Dave Hodgkinson Photography » taipei

Retro

davehodg — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:37:12 +0000

This was the future once.

Taiwanese food

davehodg — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 16:33:08 +0000

I may rag on Taiwan for many reasons but food isn’t one of them. Just look at this little spread and click through to flickr for the annotations. So good.

Taiwanese food

davehodg — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:09:28 +0000

Taiwan has its ups and downs: trade huge cockroaches, typhoons and earthquakes for epic scenery, hot springs and great food. Taiwanese food draws from all regions of China, Japanese food it inherited from the occupation and many others besides. Here’s a good selection we had at a restaurant at the Sogo department store. To me, the menu kinda chose itself. From left to right: Hakka-style squid, fried tofu in black bean sauce, three cup chicken, stir-fried greens and braised pork belly. It was good!

Taipei Sky – Colour or B/W?

davehodg — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:37:27 +0000

So we had the torrential rain again. If you look at the satellite picture, Taiwan is surrounded by cloudless ocean and there’s a blob of cloud parked over the island. Ho hum. Still, it just cleared and we got a lovely bit of golden hour sun. I dashed up on the the roof and shot some sky. BUT! The camera was still in B/W mode and I got this:

I rather like it. I’ve another frame that’s exposed brighter but I prefer this. Click on the pic for a larger version.

Luckily, I was in RAW+JPG and got the colour version too.

I prefer the black and white.

What do you think?

Papaya tree: resurrection

davehodg — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:47:45 +0000

Most days we walk past a decrepit Japanese-era building owned by the university. There was a nice papaya tree with fruit growing right in front. Then it disappeared, lopped off about four feet off the ground.

But it’s back! We’ll be watching it in our last two weeks here.

Shi-Da purveyors of deep-fried goodness

davehodg — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:26:13 +0000

This is a paradoxical country: everyone eats hugely and widely, yet on the whole, people remain resolutely skinny. Which I think says much about the Western diet.

This stall in Sh-Da night market is our occasional stop-off for cauliflower, mushroom, tofu and chewy fishy thing, lighty battered, deep fried then powdered with salty pepper and dotted with fresh garlic. Accompanied by a bucket of iced tea. Nom.

Taipei 101

davehodg — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:00:31 +0000

Yesterday we ticked off one of our last TODO items in Taipei: Taipei LOL. No, really, look at the sign. It’s an actual LOL-building.

Anyhow. It was briefly the tallest building in the world and is still impressive considering it’s in a pretty active earthquake zone. The view? Meh. What’s to look at? The swampy river in the distance and a load of Taipei “architecture” through the afternoon heat haze. Oh, and the mountains rising round the lip of the bowl containing the city. BFD.

Tick. Job done.

The big blue room

davehodg — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 12:43:36 +0000

It put in an appearance today. Which was nice, so rather than being 35C and disgustingly humid, it was 39C, breezy and relatively dry.

The cloud came over and denied us a proper sunset. Good excuse to bring out the 12-24mm lens though

From the inside looking out: cheeky fag

davehodg — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 06:12:41 +0000

Cheeky fag outside Salty Peanuts café.

Been a bit uninspired these last few days. There’s something about 40C temperatures that just drains the will to do anything.

Japanese colonial house, Taipei

davehodg — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:16:17 +0000

These fascinate me.

These kinds of buildings, which I guess can best be described as bungalows, are dotted around Da-An, our area of Taipei. They once housed important people of the Japanese occupation era and are now generally neglected and hidden behind high walls.

After the Japanese left, many of these passed into the hands of the univiersities. A few have been renovated and are lived-in by a lucky few, others are dilapidated and still occupied or just derelict. The plots of land are gradually being swallowed up for apartment blocks.

They should be preserved.

Dave Hodgkinson Photography » taipei

Retro

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