brappy!

Starting Tomorrow, originally uploaded by brappy★.

As some of you may know [1], I'm having a small solo photographic installation at the 1600 E Olive Way Starbucks starting Thursday 3 April 2008, running through the end of the month.

It's a collection of transportation images from Taipei. No blue trucks, though. They don't work hot in black and white.

While it's small, this has been a great year for my development as a photographer. I've had photos in two books and now, two installations - with one of them being just my work.

If you're in Seattle, come check it out. Come buy something.

This card is not my best work; I'm way out of practice with graphic design! [2]

movement: taipei

[1] After getting very excited phone calls from me last week. Heh.
[2] While making this, I kept wishing I had QuarkXpress 2.0 because I can use it really, really fast (a holdover from using it at a daily newspaper on deadline).

Posted by arion at 04:35 PM | Permalink

I walk a mile with a smile.
I don't know I don't care where I am,
But I know it's all right.
Jump the tracks, can't get back.
I don't know anyone round here,
But I'm safe this time.

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I love visiting Los Angeles.

Full photoset is here.

Posted by arion at 04:02 PM | Permalink

Autumn, originally uploaded by brappy★.

Walking outside Bagley Hall and past the Drumheller Fountain, I headed toward the bus stop at NE Campus Parkway and 15th Avenue NE and observed my busy classmates heading all around the city. I stopped a few times to photograph things that caught my eye: a goose, a taxicab, a crowd a bus stop. What really caught my attention, though, was the winds that were picking up, and really cold, too.

The high clouds that I had seen all day were being replaced by grey, puffs sinking low into the sky and moving north-east at a rapid pace. Fearing that they would bring rain along with the chilly gusts, I paced anxiously while I waited for my bus to bounce down 15th Avenue.

The unstable atmosphere allowed a few glimpses of the sun, which cast a unique glow on the damp concrete and passed through the yellowing trees. While I don't care much for the cold weather, I realized today that I did miss the subtle change that fall brings. Long my least favorite season, on this occasion, I was able to appreciate the short beauty it does have.

When I finally returned home, one of my first tasks after turning on the heat and checking the weather forecast for tomorrow (morning thunderstorms?), was to put on warmer clothes and get a blanket to wrap up in while I sad in the cold and looked up last-minute airfares to beach vacation destinations.

Ah, fall.

Posted by arion at 02:36 PM | Permalink

On a day when one of my photos was used in a popular local blog (with permission), I found yet another worry for amateur photographers. It's the Creative Commons license and understanding the bizarreness of copyrights, as pointed out in this New York Times article today: Use My Photo? Not without permission.

Having had my photos used bizarrely on other blogs in the past, I recently changed the license of my photos to be All Rights Reserved, which restricts legal uses of photos somewhat. The Creative Commons licenses, I found, were too broad and didn't give me the control I wanted. Of course, putting any photo on the web means that it can be readily stolen, used, abused, altered, etc., but if you're dealing with an established organization, tracking down that use, abuse, alteration, what-have-you, is easier.

 I recently came across a bizarre flickr group that was full of Chicken Little wannabes that were outraged!!!1! that some user saved the cache file (which your browser creates for every web site you visit) of photos that she liked for her own personal viewing later. This group started blocking this user en masse, but what was really funny, was that by blocking this user, they did nothing to stop her from viewing their images, only blocking her from communicating with them. Like most internet mobs [1] and online petitions[2], they yelled loud, but did nothing. So sad for them.

As an amateur photographer, I am well aware that my work probably has been stolen and misappropriated, miscredited, printed out and put on a wall in a foreign country [3] and generally not credited to me as it should be. That's the way it goes. I knew that going into photography.

So what can I do?

 Well, what I do, is I make a lot of photos and enjoy telling a story with them. I don't put a big ugly watermark on them, and I don't flip out (much) if I find one being misused online [4]. What I can do is control the message as good as I can, and reserve my vitrol for the truly egregious (read: commercial) use of my photos without my permission. Like that case in the link above.

[1] something that I totally loathe. 

[2] Has an online petition ever been taken seriously? I hear about them all the time, but I've never heard of one having any effect. 

[3] That really happened. I was flattered and annoyed at the same time. 

[4] Like for a blog posting in Czech about visa issues in Germany. 

Now for your entertainment... a lovely flower photo I shot to help you continue on your day. 

Posted by arion at 07:10 AM | Permalink

arriving from Glasgow, originally uploaded by brappy★.

I just love the 747-400. This is a Cargolux flight from Glasgow, heading toward SEA.

Posted by arion at 04:56 PM | Permalink

the terrace, originally uploaded by brappy★.

my building's first-floor terrace will be fixed soon. but in the meantime, it makes this neat pattern and has some cool flowers on it. It sure does remind me of something I might have shot in China

Posted by arion at 12:44 PM | Permalink

notes from mom, originally uploaded by brappy!.

I found this today. A moon cake, along with a note!

Posted by arion at 02:04 AM | Permalink

I very much miss my good friend Chen. Everytime I see him in Taiwan, we get along famously and laugh like idiots. Plus, he reminds me a lot of myself, actually. And he's a bit weird. Last time I stayed with his family, he repacked my suitcase because my dirty clothes "were too messy"... or something like that... While looking for a shot of the time that Coco Lee checked me out on the street, I came across this photo I took of him and his sister ascending the staircase in the pedestrian tunnel underneath Zhongxiao West Road right near Taipei Train Station. I was about to say goodbye to them for the foreseeable future and we were all quite sad (but full, after eating duck for lunch).

Posted by arion at 02:35 PM | Permalink

1988. Architects: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and The McKinley Architects 

Posted by arion at 07:17 AM | Permalink

I was up watching a lunar eclipse the other night. It was really neat to see. I went to my roof and in between shooting photos of the moon, I took a couple of shots of downtown itself.
This first moon photo is the only good shot i got, out of about 85 that I took... haha. It was cold (60°F/15°C), but watching the total eclipse was great. One of my hippie neighbors was up there with me, then we were joined by a curmudgeonly old man who wanted to talk politics. To make it more interesting, the smell of freshly baked donuts wafted across the roof, as we are quite close to Top Pot Doughnuts... I never realized that they start making donuts at 1 a.m.... ha.

The eclipse

Downtown at night

Some apartment buildings that look odd at night, due to their outdoor swimming pools. In just a few weeks, these will be drained and closed for the year.

Posted by arion at 07:09 AM | Permalink

Moving my mom was a blast... or not. She had way too much stuff. The day started early, with my stepdad and I meeting in Everett to pick up THE WORLD'S BIGGEST RENTAL TRUCK! It was so big, we both giggled when we found it at the lot. I couldn't believe that with just a driver's license, a credit card and extreme gumption, you could rent and drive such a huge truck.

 Anyway...

The infamous truck on the ferry... haha.

My stepdad relaxing on the ferry

My aunt and her grandson... the whole day was more like a productive family reunion than anything else.

Four generations of my family together, including my grandmother, on the porch of my mom's new house

My grandfather and my aunt's partner working on a sink...

Posted by arion at 03:44 PM | Permalink

My neighborhood is full of dead TVs for some reason...

Posted by arion at 03:23 PM | Permalink

declaration, originally uploaded by brappy!.

Vancouver is a nice airport, but in my opinion, it's a ridiculous place to transit when you go Intl-to-US. Here are the steps it requires:

• Get off plane. Show passport on the jetway to the Canada Immigration officers (passport check one).
  
• Walk a long way to the immigration queue (just building at 10.40 a.m. and about to get to be over 500 people). As I'm arriving on Air China, I'm not allowed to do the direct US transit option and have to legally enter Canada.
• Clear immigration controls (passport check 2).
• Wait for bags.
• Clear customs (passport check 3).
• Find unmarked elevator and take it with 70 pounds of luggage to the third floor check in for US flights.
  
• Check in with Alaska Airlines (passport check 4).
• Stand in 1 km line to clear US immigration, having my passport checked again (check #5).
• Clear US immigration (check 6).
• Clear US customs (passport check 7)
• Drop off luggage, walk 15 minutes to gate. Find out flight is cancelled, get on next flight an hour later.
  
• Board plane (passport check 8).
  

Eight passport checks? That's the last thing I want after an eleven-hour flight.
Let's contrast with transiting Narita after flying in from, say, Taipei:

Arrive in Narita (Tokyo), go to security, show passport and boarding pass. Go to gate, then get on plane when it's time to board. When arriving in Seattle: go to immigration, show passport, go to customs, show passport, dump bags on a belt, then take a train to the main terminal baggage claim. Wait five minutes, and bags arrive. Much easier, for me.

For others, I know it's not this simple, but this organization at YVR is RIDICULOUS and irritating. I'll think twice about connecting in YVR in the future - Narita is just so much easier.

Posted by arion at 12:03 PM | Permalink

After an uneventful return to Beijing (although I did have to see Hero 英雄 on a plane again), I rested for a day, didn't do anything and got ready to head back to Seattle via Vancouver.

Monday night, I was leaving dinner and got in a taxi where the driver didn't know how to operate a stick-shift. He appeared to be covering a shift for someone who knew how to drive a taxi properly. As we headed toward the 3rd Ring Road going 30km/h in 3rd gear, I realized that this would not do... and got in another one.

The next morning, I was taking a taxi (again - my life in Asia seems to be short periods of living interrupted by long rides in taxis, but I love it), and we got stuck in traffic 2 Km from the airport entrance. After about ten minutes of driving on the shoulder, I saw a five-car pileup in the left lane; three taxis and two passenger cars had collided. 

Upon arriving at the airport, I saw a Turkmenistan Airlines jet readying for departure. Sadly, I couldn't get a photo of it.

Checking in at PEK is bizarre. Going into the Int'l Departures area, you first fill out a customs form, pass customs officers, then go to the ticketing hall to check in. If you're flying a major carrier, you have to search through many rows of check-in desks to figure out where your flight (and class of service) is checking in. After checking in, you then head through Immigation control, then security and presto, you're in the terminal.

My flight left on time and was pretty uneventful.

PEK airport logo

Beer left in the airport

Waiting in the airport...

PEK has a lot of cargo traffic across Asia

Air China tails

Yanjing Beer

Duck for dinner? Only on Air China!

Air China did show the worst movie I'd seen in a while - The Astronaut Farmer, a ridiculous, badly done story about a former astronaut who builds his own spacecraft in rural Texas. Say what?!

Posted by arion at 11:37 AM | Permalink

Because Typhoon Pabuk decided to hit Hong Kong, I was stuck laying low in Tsim Sha Tsui over the weekend. Most things were closed, and it was really rainy. I was there mostly to get a new visa for the mainland, which I'd heard was easy to do in HK. Wrong. Previously, I had obtained my visa in New York at the PRC consulate there. I had asked for a multiple-entry visa, but they said that because I was studying in the mainland, I couldn't get one. Annoying, for sure. Cost of my same-day student visa? $80 USD.

So, after going to HK and Taiwan, I had to get a new 30-day tourist visa in HK. Usually these are around $800 HKD ($102 USD) for a one-day processing time. That's what it was in November, when I checked. Imagine my shock and horror when I found that a same-day tourist visa is now $1430 HKD (182 USD)! What a ripoff! I could have gotten the same document for $80 in the US. What a hassle!

That big chunk of money ate up most of my budget for my weekend in HK. While it is an expensive city to live in, eating local food and riding public transit to go take photographs (which is what I like doing there anyway) is super-cheap. But, because of the typhoon, this was largely scrapped, as many restaurants and most public transportation was severely disrupted. I did get to watch some fun tv, though.

After the typhoon, the buildings were postively luminescent. It was crazy light, but I loved it

Looking across the harbour

Entertainingly (and with great timing), the cheeziest competition in town, Mr. Hong Kong 2007, was on tv during the typhoon. I love the expression on the judges here.

Posted by arion at 02:54 PM | Permalink

Flying out of Taiwan Taoyuan International Aiport for Hong Kong...

The old Terminal One, captured in a wide-angle lens. It's modelled after Dulles International Airport in DC.

Good Morning, China Airlines! Lots of big planes ready for a busy day of flying...I love airports in the morning. The light is great and there's this newness in the air...

My reflection in the airshow display, showing me clearly over the Taiwan strait.

Flying through a typhoon, we were at 38,000 feet and still in clouds. It was crazy, and bumpy.

But I still got my "Oriental" vegetarian meal [1]

[1] I'm not a vegetarian, but I think meat doesn't travel well on airplanes, especially long-haul flights. It just gets gross at the end. I'll soon blog my encounters with duck on an airplane flight. Yuck.

Posted by arion at 02:31 PM | Permalink

Some random photos I took around Tainan.

Not paying enough train fare, due to a mistake I made, I needed to make a fare adjustment

This sign rocks.

Have you had your morning boob cow?

This one's actually Taoyuan, but no one needs to know that. :-P

Posted by arion at 02:20 PM | Permalink

dream mall, originally uploaded by brappy!.

I had a dream about this mall in Gaoxiong (Kaohsiung). I also had a dream I got my university diploma delivered to my house, but it was wrapped in plastic, like a newspaper and I found it on my front lawn. needless to say, it was the best dream I've had all year. The feeling I had when I woke up was crushing.

Posted by arion at 02:01 PM | Permalink

set detail, originally uploaded by brappy!.

Rielly and I wandered into the Beijing Film Studio one afternoon. It's right next to the Beijing Film Academy. We snuck (well, walked) into the film studio through the back gate, bought some DVDs and ice cream at the store (we had to bargain for it), then we walked into another convenience store and went right out the back, directly onto a film set. Rielly had scoped all of this out before, so he knew where he was going. I was a few steps behind him as he wandered around, and there was an old lady in the convenience store. She yelled, "They don't understand! They don't understand!" when we walked in, and out of her store, going through the forbidden, but unlocked, door.

Then, we were on the film set, which was being readied for the filming of the new Chen Kaige film, starring Zhang Ziyi. It's a new film that is as yet untitled, about the life of an early 20th century opera star. The sets look pretty interesting. More photos are here.

Posted by arion at 03:39 PM | Permalink

Everyone loves the area around Honglou in the Ximen part of Taipei. Especially us gays. It's really nice and fun... and guess what? The Taipei Times wrote an article about it.

I loved photographing it. 

Posted by arion at 07:23 PM | Permalink

diet coke, originally uploaded by brappy!.

Shot on a rooftop. I like this shot a lot. It's pretty.

Posted by arion at 12:32 AM | Permalink

on a hotel roof, originally uploaded by brappy!.

Sunday, I went to a rooftop bar in a hotel (weird, I know) and my friend Jeremy took my photo, after I showed him how to use my FABULOUS Nikon FG.

Shot on Kodak BW400CN film

Posted by arion at 12:26 AM | Permalink

unrestored wall section, originally uploaded by brappy!.

We went to the great wall at 司馬台 on Saturday. Simatai is pretty interesting, but the wall is quite a big climb. Fortunately, you'll get your own guide, whether you want one or not. Mine had a unique hatred of Germans, I'm not not sure.

My class was hell-bent on hustling up several mountaintops. After a few towers, I realized that they were increasingly similar, yet harder to reach. Plus, we didn't eat breakfast. What the heck? So, my guide Mrs. Du, and I headed back and we chatted about her family while I tripped on the loose bricks on the way down.

Back at the base, I pulled out my brilliant book, ordered a Yanjing beer, some tea and then chatted with some French people about politics. After I wished them a happy Bastille day, they bought me some beer. After an hour and a half, my class came back, worn out and hungry. I was quite happy with myself (the beer helped my ego) and glad I ate when I did.

On the sleepy bus ride back, I saw perhaps the best blue truck ever! Unlike Taiwan, where blue trucks have four wheels, in the mainland, they often have three wheels - one in front, two in back (the mullet of blue trucks)... I saw one such three-wheeled bizarreness carrying a full load of donkeys in the back! I couldn't stop talking about it. Too bad, I didn't have my camera out... grar!

More photos of the great wall... on flickr, film is being developed presently...

Posted by arion at 03:39 PM | Permalink

I read this morning in the Seattle Times that the Starbucks store inside the Forbidden City closed on Friday. How funny, considering I was there on Saturday last week and found lots of sweaty tourists outside the store, which didn't have any signs.

The store came under controversy after a TV news host started bitching about it on his blog, saying that it was imperialistic and embarrassing to have a Starbucks in the Imperial Palace (aka the Forbidden City). He seems to forget that it's much more embarrassing that the place is loaded with "art students" who want to sell you art and rip you off. I'd say that's more embarrassing, but the nationalistic bloggers that are legion in China often conveniently forget such things...

The store did have some really cool receipts, one of which is lingering on my desk. 

For the record, the store was packed, tiny and busier than any other Starbucks I've ever seen.

Posted by arion at 10:41 AM | Permalink

I'm too sexy for 北京站, originally uploaded by brappy!.

This is a weirdly blurred photo, but I like the guy's pose here. It's kind of sexy in a 土包子 way.

Posted by arion at 11:15 PM | Permalink

early morning canal view, originally uploaded by brappy!.

One consequence of jet lag is that I wake up early and go out in search of breakfast.

Beijing is organized weirdly, it's very spread out and it's often hard to find things, or they are very far away. It's the opposite of Taipei, where there are 7-11s on every block and a breakfast stand on every corner. Rielly and I walked 20 minutes to get some tasty breakfast. It was nice.

On the way back, I shot this view over a trash-filled canal with a hazy sun rising in the west.

This is an odd place. It's going to take some getting used to.

Posted by arion at 11:08 PM | Permalink

in line, originally uploaded by brappy!.

Item number one: ladies who glare at me.

Posted by arion at 03:31 PM | Permalink