Taoyuan Train pulling into the station.

Small dragon fiercely trying to scare off evil spirits.

Got this one today. From the roof of a small country temple.

A view from the Top Of Lion Head Temple

From a tomb

click to see the big view. I called it Offerings.

HAircut on the mountain...open air....makes clean up easy.

This one was also in the book as a 2 page spread. This is all I will post on here. Just giving a taste as to what Ive been working on.

tata

I have been working on a project for a friend to give to her significant one... here are a couple results I can release.

A nice 6 foot ship I caught on the weekend just idling around a pond.

A

A Canon (one of two) protecting a temple from attack. This is on the small island of 金門 Kinmen (Jinmen), Taiwan, just off the coast of China. These canons have an open view of and are less than 2 km from the mainland. Now possibly misunderstood as being 'aimed at China', rather they were for the coastal defense of China.

Cement trucks a row.

From a Sunday morning walk.

From a Sunday morning walk.

Mountain Temple interior in Taoyuan Taiwan

Tiger Head Temple interior, near my house...for your pleasure.

From the hillside I caught this couple playfully kidding around.

A new pic of my Nico...

Another Thailand Picture. While I was there I made a deal with a local for a personal tour. So I got a personal driver and boat to take me any beach, island, or snorkeling place I wanted to go. I spent the better part of the day touring around.

Just a simple back street near downtown Taoyuan.

Walking along the beach on Koh Phi Phi, Thailand I jockeyed for position between the boats which were flowing back and forth with the tide. Trying not to get 'run over' and yet get a shot of the boats and their decoration.

A shot of us a couple years ago in the Philippines.

Ah....Those were the days.

The trio on the way out.

I came across a couple of older people that were spending the day nin the park. I thought Id try my hand at street portraits.

Enjoy

I got this picture of a monk doing a little exercise in a park. Here in Taiwan yesterday was Labour Day, so many people had the day off. Another guy meditating in the same park. He was there when i got there and was in the same position 45 minutes later. I suppose he may have fallen asleep.

A shot of a friend in Taiwan with some direct lighting.

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A shot of the Canadian Prairies near Saskatoon, in a random field, in the middle of nowhere . A very different place than where I am now.

This shot came about as I was watching the clouds here in Taiwan. I was in a park looking around and I noticed the clouds breaking apart. I saw the shape forming and scrambled to find 'a couple' .....found one.

The pic is altered a bit BUT mostly just the bottom half being black n white. and admittedly a tiny part of the cloud was moved on the upper left side...everything else including the red was there.

I got this couple in my sights near the fishing port near Juiwei. I could see the couple in the distance. She was dancing around him he was looking quite solemn indeed.

Looks like he lost a bet.This little monster was doing everything he could to get away from Mom n Dad. He was just learning to walk, and the parents were quite happy earlier when he walked on the beach and took 8 or 9 steps.
He just has this great look n his eye which I'm sure will stay with him for life. This sneaky sly look like he just found or did something he wasn't supposed to do.

It was funny to watch his face change between being with mom n dad and escaping.

Ah yes... the sleepy fisherman. Working hard to catch the monster off the pier. Eyes closed, making small snoring sounds so as to just trick the big fish into thinking he was sleeping.

It is all going to break loose any minute now.....any minute....any min.....any ....a...zzzzzzzzz.

I doubt that anyone knows this about me but my favorite writer/poet is Robert Frost.

#1 Poem
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)

Upon the great beast
the old warrior sat

waiting...waiting for the
perfect moment to make
the move that would change
the world for all eternity.

Another day in the smog, grog, and pollution. The pull to come home is never far, in fact it is a weekly feeling. The year is counting down.

5 years ago when we came to taiwan the feeling was one of fear, wonder, intrigue, and a general feeling of a new life. That was both a blessing and a hardship. It was never a curse.

Did I know what we were getting into...no ...there is no way to know unless you do it. As usual i did my homework on the industry, countries, etc, but you can never really prepare for a life abroad.

I think traveling is more important than most people realize. Of course its almost prohibitively expensive for most people, especially long term travel.

For most of you who have not had the opportunity to travel long term, or truly experience another culture that is vastly different than your own, I think you don't know what you have until you don't have it anymore.

There is good and bad in every society, and yes the grass is always greener on the other side. Its just human nature.

I suppose that's what Ive learned as well, you want what you cant have, and you need to work to appreciate the people, things, and life you have.

These may simply be ramblings, from a guy at Starbucks, but then again...they may be word of wisdom passed on to you from someone far away in a distant land. Anyway my coffee is getting cold.

Here is a couple of pics I've been working one lately. My model is a friend, who has been very gracious and been willing to try many different ideas. Thus Ive been learning both Photoshop and portraits.
A little up close n personal.

This last one was made with commercial photography in mind.


Tell me what you think.

One shot from Kinmen just for fun.

Canon 400D
18-55mm F3.5-5.6
1/200s @ F11
ISO 200
PP in CS3 Raw
Grunge look by reduced saturation, over sharpen adding a few layers with various blend modes, and of course my signature.

I found the tortoise brothers the other day.

Here they are.

A couple more to oogle at.

Altered State

I used up some creativity this weekend, and added some 'art' to my portfolio.
All made with an incense stick.


Enjoy!

Thailand Part 3

Where did i leave off...oh yes the boat came back. As scary as it was it all worked out, and i had one of the best times of my life.

After this we went to another location and did it again. This time i decided to follow the scuba divers. I followed them from above. Quite an interesting view watching people way below you, but I had good visibility and could see almost everything they did. Once again very good.

Here is a picture of the first place we went. ( Here now that I'm back in the boat you can see more boats...go figure)

The next day I made a deal with a local to take me out sightseeing around the islands.
We went out and he showed me a number of hidden beaches. Hidden not really secretive, but you'd never know if you just drove by...but small openings in the rocks leads to an inner cove.

Like this:Here is a quick snap of my local guide hard at work.That night we went into Phi Phi Town and had some supper and went to a Muay Thai Boxing Stadium to watch some action. There were 8 exciting bouts and it is something hard to explain but loads of fun and you can really see the respect the fighters have for each other. The Stadium was filler about 80 % locals and 20% foreigners. It was very authentic and not merely a simple show for tourists.

A Sunset view:

We went to Phucket a couple days later for one full day so I could get my flight home the next day. We went to Patong Beach. Wow what an experience. It was .... very safe, clean, and secure, and out of this world wild just around the corner.
The sex trade is obvious, but not overbearing. Id say its still a very comfortable area for couples and even children.
The wild places that show oodles of skin are fairly obvious, and you will not accidentally stumble into them. The rest is quite modern, will loads of nice coffee shops, restaurants, pubs, and bars.

It was quite a night.

The next day on the way home I tried out KLM again, this time the plane was there. As I was about to board, I gave the ground staff my boarding card and the computer beeped. He stopped and said something quick to another one, and they nodded. He said...oh its ok...marked out my seat number which was row 33 and wrote row 72. I was minorly concerned as to why i just got booted to the far back corner of the plane, but i didn't say anything cuz i was just happy to get on.

Then i showed the flight attendant my number and she said oh thats upstairs. Well heck I know whats upstairs, so my heart jumped. Yee Haw ...FREE business class upgrade!! Peerrffeecct.

I had a very nice flight with KLM. With my champagne, free ceramic Amsterdam model house, and I spent the 15 Euro's they gave me for free on-board duty-free merchandise, not to mention the travel kit all business class passengers get to 'freshen up'.

My flight concluded on time and as i left the plane with a smile, I was greeted by the same freezing cold, can see your breath Taiwan airport I had so happily left 10 days earlier.

The only silver lining at the end is that I was one step closer to my seeing my dogs, and eventually in a couple of weeks my beloved wife.