蘭陽博物館 (Lanyang Museum) and 基隆廟口夜市 (Keelung Temple Night Market)

Taiwan is definitely not up there on the list of architectural destinations, largely overshadowed by the money-burning frenzy that is the Chinese real estate market and the always-fresh-always-funky world of Japanese contemporary design.  I’ve had the lucky opportunity to work for an excellent architect in Taipei (LWM Architects) and I know that there has been a number of great architectural minds working diligently to improve the design environment in Taiwan for the last couple of decades.  the Lanyan Museum, by 姚仁喜 (Yao Ren Xi, Artech Inc.) is one of the newest examples of Taiwan asserting an architectural personality.  there are faint echoes of I. M. Pei still in the work but the building’s design language clearly responds to the landscape around it, instead of being a purely intellectual geometric exercise.  the interior is logically laid out yet provides a compelling promenade, and even the quality of the construction is meticulous (which is typically so hard to find in Asia these days).  there are some exceedingly bizarre moments (like an unwrapped structural member that emerges randomly from a wall, warty fireproofing and all) which stand out because everything else seems to be so well sorted.

福山植物園 (Fushan Botanical Garden)

we spent the next day driving around Yilan county, basically from one end to the other, then back, then back again.  why?  because it’s not every day that you can get into the 福山植物園, the Fushan Botanical Gardens.  this entire facility used to be closed off to anyone without an academic permit, but now is available for public entry after a protracted stay on a wait list.  it wasn’t exactly the kind of weather that gets you amped up about looking at trees for an afternoon, especially after already spending a day looking at trees while getting rained on.  but I’m not going to be the debbie downer.  and neither was the 5D Mark II, which had spent the evening recovering from a waterlogged joystick (only letting me choose the center focus point – which is fine – or the lower left diagonal focus point – which is almost entirely useless) and was looking to get back in action.

拉拉山的神木 (The Divine Trees of LaLa Mountain)

it’s interesting how the things that interest you change as you grow up (or get older, depending on how you like to look at things).  I used to like going back to Taiwan just because I knew it would be a week or two of food, food, and more food.  other than one trip around the island with my dad way back when, I’ve never really left Taipei.  I always figured, given that it’s almost exactly the same size as my home state of Maryland, how much could there really be to it?  but just as I’ve come to appreciate that there’s actually lots to do in the little Old Line State, I’ve also realized that Taiwan is full of diversity in its environment.  we repacked our suitcases the minute we arrived in Taipei, heading out [not so] bright and [very] early the morning after we arrived … sans Randy, who was unceremoniously dumped in Tokyo for no particular reason by United Airlines to spend a night in minibar purgatory.

happy new year, taiwanese-style

just wanted to wish everyone out there a happy new year.  for me, 2011 went the way of the dodo in a flurry of plane, train, and automobile rides as Tina and I wound our way around Taiwan.  the blogging has been neglected for a while because of general craziness at work, but it’s something I do enjoy doing and intend to keep up.  in truth, the thing I like the most about running the blog is knowing why you come here: the food photos.  you like looking, and I like making you drool at work (although this does backfire sometimes, with me being the one that gets hungry).  so here’s a teaser of what’s to come:

game day

it’s been a long, long while since I’ve been to a Terps football game, so I was pretty excited to snag some tickets just above the 25-yard line for this weekend’s showdown against neighboring UVA.  we had a decent first half with some exciting catches, outside runs, and forced turnovers, but ultimately several blown opportunities near the red zone came back to bite Maryland in the rear when UVA kept pounding it in through the second half.  personally, I still had a great time, especially since this year was going to be a painful rebuilding year no matter what.

mid-week lull

in the middle of a long week … still some backlog to post up, including some Solar Decathlon action (go Maryland!), but not quite enough time to really hunker down and work on it.  so here’s another boobie photo from Galapagos.  I felt like the other boobie shots from the Day 9 post were a little over-saturated, especially in the yellow range, so I toned it down a bit for this one.  and now … back to work.

monday morning escape – Bartholomew Island wallpaper

definitely one of those mondays where you need something relaxing to look at.  on the bright side, at the end of today will be … yep, Monday Night Football, with the redskins playing the cowboys in Dallas.  how’s that for motivation to get your work done before 8 PM?

by the way, the wallpaper image I posted today should expand out to full size (1920 x 960) if you click on it, in case you’re interested in having a HD-sized panorama for your monitor.

a tale of one city

this is a (short) tale of one city, many barbeque joints, and a mission.  to eat as much barbeque as possible (sort of, we were actually down south for work).  when we asked folks from Birmingham what their favorite local BBQ joint was, we ended up with a surprisingly small answer set: Full Moon, and Jim ’n Nick’s.  I really would have liked to have my 5DII with me but I didn’t feel like lugging it around for a business daytrip, and so I wound up shooting with Tina’s little SD1300 IS compact camera.  so believe me when I say, it’s even better than it looks in the photos.

Ecuador day 9: North Seymour

this was our last day in the Galapagos Islands and I was a little concerned that we hadn’t yet gotten the chance to see the iconic blue-footed boobies.  well, as with pretty much everything on this trip, I needn’t have worried.  our last stop was at North Seymour Island, a place whose trees and soil happen to be extremely enticing to both frigatebirds and boobies for use as nesting sites.

b+w monday

thought I’d post an oversized square format photo today.  this is one of the shots from the trip that I didn’t realize I’d gotten until I came back and downloaded everything onto the computer.  I’m still excited every time I bring up Silver Efex Pro because it does an incredibly good job of capturing the feel of b+w film using your digital shots.  it will never be exactly the same, but it’s a more-than-good-enough compromise.

in case you’re wondering, there’s no post-processing applied here to get the hazed-out effect on the adult male frigatebird mid-descent.  I’m not entirely sure what it is at all that caused the look, but it makes the image far more intriguing.  the wary look of the frigatebird below is also captivating to me.