Cijin Island Part 1

The thin island of Cijin is a very popular day trip from Kaohsiung. Just a quick ferry ride from the Kaohsiung harbor and you’re right near the bustling seafood street, where you might just find the “best seafood” in all of Kaohsiung or Taiwan. We did not. It wasn’t terrible or anything, just not as amazing as some of the other places we’d eaten so far. And nowhere near the deliciousness that is the Temple Street Night Market in Kowloon Hong Kong. Best ever if you ask me.

However, the area does reak of photogenic. From the local fishermen, excited tourists, various vendors and roaming packs of wild dogs, the place is a photographer’s delight. Not to mention the amazing Matsu Temple (Tianhou Temple at Cihou). Especially once the daylight went away. I might just do a whole post on the photos I shot of that thing! For now here’s some of my faves from the day.

Ferry riders to Cijin Island

Ferry riders to Cijin Island | Nikon D700 24mm F1.4 lens at 4.5 1/2500 ISO 640

Cijin Boats Panoramic

Cijin Boats Panoramic | Nikon D700 24mm F1.4 Multiple Shots merged in CS6

Matsu Temple Cock and Lantern

Matsu Temple Cock and Lantern | Nikon D700 24mm F1.4 Lens at 1.4 Multiple Shots merged to HDR in HDR Efex Pro and Photoshop CS6

Matsu Temple Worshipers

Matsu Temple Worshipers | Nikon D700 24mm F1.4 lens at 1/60 ISO 640

Matsu Temple Guy

Matsu Temple Guy | Nikon D700 24mm F1.4 1/50 ISO 640

Matsu Temple Lanterns

Matsu Temple Lanterns | Nikon D700 24mm F1.4 lens multiple shots merged to Panoramic in CS6

Matsu Temple Detail 2

Matsu Temple Detail 2 | Nikon D700 24mm F1.4 Lens 1/25 ISO 640

Cijin Temple Worshipers

Cijin Temple Worshipers | Nikon D700 24mm F1.4 Lens 1/2000 ISO 640

Cijin Island Vendor

Cijin Island Vendor | Nikon D700 24mm F1.4 1/600 ISO 100

Cijin Island Scallion goodness

Cijin Island Scallion Pancake goodness | Nikon D700 24mm F1.4 1/500 ISO 100

Meatballs on a stick

Meatballs on a stick | Nikon D700 85mm F1.8 1/1250 ISO 800

Grilled Cijin goodies

Grilled Cijin goodies | Nikon D700 85mm F1.8 1/8000 iso 800

Then came the roaming packs of wild feral dogs. It seemed a bit dangerous!!!

Dog with Resting Tongue

Dog with Resting Tongue | Nikon D700 85mm F1.8 1/5000 ISO 800

Big Puppy Eyes

Big Puppy Eyes | Nikon D700 85mm F2.8 1/100 ISO 400

Big Puppy Eyes 2

Big Puppy Eyes 2 | Nikon D700 85mm F2.8 1/100 ISO 400

Cijin Island Street Sweeper

Cijin Island Street Sweeper | Nikon D700 24mm F1.8 1/800 ISO 800

Angry Bird in Cijin

Angry Bird in Cijin | Nikon D700 85mm F1.8 Lens 1/600 ISO 800

Cijin Girl with prize

Cijin Girl with prize | Nikon D700 85mm F1.8 1/1250 ISO 200

Post 2 coming soon, really shot quite a bit over there. But for now

One more puppy for the road!

Wild Puppy!

Wild Puppy! | Nikon D700 24mm F1.8 1/2500 ISO 800

Check out part 2 of my Cijin Island adventures here

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133 thoughts on “Cijin Island Part 1”

  6. The photos are amazing. Colorful and full of characters, and I love how you managed to show the textures and personality of the place (Kaohsiung). If you don’t mind, do visit my blog as well at http://dgeekdcook.wordpress.com. I’m also a photography enthusiast. I mostly do landscape and travel photography, and when I managed to suppress my shyness I also take portraits and candids (which happens very rarely). I hope that you’d enjoy looking at some of my posts as much as I enjoyed the photos you took. Thanks!

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  7. This is beautiful. This is the kind of photogrpahy I aim to create! Hm. One day, I’ll start posting photos as well. Hopefully by then they’ll be as beautiful! Awesome job here! 😀

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  11. Thanks a lot folks! Can’t believe this post made “freshly pressed” page! Glad ya’ll like.
    Ohmygodseverus the best lens is the one you have:) But seriously I like a wider lens and getting close.
    But sometimes my 85mm is just right too. It’s hard to say, depends on the situation. Check out all the tips out there from Digital Rev TV on You tube to Eric Kim’s stuff about street photography. There’s tons of good info out there. Some of the best (henri cartier-bresson) only used a 50mm I think. There’s an amazing street photographer for the Chicago Tribune (Scott Strazzante) who pretty much just uses his Iphone now. It’s all about the moment! One of my faves and friend Mark Murrmann uses a leica M6 with a 35mm, one of my dream set ups. His stuff is great. But yeah, just get out and shoot.

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  24. Amazing pictures! I was so excited to see “Cijin” on Freshly Pressed, since I’m studying right around the corner of Gushan, so these pictures will be great to share to family and friends!

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  32. Love these. The endless rows of temple lanterns is my favorite. But every image made me remember a trip to Thailand…I’d forgotten the riot of images you find in an Asian street.

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  34. Hiya Canderson! Extremely colorful and striking photos. Congrats on being “freshly pressed”. Thumbs up! 🙂

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  39. You’ve taken some incredible photos here. I am a huge fan of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, having lived there for a couple of years. It reminds me of the amazing experiences I had over there; I really appreciate it when other find beauty in the country I consider my second home. I can’t wait to see more of your work!

    Anita 😀

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  43. Pingback: Cijin Island Part 1 « sladisworld

  45. Awesome photos! I live in Kaohsiung, and I very much enjoy going to Cijin Island. I loved seeing it through your eyes and your camera lens. It’s neat to see a place so close to home showing up on the Freshly Pressed page. Great work!

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  70. The colors, pictures and travels look amazing! I also really appreciate you sharing your settings and post production software, it’s cool to see how you made such unique photos! Wonderful post 🙂

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  71. Pingback: Freshly Pressed! « Wild About You Photography

  80. I use to live at ZhongShan university, just across Cijin Island about two years ago. I always loved jumping on the ferry and then arriving at Cijin to discover around my way there. Such a wonderful adventuerous pla. Best to go at night and go to the fort on the hill to see a beautiful night landscape of the flashing buildings!

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  81. Since I’m a dog lover, I love the images of the 4-legged type, but I do think that the Cijin Boats Panoramic is especially beautiful. I’m not sure if you sell your prints, but you certainly should. Beautiful work!

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    • Thank you, dog lover myself if you can’t tell by how many photos of ’em I shoot. The strays are well fed by all the tourists but there’s also a rescue in Kaohsiung that finds homes for many of them.
      I do indeed sell prints. As a matter of fact my “day job” is that of a printer and retoucher at a Bay area photolab. contact me through the “about” page.

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  89. You are without a doubt superbly and richly blessed in this, your chosen career, my wonderful Son. I respect you and your hard work and love you dearly! Mom

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  103. Your photos are so beautiful!! So real and colorful!! 😀 I LOVED the lantern one! I hope you don’t mind me asking, but do you re-touchthem with some after effects? They are great anyhow 😀

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    • Thank you. Most of the post processing on these was done in Adobe Lightroom 4. The rooster one is HDR done with HDR Efex Pro and Photoshop CS6 beta. The boat and lantern shots were several photos merged into a panoramic in CS6, the “cross process” look for the boats was done in Lightroom.

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  109. Seriously one of the best posts I’ve seen on WP. Great job at EVERYTHING! Your photos are immaculate! So much depth and content, so much meaning SO GRRRRRRREAT! But seriously, over the top WOW

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  116. I love Taiwan! I was there two years ago for a year on an international exchange and I fell in love with the little ilha. Great to see such wonderful pictures!

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