Wednesday 13 July 2011

Why You Wait So Long?






I'm obsessed with the mountainous area out at the north end of Kaohsiung County (Taoyuan District) as it reaches up to Nantou and across to Hualien and Taitung. I keep wanting to be out there with all the time in the world. I miss it. I was out there this time last week. Today I have other things keeping me, which I resent. I keep wanting to get out there. There is a perceptual thrill to driving through the mountains which inheres in the parallel and orthogonal movement of shapes, surfaces and colours relative to the body's own position and which cannot be captured in still photography. If you have a good copy of the "Thin White Duke" remix of Mirwais' remix of the Stones' "Miss You" (that youtubed version is low quality), then listen to that: it expresses that mad sense of frustrated enthusiasm and irritability I have about wanting to drive through the mountains but not being able to (except the song is about a girl).
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3 comments:

  1. Unknown14 July 2011 at 22:22

    Beautiful area, Mike. You have a great eye with your photography, too. But what's with the awful colour-bleaching or whatever it is in you photos? I'm not sure if it's your camera, or if it's something to do with the camera's editing program (I used to have a Nikon, and I learned to not use the accompanying program, even though I originally thought it was a good idea). Anyway, great pictures, colour wash aside!

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  2. Mike Fagan14 July 2011 at 22:47

    Colour bleaching?

    I can only guess you're thinking about the white balance - for the mountains in the late afternoon I usually have it set to emphasize the blues and magentas, but I alter it for other situations.

    I like it.

    In the mountains generally you tend to get a lot of different shades of blue and grey, but as the late afternoon draws on, the magenta hues begin to usurp the greys and fill in the spaces between the clouds as the sun begins its descent. Whoever chose that colour for the Jiaxian bridge was a genius: getting the various hues of that colour in contrast with the blues and dark greens is one of the subliminal hooks for me in driving out to the mountains.

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  3. blobOfNeurons15 July 2011 at 01:04

    I imagine that bridge would be fun to climb.

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