Photos from Taiwan, Pt. 2

Shilin Night Market

Night markets are a wonderful part of Taiwanese culture and something I really liked while I was last there 5 years ago. I brought my camera along to Shilin Night Market, even though I didn't think I would be able to take many photos due to the low lighting, packed streets, and cramped quarters. However, it turned out to be a wonderful opportunity to try out street photography for all of the reasons that I thought would be hindrances. I certainly could never take photos like this here in Arizona, or anywhere in the United States.

At first, I only took photos of the entire market to capture what it looked like as a whole. But after a little experimentation with my lens and camera settings, I realized I could get some pretty good shots of people and other isolated subjects in the markets. And thus I went about trying to capture the atmosphere of a bustling market filled with people from all walks of life, eating, shopping, and having a good time, all under the night sky and neon signs.

Here's a little blurb about Shilin Night Market, again taken from Wikipedia (yes, kill me English professors, I'm not sorry though): "

Shilin Night Market (Chinese: 士林夜市; pinyin: Shìlín Yèshì) is a night market in the Shilin District of Taipei, Taiwan, and is often considered to be the largest and most famous night market in the city…. The night market encompasses two distinct sections sharing a symbiotic relationship: a section formerly housed in the old Shilin Market building, containing mostly food vendors and small restaurants; and the surrounding businesses and shops selling other nonfood items….

In addition to the food court, side streets and alleys are lined with storefronts and roadside stands. Cinemas, video arcades, and karaoke bars are also prevalent in the area. Like most night markets in Taiwan, the local businesses and vendors begin opening around 16:00. As students begin returning home from school, crowds reach their peak between 20:00 and 23:00. Businesses continue operating well past midnight and close around 01:00 or 02:00."

I really wish I could have spent all night here taking pictures. It was an entirely new experience for me to take shots like this and I could have experimented for many nights. Each second was a new frame as people hustled and bustled around. Plus, I would never go hungry with such amazing night market food. Until next time, Taiwan.

Photos from Taiwan, Pt. 1

Over winter break I got to spend a week in Taiwan. Naturally, I had to take photos.

Ximending

The first location is Ximending. Ripped from Wikipedia since it can explain it way better than me, "Ximending (Chinese: 西門町; pinyin: Xīméndīng) is a neighborhood and shopping district in the Wanhua District of Taipei, Taiwan. ...Ximending has been called the "Harajuku of Taipei" and the "Shibuya of Taipei". Ximending is the source of Taiwan's fashion, subculture, and Japanese culture. Ximending has a host of clubs and pubs in the surrounding area. This area is in the northeastern part of Wanhua District in Taipei and it is also the most important consumer district in the Western District of Taipei."

After first seeing it at night, I knew I needed to come back for photos. The brightly lit signs, the upbeat atmosphere, the amount of people and energy around, I just had to try to capture it.

The photos above are only the "front" main area. Once you walk around inside, you get greeted with "miniatures" of this space filled with people and signs, but on small streets. Both vehicular and foot traffic busily coexist here.

Furthermore, there are many side alleys where smaller shops are located. In addition to these, there are large "walk-only" areas within the district filled with foot traffic and shops.

Presidential Office Building

Nearby Ximending is the Presidential Office Building. Again, ripped from Wikipedia, "The Presidential Office Building (Chinese: 總統府; pinyin: Zǒngtǒng Fǔ) houses the Office of the President of the Republic of China. …It became the Presidential Office in 1950 after the Republic of China lost control of mainland China and relocated the nation's capital to Taipei at the end of the Chinese Civil War. At present, this Baroque-style building is a symbol of the ROC Government and a famous historical landmark in downtown Taipei."

In previous nights it was brightly lit. I don't know if it was the time I came to shoot (around midnight) or if it was the day (December 31st) that was the reason why the lights were off, but nevertheless, I grabbed some pictures while the undercover secret service agents guarding the area outside watched me. 

 

 

 

New Year's Eve, Taipei

Every New Year a huge fireworks show occurs on the Taipei 101, the tallest building in the city, the country, and the world until the Burj Khalifa was completed in 2009. This being a city of nearly 3 million people and also a tourist attraction, especially for the New Year celebrations. 

My hotel was located close to the Taipei 101, roughly a mile and a half away. It took around 30 minutes to walk one-way, but there was no way I was getting close to it that night due to the crowds. Instead, I set up shop around a kilometer away from the building (yes, I'm mixing units, but as an American I can afford the luxury of doing so). Unfortunately, while I could see the building perfectly, this location did not give me a good photo-taking view of the building. It did however, put me in the middle of the crowds walking closer to it. Thus, while waiting for midnight, I took long exposures of the crowd, and, after filming the firework ceremony, taking photos of the aftermath:

Everyone was so courteous, making sure they weren't in my way, making sure not to hit my tripod's legs, etc. 

Taiwan was amazing, and I will hopefully have the rest of the pictures up soon.

Study Break- Tempe Town Lake Night Portraits

Being a full-time engineering student is super busy. However, it's important to make sure to go and have some fun when you can, which is what a friend and I did one night towards the end of the spring semester. Since it was tradition for us to snap selfies and pictures of each other whenever we went out to go do something fun, and we had some cool photo ideas but the only camera available was my phone in a dark room, we decided to recreate the pictures in better conditions.

First came testing settings, framing, etc., since I would be in some of the pictures so I would have to make sure everything was set up first. But, after snapping a few pics, I decided I didn't quite like the location we were at due to the lighting, so we moved closer to the lights nearby.

The light poles nearby make for some good props for photos, and the lights meant I didn't need to use my speedlight, which I couldn't really use when the camera is sideways, anyways. After we determined sitting on them wasn't possible, we tried some other poses while also messing around with how much leggings were shown. I thought that the combination of her outfit, the nighttime, and the lighting added a sense of mystery to the serious photos.

Eventually though, "sitting" on the pole was achieved, leading to some of my favorite photos from the night. The background, lighting, and positioning all came together really well. For these shots, I thought that having more of the leggings and skin exposed would  add to the mood of the photo (and also because it wasn't really physically possible otherwise thanks to the stretchiness of her dress), plus it matched the poses well.

My friend decided we should get some group shots again, and after demonstrating and determining that my phone-based wi-fi remote wasn't going to work with the poses we were trying, I resorted to setting up the camera and speedlight (due to the increased distance to get us both in the shot), setting the timer, clicking the shutter button, and then running in a panic to my spot. 

To get full-body shots, I had to rotate the camera and tripod, meaning no more speedlight, and set everything up again, giving my friend some more time to have fun before getting some more group shots, including a fun one and one of us being badass looking. We don't mess around.

To be honest, as of right now I find it more difficult to be creative in editing with portraits than automotive photos. However, something I think portraits really lend themselves well to are black and white conversions, which is what the following two photos are. They add this feel and emotion to the photo that can't really be put into words, and that is what I'm after when I take pictures. For some reason, when I look at these pictures, the Jaykode remix of the song "New York City" by the Chainsmokers pops into my head. The first photo involved black and white conversion, followed by adding in cloud and rain effects, while the second was a black and white conversion and darker contrast/blackness settings.

It's always fun to hang out with friends and decompress when life gets stressful. As much as it seems like that isn't possible when life gets busy, time can be found and made. 

Hiroi Sekai Meet

Some friends and their car club Hiroi Sekai have begun holding weekly meets in Gilbert. I decided to go to it yesterday, since even though last week was only their second week some "heavy hitters" in the car scene here showed up to it, and I'm eager to see it grow. Some more heavy hitters showed up last night, and despite an incident with someone not even at the meet squealing tires, leading to cops showing up, the space we had was already pretty full and the meet went smoothly. I look forward to where this leads to.

Elijah's E36

This semester has been interesting for me because I switched from mechanical engineering at the Tempe ASU campus to Automotive Systems Engineering at the Polytechnic ASU campus. While the Polytech campus is far out there (a 30 minute drive from Tempe, with not too much around it), the benefit of the surrounding area being smaller is that there are many empty roads. Empty roads that make perfect photo locations. Since my morning class the next day was cancelled, I decided to test out these spots, and my friend Elijah came along with his brand new E36. I have more photos, however, these were taken before we decided to throw on the other two of his OEM BBS wheels in the rear (the tires were showing chords so he was riding on the ones that came with the car). 

Elijah told me that the E36 is one of his dream cars, and now that he has it, he plans on keeping it until it dies. For a car bought off of Craigslist for $1000, the car is in amazing condition, with functioning everything and a body in good condition. Although, for some reason, in all my photos, the green paintjob came out as blue; I've tried to correct for it in the pictures, but it didn't work for all of them. Regardless, the cloudy headlights are from him wet sanding the headlight covers to clear them up; he tells me that they are clear now. So, with new tires on the way, clear headlights, and other mods in the works, look forward to seeing more of Elijah's E36.