When I visited Kowloon’s Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple the place was packed…I walked in shoulder to shoulder with other tourists and worshipers. There wasn’t a clear shot of much so I focused on close-up work. You know…creativity is an attribute of both the Rabbit AND Pisces!
Title: Chinese Astrology Rabbit Statue in Kowloon, Hong Kong
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The major Shinto shrine in Kyoto, Japan is Fushimi Inari Taisha. It is one of the most amazing religious places I have see first hand (up there with Notre Dame and La Sagrada Familia). The Tori Gates go on and on and on, winding through the adjacent mountains and forests. The builders of this place must have loved nature or they wanted to get away from the THRONGS of people at the main entrance.
I have seen prayer cards before in Japan, but Fushimi Inari Taisha had several including these great fox faces. The fox is a messenger in Shinto (I am NO Shinto expert) and who better to carry your prayers! Many of the people drawing were quite good artists! This anime girl caught my attention among the row and rows of prayers.
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I visited New York last week for work and had a bit of time one day to go into the city to see a few sights. I have been to NYC a number of times in the past, but this was my first visit during the Christmas season. I have long known large city’s stores, New York City’s in particular, have HUGE competition in window displays…I grew up watching Mannequin after all! I was ill prepared for what that really meant.
This was but one of the super elaborate crystal encrusted window displays at Bergdorf Goodman. The first one I gaped at was a monkey fortune teller in a swami wrap, gazing into his crystal ball to foretell some damsel’s future! If you are in Midtown Manhattan before the end of the year, do yourself a favor and stop by to see the window art these fantastic sculptors have created this year!
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This dog, lion or spirit guards (with its companion flanking the other side) one of the entrances to Yuyuan Gardens in Shanghai. You see these statues all over China guarding places from evil spirits or marauding bandits. I always grab a shot of their fierceness and love trying to find new ways to see them when processing.
All of the photographs on this site are released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. You are free to use these on your blog or as a personal wallpaper, as long is they are used in a NonCommercial fashion and you adhere to the terms of the Creative Commons License. We will even host the bandwidth for the files for you!
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A quick photo for today, but one that I hope illustrates the importance of keeping a sharp eye out! If I was hurrying, I would have missed this statue of the Lion of Singapore enshrouded in the jungle-like fauna of The Garden by the Bay in Singapore. The lion is everywhere in Singapore, sometimes hiding even in plain sight!
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Ok, OK, I know what you are thinking…you went all the way to China and you went to the MALL! Hear me out. I happened to be staying at the Hyatt at K11 and had heard about the strange and very interesting art collection housed at the mall. I assumed it was a gimmick and nothing more, totally writing off a visit. When I was returning from my oh so wonderfully clear night on Victoria Peak, I decided to stop by on my way into the hotel (there are several entrances to the Hyatt inside the mall after all). I was floored! The juxtaposition of their wonderful art collection (mostly contemporary Chinese artists) to those elements purely for consumption had my head spinning with thoughts about where fashion, art, consumption, waste, longevity, youth, sweet shops, labor (on and on) all intersect and interrelate.
Iron Panda
This guy is a sculpture of fiberglass and steel and resin by artist Bi Heng. It was this sculpture that initially caught my attention, drawing me into the zigzag that is K11. Iron Panda combines three elements, the giant panda, his iron man suit and tai chi (nature, technology and spirit); his melancholy is apparent beneath his powerfully rugged exterior. Mankind abandoning our heritage in pursuit of technological power, but perhaps balance can save us if we only work to find it (paraphrased from what I recall of the artists statement and my own interpretation).
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It seems the best beaches in Maui require a bit of a hike. I am all for this honestly, you need exercise to look good in that bathing suit right? The Red Sand beach in Maui, Hawaii is another one of those places you should forget I am mentioning. Its hard to get to, dangerous…you shouldn’t go! Wow is it neat! It is really just a very small cove that is, well red. Its more of a fine gravel than a sand, but its so cool I didn’t really care.
Marine Life
The first thing I noticed was the red sand. The second, the nude sunbathers (why oh why are they always hippies). The third thing I noticed was this awesome seal sunbathing with everyone else. He was very still and I feared at first he might be dead. A product of the circle of life, but when the water would get to close, he would lively flop his way further onshore in irritation. He didn’t seem to mind the children on the beach or me getting close enough for a picture so I grabbed this shot.
All of the photographs on this site are released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. You are free to use these on your blog or as a personal wallpaper, as long is they are used in a NonCommercial fashion and you adhere to the terms of the Creative Commons License. We will even host the bandwidth for the files for you!
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