My Holga always seems like a long lost friend when I am out taking photos.  Do you know how sometimes you neglect to contact your best friends often enough, but when you do, it is like you have never been apart?  I kind of feel like that with my Holga.

Part of the separation is seasonal; during the warmer months, my tapwater comes out too hot to develop my b&w film at home.  Part of it is financial; digital is free, film costs.  Part of it is impatientence; it actually takes time to dip, dunk and scan film; much more so than with digital.  Anyways, now that it is cooler, I ran a couple of rolls of film through the most craptastic camera ever.

A Smart Salute

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With Joss Sticks

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Dog on a Scooter

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Preps

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Ghosts in the Hall

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Scooter Sitter

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Here’s Lookin’ at You

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I Is a Landscape ‘Tographer

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Chasing Pigeons

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Flowers

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The big incense pot

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The first meet up of our photo group went off yesterday and I think it was quite a success.  There were more than twenty of us to meet for lunch, most of whom carried on to take some photos at Lungshan Temple and the surrounding area.  There were lots of great people to meet and hopefully a good amount of good photos taken.  We started off our activities by announcing the Scavenger Hunt, which will run for the next four weeks.  I will update this post tomorrow, but for now, I encourage everyone to get over to the flickr group, where you can see some of the photos which have been uploaded and maybe more importantly, have a look at the Scavenger Hunt information, so that you can take part too.

Candle Keeper

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A big thanks to everyone who showed up; I was very pleased with the numbers and the quality of the people there.

You don’t typically see a lot of westerners actually worshiping, but there are always exceptions to the rules.

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Kids Games

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Buying DVDs.  Although they are available, these folks weren’t buying the adult version.

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Again, a big thank you to everyone who came out and it was great to meet such a good bunch of people.  I am already looking forward to the next meeting.  Please have a look at the flickr group, where you can upload photos, read about the scavenger hunt, see the photos that others took and just participate with our group in general.

Thanks again.

On Saturday, I met up with David and Craig.  The meetup had two goals in mind.  First, we thought we would take some shots of the ongoing demonstrations at Freedom Hall.  Here are a few of those shots.

The students are protesting (amongst other issues) the Parade and Assembly Law, which makes democratic participation and protest difficult, as groups are basically not allowed to assemble without government approval.  This law is largely responsible for the sometimes violent confrontations in the wake of the Chen Yunlin visit over the past few weeks.

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This is outside of the student area.  It is great to see the so called “Strawberry Generation” starting to flex their civic muscles, but middle aged and older citizens still are a big part of anything political in Taiwan.

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Marching in Unity.

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Now for the second, and differently important reason for this blog post.  We have settled on the time and place for our Photography Club meeting.  It will be held on Sunday, November 23rd at noon.  The location for the meeting will be:

Forkers Restaurant

No. 8, Alley 10, Lane 223 Chung Xiao East Rd. Sec. 4,  Taipei

台北市忠孝東路四段223巷10弄8號

Anyone is still welcome, but please let me know if you would like to come.  Forkers is a busy place and I will need to make sure we have enough spots reserved.  Following the meal, we will head out and do some shooting.  It should be a fun time and a good chance to meet some like minded people.  Let me know.

I am  coming in late here.  I fully realize that it has been covered better and in a more timely manner, but here is my take on the Chen Yunlin protest.  I met up with David to see what was happening, and I would say that without a doubt, he has done a better job with his coverage, but here is what I have to offer.

Speaking to the Press

This guy was speaking fluently and passionately about his beliefs to members of the press.

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Sunglasses and thumbs up

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Hands and Riot Shield

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The Thin Blue Line

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Intense Look

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Police Profiling

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Straw Hat

Behind the Barbed Wire

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Hands Upraised

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Orange Balloon

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Tie a Yellow Ribbon

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No Fan of Chiang

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On the Dirty Boulevard

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Flag Waver #1

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Flag Waver #2

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Flag Waver #3

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Man in Black

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It has been tried before, and I am trying it again. I am hoping to start up a Taipei Photography Club. This is intended to be a fun, social group meant for anyone with any kind of camera. Please do not believe that you have to have a state of the art DSLR; anything that takes photos is great.

I guess there are a few goals I have in mind. First, I am just hoping to build up a group of friends with a common interest; the social aspect is a big part of my ideals. Second, I am hoping that this can act as a motivation to get me and others out taking photos.  Learning from others, perhaps helping other shooters myself would be nice benefits too.  Mostly though, I want this to be fun.

Here is what I am thinking.  The group would meet once a month, probably for breakfast or lunch, followed by some shooting.  At these meetings, I was hoping that someone would give a talk on something photography related.  As an example, I might do something on how to shoot strangers on the street, as that is something that is not easy for everyone.  Other examples might be someoone covering post processing or cataloging, matting and printing, selling your photos, getting published, studio lighting, shooting for magazines or newspapers, or who knows what else.  The speakers could be members of our group, but perhaps we could also have guest speakers too.  For example, I am sure there is an AP or Reuters photographer based in Taipei and it would be cool to hear his or her story.  Likewise, it would be interesting to hear from a professional studio photographer, a Nat Geo shooter or who knows who else might be willing to give up a morning.  Perhaps at each of these meetings, it would also be nice to have everyone in the group show a few of their best prints from the past month?  Just ideas all, but these are things I think might be fun.

At these meetings, I am thinking that we could set a theme or a project to shoot in the upcoming month.  Fro example, it might be a scavenger hunt, where each member is to shoot (for example) 12 photos based upon 12 themes and then put them together in a set.  Rather than a scavenger hunt, it might be a set number of photos based upon a certain theme, a roll of film shot with a disposable, etc?  I am thinking that these projects might be done as a competition, with the winner being the one who sets the next challenge.  If folks would prefer not to introduce competition into things, that is cool too.  One of the good things I see about the month long challenge would be that in this way, people who can’t be at the meetings can still participate in the challenges.

Thinking in more of a long term way, I was thinking that other possibilities might open up.  Perhaps the group could have their prints featured in a local gallery somewhere.  I know all of the FNACs in town show photos, there is the Jhongshan Art Gallery, in the underground between Jhongshan MRT and Taipei Main Station shows prints and art, any number of restaurants and tons of other places I am sure I don’t know about but which do exist.  I would think that many people would like the ego boost of seeing their stuff hanging somewhere other than on their walls.  Who knows?  Maybe something like that could even lead to a print sale or two?

We could also, after a few months, do the odd weekend road trip to some scene or event in Taiwan.  We might rent a studio, studio lights and a model or two and try some studio photography; something I have never done but would be very interested in.  Who knows what else might come up in time should this thing really get rolling?

I am sure there are lots of creative people out there who have more and better ideas than do I; please let me know what they are.

First off, I guess we should set a possible meeting time.  Of course, it will have to happen on a weekend.  I am not certain what day is better.  Let’s think about making it the weekend of November 22 or 23.  If you are interested, either leave your name and email in a reply here, or email me directly at darren AT darrenmelrose.com and let me know if Saturday the 22nd or Sunday the 23rd is better for you.  After we know what day we will meet, we can decide where that will be.  Please let me know if you have other ideas and please pass this along to anyone you think might be interested.  We will finalize the meeting date by Sunday the 16th I guess and a meeting place sometime shortly after that.  I am very open to ideas about where to meet too.

Like I said earlier, everyone is welcome.  The only requirements would be that you have a camera of some kind and I guess a way to display them on the net.  Maybe it would be best if everyone were to sign up for flickr?  flickr is free as long as you don’t want to display more than 200 photos, so it need not cost you anything.  If need be, I could also set up a permanent gallery on my site should that be useful.

Some additional things:  First, I forgot to mention a link to the original group, which never really got the momentum going:  http://www.flickr.com/groups/taiwanphotoclub/.  Second, in order to get things rolling from the beginning, I will come up with a set of ideas for the first project/challenge.  This one will be a scavenger hunt for sure and I will have a set of 12 subjects ready at the meeting.

Again, if you could let us know which day, Saturday the 22nd or Sunday the 23rd is better, that would be great.  You can either reply to this thread, or email me at darren AT darrenmelrose.com.

Hope to see you soon.