5th of April is the day for tomb sweeping. The day to clean up the ancestral tomb, making the prayer and wish to the spirits, seeking harmony with heaven, earth and people.

The location is always far into the mountain. Every year, it is the time for spring storm with angry weather as if the dead is going to rise from below. Eerie and spooky. The walk can be quite psychologically challenging as the images do cause palpitation.






The weather was fickle like a teenager daughter. The colour in the sky did change from minute to minute. I do notice that the only thing appearing lively is the rice fields. Kind of inciting a country feeling with these murky water around. So rural and local.



After some hard work on weeding out the grass on the tomb, it was time to spread dead people's money on the earth. The surrounding was decorated with egg shelfs for "rebirth" of the new year.











Then some of the local food.

Cow offals



Cow stomach



Cow pulmonary artery




Cheers

[G M Fude]

A terrific collection of images, James. I guess you're in Taiwan -- that doesn't look like Melbourne! My favourite is the rice field, marvellous patterns. The food looks good, too, reminds me of how many time I've tucked into a feed in Taiwan and China and not known what I'm eating, often for the best...

[LaRee]

Definitely moving images I'd say. I love the rice field shot and the food shots are very well done. Food photography is difficult to get to look as good as you have. It is a treat to view your travels on tomb sweeping day. You were busy on World Pentax Day too.

[Bud]

James,

Great images and series. The rice field shot is special

Thanks for sharing... I really enjoyed all of them.

Bud

[daacon]

Great series James some of those belong on a Steven King book. Very errie. Very nice PP what did you do to #6 ? Whatever is was I really like the effect.

[Techiechick]

Wonderful series, and background info. I love the first shot and the one of the rice field. Thanks for sharing. By the way, I think I know way "Cow Offals" are, sometimes it's best not to know.

[gawan]

What a wonderful series! I really like the atmosphere and the mystery (in my eyes) of the scenes!

[NaClH2O]

Wonderful series James, some of the shots look positively ancient. Really nice PP work. My favorite is the second and the sixth shots. Thank you for the cultural lesson.

NaCl(the world is a strange and wonderous place)H2O

[Gadget_Guy]

That is the coolest series of pictures!

It is amazing the things you learn about the world on a camera forum.

Thank you very much for taking the time in sharing these with us.

D.

[vievetrick]

What a great series and story. Thanks for sharing. and the weather seals held up.

[SCGushue]

Hi James,

A very interesting series of images with some artistic PP interpretation. I think you did a great job on many of the images. Nice body of work here.

Now... that last image looks like a set of false teeth in the soup.

Stephen

[codiac2600]

Amazing James!

I love the series and you're always so inventive with the food shots. If you retire from being a doctor take up a job doing product shots for restaurants.

[weatherwise2]

thanks for making that into a nice cultural story line. It helps in looking appreciatively (sp?) at the photos.

[roentarre]

A terrific collection of images, James. I guess you're in Taiwan -- that doesn't look like Melbourne! My favourite is the rice field, marvellous patterns. The food looks good, too, reminds me of how many time I've tucked into a feed in Taiwan and China and not known what I'm eating, often for the best...

Thanks!

I took 2 weeks leave to attend the family tomb sweeping day. A must on my part as I am the eldest in my generation (36 cousins altogether). It is a taboo not to be there.

The rain was quite severe at the time. The roads were muddy as well. But it was worthwhile to record the events and places for me to remember when I got older

All the offals contain cholesterol and high protein content. However, the town is known for Hakka food where heavy use of ginger and vinegar were used. These ingredients would rid off any unpleasant odours easily.

A special type of fermented beans was also used to flavoured the dishes. Eating offal is not a previledge but a way to "eat up" everything as people do not get to slaughter animals on the daily basis for food in the old times.

Definitely moving images I'd say. I love the rice field shot and the food shots are very well done. Food photography is difficult to get to look as good as you have. It is a treat to view your travels on tomb sweeping day. You were busy on World Pentax Day too.

You are generous to offer kind comments. I actually shoot some menu photos for local cafe in Melbourne. Some of the dishes are really fun to shoot as the chefs are artists themselves presenting the dish. These were just snapshots LaRee Tough food photography is very tough on lighting angle and shooting angles. I am sucker at it hehe

James,

Great images and series. The rice field shot is special

Thanks for sharing... I really enjoyed all of them.

Bud

Thanks for the rainy weather. The green becomes richer on pentax sensor. The distant buildings happened to compliment the green. Kind of lucky on the day.

[roentarre]

Great series James some of those belong on a Steven King book. Very errie. Very nice PP what did you do to #6 ? Whatever is was I really like the effect.

Funny that I just watched Steven King's movie "Fog" last night. Quite a sad ending and I was frightened so much by the end of the film.

#6 post processing is more trial and error. (roughly like this)

I add two colour fill in layers: brown and dark cyan. Both about 20% intensity and blended in as "overlay" and flatten the image.

This is followed by selecting the image, copy and paste onto a new layer in channel. Go to filter and select find edges. Then render - difference. Click on the colour image in the channel, select - load the selection.

Finally, add adjustment layer with gradient map on black-white box. Adjust the intensity desired and flatten the image.

Sometimes I just play around the filters to get the desired effect

Wonderful series, and background info. I love the first shot and the one of the rice field. Thanks for sharing. By the way, I think I know way "Cow Offals" are, sometimes it's best not to know.

hehe Thanks for the words

The offal dish contains the following:

spleen - powdery, full of degraded red + white blood cells; it is chewy after all the powdery content is into the oesophagus.

kidney - rubbery; usually sliced with thin cut to the surface to contain more sauce

intestine - duodenum - thick round with powdery content, jejunum - thinner wall with less native flavour and some caecum - elastic and chewy.

heart - slight rubbery with texture of pork - no flavour

gall bladder - extremely chewy and hard - no flavour

What a wonderful series! I really like the atmosphere and the mystery (in my eyes) of the scenes!

It was cold and windy. You have a different interpretation from viewing the images