Taiwan Trip

In late March/early April Rose, me and some friends took a trip to Taiwan. Despite the fast paced nature of life in Taiwan it was so nice to slow down and spend some time reflecting and taking pictures. I haven't spent that much time behind a camera for a long time. Here are a few of the creations that I was able to make during our vacation. 

Here is Hsinchu from the balcony of our hotel room. 

While driving from Chiayi to Kaohsiung we pulled off the highway looking for a lake. The lake turned out to be a tourist trap but we can across this rice field and spent about an hour taking pictures. 

Here is another one from our rice field detour. 

I was kicking myself for not bringing a tripod for this night shot across the Love river. Despite the fact that I did not have a tripod it turned out decent. 

By this point everyone else in the group was ready to move on, but I was having too much fun taking pictures. Their  complaining was worth this shot though. 

This is a shot of an folk village in Meinong. 

I woke up early one morning and walked around the park in Kaohsiung for over an hour. 

This is one of my favorite shots from the trip. We were walking along Chengqing Lake. This time rather than the complain everyone just left me behind and continued. 

This one is looking up the staircase of the Dragon Pagoda at the Lotus Pond in Kaohsiung. 

The time difference helped me to wake up at around 5 am every morning. Not only was the light perfect early in the morning, but I was able to have some great time to walk around and reflect on those quiet early mornings. This shot is outside of our Hot Spring resort in Beitou. 

Taipei 101 is very tall. That's all I can say. 

You will rarely see a sky this blue in Taiwan.  Thank you blue saturation levels in the CS5 camera raw editor. 

Here is another shot of the dragon pagoda at Lotus Pond.

I loved the soft side-lighting that captured the front of our Hotel in Beitou. I wish I had a slightly wider angle than 18mm so I didn't have to lay down in the bushes to get this shot. 

I liked how the view of the city faded into the background of this flower at Chengqing Lake. It made it feel like there was a greater separation between nature and the bustle of urban life. 

Just a quiet little lane. The picture turned out great in full color but I particularly liked the desaturated version.