太鲁阁 (Taroko Gorge)

据说，台湾是400万年前，欧亚大陆板块与菲律宾海洋板块相互撞击，剧烈的地壳变动，使地层急剧上升而形成的岛屿。

来到太鲁阁国家公园，目睹了此地独特的地形与岩石，和人工开拓却不失其自然风貌的道路，步道，桥梁，庙宇等，大开眼界之遗，心境也顿时开朗起来，虽然背着不轻的背包，却一点也不觉得累。

太鲁阁国家公园范围极为广大，因为时间关系，我们只参观了长春飞瀑与砂卡礑步道(Shakadang Trail)一带九牛一毛的风景，不能尽兴而归。

相片中红桥（图一）左边有一座阶梯，往下走就到达砂卡礑步道的入口（ 图二）。在步道中行走，沿途可观赏左边幽美的峡谷河床，及右边和头上的岩石壁（图三）。这里的溪水清澈蔚蓝（图四），令人有下去嬉水的冲动。

长春飞瀑是長春祠与飞流而下的山水所构成的景色（图五），位于青山绿水间的长春祠，是为了纪念修筑中横公路的殉难者而建的。从弥陀岩（图六）前往長春祠的台阶中途，有座观音洞（图七），洞内有观音石佛及横贯公路的施工全图。古色古香的長春祠周围，有亭子石阶与山上流下的泉水（图八）。

As a nature lover, Taroko Gorge National Park is one of the places in Taiwan that I appreciate best. Unfortunately due to time constraint, we only managed to visit very few places of the national park. Below is some brief introduction of the photos taken around the place.

At one end of the red bridge (photo 1), there is a staircase that leads us down to the entrance of the Shakadang trail (photo 2). This trail is built along the river cliff so travelers can easily observe both the rock folds and plant ecosystem beside in the river valley (photo 3). The pool with clear blue water here is so enchanting (photo 4) I feel like going down for a swim.

The Eternal Spring Shrine and the waterfall (photo 5) present a scenic view to visitors. Near to the Amithaba Rock (photo 6), there is a Guanyin Cave (photo 7) built to commemorate the 226 personnel (military veterans) who died during the construction of the Central Cross-Island Highway. At the surrounding of the Eternal Spring Shrine, there are some nicely built shelters, stairs and natural stream of water (photo 8) that flows down from the mountain.

日月潭 (Sun Moon Lake)

日月潭，是台湾最大的淡水湖，不仅名字优美如诗，景色也像画般山明水秀，是摄影同好们取景的好地方。

到达日月潭，大约九点多左右，这并非摄影的最佳时刻，拍不到日出时的绮丽气势，也捕抓不到日出前那静如止水的气氛。

既然已到来，当然不能空手而回。于是就尝试用不同程度的白平衡 (White Balance) 拍摄了不少的相片。

在此四张不同白平衡程度拍摄出来的相片中，你个人较喜欢哪一张？

Sun Moon Lake is one of the most scenic places of Taiwan. It is a heaven for a photography enthusiast like me.

I experimented with different White Balance setting to obtain different feel. The effect of different temperature setting towards the final image is amazingly vast, as can be seen in the images shown above.

My personal preference is a little colder temperature that gives rise to a bluish scene. However, overusing the white balance also will give rise to an artificial feel that many people dislike and try to avoid. This obviously is down to personal liking.

Do you mind to share which of the photographs above do you like the most?

早晨的月亮 (Morning Moon)

十一月的台湾，清晨来得特别早，夜幕也在六点钟就开始降临。

在台东温泉旅店一觉醒来，发现窗外的风景分外迷人。缠绵了一夜的月亮依依不舍，高挂天边久久不愿离去。

浪漫美丽的一幕，好想让时间就此停留住。我不假思索把相机拿出，一口气拍了好几张月亮与大地离别在即的情景。

没有分离，哪来再见的欢喜？每一个结束，都是为新的开始做准备；每一个开始，又何尝不是为必然会到来的结束作准备呢。。。

活在当下，也许是最佳的生活方式把。

The breathtaking view from the balcony of our hotel in Taitung in the early morning inspired me to start taking photos even before I washed up.

Since trying up shooting in RAW (instead of JPEG) format recently, I have been craving for more and the view in front of me presented with just such a golden opportunity.

The beauty of the morning moon overlooking the scenic environment prompted me to wish that I could be here forever.

With the full control over the white balance for RAW format, I am able to bring out the rich blue tone of the sky and the mountain that I prefer (over warmer color), hence freezing the moment and the scenic view forever electronically….

好摄之徒 (Photography Enthusiast)

对好摄之徒而言，恶劣的天气并不能阻止摄影的任何机会与心情。热衷于摄影，就是如此奇妙，难以言喻，不能自己。

对生命若有热忱，也就不畏惧台风暴雨。迎向风雨，风雨同路，与大自然对抗，倒不如把生活融入大自然中。

到台湾之游，首次体验了五级的轻微地震。当地人都习以为常，大人与小孩继续谈天作乐，欣慰地壳得以释放能量，减低大地震发生的几率。

七星潭的风吹得好猛，好几艘战斗机突然从上空呼啸而过，没能及时把相机拿出来，错失了良机。

夜晚竟传来了朝鲜攻击南韩的新闻。。。

To a photography enthusiast, a lousy weather will not deter any photography opportunity and spoil his mood.

Having passion towards life, no adversity can intimidate us. Instead of struggling to fight against the nature, we must well have our life blends into it.

Experienced a mild earthquake in Taiwan. The locals were used to it and actually were glad that the earth is able to release its energy periodically, it is believed that with this, there will be less chance for a severe earthquake to occur.

Same night after we visited Chi Hsing Tan, we came to know that North Korea had attacked its neighbor….

Besides natural disaster, we sometimes have to face with man-made ones.

日落 (Sunset)

夕阳西下，夜幕低垂时，是最美丽的时刻。

然而，美丽的心情却受印尼的火山与海啸新闻影响。大自然可以如此美丽迷人，竟也可以如此绝情地夺走无辜的生命。

看着路边的街灯被夕阳如此和谐的轻抚，感叹人类何时才能与大自然如斯融洽共存，免受一连串的天灾打击呢。。。

The nature is both beautiful and powerful. It may show off its spectacular charm just before dusk in one corner of the Earth. Yet in another corner, it may show its immense destructive power in the form of volcano eruption and tsunami.

While I am captivated by the beauty of the sunset scene at the park near to my house, I am also deeply saddened and shocked by the news of Mount Merapi eruption and tsunami that hit Indonesia a few days ago.

I learn that the Earth may be beautiful or ugly, depending on where you are.

It is good to live in harmony with the nature like the sun and the lamppost.

近況 （Life）

最近生活又忙碌起來了。暫時告別部落格，后會有期。。。

Life is getting busy lately, hence will take a break from blogging to concentrate on other areas.....

小草原 (Grassland)

家对面的小草原是个奇异的小世界。当我们在忙着工作时，许多小生命都各自默默的，静悄悄的来到这片小草原。

除了小孩们每天傍晚都到这里嬉戏，一些野菇野草野花也会无端端冒出头来，成为蝴蝶与虫儿们的美食。一些菌类与寄生植物也会无声无息的攀爬在树干上，形成美丽的图案。

适者生存，弱肉强食，一些弱小的生命也自然成为强者的俘虏。相当凶悍的红蚂蚁遇上八脚蜘蛛也不得不俯首称臣。

一片小草原，有其美丽的一面，也隐藏着自然界的凶险与奥妙。

After a tiring week of workdays, I usually like to spend my weekend with my kids on the grassland opposite my residence.

While my spouse like to plant some vegetables, and my kids like to play with the neighboring kids on the grassland, I like to observe the life of the numerous inhabitants on this grassland and record down some of the interesting happenings through my viewfinder.

It is quite amazing that in a small piece of grassland like this, both fauna and flora can grow very vigorously under a natural ecology system.

Some tiny plant can be seen growing and sprawling up a tree trunk from nowhere in an irregular but interesting pattern. Wild mushroom and flower continues to grow to provide for endless sources of food for the butterflies and bugs in the surrounding.

Of course, there are stronger predators who feed on weaker preys as well such as the fire ant that falls prey to the spider.

Life is indeed miraculous.

抓拍摄影 (Candid Photography)

抓拍摄影，是指在被拍摄对象不知晓的情况下快速地抓取其自然、生动、最有表现力的瞬间形象。

个人觉得抓拍摄影拍出的相片不那么死板。除了较有感觉，也较能引起观者的好奇心，是我较喜欢的人物拍摄方法。

看着四岁儿子与其堂哥全神贯注之神情，觉得甚自然有趣。如果他们做任何事都能如此投入如此认真如此严肃，他日必定能获得成功。

也许你想知道他们在做什么，答案在此。

As I spend more and more time on photography, the people around me get used to it and they do not bother so much about me, the photographer, any more. As a result, I get better chance to take candid shots of persons around me in a more natural way. I find this an even more interesting experience than taking shots with a pose.

I especially like to look at face expressions of the kids who get very serious over doing something that attracted their interest. Look at the images here that portray full concentration and seriousness of the children in a natural way, I find them really interesting.

If only they can be as serious and pay as much attention in their studies and all their future endeavors then they should be the likely high flyers in their respective fields.

You may like to know what they were doing. The answer is here.

生活原素（Basic Values）

社会不断在进步，孩子们的生活一代比一代好是很自然的事。但科技所带来的便利与物质上的享受只是生活的一部分。

不管科技如何发达，快乐的生活仍旧少不了一些基本的生活原素，如亲人朋友间的关心，乐于助人的胸怀，对生命的热忱等等。

一位博客曾经说过，科技也许缩短了长距离，却也可能拉长了短距离。这句引人深省的话，希望能让我们在资讯科技腾飞的年代，不忘却基本的人际关系与基本的生活道理。

With the care of the parents, with the comfort of a warm nest, with the availability of numerous media and entertainment systems, the kids nowadays are the lucky ones and are often spoilt for choices in their daily life.

My little one as young as four years old is already well versed with playing with ipod, games console, computer games as well as online games, probably follow after his elder sister who has more face book friends than her parents have. I am not really proud of this but do not think that I should restrict them too much on the trend.

The future undoubtedly will be very much different from our past mainly due to technological advances, but the basic qualities that determine whether or not life is good should remain unchanged. Values such as caring, sharing, giving, helping and loving etc. will be as important regardless of how high-tech our society can attain.

Hopefully the kids can grow up in a comfortable environment but yet are able to appreciate life and understand that there are still many others who may be less fortunate that we should give our helping hand whenever possible.

可人儿（Three Cuties）

这一趟回乡，发现大哥竟然在家里收留了三位娇滴滴的可人儿。

第一位可人儿穿着花衣裳，在大哥的杨桃树下赏花嬉戏，喝的是天然保颜花蜜，游戏人间的生活，幸福洋溢脸上。我偷偷按下快门把她的绝代风情捕抓下来。

第二位可人儿穿着橙色上衣，青春调皮，一下子出现在面前，一眨眼又不知所踪。似乎还有位孪生姐妹。我不敢太过张扬，错失了把两姐妹摄入镜头的良机，只拍到可人儿在菜园搔首弄姿的倩影。

第三位可人儿穿着泛蓝闪光薄裙，丰满身材呼之欲出。这位可人儿虽然文静，放电的眼睛却让人热血沸腾。她轻轻依偎在大哥的辣椒树下，完全不畏忌慌张失措的我在为她猛拍艳照。

Within the little compound of my brother’s residence, there live some cuties that friendlily posed for me when I went back there recently to visit my mum and my brother.

The first cutie was the lady bee that was busy whole afternoon flying and dancing around the star fruit tree, enjoying the sweet nectar of the star fruit flowers. I guess she must be an experienced model who does not like to be photographed in an ordinary manner. Instead, her graceful movement around enabled me to capture some nice candid shots of her.

The second cutie was an orange colored beetle that played seek-and-hide with me. This playful lady and her companion were extremely photogenic when they appeared together in front of me. However, even though I have been shooting quite regularly lately, I was still not fast enough to capture both of them, but only managed a reasonable shot of one of them before they disappeared again.

The third cutie was a lady fly that may look less svelte but her fleshy look and big sexy eyes were the killer. The lady fly was the least active, resting quietly on the branch of the chili tree, allowing me to photograph her red hot look on the red hot chili tree in the hot afternoon of Sunday.

野猫的一天（A Day of A Kitten’s Life）

小时候曾经看过猫抓老鼠，都是把老鼠玩得精疲力尽，而不会一举就把老鼠干掉。猫可以说是老鼠的天敌，老鼠碰上猫是无计可施的，卡通里的Tom & Jerry 例外。

在故乡大哥家遇见这两只可爱的母子猫。没有老鼠，却上演了一场猫抓壁虎的戏，实力悬殊之下，壁虎的命运可想而知了。

虽是路边的野猫，不可与身价不菲的宠物猫相提并论，两只相依为命的野猫却也过着相当快乐的日子。

妈妈说我到底是不是傻呆了，一整天拿着相机到处拍，连野猫野狗野花都不放过。。。

As a photography addict, I almost certainly would not miss any photography opportunity that comes my way. These two strayed cats that visited my brother’s house (when I was there) were no exception.

I spent a lot of time observing these two cats, one being the mother and the other being her young kitten. The kitten was hyperactive and extremely playful, running around in my brother’s car porch after a domestic lizard. The kitten obviously had the upper hand and the lizard eventually got dragged into the bush and eaten up. I guess this is another predator-prey relationship.

The strayed cats do not have luxurious life like some expensive cats that rich people keep as pets, but under the care of its mother, the kitten does live a happy life, at least on the day I was observing them.

儿童乐园 (Children Fun Park)

每个孩子到达儿童游乐场都会雀跃不已，所以途径吉隆坡时，就带姐弟俩到成功时代广场里的游乐场一游。

两个孩子都喜欢彩色沙艺术（Sand Art），各自选择了喜爱的图画细心的动起手来。因为之前已有过经验，驾轻就熟的很快就把作品完成。

现代孩童普遍上都花很长时间玩网络游戏，我却宁可孩子们减少上网时间，多花时间做做手工，到游乐场玩，甚至到户外玩玩泥沙也可达成较平衡的身心发展。


Before going to Penang, we stopped at KL for a night. The main purpose was to have a night’s rest before continuing the journey, to enjoy some hawker food here, to shop a little, to take some photographs and let the kids have some fun in a kids’ theme park.

For a short day’s stay, I could not go too many places for photography. Therefore when my kids were playing in Berjaya Times Square Children Fun Park, I took some 50mm shots to quench my photography thirst.

During the post processing, I adjusted the saturation to obtain total black and white to a relatively saturated color for different images taken. The different degree of tone and color saturation gives rise to different feel to individual’s personal liking.

街头摄影 （Street Photography）

在每一个城市最繁忙的街道上，茫茫人海中，每个人都有着自己的故事。

城市是许多人造梦的的地方，寻觅理想的过程中，难免有彷徨失落的时刻，也有孤立无援的时候。跌倒爬起跌到爬起的过程，都是些动人心弦的生活故事。

每一张街头掠影，每一张似熟悉实陌生的脸孔，虽然都是时间的过客，却道尽人生百态。

喧哗闹市的背后，有着破烂残旧的后巷；人们狂欢购物后，是否也有着失落的心。。。。

During the Hari Raya Holidays, I took a break from the routine to drive back to my hometown. On the way back, I stopped at a few places for food as well as to take some photographs.

Having played with macro photography for some time, I tried out my first debut on street photography with my Sigma 18-250 super-zoom lens and it turned out quite fun and interesting.

In a busy street of a city, people from all walks of life could be seen interacting with each other. There were also some lonely wanderers. I am sure everyone on the street has his/her own stories to tell. All these photographs combined can depict to certain extent the street culture of a particular city.

What I found interesting were the strangers on the street blended so well into the environment and the images. It gave me a feeling that their life and the street are closely integrated.

For locals, I guess some may be able to recognize the street.

Predator or Prey

I find the following article from “Moment of Science” web site interesting and wish to share it here:

We generally think of spiders as top-of-the-line predators, but this Moment of Science reveals a case when the spider definitely comes out on the short end of the predator stick.

Spiders are often thought of as one of the creepiest, cruelest creatures around. There are numerous horror films that cast spiders as the monsters. For some, fears might involve the web and how the spider meticulously entombs its prey before it feasts on it. However, there are insects that probably give spiders nightmares: wasps.

A female wasp stings a spider in her own web, temporarily paralyzing her. Then the wasp lays an egg on the spider’s abdomen. The paralysis wears off, and the spider gets up and goes about her business as usual. But this isn’t the end of the story. The egg on her abdomen hatches, and the larva sucks the spider’s body fluid. The spider still continues spinning her web like normal.

When the larva is about ready to construct its cocoon it injects the spider with a chemical that causes it to spin a twisted tent instead of its regular web. Finally, the wasp larva kills the spider, devours it, and then suspends its cocoon in the shelter of the tent the spider constructed.

I am terrified by how the wasps kill its preys and used them in part of their reproduction process. I am so terrified that I need to take a break.