{"id":28389,"date":"2018-12-17T23:13:17","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T15:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=28389"},"modified":"2026-03-15T20:24:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T12:24:05","slug":"12-days-in-taiwan-day-10-photography-taipei-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2018\/12\/17\/12-days-in-taiwan-day-10-photography-taipei-101\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Days in Taiwan \u2013 Day 10 \u2013 Photography @ Taipei 101"},"content":{"rendered":"

Huashan 1914 Creative Park visited for the kids, it was my turn for another photography enthusiast activity: up Taipei 101<\/strong> for a sunset shoot. You can choose any time to visit of course, but there is really no contest between a daytime or sunset session if you’re not constrained or with a tour group: a later timing gives you the best of both worlds. You get in just before sunset for daytime shots of the city, and you get evening to early night shots too for the same admission. Thing is, just about everyone else had the same idea \u2014 and by this, I mean the mass numbers of loud, rude, loud and clucking tourists that came in busloads. So much so that as difficult as it was already to shoot handheld in low light, it was made even more annoying by tourists who kept shoving their wefie sticks around others just to pose for their Instagrams, or obnoxious tour guides who told other visitors to move just so that they could take the requisite photos of the several dozen persons they were chaperoning.<\/p>\n

Just wondering out loud: those smartphones are going to be able to record very little visual information of the city below. It’s not just the angle that smartphones are pointing at to capture human subjects \u2014 it’s also that those tiny sensors simply aren’t suited for low light.<\/p>\n

Still, other comments before pictures:<\/p>\n

The price per person is NTD600\/SGD26.70 \u2014 not as expensive as other skyscraper observation decks around the world<\/strong> \u2014 and you get a discount booking through Klook too. I did that, and actually booked for a 5:30PM slot \u2014 right at sunset hour. But I made a bloop: I didn’t know that queuing up for tickets isn’t the same as queuing to actually go up the damn tower to the 89th floor observation deck. And the irony was that even without doing an online booking, the actual queue to get tickets moved very fast. On the other hand, the queue to take the speed lift from the 5th floor entrance to the observation deck on the 91st floor took a while. The queue did move somewhat briskly, but as there were hundreds already queuing by the time we arrived at 5:20PM, we finally only got up at past 6:10PM when the sun had set and Golden Hour was over.<\/p>\n

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Peter entered for free again into this one. Remember to book through Klook to get a nice discount!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All visitors go through a ‘compulsory’ photo-booth<\/strong> where your mugshots and bodies get super-imposed into Taipei 101 in two celebration settings. If this is your thing, make sure you think of a pose before it comes to your turn. Otherwise, you’d just end up staring blankly with forced smiles! The whole thing felt tacky and a cash-grab. For persons who absolutely need the 100% Achievement Unlock, for NTD1,000\/SGD44.50, you can get the two pictures of yourselves on print and also the JPG versions on a thumbdrive. Very expensive for that little. There is even a high SES (for our ang mo bud, that means S<\/strong>ocial E<\/strong>conomic S<\/strong>tatus) and ATAS (Malay for ‘high-class’) jewellery and gem shop on the floor below the observation deck. Tourist trap much?<\/p>\n

All these annoyances would have been worth it if the picture taking<\/strong> was good. Unfortunately, it wasn’t easy \u2014 and I don’t mean it being the result of technical limitations of imaging sensors even in full frames when it comes to night shooting. The tripod wasn’t with me, and I seriously doubt if the many security persons wouldn’t have had a word with me if I’d hauled out a heavy duty tripod to do 3 second shots at ISO100 \u2014 and keep in mind that the ant-size cars 500m down on the ground level are still moving<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

No \u2014 the actual challenge<\/strong> is really twofold. Firstly, there’s just too much ambient reflection<\/strong> about. The entire observation deck has an inner ring of pricey souvenir, drink, photo booths and item shops \u2014 every one<\/strong><\/em> of them had downlights and other light sources casting their nasty light spots on the glass panels where you’re shooting through.<\/p>\n

Secondly, Taipei on ground level just isn’t very visually interesting<\/strong>. Aside from one side \u2014 can’t remember which \u2014 where there are a few somewhat tall buildings, the rest of the city around Taipei 101 is low-level apartments and blocks, with little discerning patterns. There are few other immediately recognizable landmarks in Taipei, at least for visitors. So, while the price of the Taipei 101 observation platform ticket is lower than say some of the equivalents in the well-known American skyscrapers, those latter cities are also a lot more visually interesting.<\/p>\n

The tuned mass damper<\/strong> was at least unusual though. There are two places for you to look at it and also take pictures: one which is slightly overhead and lets you see the entire 660 tons ball, and another that’s closer to the base of the ball to get a good look at the support and stabilization structures underneath it. The floor also cycles a short but informative video for you to show how it all works.<\/p>\n

In short, the entire thing for me was a little disappointing<\/strong>. I remember a similar shoot I did 8 years ago at Umeda Sky Building<\/a> in Osaka, and that turned out so much better \u2014 the advances in imaging technology since then notwithstanding. That observation deck also had ambient reflections, but it wasn’t anywhere near as crazy as the many I counted at Taipei 101.<\/p>\n

Sigh. Ok, pictures finally \u2014 starting with those that I took of the skyscraper on the outside before going in. All the photos in this series were taken using the Sony FE 16-35mm f4.0.<\/p>\n

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Shot from across the road.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The selection I’ve included here are the ones which are more visually interesting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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One of the sides that was more striking. This one’s a zoomed-in shot even as there was too much peripheral outside it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A rather faceless urban sprawl.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A tighter shot again. Not because I actually wanted to.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The tuned mass dampener from overhead.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Looking up from the outdoor observation deck.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Finally, a view of the city from the 91st outdoor observation deck, without nasty reflections or glass panels. But arrrggghhh \u2014 there are very high barriers that you have to shoot over!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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At this point when we were back down, I was feeling a little deflated that I thought an outdoor shot like this is more visually interesting at this point!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, in all, I have mixed feelings if this is a must-do. If you haven’t been on the observation decks of skyscrapers before, then go for it. All things considered, the admission pricing is OK, and the lift ride that goes up \u2014 37 seconds to go from level 5 to 91 \u2014 is one heck of a ride and exercise to see how quickly you can ‘swallow’ to keep your ears from becoming rapidly blocked. On the other hand, the crowds are annoying, parts of the experience felt tacky, and the city just isn’t interesting at night from up top. If you’ve been through similar experiences, then this just might not be a must-do.<\/p>\n

That’s a wrap for Day 10. Our Day 11 itinerary will see us heading to Da’an Forest Park, then Yongkang Street, starting with a blog entry here first<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Huashan 1914 Creative Park visited for the kids, it was my turn for another photography enthusiast activity: up Taipei 101 for a sunset shoot. You can choose any time to visit of course, but there is really no contest between<\/p>\n

Read More 12 Days in Taiwan \u2013 Day 10 \u2013 Photography @ Taipei 101<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,17],"tags":[608,612,618],"class_list":["post-28389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photography-cameras","category-traveling","tag-sony-a7-iii","tag-sony-fe-16-35mm-f4-0","tag-taiwan-2018","wpcat-13-id","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/blog-2018-taiwan-day-10-A7_03243-Taipei101.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28389"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38551,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28389\/revisions\/38551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}