14.6.11

Beijing August 02: Morning in Tianamen Square

Tianamen Square is, as per the lonely planet, the center of the Chinese Universe. Most people have heard of it beacause of the student uprising that occurred in Tianamen Square way back in 1989. I have also read that Falun Gong members have regularly been arrested there for acts of protests. At any rate, Tianamen Square is one of the places a person must go if they go to Beijing. But once is enough I think!


Tianamen Square Scultpture
Sculpture in Tianamen Square


Thousands and millions of words have already been written about Tianamen, and all of those are no doubt far more eloquent than anything we can say. What is Tianamen Square: well, it is just that, a big, flat square in the middle of Beijing surrounded by official buildings and the Heavenly Gate that leads to the Forbidden City. So apart from that we will not say too much about the square itself (and no, we didn't visit Mao's Mausaleum).


Mom - Tianamen Square
Mom in Tianamen Square


For Queenie and I it is the second time we have been to this famous/notorious bit of real estate in the middle of Beijing. The first time was way back in the winter of 2005 on the back end of a six week tour of China. It was the middle of a deep winter and the temperature at the time was -9C - FREEZING - and the square was empty (see China Travelogue 8: Lanzhou to Beijing). Anyway, this time around it was a muggy, hot, humid August day - and there were a lot of people moving in and out of the square. They even had a security check point with x-ray machines (this wasn't there the last time we visited)and it is probably only there for the summer (at -9C Queenie and I were the only two people in the Square).


Mon and Queenie - Tianamen Square
Mom & Queenie in Tianamen Square


Queenie & Me in Tianamen Square
Mom & Queenie in Tianamen Square


The good thing about going to Tianamen Square this time was that we could actually get our pictures taken in the square. The last time we were here we took pictures but our memory chip got destroyed so we don't have any pictures of this part of our trip round China! Not good. So we go some pictures of us here and also a video (see below) but other than that, it was a fairly uneventful visit and walk through the square. If back in Beijing would I visit it again: depends on the weather. In the heart of winter no and in the heat of summer no - probably a cool spring/autumn evening would be nice, but there is nothing else that is compelling to draw me back there.



After visiting Tianamen Square we visited the Forbidden city (but didn't go in as too many people) and also Beihai. All in all it was a pretty awesome day.

13.6.11

Photowalk in the Taipei Flower Market - Pt. 1

Over the weekend we went on our second photowalk with our friends Ron and Melody in the Taipei Flower Market. The theme of the photowalk was Macro photography. As per wikipedia: "Macro photography is close-up photography of usually very small objects. The classical definition is that the image projected on the "film plane" (i.e., film or a digital sensor) is close to the same size as the subject"

The Sphere
The Sphere



This Sunday saw us with our friends Ron and Melody going on a photowalk through the Taipei Flower market under the highway on Chienkuo South Road. The theme of the photowalk was Macro photography. As noted above, Macro photography is the art of taking close up pictures of objects where the image and the object are roughly the same size. It was an interesting learning curve to say the least and both our cameras have a Macro function which makes it easier to do. Well, my camera certainly did have some limitations and the images below, as per Ron, are not all Macro pictures but we tried and, most importantly, we all had fun and awesome day. All the pictures below were edited in the "ViewNX 2" suite that came with Queenie's Nikon P7000. I was using a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3.

The pictures below are taken by me. Queenie will post her pictures when she has some time.



The laughing Buddha face was a close up of a wooden sculpture. The picture is cropped to show just the eyes, nose and mouth. I liked the definition in the lines on the wood and also the fullness of the face in the frame. I think it could have been cropped better as I don't like the dark patch in the top left hand corner.



The Face of Buddha
Wooden Scultpture of Buddha



The frogs below are ceramic and normally used as decorative items on indoor water features. The were positioned above a small water fountain and seemed to make a nice picture.



Frogs on DIsplay
Balancing Frogs



The picture below is a close up of the bottom of a water bottle held up agains the light. The picture is cropped and the original wasn't too bad either. I did modify the birghtness, contrast & color on this picture slightly and I think it came out ok.



Bottle Sparkles
Bottom of a Plastic Bottle



I liked these cherries, and yes they were plastic. Was trying to get in as close as possible but as you can see, the cherry in the foreground is slightly blurred.



Red Cherries
Plastic Cherries



This was just a cute ceramic sculpture. I think the picture says it all. Once again I got as close as possible but not sure it came out the way I wanted it too. Still liked the picture and the way it came out though.



Saving Sunflowers
Sunflower Child



The close up of the bird I also liked. I did enhance color and contrast on the picture but once again it came out a bit blurred, which is the challenge of identifying how close I can actually get to an object with my lens and understanding how to use the light.



Bird on a Stand
Bird on a Stand



The trinkets shown in the image below are about the same size as the trinkets themselves (or close to it) so I suppose in that sense it would be a macro picture (although I may be corrected). Once again color, contrast and brightness have all been enhanced in this picture, as well as sharpness.



Trinkets
Trinkets



The "flower organs" picture below is a heavily cropped picture. The actual picture included the entire flower and the some of the background leaves. I cropped all that out just to get a picture of the inside of the flower and also did some additional enhancements.



Flower Organs
The Heart of a Flower



More trinkets on sale. These are actually pretty cheap plastic items but I liked the color contrast between the gold extrerior and the red interior.



Gold Rush
Trinkets



I just liked the way the stem here is framed by the leaf and also the soft green tinges.



Framed
Nature Uncut



This is possibly my favorit picture of the day. Very little modifications were made on this picture. I love the symmetry of the leaves and the rich color of the leaves.



Symmetrical
Leaves in a Circle



This picture at first I didn't like. It seems a bit blurred but the lines on the petal are fairly sharpe and the light that comes through the petals of the flower helped make it better in my mind. I did enhance the brightness of the image a bit and I think it makes it look a little better.



Inside the Flower
Light through a Flower



Just a basic close up of some small fruit growing on a tree. I did enhance the sharpness, the color and the brightness in this one.



Fruit.
Fruit on a Tree



All in all it was a pretty awesome day. Both Queenie and I enjoyed it and we certainly learned a few things. So thanks again Ron for taking the time to show us.

10.6.11

A Riverside Walk in Pinglin (坪林)

Pinglin (坪林) is a small town south of Taipei that is most famous for its tea production. The town itself has a Tea Museum. Pinglin (坪林) is nestled in the mountains and the tourist department there have initiated a tourist promotion scheme by providing free shuttle buses to take people to places of interes. A really beautiful and wonderful place.

Us!
Next to the Jingualiao River(金瓜寮溪)

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