Today my idea was to head south lazy, just take Roosevelt Road and cross the Jingmei River, which actually I think takes me into the next city south of Taipei, Xindian. I'd figure out where to go once I got there, and if nothing looked interesting, then just backtrack and come straight back on Roosevelt Road.
I wasn't planning on going long, since I'm really not happy with my language progress and felt I needed to put even more hours into studying. I ended up going all the way down to the end of my map, all the way to Xindian MRT station, end of the line. So I've been to both ends of the Danshuei line. I actually thought that would happen much sooner. But it's a big city. And not easy to navigate.
The Xindian Station area, right near the Xindian River, is a similar idea to Danshui, but smaller and more relaxed, more family oriented and less youth oriented. I didn't start shooting until I got down there, because riding on the roads here: A) requires complete attention to not get run over, and B) they all start looking the same. And since I hit the Xindian River, I decided to head back north on the riverside bikeway.
I must say, with all the faults in the planning of these bikeways, not to mention the ongoing construction, the sheer extent of the bikeway system along all the major rivers is quite a marvel. If only they could tie them integrally into Taipei recreational life, they would have a major score. If they could do that, it would be more impressive than Golden Gate Park and Central Park combined.
At this point, access is still the major problem and so I think use of the bikeways and riverside parks is still kind of a niche attraction. A lot of people do use them, but they're a gem to be sought out, not an attraction that people magnetize towards. When I mentioned them in class once, my teacher commented that they must be something that only foreigners know about, because she didn't know about them. She was wrong, but to my point.
I mostly continued to shoot at 800, but for some shots with a lot of sky background, I bumped it back down to 400. I need to take more comparison shots like I did with the last roll. I'm writing this like I'm telling someone else, but it's really just a reminder to myself.
Pentax ZX-5n, Ilford XP2 Super
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| this is the only one shot at 800, the rest are at 400 |
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| the two above are raw scans (no contrast/brightness adjustments) |
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| 4:13 p.m. |
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| 4:24 p.m. |
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| 4:26 p.m. - the lady walking backwards with me wondering if she'd bump into me, just because I'm stupid like that. |
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| 4:30 p.m. |
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| 4:57 p.m. - I hate when people dump-post multiple pictures of the same thing, but then I realized these are one subject, but very different photos doing different things, so okay. |
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| 4:59 -5:00 p.m |
1. The Funky Avocado (Michael Hedges)
2. Saving Grace (Throwing Muses)
3. Sweet Thing (live) (David Bowie)
4. Rapture (Blondie)
5. I Saw the Light (The The)
6. The Hover is Ajar (Shannon Wright)
7. I'll Buy (The Replacements)
8. Vigil (Fish)
9. Country Honk (The Rolling Stones)
10. Explain It To Me (Liz Phair)
