Lantau island and Po Lin monastery
When I travelled to Hong Kong 17 years ago, the only way to reach the Po Lin monastery on Hong Kong’s largest island – Lantau – was via a 1 hour boat ride, followed by 1 hour on a bus. With the construction of the new airport just of Lantau in 1998 you can now simply take the MTR from downtown to Lantau in 20 minutes. A short walk from the MTR station is the Ngong Ping cable car. The 5.7 km cable car ride will take you in 25 min across the island to the Nong Ping plateau and Po Lin monastery. The ride is quite an experience and on a clear day the view is amazing! If you don’t have a problem with heights you can take the crystal cabin (it has a glass floor) – I opted for the standard version 🙂 . The Po Lin monastery is quite touristy but very much worth a visit. It features the Tian Tan Buddha, at 112 feet the largest outdoor seated bronze Buddha statue. The statue houses a sacred bone relic of the Gautama Buddha and is therefore a well known pilgrimage site. If you would like to escape the crowds you can do so by following the signs to the wisdom path. A 15 min walk will lead you to this outdoor monument of 38 tall timber columns, engraved with the heart sutra. The columns are arranged in a figure 8 symbolizing infinity. Several hiking paths start there also and the scenery is beautiful. You can easily forget that this is part of Hong Kong.
Chi Lin Nunnery – Hong Kong
When thinking about Hong Kong the first words that come to our minds are usually shopping, skyscrapers and crowds. The last words you would probably think of are calm, peace and serenity. Yet these are the best words to describe Chi Lin Nunnery and Nan Lian garden, situated right in the middle of Hong Kong. It is an oasis of calm in this crowded and hectic city. A walk in one of the beautiful courtyards of the temple, listening to the buddhist chant, must be one of the most peaceful and calming experiences.
Build in Tang dynasty style, no nails were used in the construction of any of the buildings. Nan Lian is an incredibly beautiful traditional Chinese park, complete with Bonsais, stunning rock formations, waterfalls and lotus ponds. Strangely enough it is not overrun by tourists. In case you get hungry there is also a small restaurant that serves a delicious vegetarian lunch (I ate way too much!).
Surrounded by highrise appartment buildings this place feels like stepping into a different world.
Dogfest 2011
Last weekend dog lovers of all ages gathered for Dogfest 2011, an event to benefit the Vest-a dog foundation. Vest-a-dog provides funds to purchase bullet proof vests for police dogs and this has been an annual fund raiser event for several years now. The Jack Russell races provided great entertainment for everyone, the State Police K-9 unit demonstrated the incredible skills of the police dogs, there was a “down – stay” contest and everyone could give the various obstacles of the agility course a try. Here are some of my favorite images from that afternoon.
For more images from this fun event you can check out this link to the Dogfest gallery on my website.
Trying something different – a trip to MIT
Monday afternoon a friend of mine and I headed into Cambridge in the hope of photographing the full moon rising over the Boston skyline. We arrived early to spend some time walking around the MIT campus and taking a closer look at the Frank Gehry building. This was quite a departure from my regular nature photography, but I think it is always good to try something new and different. This building lends itself for abstracts. Here are some of the images from that location. (click on any picture to see a larger version)
Oh, and what about the full moon? After it finally rose through all the haze in the sky I still ended up with a nice shot with sail boats in the foreground on this warm October evening.
Dog assisted photography (or I thought I had a controlled environment)
I have posted this picture before, but I thought I would let you know how I actually made this image. If you have ever tried to photograph a dandelion (or any other flower) outside, you know that as soon as you have set up your camera on a perfectly calm day, Murphy’s law for photographers will take effect and a breeze will start up. So what to do? I decided to bring the dandelion inside to photograph it in my living room where some nice soft afternoon light was coming through the door. So I carefully picked the flower trying not to disturb the perfect white fluff. I placed it in a vase, put some black cardboard behind it for background. Then I proceeded to set up my camera. I was looking forward to having some fun photographing it in a nice controlled environment, or so I thought. I had completely forgotten about my dog, who was quietly snoozing in the next room. All the commotion woke her up and she decided to check out why her owner was contorting herself on the living room floor. Before I knew it, she decided to sniff the flower, which immediately started to fall apart. Oh NO! I chased her away and then I took a second look at the dandelion. It actually looked more interesting now than before! She ended up improving my shot! I guess I have a four-legged photography assistant 🙂 .
All creatures great and small
Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons are not just known for their incredible landscape, but also for their variety of wildlife. Here is a collection of some of my wildlife encounters during my trip in June.
Feel free to check out the rest of the images from my trip on my website www.beatedalbecphotography.com.
A matter of space – negative space
An important, but sometimes overlooked, part of composition is negative space. Negative space is the space around your subject. This was extremely important in this picture of Jenny lake in the Grand Tetons. When I walked along the shore this scene just popped into my eyes, but I had to be very careful when I set up my camera for this shot. If the tree would have ended up touching the mountain, or the reflection of the mountain the rocks below, this would have not been a strong image. So, if you are in such a situation, really check your viewfinder, or better yet use live view, to check your composition.
Darwin Wiggett’s blog
I am absolutely honored to have one of my favorite images featured on Darwin Wiggett’s blog today. There is a link to it here..
I have always greatly admired Darwin for his incredible work. In case you are not familiar with it, I very much suggest you take a look at his website. I am sure you will agree with me.
Also, should you ever plan a trip to the Canadian Rockies, Darwin’s ebooks “How to photograph the Canadian Rockies” are a must have! I do have the book (no longer in print) and the ebooks and they are just the best! You can find them here.
A closer look at the Moulton barn
On a rather grey and overcast day I decided to take a closer look at the Moulton barn in the Grand Tetons. Most photographers take the usual shot of the barn with the mountains in the back ground and then move on. But I was also interested in the beautiful old woodwork. I was quite sure that on a dreary day like that I would not ruin any ones shot by walking around the barn.
These old wooden beams were very intriguing.
I also had the opportunity to meet the new inhabitants 🙂
As you can see they slightly modified the door to suit their needs.
Always expect the unexpected
Always expect the unexpected – that seemed to have been the motto for my trip to Yellowstone. So many unexpected and beautiful moments. I already wrote about my encounter with the Bisons at Grand Prismatic spring, then there was a beautiful rainbow over the Yellowstone Canyon and then this:
It had been raining all afternoon, dense cloud cover as far as the eye could see and I had pretty well given up any hope of photographing at sunset. We were staying in one of the cabins at the Old Faithful lodge (which I can highly recommend, by the way) and I decided to head to the visitor center to check on the next day’s forecast. I did not get very far, when the rain stopped, the clouds parted just enough to let the setting sun peek through and illuminate Old Faithful. In absolute record time I raced back to the cabin, grabbed my camera and was lucky to quickly find a composition I was happy with. Yellowstone is always full of surprises. You just need to be ready to take advantage of them!
You can find more images of my trip on my website.
Beate Dalbec's Blog 