ANGELA B. PAN

On our third day in Taiwan, we headed to Jiufen. I had heard it’s like no other place in Taiwan with extremely narrow alleys with so many different vendors and places to eat, I really wanted to check it out. Little did I know it would take more than two hours by public transportation to get there from Taipei. From I read online, it didn’t seem like it would take that long. But those two hours made a huge difference.

By the time we got to the top of the mountains to Jiufen, it was pouring rain. And it was that uncomfortable rain where it was cold and splashing everywhere. So much to the point that when you were walking through those narrow alleys, you had to watch out for your eyeballs or else someone may poke you with their umbrella. We went but didn’t get to stay for as long as I would have liked. I really wanted to see what it looked like at night time but it was just way too crowded and wet.

But at least now I can see I went, right? LOL I’ll definitely have to try it again next time.

This image was taken while we were waiting for the bus to come. AT THE BUS STOP. I’ve never seen such a beautiful bus stop in my life!

My camera settings for this image are F6.3 at 1/160th sec and ISO 1000 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm.

Right before I left for Taiwan, I purchased my very first prime lens. If you have noticed on my gear page, I only have zoom lenses. But recently, I’ve been watching a lot of youtube videos who have been saying all these great things about prime, that I had to give one a try.

The hype is real! I loved it! I probably walked around Taiwan with my new 35mm prime lens about 70% of the time. I didn’t think I would like it as much as I did. One main reason was that I already have a 16-35mm and I wasn’t sure if it would be that much of a difference. The second reason was that I thought I would have to get used to not being able to zoom. OMG, I loved it just because it made shooting so much easier and the lens itself is so tiny. I felt like I could shoot all day without getting tired.

This image was taken with my new 35mm one afternoon in Jiufen. More about Jiufen later but I love how colorful this portrait turned out. This vendor was taking money from her customer when she looked up very quickly. I’m glad I was already in position to capture this portrait because this look only lasted a second. Probably would have been hard to take with any other lens but a prime.

My camera settings for this image are F4 at 1/250th sec and ISO 1000 with my Sony A7II and 35mm prime.