“Cosplay” is a combination of the words “costume” and “play”. In Taipei, it’s an event held about twice a year at NTU in conjunction with a manga (Japanese comic books) exhibition called Fancy Frontier. During a cosplay event, people dress up as their favorite manga character and parade and pose for photographers. It began as a Japanese phenomenon but it’s caught on in many other places in the world, including Taiwan.
Taipei Cosplay
21 02 2010Comments : 3 Comments »
Tags: comic book, cosplay, costume, dress up, Fancy Frontier, fantasy, manga, Taipei, TAIWAN, 台灣, 台北, 漫畫
Categories : PHOTOGRAPHY, TAIWAN, Techniques
Quick Notes and Housekeeping
13 01 2010Just a few quick notes today:
I’m happy to report that I’ve had another photo picked up by National Geographic. It’s a photo of Keelung’s Miakou Night Market I shot while on assignment a few years ago.
I’ve also recently won an award from the website Taiwanderful for “Best Taiwan Photography Blog” along with Craig Ferguson.
Craig and I are also jointly starting a virtual stock photography agency currently called Asia Stock Photo Agency (I know, clever name). It’s in its infancy and we’re still uploading tons of photos, but already we have nearly 2,000 photos from all over Asia.
At the same time, I’ve been busy processing, keywording and captioning thousands of stock photos from my travels and my commercial work so have a look at my new website when you get a chance.
Comments : 5 Comments »
Tags: links, notes, PHOTOGRAPHY, stock websites, TAIWAN
Categories : Inspirational Links, UNCATEGORIZED
Must See Taipei – The Jade and Flower Markets (建國假日玉花市)
11 01 2010The Taipei Jianguo Jade and Flower Markets (建國假日玉花市) are a must-see for anyone in Taiwan. Located next to each other on Jianguo South Road, the two markets stretch for nearly a kilometer (1/2 a mile) under the elevated highway. They are only open on weekends and can make for a wonderful escape from Taipei’s often dreary rain. But even on a sunny day, the Jade and Flower Markets (along with the adjacent Daan Forest Park) make for a nice afternoon walk for tourists and locals alike.
Read the rest of this entry »
Comments : 8 Comments »
Tags: Asia, blossom, essential, Flower Market, flowers, jade, Jade Market, lilly, market, must see, orchid, PHOTOGRAPHY, sites, street market, Taipei, TAIWAN, tourism, TRAVEL, 台灣, 台北, 建國假日花市
Categories : Must See Taipei, PHOTOGRAPHY, TAIWAN, TRAVEL
How to Shoot Travel Portraits
28 12 2009Learning how to photograph people while traveling can help your photography on the road and at home. I use a few different methods to approach people whom I want to photograph while traveling, and I’ll try to explain that process below. I’m sure there are many other techniques that other photographers might use, and if you have any you’d like to share, please leave them in the comments.
I’ll start out by telling you that I’m not an outgoing person at all. I’m a shy guy. I always find it difficult to approach people. But I’ve learned that missing a good portrait because you didn’t ask hurts a lot more than getting rejected. If you’re also a little shy, you’ll need to practice being more bold and get out there and ask people if you can take their picture. I’m here to tell you that it’s not as hard as you think, and there’s even a little bit of a scientific process to doing it…
Comments : 7 Comments »
Tags: approaching, how to, methods, people, PHOTOGRAPHY, portraits, portraiture, Techniques, TRAVEL
Categories : PHOTOGRAPHY, TRAVEL, Techniques
Yushu, Tibet (China)
17 12 2009Yushu (aka Jyekundo (སྐྱེ་རྒུ་མདོ་) in Tibetan) is an Autonomous Prefecture in the Qinghai Provence of China. Located 800km south of the nearest city Xining, Yushu used to be a daunting 12-16 hour bus ride from Xining in the north or about 10 hours to Gantze in the south (where I came from). Now, it appears that Yushu has it’s own airport and has become quite a hot spot for tourists.
I was only able to spend two days in Yushu due to visa restrictions, but it left a wonderful impression on me. I also did something a little different while I was there. I only spent one day site-seeing, and I spent the other in the market, shooting lots and lots of portraits. Click “Read the rest of this entry” to see some of my favorites.
Comments : 14 Comments »
Tags: སྐྱེ་རྒུ་མདོ་, Buddhist, China, Gyanak, Jiana, Jyekundo, mani stones, monk, Om Mani Padme Hum, PHOTOGRAPHY, pile, portraits, portraiture, Princess Wancheng Temple, Qinghai Provence, Tibet, Tibetan, TRAVEL, Yushu
Categories : PHOTOGRAPHY, Portraiture, TRAVEL, Tibet
Random Photos from Taiwan
14 12 2009Here’s the latest batch of photography from Taiwan. Just some random pictures that I’ve come across in my daily adventures.
Check out my new website and archive for more photography from Taiwan.
Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: 101, alley, alleyway, architecture, Asia, beautiful, buildings, Chris, city, contrast, 獅山, dog, evening, 虎山, Lion Mountain, modern, narrow, night, portrait, reflection, shadow, silhouette, skate, skateboarder, skyline, summer, sun, sunset, Taipei, Taipei 101, TAIWAN, The Four Beast Mountains, Tiger Mountain, view, Xinyi, 台灣, 台北, 信義
Categories : PHOTOGRAPHY, TAIWAN
Deaflympics Opening Extavaganza
9 12 2009As a pre-opening event for the Taipei Deaflympics, a company called New Substance put on a fantastic performance with acrobats on cranes, a girl hanging from a helium balloon and colorful dancers in a strange bungee-box. It was very reminiscent of a Circ-De-Solei performance, but all for free!
I shot it in conjunction with Craig Ferguson who also blogged about it, so I’ll save myself some typing and let you read more details about it over on his site.
(Click “Read the rest of this entry” to see more pictures)
Comments : 6 Comments »
Tags: acrobatic, acrobats, Asia, carnival, circus, colorful, dance, Deaflympics, New Substance, opening, performance, show, Sun Yat Sen, Taipei, Taipei 101, TAIWAN, 台灣, 台北
Categories : PHOTOGRAPHY, TAIWAN
Interesting Links
7 12 2009We’ll start off this installment of “Interesting Links” by tooting my own horn. I just set up a new portfolio/stock website that can be found at neilwade.com. I set it up using PhotoShelter’s “Custom” website maker. It’s really not all that custom unless you really go crazy with the CSS, but I’m still very happy with the results. It’s fast loading and clean, and allows me to sell my stock straight from each gallery. I’ll be stocking the “Archives” with lots and lots of photos over the next few weeks, so check back if you want to delve deeper into my photography than I usually show publicly.
The second link is actually much more exciting and much more funner! It’s my good friend Errandboy’s new website. It’s the best flash based website that I’ve ever seen, and a lot of fun to just play around on… Remember, don’t act you age unless you’re 8.
One of my partners-in-crime switched platforms recently. Stu Dawson went from Blogger to WordPress and now has a beautiful blog still called Hiking Taiwan. Check it out for good information on many hikes in Taiwan’s beautiful mountains.
Taiwanderful is holding a Taiwan bloggers contest for the best blog in Taiwan. Myself, Stu, and many of our friends are entered. Have a look to find interesting blogs about all aspects of life in Taiwan and vote for your favorite.
Like to look at pretty (and smart) women? Have a gander at Jaclynn Joseph’s new modeling portfolio website. She’s professional model and an expat here in Taiwan and recently put this website together.
Thanks for reading. If you have any links you’d like included, add them in the comments below!
Cheers,
-neil
Comments : 3 Comments »
Tags: blogs, inspirational, links, PHOTOGRAPHY, TAIWAN, websites
Categories : Inspirational Links, PHOTOGRAPHY
Dege, Tibet (China)
30 11 2009Located in a deep gorge to the west of Chola Mountain, Dege (སྡེ་དགེ།) is one of Tibet’s most revered and remote places. It’s found in the far northwestern Sichuan Provence very close to the boarder of Xizang Provence (modern “Tibet”). Dege (aka Derge) is home to the most important printing press in all of Tibet, the Barkhang (Parkhang) Scripture Printing House.
Dege is a full day’s bus ride from the nearest town, Ganze. Basically, you need to drive all the way around the formidable Chola Mountain and sometimes you’ll think the bus is driving straight over it. A perilous dirt road winds up and over Tro La (Chola) Pass at nearly 6000m (19,6850ft) – a lot higher than Mt Everest Base Camp! The views from the bus will leave you breathless in more ways than one.
Comments : 31 Comments »
Tags: སྡེ་དགེ།, Buddhism, China, Dege, Derge, monastery, PHOTOGRAPHY, printing press, remote, Sichuan-Tibet Highway, Tibet, TRAVEL, Tro La Pass, 德格印经院
Categories : PHOTOGRAPHY, TRAVEL, Tibet
The Golden Grotto (黃金峽谷)
10 11 2009The Golden Grotto (黃金峽谷) is a beautiful slot canyon up a remote river valley near Hualian, Taiwan. Located a few kilometers south of the entrance to Taroko Gorge National Park (太魯閣國家公園) or a few Kilometers north of Hualian (花蓮), the entrance to the Pratan South River is in Pratan Village (aka SanJhan South River (三棧南溪) and SanJhan Village (三棧)).
Comments : 13 Comments »
Tags: adventure, 花蓮, 黃金峽谷, grotto, Hiking, Hualian, Hualien, remote, river, river trace, TAIWAN, The Golden Grotto, waterfall, 台灣, 三棧, 三棧南溪
Categories : "Formosa Adventurers", Hiking, PHOTOGRAPHY, TAIWAN
Light Graffiti – Animation
26 10 2009Here it is: The next step of our light graffiti.
Everything frame of this video was shot with Nikon D700 (A still camera, not a video camera) and edited in Apple Aperture and imovie. I think we’re just in the beginning stages of learning this technique, so hopefully we’ll have a lot more for you in the future.
Cheers,
-neil
Comments : 19 Comments »
Tags: animation, light graffiti, light paint, paint with light, stop motion, time lapse, video
Categories : Light Graffiti, PHOTOGRAPHY, Video
Painting with Light – Light Graffiti
22 10 2009Painting with light, aka light graffiti, is a fun way to stay creative. My friends and I have been playing around with it over the past week or two and I thought I’d share.
We’re still getting the hang of it, but I’m happy with some of the pictures that we’ve done so far. It’s a lot harder than it might look, as most of the time you have no point of reference to help make the lines meet up.
Comments : 19 Comments »
Tags: cartoon, creative, light, light graffiti, light painting, night photography, paint with light, PHOTOGRAPHY, Taipei, TAIWAN
Categories : Light Graffiti, PHOTOGRAPHY, Techniques
Ganze, Tibet (China)
9 10 2009Moving northwest from Dawu (Daofu), the next town you come to is a dusty, unremarkable one called Luhuo. I stayed here for a night, but quickly regretted it as I couldn’t find any decent economy lodging and even the local gompa (Tibetan monastery) wasn’t very exciting.
SO ON TO GANZE! (aka Gartze, Gantze, Ganzi, and a few other spellings)
Despite being yet another dusty town, Ganze has a certain charm to it. It’s a major town for trade and Chinese trucks can be seen (and inhaled) barreling down the main street. Ganze is also about a full day’s bus trip from Kangding so if you’re on a long haul bus to Yushu or Dege or any other town north of here, you’re going to have to overnight. I would highly recommend staying in the affordable, but quite nice hotel above the bus station.
Comments : 9 Comments »
Tags: China, Gantze, Ganze, Gartze, monk, PHOTOGRAPHY, Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism, TRAVEL
Categories : PHOTOGRAPHY, TRAVEL, Tibet
A Colorado Wedding
5 10 2009I was recently in Colorado to photograph a fantastic wedding. The three day extravaganza was one of the best that I ever been to.
Set in beautiful Steamboat Springs, Colorado, this wedding could probably be described as an “alternative” one due to the lack of many of the traditional wedding customs. The ceremony was deliberately designed to beautiful but quick… to leave more time for partying!
Events surrounding the sunset ceremony included: a rhinestone cowboy party, an 80’s dance party, hot springs, golf, fishing, pool-side lounging, mountain climbing, and even skeet shooting! This was definitely a wedding to remember!
Comments : 8 Comments »
Tags: alternative, Colorado, dance, dancing, PHOTOGRAPHY, wedding, wedding photography
Categories : PHOTOGRAPHY, TRAVEL
Urban Skimboarding
1 10 2009There are currently three typhoons out in the Western Pacific. Two of them are forecasted to hit Taiwan next week. This has most people scared, but it has me excited. During the last typhoon, I went out with my buddy Ed to do some “Urban Skimboarding” and I’m hoping conditions will be good this week for some more photos and fun.
Comments : 9 Comments »
Tags: Asia, Chaing Kai Shek Memorial Hall, night, puddle, rain, skim, Skimboard, skimboarding, storm, Taipei, TAIWAN, Typhoon, urban, water, 台灣, 台北
Categories : PHOTOGRAPHY, Portraiture, TAIWAN, Techniques
Formosa Adventurers – FINALE!
28 09 2009If you know me personally, or follow my blog, you probably know that some friends and I entered a contest called “The Best Trip in the World” put on by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau.
It’s a contest that gave the opportunity for selected groups of bloggers to travel Taiwan for 4 days and blog about it. We were one of the lucky groups selected and we completed our 4 day itinerary back in June. The final stage of the contest has arrived and we put our adventurers into a finale video, complete with a goofy music video at the end.
Remember that this was the first time any of us ever tried to put a video together and we had a blast! We highly recommend that everyone get their friends together, plan a trip (to Taiwan, of course!), and make a fun video!
Also have a look at my friends’ websites about Taiwan:
Stu’s Taiwan Hiking Blog
and
Phil’s 老外的臺灣旅遊日記 (in Chinese)
Thanks again for all the support!
-neil
Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: "Formosa Adventurers", contest, 老外臺灣, 英美聯軍, Formosa, TAIWAN, The Best Trip in The World, tourism, TRAVEL, video, 台灣, 世界最棒的旅遊
Categories : "Formosa Adventurers", TAIWAN, TRAVEL, Video
Daan Model Shoot
7 09 2009Photographing models is probably a lot of men’s dream. What most people don’t realize, is all the work that goes into those pretty pictures.
I recently had a shoot in with a model in Daan Park 大安公圓 in Taipei, Taiwan and would love to share them with you. Usually for big shoots like this, I like to try to tell you how we did the photos and all the technical information. But… I’m on vacation right now and just can’t wrap my head around it!
Like my last post, I’ll just tell you the basic-basics, and let you have a look at a pretty model from a fun afternoon of shooting.
Comments : 10 Comments »
Tags: Asia, Asian, Asian model, Daan, fashion, freelance, lighting, lights, photo, photographer, PHOTOGRAPHY, Taipei, TAIWAN, Taiwanese model, 台灣, 台北, 大安
Categories : PHOTOGRAPHY, Portraiture, TAIWAN, Techniques
Random (Skate) Photos from Taiwan
26 08 2009I just-so-happened to get a lot of good skate photos in the last few days so I thought I’d share them in a “Random Skate Photos from Taiwan” post.
I’ll keep it quick with just some details of how I shot each one:
(Below) Nikon D700, Nikkor 50mm f/1.4, 1/25 sec at f/5.6, ISO 320, Nikon SB-24 on a lightstand approximately head high at camera left shooting straight down the wall (zoomed in to 85mm), Nikon SB-800 with a homemade grid sitting on a wall over head high to camera right (zoomed to 105mm).
Comments : 5 Comments »
Categories : PHOTOGRAPHY, Skateboarding, TAIWAN
Interesting Links
25 08 2009I haven’t posted a “Links” post in a long time, so I have quite a few… Let’s get to it:
My good friend Bryan Lathrop finally got a website up. He’s a freelance photographer in Philadelphia shooting all kinds of different stuff. Check the “Things” gallery for some real cool “Painting with Light”-type still lives. This is a technique I’ve been meaning to write a post about but I’ve been having trouble fining the equipment I need in Taiwan… Soon though… soon.
Cool Iris is a great add on to Firefox. (I’m not sure if it works with other browsers) It a much faster and cleaner way to view multiple photos on flickr or facebook or most sites that have a lot of photos. I found that I needed to change the settings a little to keep myself from getting sick as I scrolled through (you’ll see), but it’s definitely cool.
Anther great add-on I found for Firefox is Autopager. It automatically loads the next page when surfing many sites with all those numbered pages at the bottom. It also works great with flickr and similar websites and saves a lot of time.
Here’s just an awesome photo of a volcano erupting.
From the “Fake Human Being Files” comes a fake woman. It’s just an example that portraits are so easy to take now that you don’t even need a subject… or flashes… or a camera.
Want to go to college for photography? PhotographyColleges.org has all the info you’ll need on choosing the right one.
And lastly is the most comprehensively written article on choosing photo equipment that I’ve ever read. Alexandre Buisse wrote an article for The Luminous Landscape about the photography equipment he chooses to take mountain climbing and why. I know most of you aren’t going to go on a big mountain expedition anytime soon, but reading this article is a reminder of the thought that sometimes needs to go into choosing photography gear. Whether it’s for a big mountain adventure or a walk down the street… And it’s also a reminder that you don’t need all that flashy-super-expensive equipment!!!
Cheers,
-neil
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Tags: camera, Hiking, inspirational, links, mountain, PHOTOGRAPHY, Techniques, websites
Categories : Inspirational Links, PHOTOGRAPHY
Controlling Ambient Light – A Commercial Portrait
14 08 2009Portraiture of all types can be the cornerstone of many photographers’ business. Sooner or later, in one way or another, someone will want you to take a portrait.
The difference between a good portrait and and a great portrait is in the details. Below I offer you the details to what might look like a simple location portrait, but was actually quite complicated to shoot. Lucky for me, the most unpredictable factor in many portrait sessions, the subject, was incredibly natural and easy to work with. Unfortunately, another important factor in a portrait, the light, wasn’t as cooperative.
Read all about this photo after the jump.
Comments : 10 Comments »
Tags: advice, black card, buildings, busy, color temperature, commercial, commercial portrait, editorial, how to, PHOTOGRAPHY, portraiture, Taipei, TAIWAN, Techniques, traffic, 台灣, 台北
Categories : PHOTOGRAPHY, TAIWAN, Techniques
Dawu and Tagong, Tibet (China)
6 08 2009Tagong
From Litang, I caught a bus (again, through some stunning scenery) to Xinduxiao where I had to transfer to a share cab going towards Tagong.
Tagong is known mostly for its beautiful grasslands.
It’s a town that has become very popular with both foreign and Chinese tourists because of it’s relative proximity to Kanding, a small city that’s a day’s drive to the southeast. One can easily arrive in town and set up a tour and home-stay with some of the nomads that live in the nearby grasslands.
Comments : 10 Comments »
Tags: Asia, beliefs, Buddhism, China, colorful, customs, Dafu, Daofu, Dawu, elderly, kora, landscape, Lhasa, life, merit, monastery, monk, PHOTOGRAPHY, portrait, prayer, prayer wheel, religion, spin, Tibet, Tibetan, walk, wheel
Categories : PHOTOGRAPHY, TRAVEL, Tibet
Random Photos from Taiwan
25 07 2009It’s time for another edition of “Random Photographs from Taiwan.”
Whenever I have a handful of photos and no ideas for a specific post about them, they go into this category.
I guess it’s sort-of a weekly or bi-weekly gallery…
anywho…
This first one was taken on my recent four day trip to promote tourism in Taiwan. Most of the trip I was worried about getting video footage and not photos, but when whenever we had a few minutes to take some goofy pictures, we did.
Here, Phil from 老外的臺灣旅遊日記 (A travel blog in Chinese) jumps over me and my camera. It’s definitely a quick and dirty shot, and I hope to take more with more proper lighting in the future… On camera SB-800 shot TTL… 1/250 sec at f/22. 14-24mm at 14mm… And the lens was real dirty from the previous four-wheeling shoot.
Comments : 5 Comments »
Tags: "Formosa Adventurers", 101, Asia, black and white, blue, cars, circle, 烏來, daoist, forest, hot springs, jump, jungle, lanterns, lifestyle, lights, mountains, Muzha, night, ridges, sky, streaks, sun, sunglasses, Taipei, Taipei 101, TAIWAN, Taoist, temple, traffic, traffic circle, trees, up, Wulai, 台灣, 台北
Categories : PHOTOGRAPHY, TAIWAN
Taipei Photo Walk
20 07 2009This past weekend I joined the Taipei chapter of Scott Kelby’s Photo Walk.
It’s a annual social gathering of photographers in cities all over the world. Basically, photographers get together, go for a walk, then all meet up for dinner. Afterwards, you can upload your two best pictures for a chance to win some great prizes, but I think the main idea was just to go out and have some fun.
Craig Ferguson set it all up for us and I think it’s safe to say that we all had a great time.
Here’s a link to a Flickr page with some of the photos from the day and a handful of the photos that I shot:
Comments : 5 Comments »
Tags: Asia, photo walk, PHOTOGRAPHY, Taipei, Taipei Photo Walk, TAIWAN, 台灣, 台北
Categories : PHOTOGRAPHY, TAIWAN























