Hong Kong at Night - A composite of several noisy hi speed shots, not a huge difference than slower speed shots I took.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Composite Photos
Sprinkled throughout the Asian photo sets are some panoramic & composite photos. Some of them turned out well, others, not so much.
Hong Kong, General
The view from my hotel was pretty cool. I could see right into the race track -- although there were no races while I was there (probably why I got a nice rate).
If you stop by the zoo in Hong Kong check out the pair of Siamang that they have. Although, they'd be hard to miss. They are very very loud (it doesn't come across in the photo).
Other than that there are just a few statues and some crowds to document here.
If you stop by the zoo in Hong Kong check out the pair of Siamang that they have. Although, they'd be hard to miss. They are very very loud (it doesn't come across in the photo).
Other than that there are just a few statues and some crowds to document here.
The photo set can be found here.
The map of the photo set is here.
Wikipedia:
Po Lin Monastery & Big Buddha
A word of warning to any who would visit Big Buddha on Lantau Island: take the Sky Rail to get there. I didn't realize they had this until I got there (I took a bus there, took a while) and by then both the monastery and the Sky Rail were closed. So I had to wait an hour for the bus to come back. In the meantime I was able to get to photos of the Big Buddha.
The photo set can be found here.
The map of the photo set is here.
Wikipedia:
Central
Central is the "downtown" part of Hong Kong. It has most of the tall buildings, such as IFC 2, The Center, the HSBC Building and the Bank of China building. These photos were taken from the top of a double-decker bus and also from just walking around.
The photo set can be found here.
The map of the photo set is here.
Wikipedia:
Star Ferry
Kowloon
Kowloon, across Victoria Harbor from Central Hong Kong is probably best known for its views of Hong Kong. I was also able to snag a photo of Cameron Road, which was a mistake, as identifying yourself as a tourist in Kowloon means you're going to have touts crawling over you in seconds.
The photo set can be found here.
The map of the photo set is here.
Wikipedia:
Taipei, General
I did stop by some spots other than the 101 building in Taipei. Most notably I went to the zoo to see the pandas that the PRC has given to Taiwan. The guards really hurry you along, so the best panda photo I have is this one of a panda balloon peaking over the top of a building.
The photo set can be found here.
The map of the photo set is here.
Wikipedia:
News:
Taipei 101
I spent an afternoon in Taipei before heading to Hong Kong, and really the only thing I took a good look at was Taipei 101, which was pretty impressive.
It's the tallest completed building in the world, and the thing that makes it really stick out is that there aren't any other tall buildings in Taipei. It dominates the city. I've even have some photos I took from the zoo where you can see Taipei 101 even though it's behind some mountains. It's big.
It's the tallest completed building in the world, and the thing that makes it really stick out is that there aren't any other tall buildings in Taipei. It dominates the city. I've even have some photos I took from the zoo where you can see Taipei 101 even though it's behind some mountains. It's big.
The photo set can be found here.
The map of the photo set is here.
Wikipedia:
Taiwan High Speed Rail
Another set of photos where the map may be more interesting than the actual photos.
The Taiwan High Speed Rail is pretty cool. It got me from Kaohsiung to Taipei in about 85 minutes, and without all the headaches you get with air travel. I just showed up at the station, got a ticket for the express train that left in 5 minutes and before I knew it I was in Taipei.
So, these are the best photos I could manage at 300 km/h.
The Taiwan High Speed Rail is pretty cool. It got me from Kaohsiung to Taipei in about 85 minutes, and without all the headaches you get with air travel. I just showed up at the station, got a ticket for the express train that left in 5 minutes and before I knew it I was in Taipei.
So, these are the best photos I could manage at 300 km/h.
The photo set can be found here.
The map of the photo set is here.
Wikipedia:
Kaohsiung, General
Motorscooters, Feral Dogs and Monkeys. That's what I'll remember about Kaohsiung. The monkeys are over in the Monkey Mountain set, but here we've got some photos of the motorscooters -- which dominate the road (and sidewalks) and some the feral dogs that roam the streets, and seem to be pretty well fed.
The photo set can be found here.
The map of the photo set is here.
Wikipedia:
Monkey Mountain
Chai Shan is a hill to the north of Kaohsiung that is also called Ape Hill or Monkey Mountain. The name is apt because as soon as you start hiking up it, you start seeing monkeys. Everywhere.
When we got to the top of the hill there was a little lookout where a lot of people were hanging out, with more monkeys. Actually, not everyone was just hanging out. There was a high bar and some rings that one guy was using. It's quite a hike. If you charge up that hill, get to the top and decide it's time to practice your Iron cross, you win, man.
Right. So we're drinking tea at the top of this hill when I feel something brush up against me. I look over and there's a big old monkey looking at me. I pop up and notice that he's holding the wrapper from the energy bar I had eaten earlier. It's a pickpocket monkey!
He tires of the empty wrapper and climbs onto Aileen and tries to dig through her satchel as well. An elderly couple shoos him away with a stick they're holding (for that purpose). He pops up onto the lookout railing. Then a guy comes out of nowhere and starts shooting at the monkey! It was some sort of air gun, and the guy wielded it with every ounce of menace he had. He did not mess around. Neither did his t-shirt. Saved by Playerz 69.
The photo set can be found here.
The map of the photo set is here.
Wikipedia:
Lotus Lake
2009 World Games Stadium
Apparently, every city in China (both flavors) has some sort of Olympic type event these days. Beijing had the actual Olympics. Taipei has the Deaflympics. Hong Kong has the East Asian Games. Kaohsiung isn't getting left out, it has the 2009 World Games.
The World Games are made up of sports that aren't carried by the Olympics. Mostly, it's sports I've never heard of like dragon-boat racing, fin swimming and rugby. Marginal, but they made a really cool stadium for it. It's totally solar powered and parts of it were still shrink-wrapped when I visited. Anyhow, the World Games are this summer in July. I'm sure you can watch them on Setanta or something.
The World Games are made up of sports that aren't carried by the Olympics. Mostly, it's sports I've never heard of like dragon-boat racing, fin swimming and rugby. Marginal, but they made a really cool stadium for it. It's totally solar powered and parts of it were still shrink-wrapped when I visited. Anyhow, the World Games are this summer in July. I'm sure you can watch them on Setanta or something.
The photo set can be found here.
The map of the photo set is here. -- Note that the stadium is so new that it doesn't show on any maps yet! (2/26/09).
Wikipedia:
Tuntex 85 Sky Tower
The Tuntex 85 Sky Tower is the tallest building in Kaohsiung. It is also the 14th tallest building in the world (a little shorter than the Empire State Building). The strange thing was that when Aileen and I were on the observation deck we only saw two other people people up there. We even had to hunt down the person in charge of selling tickets to the observation deck.
The photo set can be found here.
The map of the photo set is here.
Wikipedia:
Aileen's Apartment
The catalyst for this trip was that my sister, Aileen, is teaching English in Kaohsiung, Taiwan for a year. These are some shots of and from her apartment.
The Mexican looking guy is General Pancho, mascot of the "Mexican" Restaurant they live upstairs from.
The Mexican looking guy is General Pancho, mascot of the "Mexican" Restaurant they live upstairs from.
The photo set can be found here.
The map of the photo set is here.
Tokyo, General
One advantage to having a GPS logger in your pocket is that you can figure out where you went, even if you feel like the bus to the airport is going in circles. A lot of the photos in this set aren't great, but they were taken on that bus - so check out the map and you can get a sense of what the trip from Tokyo to Narita looks like.
Also, I thought taking a picture of a Dr. Pepper can was a good idea -- too exhausted to leave my hotel at that point, I think.
Also, I thought taking a picture of a Dr. Pepper can was a good idea -- too exhausted to leave my hotel at that point, I think.
The photo set can be found here.
The map of the photo set is here.
Wikipedia:
Yoyogi Park & Meiji Shrine
At the southern end of Yoyogi Park are some Olympic venues from the 1964 Olympic Games -- those kick off this set.
Next comes the park itself and the Meiji Shrine, which is in the center of the park. Either my timing was very good or very bad because I got there just as they were starting some sort of Shinto ceremony. I had no idea what any of it meant but they were banging on a really big drum (that I could barely see) so it was pretty cool.
Apparently Hillary Clinton visited the shrine two days later as part of her first diplomatic stop as Secretary of State (the original shrine was destroyed in WWII).
Next comes the park itself and the Meiji Shrine, which is in the center of the park. Either my timing was very good or very bad because I got there just as they were starting some sort of Shinto ceremony. I had no idea what any of it meant but they were banging on a really big drum (that I could barely see) so it was pretty cool.
Apparently Hillary Clinton visited the shrine two days later as part of her first diplomatic stop as Secretary of State (the original shrine was destroyed in WWII).
The photo set can be found here.
The map of the photo set is here.
Wikipedia:
News:
Tokyo Tower
This is Tokyo Tower, really the most distinctive structure in Tokyo. It's shaped similarly to the Eiffel Tower - plus the Japanese can't help but point out at just about every opportunity they get that it's something like 9 meters taller than Paris's version. It's also birght-ass orange.
They say that you can see Mt. Fuji (Fuji-san) from the the top of the tower. Not so much when it's smoggy.
The photo set can be found here.
The map of the photo set is here.
Wikipedia:
Zojoji Temple
This is a Temple near the base of Tokyo Tower. I wandered around it for a while before heading up to the Tower.
The Sangedatsu Gate is the oldest wooden structure in Japan. There's also a tree that George Bush (41) planted. On to Tokyo Tower.
The photo set can be found here.
The map of the photo set is here.
Wikipedia:
Ginza
Most of my time in Ginza was spent looking for a place I thought I'd be capable of ordering lunch. I spent a good amount of time trying to find a menu I thought I'd be able to order from without getting in too much trouble. It took a lot longer than I expected, and I'll admit I wasn't too adventurous when I found it.
Japanese Imperial Palace
When I was finally able to make it onto a Tokyo train I figured the best place to get off the train was at the stop named "Tokyo". A lot of planning went into this trip. I got off there, wandered around some empty underground corridors and then climbed back up to the surface. A map there said that something called the "Imperial Palace" was a couple blocks away. I decided that sounded like someplace worth visiting.
Most of the palace grounds are off-limits to tourists, but a portion of the Imperial Gardens are open for the public to wander about. These gardens were the first place that I found out that they get really excited to see white people with Nikons. I can't understand exactly what they're saying other than "Nikon" but it's similar to what would happen if a group of Cleveland tourists ran into a native wearing a Browns sweatshirt in the middle of Cairo. I'm guessing they're unaware of the influence Ashton Kutcher has on America's camera buying population.
Anyhow, I'm wandering around the Imperial Gardens and this Japanese grandma runs up to me:
Japanese Grandma: "Dodoko noko noko nah bodoko!"
Me: "Please don't hurt me."
JG: "dodoko dodoko Nikon!" (pointing at camera)
Me: (nervously lifts camera, smiles)
JG: (points over at a tree, exasperated)
I look over the tree, which was a freshly blossomed and there was a little bird in the tree. I figured out real fast that they really go for little birds perched on blossoms, as Japanese Grandma went and rounded up another half-dozen photographers after me. The results are here.
Despite my best efforts, I didn't run into any ninjas in Japan. I may have come close though. While wandering around the gardens I walked by a building (here) that was in the off-limits zone. I'm not sure what was going on in there, but it's probably better that I wasn't allowed in, it sounded like they were tossing tree trunks at each other.
Most of the palace grounds are off-limits to tourists, but a portion of the Imperial Gardens are open for the public to wander about. These gardens were the first place that I found out that they get really excited to see white people with Nikons. I can't understand exactly what they're saying other than "Nikon" but it's similar to what would happen if a group of Cleveland tourists ran into a native wearing a Browns sweatshirt in the middle of Cairo. I'm guessing they're unaware of the influence Ashton Kutcher has on America's camera buying population.
Anyhow, I'm wandering around the Imperial Gardens and this Japanese grandma runs up to me:
Japanese Grandma: "Dodoko noko noko nah bodoko!"
Me: "Please don't hurt me."
JG: "dodoko dodoko Nikon!" (pointing at camera)
Me: (nervously lifts camera, smiles)
JG: (points over at a tree, exasperated)
I look over the tree, which was a freshly blossomed and there was a little bird in the tree. I figured out real fast that they really go for little birds perched on blossoms, as Japanese Grandma went and rounded up another half-dozen photographers after me. The results are here.
Despite my best efforts, I didn't run into any ninjas in Japan. I may have come close though. While wandering around the gardens I walked by a building (here) that was in the off-limits zone. I'm not sure what was going on in there, but it's probably better that I wasn't allowed in, it sounded like they were tossing tree trunks at each other.
The photo set can be found here.
The map of the photo set is here.
Wikipedia:
Shinjuku
Shinjuku was where I stayed in Tokyo. The elevated photos are from my hotel room. The weird looking building, which I took a lot of photos of, is the Cocoon Tower and just opened a few months ago.
Shinjuku is also the home of Shinjuku Station, which is the world's busiest train station. I spent about an hour my first day trying to figure out how to buy a subway ticket, only to completely screw it up. I tried to buy a card that would last a couple days, instead got a single journey ticket with way to many yen on it. Round 1 goes to Tokyo.
The photo set can be found here.
The map of the photo set is here.
Wikipedia:
Gear
Before I dive into the photos, a quick note about what gear I'm using.
The camera isn't anything special, a Nikon D40 using an 18-55mm lens and a 55-200mm lens. The only other interesting item I had on me was a GPS logger (Gistec PhotoTrackr), that's how all the photos are geotagged.
On the post side I'm using the PhotoTrackr software to grab the GPS tracks, HoudahGEO to tag the photos with GPS, Photoshop to touch up exposures/stitch composite photos and iPhoto for organization and web-publishing.
That's it for the nerd stuff.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Joining the Echo Chamber
I actually feel bad starting a blog.
Sure, I have opinions about things, but those break down into two distinct categories: opinions on highly visible issues (i.e. national political issues) and incredibly specific technical items (i.e. why the interface of the TouchTable has to work in Just This Way). In the prior case I can guarantee you that I am woefully informed about the whole issue relative to other commentators - so there's no particular value in my adding to the chorus. In the later case, even though my opinion holds a certain status of being novel and informed, I'm usually lucky if I can get my co-workers to pay attention. It would be perverse to expect friends or other readers to want to read about it.
However, my status update this morning could take a couple shapes. Option 1: "I woke up at 4am again, I hate Asian time zones" - which pretty much says everything it needs to right there. Option 2: "I spent the last 11 days in East Asia where I saw things I didn't expect. I also took photos." -- in this case there might actually be something to write about. So that's what this is, a personal blog of the things that I think are going to be worth reading now, and maybe even a few years down the line, that deserve to not be lost in the noise channel of status updates and friend adds and so on. Just The Good Parts.
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