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.

South Mountain Photo Shoot

Thanks to school, I have been extremely busy, and while I have time to take photos, sorting and editing them remains a different story. Hence, this blog, about a shoot that happened on the 26th of March.

A good high school friend of mine was in town that week for her spring break. She wants to enter photography and was hoping to learn a little from me, as well as take photos/get photos taken. It was around 4:30pm, and she suggested going to the (kind of) near South Mountain.

South Mountain, relative to Arizona State University and Sky Harbor in Phoenix.Image from Google Maps.

South Mountain, relative to Arizona State University and Sky Harbor in Phoenix.

Image from Google Maps.

Thanks to rush hour traffic, it took around 35 minutes to get to the base of the mountain. But the road that lay ahead was amazing. A little too amazing, to control myself.

As a person who loves driving, this road was heaven. Hence, I drove a little too fast uphill, getting me and my friend kicked off the mountain for the day. So, we headed back down to the base. With the golden hour quickly passing, we decided to hike to a smaller hill, and I taught my friend some basics about DSLRs and photo techniques. After this, with the sun already almost below the horizon, we decided to take some photos. 

 

There was still some light left, and I managed to take some solid photos, which ended up being the "fierce" photos. Although she did not like them as much as the other photos, I really liked these pictures because of the attitude I saw in them. Also, thanks to the sun, the lighting was very nice, creating a sun-glow/shine effect that I like.

Because there were windows, we also took some photos of her looking out of them. First, from behind. Personally, I like these photos because I feel that it conveys a large amount of emotion, as if the photo is about reminiscence of the past, or uncertainty towards the future. I think these will make great monochrome conversions; I'll have to try it some time. 

The first photo is soft, partly out of creativity, partly because the camera did not focus on her hair like I intended, making it rather fuzzy. Instead of trying to sharpen and blend the hair in, I softened the rest of the image to match it, creating a neat effect my friend pointed out to me; her hair looks like flames. While we were at the window, she and I decided to take some photos of her from the other side of the building.

My friend also wanted some photos of her taking pictures, so of course I obliged. I brought my Nikon D3100 with me so that she could use it. It functioned as both a camera and a prop here.

At this point, daylight was running out quickly, since it was already around 7pm and the sun had dipped below the horizon already. But, there were still photos to take, as the building we were in served as a perfect backdrop. Thanks to my tripod and my friend's ability to stand still, I was able use longer exposures to take some low-light portraits without flash or noisy ISO settings.

Although some of the shots came out softer than I would have liked, they were still good, in my opinion. With sunlight practically gone (it was 7:30pm, after all), we decided to head back to Tempe. However, I saw the perfect photo opportunity. I asked my friend to sit on a wooden fence so that she would be facing the remaining light in the sky from the sunset. 

I originally wanted to HDR the images together, but because of the movement between each image, I couldn't do it. So, instead, I decided to create the "sun-glow/shine" effect, as mentioned previously. Because I couldn't decide how soft and bright I wanted the image, I made multiple versions.

With daylight now completely gone, my friend and I headed back to Tempe. While I may have screwed up getting us to the summit of South Mountain, we did come back with some nice shots and increased knowledge of photography.