Delicious new beer from China
We're Not Saying Happy Ending but... Yeah
Remember No Dead Bodies In the Locker Please
The English Sure do Love Their Hotdogs
Does Anyone Really Want to Eat Their Dinner Out of A Toilet?
Americana Spreads to Switzerland
I know, Low Brow Humor
English Word Play
Longshan Temple Entry
November 11, 2009
My first trip to Taipei and high on my list of places to visit was the Longshan Temple. The Temple is Located in the Manka district of Taipei. It was founded in 1738 and dedicated to the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy (Kuan-in). The temple name came from the ancient Longshan temple established in the Chin-Chiang county of Fukien province in the seventh century.
Longshan Temple Inner Courtyard
The main hall of the temple houses the statue of the Kuan-in, which survived allied bombing on June 8th 1945. The statue was in main hall which burned down during the raid but somehow the statue was left untouched. The temple was rebuilt and assigned a grade 2 historic sight on August 19 1985.
Temple Dragons
I spent about an hour photographing the temple grounds and other than the grey sky I was quite happy with a few of these shots. These fours HDR shots were done with Photomatix Pro and made from five to seven exposures. I didn’t use any post production noise reduction but I recently purchased NIK noise reduction software and will see how that cleanse up these photos at a later date.
Longshan Waterfall
Meiji Jingu Shrine Inner Courtyard
November 6, 2009
It’s hard not to wake up at the crack of 4(am) the first day after you arrive in Japan, luckily I usually get on a good sleep schedule by day 2. The good thing about waking up so early is that if there is a place you want to go and take pictures before the crowds come in, this is your chance. I usually always take a walk through the Meiji Jingu Shrine area when I come to Japan, it’s a nice walk and if your lucky you can get a few good photos in before it gets really crowded.
Tori Gate West Entrance to Main Courtyard
My goal this morning was to do some HDR photography and see if I could bring out the best from such a beautiful morning, over all I was happy with the shots but they are a bit noisy and somehow I accidentally deleted the raw files and cannot go back to rework them. The deleted files were from this entire day of shooting and I had also gone to Sensoji Temple in Asakusa. I am hoping that I can fix some of these in Photoshop but I do not have high hopes.
Meiji Jingu Shrine Purification
One thing you will notice when you come to Japan is that there is no daylight savings time and depending on the time of the year the sun comes up real early and sets quite early as well. For me this is pretty good because the best times for taking photos is in the early morning, sunset and night-time. Unlike when I go to Europe, sometimes it takes until 9:30-10pm for the sun to finally set and the best place to wait for the sun to set is a pub or outside bar. The picture below is of Sake barrels given as donations and offerings to the shrine, opposite from this were some barrels of wine donated from France. I am not sure if it was for a specific reason or just a show of friendship.
Meiji Jingu Shrine Sake
Here are some interesting and humorus photos from my recent trip to Japan and Taiwan. I will post another batch from pictures I have taken from all over the word and not just from Asian countries
Exactly what the world needs, a Mega Sausage
Deep and Mild, the words I want to describe my ice cream
Statement or request?
I guess my question is, or what
Words of wisdom from my tooth brush
Remember kids, cotton bad
Walk the World 