr. Alton Thompson. When the opportunity to meet Alton Thompson presented itself a few weeks ago, I was eager to learn everything I could about this a global educator, fine art photographer, conductor, and musician. Not only is Alton suave and cultured, his enthusiasm and love for the arts becomes apparent within minutes of meeting him.

If you’re interested in meeting Alton and viewing his art work in a formal setting, you’re in luck. Alton will be at the Taipei Artist’s Inaugural Members Show at the Taipei’s Mayor Salon. The exhibit starts on  February 9, 2010 and ends on February 27, 2010.

Location:
46 Xuzhou Road, Zhongzheng District, Taipei 100

Hours:
Daily 11:00am to 6:00pm

Event details are here.

MSW: Hi, Alton. Thank you for being here today.

AT: Hi, Carrie. It’s an honour.

MSW: When did you move to Taiwan and why?

AT: I visited Taiwan while on holiday in the summer of 2004. I fell in love with the place at once. Anyone who lives here can guess most of the reasons—natural beauty, fascinating cultures, welcoming people. I also liked the way musicians are trained here. I’m a native of Florida, so the climate was a plus. Some Taiwanese colleagues told me about some universities here that were looking for faculty. I was interested, so they helped arrange a few interviews. I was offered a position. I left my university job in Michigan and moved here.

MSW: You’re an educator, a musician, and a photographer. Wearing all of these hats must keep you quite busy. Where do you find inspiration and how do you mesh all of your interests together?

AT: Well, I’m still figuring out the meshing part. But there’s nothing unusual about working in different art forms. A long time age I stopped being surprised at the ability of a musician, for example, to draw or dance or act. Creative people tend to be creative in many ways. We could take your own career as Exhibit A here, couldn’t we? You sing, you write, you make visual art.

Art forms aren’t segregated by nature. For practical reasons we often treat them that way. But clay, paint, voice, film, JPG files—we all know in our bones that these are just routes that creative energy can take. We rightly call them media. They operate in the middle, between the source of art and the audience. The source of art is not a form. It finds one.

Artists tend to be artists first. We tend to be musicians, photographers, sculptors and poets second.

MSW: Music and photography. What strikes you as particularly similar? Particularly different?

AT: I’m finding that, regardless of the medium, challenges are similar. Whether you’re expressing yourself through a camera or a clarinet or clay or actors, your medium gives you thrilling potential and maddening limitations. And you’re expected to show something meaningful, something true, in the way you shape your material. It’s a paradox: people expect artists to tell the truth by artificial means. So you have this challenge of acquiring technique, of learning the rules so you can break them. The world we create also requires a frame of some kind. It might be a picture frame or a stage curtain, a moment of silence or the margin of a page, but there’s always a need to recognize that place where everyday life ends and the created world begins. Artists like to challenge this frame and obscure it in many ways, but it is never completely absent. Of course, we also owe our audience clues as to how our created world works. Once they give themselves to it, they want to be able to find their way around in it. They aren’t asking to be shown what’s behind every door, but they do like to have a few keys.

Differences? Other than the obvious distinction to be made between aural and visual information, I don’t see many differences. As a teen I would have told you that one reason I was pursuing music rather than visual art as my livelihood was because music moves while still images remain frozen. But that’s not quite right. Sure, music, like dance and drama, depend on our linear experience of time. But time plays a role in visual art, too. Statues don’t move, but viewers do. Eyes do.

MSW: You recently put music and visual together in your Taiwan Mussorgsky Project. How does that work?

AT: Most of your readers are likely familiar with Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. It’s a suite, composed in the nineteenth century for piano originally. Each movement depicts a work in an art exhibit. There’s also a theme that represents the viewer walking from picture to picture.

The piece is popular all over the globe, as you know. Countless versions have been made for orchestra, wind ensemble, synthesizer, rock band, you name it. I thought it would be interesting to test that universality a bit. I made a series of 400 photographs that are projected as a slideshow during a live performance of the music. The exhibit follows the music turn by turn. In the process it interprets this very Russian, very nineteenth-century music through visual images of modern Taiwan.

Mussorgsky’s viewer strolling through the art gallery becomes, in the images, a sightseer making a walking tour of Taiwan with a camera. The ‘pictures’ are what she sees of the island through her lens.

The Sightseer  ©Alton Thompson 唐博敦

AT: Trying to explain this idea was difficult in the beginning. I didn’t have any pictures to show. Musicians were wary of messing with a masterpiece and models thought it was weird to have photo shoots at a mausoleum. It didn’t take off until conductor Apo Hsu introduced me to the perfect model for the part: Mandy Weng (Weng Chun Yuin). Ms. Weng is a professional musicologist with a taste for dynamic, tormented, big-canvas composers. She understood right away what I was up to. We brought the score along with us on shoots and discussed the musical turns being taken as viewers see each shot.

In the House of Baba Yaga

Island World     ©Alton Thompson 唐博敦

AT: Last year conductor Apo Hsu exhibited the Taiwan Mussorgsky Project in three concerts: two in National Concert Hall, one in Taichung. On April 10 of this year she will perform excerpts of it again at the National Palace Museum. I’m getting the photos ready for that.

MSW: When did you first become interested in photography?

AT: Visual art has interested me for as long as I’ve been looking at the world. When I was a child a drawing of mine won a Florida newspaper contest. That gave me my fifteen minutes of fame on the playground. As an adult I’ve spent many rewarding hours in art galleries. Baltimore had many treasures in easy reach—the BMA, the Walters, the Visionary Art Museum. That last one by the way, is one weird place. It’s like nothing else. An hour down the road is DC with the National Gallery, the Hirshhorn, Corcoran and all that. Philly and New York lie a short distance up I-95 with all those museums as well. I saw them all.

I turned serious attention to photography as I finished grad school. It was something I had always wanted to do that had waited its turn. My colleagues always needed portraits for use in publicity, and as a musician I knew what they needed. I also felt I had something of my own to say in the medium.

Encounter ©Alton Thompson 唐博敦  2000

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA

AT: Around the same time a close friend of mine, Hope, was diagnosed with breast cancer. That set time on fire. You feel every moment going up in flames. You kick yourself for all the pictures you could have been making, but didn’t.

Photographs offer a way to catch and keep something, of course. I soon learned that, for someone whose outdoor movement was restricted, my photography could also provide a window. I could be Hope’s eyes on the world.

Climb ©Alton Thompson 唐博敦  1999

Baltimore, Maryland USA

Boy Selling Pumpkins ©Alton Thompson 唐博敦  1998

Boalsburg, Pennsylvania USA

Sky Pillars ©Alton Thompson 唐博敦   2000

New York City, New York USA

AT: I learned that photography is a form of contemplation. It pulls you out of the worries and spilkus that so easily clutter our minds and places you in the moment. Notice what the light is doing. Notice that colour, that texture. Notice.

Hope died after a five-year fight with the disease. She was a healthier person on the day she died than most people will ever be their entire lives. Sounds strange to say that, I know. But it’s true.

Since then I’ve studied photography informally with Brian Parmeter, a professional photographer in Michigan. I made the transition to digital when I moved to Taiwan. Even today, though, I often get the feeling that I’m someone’s eyes on the world. It’s as if I’m sending dispatches.

Grail ©Alton Thompson 唐博敦   2007

Kaohsiung, Taiwan

MSW: Which genres interest you most?

AT: Subjects interest me. People interest me, so I’ll always want to make portraits and collaborate with models. Narratives interest me. Taiwan fascinates me, absolutely. Any subject that fascinates a photographer is the best place to begin exploring.

Of course, you can mine any vein to the point where it’s time to try something new. Henrietta Shore once told Edward Weston that he needed to take a break from nudes. His most recent pictures, she said, were just nudes. “You are getting used to them. The subject no longer interests you.”

He agreed. If one can tire of looking at beautiful naked people, one can tire of anything.

I think more of subjects. Not about genres so much. To the extent that genres are sets of conventions. I’m interested in playing with the conventions. Learn it, then turn it inside-out. I enjoy Ang Lee’s approach to this in his films. He stars with a genre so familiar that we know it by the numbers: martial arts, cowboy Western, coming-of-age comedy, espionage. He then wrings so much story out of his characters that by the end of the film anything can happen and genre is irrelevant.

I think often about the way we view photos now. We look at them on computer screens. Everyone knows the drawbacks. You work to get the color and contrast exactly right, upload your photo, then cringe the instant you see how it looks on another monitor. Logos, ads and comments gather around the image like ants at a picnic. But I’m intrigued by that omnipresent glass screen. I like to play of the tyranny of that thing.

Abundance

Counterpoint ©Alton Thompson 唐博敦    2007

Taipei, Taiwan 台灣 台北

AT: I get concerned when new photographers feel a lot of urgency about genres, about deciding ‘what kind of photographer’ they are. Why limit yourself right out of the gate? Yet how often we see it: people buy their first camera that isn’t disposable and rush onto Flickr to post a manifesto. ‘I believe this! I reject that! I always do this! I never do that!’ Only yesterday they learned how to take off the lens cap, and already they decide what they will never do.

Artists thrive on ambiguity, experience, open borders. They are not terribly interested in limits, other than to test them.

MSW: How would you say that your photography has changed and grown since moving to Taiwan?

AT: That’s hard to say right now. I keep learning. I do more playful things here. And I notice I don’t make black-and-white images as often as I once did. Some of that has to do with the strengths of Taiwan as a locale. Living on a tropical island and shooting B&W—it’s a bit like going to a seafood restaurant and ordering steak, isn’t it? You can do it. But you would need a good reason.

Colocasia   ©Alton Thompson 唐博敦 2009

Taipei County, Taiwan  台灣  新北市 三峽

MSW: Who are some of your favourite visual artists?

AT: For photography, the usual suspects. I’ve always enjoyed Edward Weston. You never forget that powerful nude image of Charis Wilson.

I like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, the portraits by Robert Mapplethorpe, photographer Miru Kim, and sculptor Ariel Moscovici.

In painting, anything by Marc Chagall. The surrealism of Rousseau. Anything by Matisse. One of my favourite paintings is Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère.

As a photographer I’m enthralled with the films of Krzysztof Kieślowski. Powerful images, like that grieving scene at the end of Veronique. It interests me that he began as a documentary filmmaker. As he explored human nature ever more deeply he found he needed to work with actors—fearless actors. But he kept shooting the stories like documentaries. Of course, Ingmar Bergman is another film director who gives you one unforgettable image after another. We live in exciting times for films here in Taiwan. I do enjoy the work of the directors this island produces. I like the way Ang Lee always goes, in his subjects, where the ambiguity is. And you get these gems of images. As in Eat Drink Man Woman, when you see the chef and his friend joking with each other in a dark hallway outside the kitchen.

Sculpture—well, so many . Anything by Constantin Brâncuşi. The first time I saw Taipei 101 I was struck by its resemblance to Endless Column.

Rodin, of course. In Baltimore I was surrounded, indoor and outdoor, by compelling sculpture. Like many Peabody students, I bonded with the Naiad by Alice Turnbull. I like Alberto Giacometti . On the subject of Taipei 101, I find much to enjoy in the work of Ariel Moscovici. He’s the sculptor of Between Earth and Sky, that circle of rose-coloured stones you see at Taipei 101.

I enjoy looking at very ancient art, and timeless art. Medieval art, Asian temple art. Mythic themes, the kinds of theme Brâncuşi and Moscovici carry forward. I’ve also interested in popular forms and the way they eventually inspire great art. Many great opera characters in Mozart or Verdi, for example, originated as puppet show characters crowds encountered at town fairs. I wonder what ballets and great stories will emerge from the Pili puppet shows, manga characters, and Second Life fantasies that surround us now.

I saw an impressive treatment of the opening act of Carmen once by Opera Memphis. Everything–the fort, the uniforms, the factory, the women’s gowns–was beige, khaki and brown. It was a monochrome scene. Then came the moment when Carmen slyly produced a rose from the folds of her dress—and that red just leaped off the stage.

Wow. If we get into stage works, this conversation could go a long time! Maybe it’s best to draw a line here.

MSW: Do you have any projects in the works right now?

AT: I haven’t settled yet on a new big project, but I want to make more series. I am collaborating with models who have a real presence, and that in itself suggests projects. I am setting up a studio later this year. I plan make portraits, especially images of performing artists. I’d like to make some figures studies, and I’m interested in documenting art works. It’s not easy for sculptors, for example, to get good photographs of their work. That’s an area where I think I can help. Still, I will always want to shoot outdoors and use natural light. Taiwan itself is an inexhaustible source of inspiration.

MSW: Do you have a favorite photograph?

AT: Thanks for asking that, Carrie. I just had a wonderful mental image of works by Cartier-Bresson and Weston, flipping past like the ‘album view’ on a music player!

As it happens, my favourite photograph is the work of an amateur photographer. And it’s a sunset photo at that!

In November 1969 the astronauts of Apollo 12 were returning from the moon in their ship, Yankee Clipper. They incidentally became the first people to witness an eclipse of the sun by the earth. This is the last moment before the sun slipped behind earth’s shadow.

Image courtesy of NASA

Isn’t that sublime?

Every place we’ve ever travelled, every being we’ve ever met, is contained in that round shadow. It’s all there. And you can cover it with your hand.

MSW: Any thoughts for photographers starting out?

AT: Only some advice I can pass along. We’re all starting out.

Shortly after Michelangelo died, his apprentice went into the studio to gather the artist’s personal effects. The apprentice found a note in the desk, in Michelangelo’s handwriting. The note was addressed to him.

It said, “Draw, Antonio. Draw, Antonio. Draw, and do not waste time.”

Details:

• Gallery: Alton’s Images
• Twitter: @altonsimages.com
• E-Mail: altonsimages@gmail.com
• Alton @Ipernity
• Alton @Flickr

MSW Interviews Alton Thompson: Global Educator, Musician, and Photographer is a post from: My Several Worlds

© 2007-2010 My Several Worlds

We arrived in Bangkok with 5 hours to kill and so, a taxi to Mahakan Fort to see a bit of the night life was taken. It was busier on Khon San Road than Michael Klein and I thought it would be for a Monday night.

But, oh… it’s so much darker, down trodden, depressing, dirtier, smelly, stinkier and stench ridden than you could believe. To many sightings of local people looking and acting so dejected, passed by foreigners oblivious to what really is about them. Those passing through are not there for the experience, but to say “I’ve been there.”

I feel so sad by these new memories of the night. Almost, I’m wishing them not to be. The sooner we can go, to a quieter, calmer, real place we move onto the better it’ll be.

Soon authentic life will become about us, via a 1-hour plane ride than 5-hour bus. Into Khon Kaen we will trundle to be of how life should be.
–
1/26/2010 – Pondering what happened for a not so fun outing into Bangkok’s night life.

No related posts.

Chinese New Year shopping, Dihua St, Taipei

Every culture and country has its own series of traditional festivals and holidays. For the photographer, these can provide some great opportunities to shoot a diverse range of subjects.

Before we go any further, let me remind you that my eBook Tips, Tricks and Pics is available to purchase for $5.

As the holiday approaches, people are often busy with preparations and there is an air of excitement and anticipation. Depending on what is being celebrated, you may find these preparations involve buying special holiday food and gifts, cleaning and decorating homes and offices or setting up special public activities. A trip to the local market can yield a wealth of imagery. Here in Asia, the lunar new year is less than a week away. This is the most important holiday of the year so people are busy buying food, candy and the like.

A holiday is often a good time for families to reunite and gather together. Family members are often more tolerant of repeated attempts at photography so this is a good chance to practice your portrait photography skills. You could even start (or continue) a tradition of a yearly family portrait.

The days following are often relaxed, particularly if no one needs to go to work or school. Public events often take place, people are relaxed and usually open to having their pictures taken. Take advantage of this and get out there with your camera.

Traditional holidays to keep in mind include but are not limited to Christmas, Easter, Chinese New Year, Tet, Diwali, Holi, Eid Al-Fitr, Eid Al-Adha, Hannukah, various national or independence days and so forth.

That was the 39th Daily PhotoTip. If this post was useful to you, why don’t you subscribe to my feed, leave a comment and share it with your friends. You can also get access to exclusive content and special offers by subscribing to my newsletter. Sign up today. Thank you.

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This is a post from: CraigFergusonImages

Traditional Holidays

Photo by Siegfy

Moving Day is a post from: Taiwan Photographers

Public Art

Public art installations and displays can provide good photographic opportunities. Unlike art galleries and museums where photography is often restricted or prohibited, outdoor public displays usually encourage photos. It’s quite common for these creations to be a little edgier, conceptual or just plain weirder than what’s found in a gallery.

Finding the installations can sometimes be tricky, particularly if you’re not connected into the art world. The picture here is from a public display on the grounds of a fine art museum. Locations such as this, or the grounds of a contemporary art museum often have works on display that are freely able to be photographed. Other places to try are universities and other areas where students congregate, redeveloped inner city communities, trendy cafe districts and even outside government buildings and community centers. Keep an eye on the entertainment supplements of newspapers or the street press to find out about any new exhibitions.

That was the 38th Daily PhotoTip. If this post was useful to you, why don’t you subscribe to my feed, leave a comment and share it with your friends. You can also get access to exclusive content and special offers by subscribing to my newsletter. Sign up today. Thank you.

This is a post from: CraigFergusonImages

Public Art

Got me a new camera now, finally. And that is some days ago already, just so that you know. A few problems arised and all of a sudden there were a game show going on, so I weren't able to post this article by the time that I wanted.

My shiny new DSLR of walletbane.
It's a Canon EOS 50D with a Tamron SP 17-50mm F/2.8 Di-II attached.

Cannon states this camera is somewhere between novice and professional. As far as I'm concerned, it outputs signifficantly better pictures than my point-and-shoot Sony Cyber-shot, and is able to take many consecutive shots pretty fast compared to other cameras in its class. The lens is of course, probably more important to overall image quality. It's a wide angle lens that becomes normal when you zoom in. It doesn't zoom much for an all-around camera, but I'm still planning on using only this one for now. Am not taking a lot of pictures of landscapes or hard-to-reach objects, so my expensive lens should be enough. It deals with lots of people moving around indoors pretty well, and has surprising capabilities for portrait shooting. And then, it's not that it was really-really expensive. It's third-party after all. 18000 NT$

The sharpness of the lens is really great. And then it's good for taking pictures during night time, which is my top priority for now. The combination seems also to make the pictures more luminous. I feel that this way, I can snap photos that are more true to the extremely well-lit Taipei.
Above picture is taken with the new camera by 6.30 pm just outside Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition hall 3 (somewhere near Taipei 101).

This picture is of the park by Banciao Main Station - which contains the MRT station nearest my current home.

And there goes another shot in Taipei 101's neighbourhood. A lovely well lit place with lots of people around.

Went to Taipei Game show again today (Saturday), and snapped some more pictures. I'm quite amased at how easy it is for me now to get really great shots of single people. On the point-and-shoot I used before, I had to point at the exact right position and then make the planets align. Obviously, that's the idea of point-and-shoot, and there's a good reason people are willing to pay so much more on the bigger cameras. Still, I am really surprised at how easy it is to do this. Can decide amongst a number of autofocus points and the camera focuses exactly on the object I'm interested in. The camera adds in a little bonus bokeh (blur on out-of-focus objects) by itself. Actually I don't need anything but to zoom and the auto feature gets the other stuff just right. And that is, much more just right than the unintelligent Cyber-shot that doesn't let you pick anything.

Yet, I pretty quickly got to love control. Setting ISO, Aperture and shutter speed by yourself actually isn't such a big work to do, and I'd say it vastly improves the photosnapping in changing conditions. High ISO speed causes ugly, digital noise. An aperture that's wide open will reduce picture sharpness, (although it's pretty hard to see the difference with my lens.) And finally, low shutter speed blurs out moving objects. High shutter speed, low ISO and narrow aperture makes the photos darker - less exposure. It's really that simple it seems. You pick the lowest shutter speed when not much movement is going on. When outside during night time, slam the aperture wide open (that is, set it to the lowest possible setting) as well as setting the ISO up around 800-1600 (or 400-800 if your equipment is awesome) depending on the shutter speed. (Lotsa cars and people around this place, so I can't leave it too low.)

That's what I know so far at least. You can find that stuff all over the internet pretty quickly. They're well explained too, but to me, it seems really just terribly advanced when you read it compared to just snapping photos yourself. All that stuff about how to take it the right angle and golden panels and whatnot, I'm not an expert on currently, but for just 3 days of rampant snapping, I feel the manual control is no bother already. I can never go back to point-and-shoot again, that's 100% sure.

Now, to be a little Canon EOS 50D specific, there's one feature for this DSLR body that's worth noting. As stated earlier in this post, it can spree photos pretty quickly. 6.3 photos a second, actually. Which is just great for taking photos of giveaways where people have to catch the stuff. - Or perhaps more likely, sports. I don't have such a great control of this feature just yet, so the pictures I've taken so far are not really the best of those I have.

What an awfull lot of people.

I wonder what kind of blog post this became. Some sort of cross between review, guide and computergame exhibition? Or just ramblings in excuse of posting more cute Asian girls?
Sorry to dissapoint you again, eventual female readers.

Photo by Linyijen.

Secrets is a post from: Taiwan Photographers

Photo Moment: Reflections is a post from: My Several Worlds

© 2007-2010 My Several Worlds

Toned version of an electicity power grid.

When was the last time you looked up? As photographers, we usually find ourselves looking out on an even plane with the camera held to our eye and our head straight. Occasionally we might squat, sit or lie down to focus on something at ground level but rarely do we point the camera up.

Think of the types of subjects that normally require you to look up to see, things such as the moon, birds or tall buildings. Now bring to mind any photographs of them you’ve taken or seen and you’ll probably realize that they are taken on a relatively flat aspect. We often see photos of the moon is the distance over something, or birds flying low, or a tall building as part of a cityscape. Much less common is the photograph that looks directly up.

The image that accompanies this tip is of an electricity pylon that forms part of Taiwan’s electricity grid. By standing almost directly under it, using a wide angle lens (19mm in this case on a full frame camera) and looking up, I’m able to create a sense of domination. The tower has an imposing feel to it, a real sense of power.

Try this technique next time you’re wandering around the city, or in a forest of tall trees. Remember to look up and photograph what you see. There are plenty of photo opportunities waiting for you.

That was the 37th Daily PhotoTip. If this post was useful to you, why don’t you subscribe to my feed, leave a comment and share it with your friends. You can also get access to exclusive content and special offers by subscribing to my newsletter. Sign up today. Thank you.

This is a post from: CraigFergusonImages

Looking Up

Went to the annual Taipei Game Show today. It's on from Friday 2/6 to Tuesday 2/9, so I just reached it on it's first day. A bit late though. It's open from 10 am to 6 pm. As with the book exhibition last week, I arrived at 4 pm. Too late to try stuff. But still plenty of time to locate all the booths and take pictures of loads of stuff. Took 148 photos while there, which is almost half of what my camera can contain. And that's in just 2 hours. (I make it save a raw together with a JPEG, so total size per shot is usually about 22-23 megabyte. I could cut it down to 2-3 per shot by not saving raws, should I have to snap more when I'm going back.)

In this place there's many booths and several stages for different kinds of performance. Some of them they have turnaments. At others, you can just jump up on and get a brief instruction like this guy above is, and you're in a competition of some sort, competing for freebies.

The whole event is actually mainly consisting of just two things: Loads of showgirls and hordes of guys taking pictures of them. Which is probably exactly the blend it takes to market computer games these days. Or at least it's the only combination used these days.

Probably going back there tomorrow, hoping I can get to try some of the games. I doubt it'll be easy to do so by that time. Probably, much more people will be there by then. Pretty many were there already today, but tomorrow is weekend and some famous people are going to be there. That's what a Taiwanese guy at one of the booths told me, and of course he'd be telling the truth. I just have no idea what kind of famous people could be showing up. Gamers? Game developers or CEO's? Or real television stars? I hope there'll be a few foreigners too, but that's probably very unlikely.

In case any girls are reading this, I apologise. It's just not fair, but all the hot guys in this place has cameras all over their faces, so it's impossible for me to get much interesting stuff for you. Although probably more than 90% of the people in this hall are male, only girls get on the scenes, unfortunately.

Notices my photos switched from 450 to 400 pixels in height? I'm using my new Canon 50D with a wideangle lens. Did write a bit about that, but not enough for a blogpost. I have tripod, camerabag with backup battery, killer lens, lots of tiny misc stuff and wouldn't imagine what else I could need apart from flash equipment. It's no more less easy to tell the seasoned pro from the newbie. That guy infront of me carrying around a tiny stepladder says it all.

If you go to the exhibition, you'll see it's pretty focused about taking pictures. At least half of all the guys here have cameras and you'll get all the chances you want to take pictures next to all kinds of different dressed up girls and creatures.

Just so that you know, it's not just all sorts of Taiwanese games completely unfamilliar to you that's on display here. There's also a few imports from Europe, and of course, World of Warcraft. The latter has both this scene above...

...A merchandise shop...

...Which also deals in grande figures...

...A meeting stone that you may write your name on, which is standing next to the line you have to wait in, in order to have your picture taken with the two gorgeous girls in the picture at the beginning of this post... And finally:

The bloody Intel Extreme Masters Asian Championship finals.

Actually, this area is run by Intel, who advertises their processors by holding tournaments in many widely popular games. It's not just for WoW that you can participate in the Asian Championship Finals, the finals for Quake and Counterstrike take place there too. Also, appareantly, not just asians can participate. You'll be able to see a few people from Sweden and America there too. Here's a link to Intels site about it: Intel Extreme Masters Asian Championship Finals at the Taipei Game Show (TGS) 2010.

On the stage which was empty before, the World of Warcraft teams shows they also have some beautifull girls to do pointless dances, just like everyone else. To the tunes of TAFKAL80ETC and all of the most popular Taiwanese pop songs that'll start to piss you off pretty quickly.

Woah! There's a guy on the stage. Now that's weird!

Actually, WoW, although almost the only player in Denmarks MMORPG market, does not have a big share in the giant market of Taiwan. Although people are consuming MMORPG's and games in general much more than anywhere in the western world, Blizzards booths are much easier to reach due to smaller crowds. Also, they take up a relatively big share of the exhibition and it seems Blizzard is investing a lot in this as well as advertisement in general, which can only be due to Blizzard wanting to get more into the vast masses of consumers that can be found in Taiwan, and of course, Asia in whole.

Enough Warcraft already. A few meters away, three girls just decide to sit down for a while.

And before you know it, they're completely surrounded by photographers. I wanted to join in on the fun for a while longer, but I gave up after 2 pictures as it was too hard to get a clear shot without arms and heads sticking into the foreground after a few minutes had passed.

Instead I went to snipe this cutie, but she gathered a big group of people pretty fast by throwing with freebies, and I had to fight to not get stuck in there when a group of gold-dressed girls went on stage to dance the Nobody Dance. And for some reason, when the tunes from the accompanying song starts pouring out, there'll be people all over in no time.

So I went back to get a last shot of the three girls before they dissapeared. I wonder what game they advertised. Can't read chinese too well just yet.

Funnily, this game called Monster Hunter could do with just one big scene. With this only - at which you could come up and play and win baloons resembling claws - the people running it managed to probably get more attention than any of the others. A clever combination of big screens and cute catgirls.

I have to buy a truckload of fluffy ears before I leave Taiwan, no doubt about that.

There also be pirates.

And they be giving out free stuffs that you can see flying in the air if you click the picture two times to get the full version. I love my new camera.

Just to make us 100% aware that we are indeed in Taiwan, people are also selling mousepads for those who like to touch the breasts of 2D-girls.

And that would be my end station for today. At this booth some people were exhibiting their new 3D screen technology. They hope to launch a product soon, so you will be able to buy a film to put over your computer screen, then install a graphics driver, put on some 3D-glasses and play your games with 3D-effects like some cinemas would show Avatar in.

Without glasses, the screen is impleasant and blurry to look at, but after a few seconds of wearing the glasses, the tail of that airplane actually seemed to stick out of the screen.

Spent a lot of time by the booth to talk with one of the guys there. In English, fortunately. Decided to see a little more for the last half hour and went away just to meet the guy again by the exit and linger there untill the guards got the last people herded out of the closing exhibition hall. It's nice to talk casually about Taiwan and future career dreams in Asia once in a while. I do that a lot, of course.

Wauw. That's a bit of a monster post you just digested there! Thank you lots!