Ok there is nothing to this picture other than my affection for it. So no theme, just throw up a favorite of yours.

Ok so here are some more shots on my last visit to NYC. I couldn’t get that many exterior shots, but these should do. Anway here they are.

These three pictures are from one of the biggest temples in Taiwan. I have a lot of photos that I really liked from it and just picked three that showed different aspects of it. The temple was simply massive, religion has got money money money here.

What is interesting, is despite the sheer complexity and size of it, including many floors, bridges, moats, and shrines galore (both Daoist and Buddist), its not even the largest in Taiwan (at least my friends did not think it was).

Anyway, the first is a celling of a shrine. The second is of and from one of the many bridges. I took a lot of photos from here, and none of them came out as well as they should have, grr...

The last one is a little building to house a truly massive drum.

So a three photo set of a place is up.

This one is not that special, but it is pretty funny.

At this big fireworks celebration for the ending of the brunt of Chinese New Year, they have both real big fireworks and thousands upon thousands of little firecrackers. For the latter, they set up big firework stands that shoot up bottle rockets. Then they put them on their side and shoot them into a crowd of people (on purpose). I was originally going to put one of the better (its a pain to photograph, too much smoke, and you know, the threat of my camera taking a direct hit) photos of fireworks pouring into a crowd of people and calling that a silly human trick. Instead I put up this one because it emphasized one person rather than a crowd of people.

This guy, and his two wives went out into the open area they cleared for the stands before things got going. Thus in front of a great deal of people (when you include the massive crowd that could see from the temple, think over a thousand). They each got a $1,000 NT for embarassing themselves (about $33).

Ok here’s the next one. It’s my dad, from this x-mas when I was down in Florida. So you can take what you want from it. Silly human tricks, indoor shot, action shot…. What ever you feel like.

Ok so this isn’t a celebration, but it’s a festival which is about as close as I have. It’s the Scottish highland festival they hold in Estes. You’ve probably been once or twice. Anyway, liked the contrast so here it is.

Most themes that you can get from this picture are not exactly fair, but i really wanted to post it. Perhaps crowds observing things, celebrations, or crowds in general. Either way, the photo was very Chinese so I wanted to throw it up there.

I got a lot of fireworks shots (this may not be the best either, but I don't want to spend the time looking through all of them yet). But I do like this one. They LOVE fireworks here, its like they invented the things.

Sorry about the very long time without a post. The problem was that picking "Gates or doorways" was like giving you "Mountains or nature" in Colorado or "Buildings and people" in New York. Sure I can do it, but where do I start? Especially when their culture is very intertwined with gates and doorways.

The picture I picked was taken during the eighth day of Chinese New Year (from a week or two before the day, and for a week or two after, they really get down). Way in the back (at the top of the picture you can see it) is the temple gate. All of the white bags are offerings. In the foreground are more offerings.