Kaohisung Lantern Festival
February 11, 2009
By: thenhbushman
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Category: customs, Lifestyle, Taiwan
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Photos by MJ Klein
This is the time of the year when different cities around Taiwan celebrate the Lantern Festival. We happened to be in Kaohsiung during the start of this year’s celebration.
Throngs of people were down at the Love River for the opening of the Lantern Festival.
This is the scene to the right of the above photo.
Walking along the bridge over the Love River we can see the site of the lantern displays.
The tour boats were out and quite busy.
These lanterns on the bridge remind us of candy on a stick.
They looked even better at night.
This shot taken from the middle of the bridge shows the platform for the fireworks that will be set off later.
To see the schedule, click this photo and view the large size on our Flickr photostream. You may do this with any photo in the series.
This is the beginning of the lantern display area. I didn’t attempt to document every single lantern as there are hundreds of them, and they will be graded and awards given later. I shot what I thought might be of interest to our readers. So, let’s take a walk through the display area.
This is the new year of the Ox, so many cow related themes were present.
The Chinese word for “rhinoceros” calls it a type of cow so even rhinos were featured in several lantern displays.
Sometimes you couldn’t even walk because there were just too many people, like this group here who insisted upon blocking everyone so they could take a photo of what is apparently, their lantern entry.
This is a representation of the Dream Mall ferris wheel. We saw several of these ferris wheel lanterns.
Leaving one area and entering another, that’s Hui-chen (left) and Ping-chen leading the way.
While I couldn’t figure out the theme of some of the lanterns, nevertheless I was impressed with the creativity expressed in each of the entries.
It was starting to get dark, which is my favorite time of day for taking photos.
All the lights were coming on everywhere. The Love River is a very colorful place to be at night.
We walked down past the exhibition area and to the next bridge, which we crossed and then made our way back in a big circle.
That’s the bridge to the right, with what looks like curtains.
And this is what the bridge looks like close up as you’re walking over it.
Crossing the bridge and turning right, we see another interesting set of displays.
This is supposed to be a characterization of the Kaohsiung mayor.
A famous landmark outside the Ambassador Hotel. I’ve seen this before looking out the window.
Looking back across the Love River at the lantern display area.
Looking back toward the other bridge we just crossed.
We decided to get something to eat. We found a crab restaurant and here we see the ladies are really enjoying the crab legs! It was a fitting ending to a nice evening.
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February 11th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
wish i was there! : / the dragon-fish thingee opposite the ambassador hotel, is it still broken? when i was there 2 years ago i was told it’s meant to rotate but havent been able to for a long time.
thenhbushman
reply on February 12th, 2009 9:44 am:
Dennis, the dragon/fish thing still doesn’t turn, so yes it’s still broken….
February 12th, 2009 at 8:21 am
Nice little report. Good photos although the exposure looks a little off on some of them – they appear to be 1-2 stops underexposed.
cfimagess last blog post..A Hint of Japan
thenhbushman
reply on February 12th, 2009 9:47 am:
Hi Craig. they are purposefully underexposed so the photographs match what i was seeing with my eye. i do that kind of photography a lot where i’ll bork the white balance or exposure to match what i’m seeing rather than get a perfectly exposed photo. if you allow it to do so, the camera will try to expose all shots for daylight.
February 12th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
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February 12th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
MJ great reporting. Excellent pictures and it is good to see all the effort some people went to with the lanterns.
Are the Taiwanese as rude as Thais and just stand in the way, jump in front of you to stop dead and so forth. And how about driving and double parking and such. Are they anything like Thais?
I love taking night time pictures, I also like to try and have the reader see what I seen. I love the colours at night time. I am still trying to work out how to take better night time pictures. I have read information you posted on taking better pictures plus I have done and still doing workshops for my camera on teh internet.
I also check out your settings when you take pictures, so many times I have stupidly forgot to change the ISO settings at night, just plain stupid.
Anyway, Thanks for sharing MJ
Bruntys last blog post..Still Walking the Walk, Isaan Thailand.
thenhbushman
reply on February 13th, 2009 7:13 pm:
thanks Brunty. i’m going to say that the Taiwanese seem better about those things but they are still very clueless about some. just yesterday i guy left a building on a narrow crowded sidewalk, without looking to see if the way was clear. he stepped out right in front of me. usually i keep walking and run into people like that, while saying “kan loo” (watch the road). it’s not that the people are being purposefully rude, but rather it’s ignorance with regard to others. i don’t think that mothers here teach their children about watching out for other people and not inconveniencing them. i’ve written volumes about this problem and it’s not getting any better.
the Nikon camera have “auto ISO” and i depend upon that feature to get what i need. the D80 can automatically adjust itself up to 1600. the D300 goes to 6400 on auto. i like dusk and evening shots the best i think. i also like to try to capture the shots something like how it looks to the eye.
thanks Brunty.
February 19th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
we wanted to go to the latern festival in taipei but i went there once a few years ago and the crowd was just unreal, so we ended up not going since i hate huge crowds!
andress last blog post..trip to yunlin
thenhbushman
reply on February 20th, 2009 9:57 am:
yes, the crowds were unreal down in Kaohsiung. i couldn’t imagine what they would be like on the weekend!
February 21st, 2009 at 5:21 am
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March 4th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
I like taking night night time pics too. If there are various colored lights… you can see them a LOT better at night. In some situations… those colored lights can make a HUGE difference in how a pic looks (just look at my various New Years Eve ice sculpture pics).
thenhbushman
reply on March 5th, 2009 12:03 pm:
Mike, yes i agree with you. dusk and twilight are my favorite times for photography. the whole world looks magical during those times.