Taken from the vertigo inducing heights of Taipei 101 from the relative, behind a window safety of an observatory.
For my first attempt at any sort of night photography I’m reasonably pleased with this, although it’s a shame that the length of exposure needed to get some detail into the buildings turns that massive Ferris wheel in the iddle-ish of the pic into an undefined glow.Taken from the vertigo inducing heights of Taipei 101 from the relative, behind a window safety of an observatory.
For my first attempt at any sort of night photography I’m reasonably pleased with this, although it’s a shame that the ength of exposure needed to get some detail into the buildings turns that massive Ferris wheel in the iddle-ish of the pic into an undefined glow.A trip to the frankly unnecessarily tall Taipei 101 building deals with the issue of a pic for today, and were it not against the spirit of the endeavour the next week as well.Y’know, the wee alley between the end of my street and the carnival of delights that is my local Lidl (currently in a bizarre war of oneupmanship and attrition with the Somerfield down the road) is pretty much the gift that keeps on giving.
Well, assuming the gift is ‘broken things’.It looks a lot more conventional, but far more reflective, viewed head on.Ah yes. This macro tube’s a better idea. Down with shitty magnifying lenses!A cross-section of the SECC & Clyde Auditorium, or The Armadillo as it was swiftly renamed.Guns or knocking shop? We may never know.I have no idea what these creatures are called, but they’re everywhere and they’re loud.As my good friend Wikipedia would have it, “Bongeunsa is a Buddhist temple in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea”. And these are some paper lanterns. That are there. The exif may show this as being taken yesterday, but that’s because I didn’t move the camera off of ‘foreign devil’ time. Excuse me, I must go catch a plane. Home, James.Bongeunsa TempleBongeunsa TempleBongeunsa TempleBongeunsa TempleBongeunsa TempleBongeunsa TempleBongeunsa TempleBongeunsa TempleBongeunsa TempleBongeunsa TempleBongeunsa TempleBongeunsa TempleBongeunsa TempleJust a bottle. In the dark. Scary.I fully intend to restage this for a ‘proper’ DSLR shot as a photo-a-day entry sometime, preferably when I haven’t left the ironing board out.More gift shop trinkets.There’s always too much unsightly crap arouns the Armadillo to get any decent shots of it.How are we ever going to sort out the political problems of the Middle East if we can’t even get the graffiti to coexist side by side, rather than on top of each other?
The eternal conflict continues.“Debauchery” has so many negative connotations. Let’s just call it “revelry” and be done with it.
I am tired and hung over.To whit? To who?Bottom of the dampner, Taipei 101Look, maybe it is just the SECC building, but it deffo looks like a massive robot head with scary eyes.Blast off and strike the Bydo empire! Oh, wait. Wrong type.See? There’s that damned Ferris Wheel that was so ‘lighty’ in the night shots! From the roof of the Riviera Hotel.Another view from the roof of the Riviera hotel. That’s a partially built new expo hall down there.I have no idea what this is supposed to signify. Cool, though.Taken from a bridge over the HanTaken from a bridge over the HanTaken from a bridge over the HanAnother mirrored staue affords another interesting shot.Taken from a bridge, showing other bridges. Far less impressive than Seoul, it must be said, but regardless it’s good to be home.Seoul really seems to be filled with these objet d’arts as though some sort of high yield, high dispersal art bomb was detonated at some point in recent history.Not the cheeriest first image, admittedly. A slice of the grim urban reality on the mean streets of Glasgow.
Not pictured: knife crime.Donated to the city by the generous Eastender.Bending nature to our straight line, neatly delineated will.
Apologies if it’s not very inspiring, I’m really just testing if posting entirely from the iPhone works.See caption.The Grand Hotel in Taipei, taken from the Riviera Hotel roofStruggling to think of things to shoot on the second day doesn’t seem like a great sign, but thanks to a fortuitous shower of bigots this space is filled.
Thought about putting it in black and white to subvert the colorist agenda of an Orange Walk. Decided it would be too radical.And that light is completely blowing out the view of the Taipei 101 tower in the skylight. I have a night shot that shows it a little better.It’s been impaled! How awesome.There’s not many things in life more depressing than an otherwise empty office that I’m sat slaving away in.
Well, there’s many things more depressing, but none that I’m experiencing at this very moment.Not this one, admittedly. Think of it as a representative shot of the fact that I have to be on some aeronautical device to return to Glasgow.I should perhaps take a moment to explain I’m in Taipei for work, hence the lack of particularly useful photography as evidenced by this ‘ere view from the mezzanine of the hotel.
That said, it also marks the first critical failure of the iPhone camera, as a few ought-to-have-been pretty shots of the Taipei Grand Hotel turned out rather dismally. Perhaps potatoshop can save them.I forget the proper name of this footbridge over the Clyde between the SECC and the Science Centre.Ah ah ah ah mic check ah ah ah ah.
This close up of my Samson condenser mic probably represents the last hurrah for the set of cheap ass macro lenses I bought, the aberrations around the edges they introduce means I’ve never taken a decent image with them. Gets what you pays for, I suppose, although this may of course be attributed to user error. I’m going to try my luck with an extension tube instead.
Quickly, to the eBaymobile!They build their streets wide over in Korea.Another botched shot of the Grand Hotel in TaipeiSome of the supporting structures inside Taipei 101 are as impressive as the view from outside, in a geeky engineering sense, at any rate.Look, it’s the best landscape taken with an iPhone from a taxi-ing plane that I’ve made today, so it’ll have to do.
Although I was contemplating posting the shot of a temperature information board telling me that the weather in Taipei this evening is “Sultry”. I believe that’s a euphemism for “Humid”.I’ve worked very, very hard and I think I deserve a toy.
While the four thirds system has some conceptual flaws, namely that there’s unlikely to ever be a sub f2.0 lens, it does at least make up for that somewhat in optical quality and quite ludicrously dinky lens. This 25mm pancake lens is so cute I want to marry it.Well, if it wasn’t tried, we’d never have known how bad an idea the shot was. The Grand Hotel lobby, Taipei.A wider view. It’s a bafflingly massive place, Seoul, for a small town lad like myself. Actually, in comparison Glasgow’s more like a hamlet than a small town.There’s something to be said, I suppose, for attempting to minimise the effect of construction site ugliness.
Although, as the great philosopher of our times, John Nada, observed, “That’s like pouring perfume on a pig”.Sounds like a good name for a cop, Posco.Framing a skyscraper with greenery seemed like a good idea at the time, okay?They said it couldn’t be done! They mocked my idea for a camera lens made of post-it notes! They said it would never be capable of capturing the majesty of a keyboard!
They had a point, to be honest.Another shot of the coral stuff. The floating golden djinn thingy is, I hope, a reflection.I was promised an Ornage Walk. This is plainly purple.I have no idea why our speedboat-bound friends were so keen on tanking it towards the Clyde Arc nee Squinty Bridge, but tank it they did.
Well, actually they went on up past it aways then came back, but there’s less of a narrative in that boring reality.The internals of Suvarnabhumi Airport remains the extent of my experience of Thailand.It’s in the order of their hedgerows,
It’s in the way their curtains open and close,
It’s in the look they give you down their nose,
All part of decency’s jigsaw, I suppose.I’m not sure why I keep this. It’s obviously a botched shot with nothing in it, yet it appeals to me for some reason I’m to dim to comprehend.An engraved rock at what turned out to be an entrance to a school, not a temple. I’m surprised I wasn’t arrested.There’s a small jogging track on the roof of this ‘ere hotel. Nuts to the physical exertion, especially in this heat, but the view’s not terrible. And not as vertigo inducing as that from the top of Taipei 101.Hang on, this isn’t a bloody sledge!This picture is entirely full of garbage. Stuffed full of it. So full some sort of rubbish transportation device had to be constructed to move said rubbish.They’re not in US Dollars, thankfully.Another angle of a photo-a-day reflection thingy.I was never sure if this meant that one snowman was being built inside, or if it was a snowman doing the assembling. Perhaps of flat-pack furniture.Far be it from Glaswegian denizens to allow anything to keep a respectable name. Squinty Bridge it is, then.I can only guess as to the mysterious delights offered by these signs, having less knowledge of Korean than your average housecat.See caption.Reluctantly crouched at the starting line, engines pumping and thumping in time.Inspiring bit of metalwork, there.Interesting looking building, this one.It turned out that these gloomy skies foretold an earthquake that very night. Which was nice.The sun, of which there was little shortage of in Taiwan, attempts to bust through a cloudbank.It’s another Taipei night shot.Well, South Portland Street Suspension Bridge on the River Clyde, at least.A view from the top of the Riviera Hotel in Taipei. At least in the Taiwanese Republic of China I can get away with photographing a military police building without being “disappeared”.The elaborate gates of the Grand Hotel, TaipeiThis is a… thing. I’ll be drawn no further.Let me tell you something, lad…
Pipes are the arteries of this mighty erection…
The veins through which its lifeblood pumps!
And I am proud, aye, PROUD to serve the Corporation.It’s miserable outside and I’m still exhausted, so I’m venturing no further than the living room.
Thankfully, there’s a small town building itself on top of a table. It appears to be using pre-fabricated KLM flight freebie buildings. Unusual. I’ll keep you updated on the conurbation.Deadly, death dealing ships of war.
Captured here during a routine patrol of the Queen’s Park duck pond.The very tippy-top of Taipei 101, from a very few stories below the very tippy-top of Taipei 101.There’s an unbelivable amount of buildings in Seoul already. I wouldn’t have though more were required.Early morning street shotsEarly morning street shotsI had wondered what sort of beer they drink in Taiwan.
Should have guessed, reallyOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
