• going to the top of the taipei 101 building (world’s tallest building) in the fastest elevator in the world
• pretending we were part of a photography class photographing a lotus pond at the taipei botanical garden
• visiting the national chiang kai-shek memorial hall (which was as impressive as i remembered!)
• taking a trip to the north coast and meandering through jioufen old street – which felt like the asian equivalent of visiting bar harbor, maine or some other salty coastal retreat (all about the candy and trinkets)

but my two absolute favorite events were eating dumplings at din tai fong and visiting lungshan temple. on the dumplings… i believe going through a foreign country without trying as much food as possible is like going through blindfolded. the dumplings, soups and other plates we sampled were divine. and speaking of divine, i have a thing for temples and lungshan was an absolute experience for all of my senses:  the colors, carvings, paintings, statues and ponds were a visual feast. there were tons of people, music, bells – too many sounds to distinguish. there were candles being lit, the smell of incense wafting through the air, a multitude of fruit, vegetables and flowers given as offerings and intense heat from the mid-day sun… so much going on. i had to stop myself from trying to capture it all on camera and just sit, take it all in and be part of the experience. enjoy some photos, below. i’ll do a separate post just for pics from the temple and the garden.

One of my goals of creating and producing #140conf was to in effect enable what could be best described as: “Social Media Heterosis” (hybrid vigor in the social media space) and cross connect communities which are all using twitter as a platform in their business but would have otherwise have never had any reason to meet each or connect with each other.

heterosis aside – clearly it was the sheer variety of people who showed up and participated that made #140conf worthwhile. put even more simply.. there were lots more artsy people there than at your typical tech conference.

many other people wrote recaps far better than my notes would allow, so i’ll post some of my favorite images here and include links to some posts i found interesting or informative, below. the picture above is from a fun session where a group of us taught supermodel melissa haro (@melissaharo) about twitter. big thanks to jeff pulver for producing the event and getting us all involved.

and just a few pics that reveal my obsession with footware…

more images here.

recaps, opinions and such:

• smallbizsurvival.com – overheard at 140 character conference
• webgrrls.com – 140 character conference great twearls of wisdom
• blog.360i.com – 140 characters conference in less than 1400 characters
• maistrategies.com – twitter: the disruption of now
• webworkerdaily.com – the 140 character conference, or why twitter matters now
• marketersstudio.com – 140 characters conference multimedia recap

and of course, to be balanced, here are some strong thoughts on the weaknesses of the event by paul carr.
guardian.co.uk – series: not safe for work -and we’ll tweet at the end of the tour

1. it would be a huge favor to me if you would fill out this survey. it’s short and quick, but will help me hone in on my topics of focus.  http://cli.gs/dbz1Wy THANK YOU in advance!

2. i would like to feature up to five other photographers work in this book. if you would like to be one of those fabulous five, please send me a link to your image (on flickr or some other service) with a couple sentences about why you should be in it – all the better if it’s a tip (eg. maybe the photo is your personal best, you learned something about exposure,  it’s a great example of a specific technique,  etc). you can send up to two image links per person and you must have written permission for any people in the photos. send your email to fabfive@noreaster.otherinbox.com by june 8.

and if you’re not already on my email list, make sure to sign up for my updates by email.
have i thanked you all for being here yet? THANK YOU!

from a tech perspective – tech cocktail is an excellent way to learn about new startups and meet lots of interesting people from all aspects of our industry. i always walk away feeling like i met great people who i can continue to connect with online via twitter, linked in and of course the tech cocktail online community. i also thought the new “town hall” eric and frank launched before the event was refreshing – an opportunity to hear from the community their thoughts about tech cocktail and its mission.

from a photography perspective – most of you know i work in the tech industry but i never stray too far from a camera. shooting this event was a perfect mix of my two loves. and since this was my first outing with the new camera, it was a bit like being thrown into the deep end..or, er.. jumping into a new code base.  heh. it was a great excuse to interrupt small groups and jump into conversations.

if you weren’t in chicago last week, no worries – there’s another tech cocktail on february 26th in washington dc.  it’ll be at the left bank in adams morgan. sign up, come for a drink, check out some startups and say hello.  i’ll be there again, camera in hand. cheers!

thanks to zemote for catching me in the act!

see more pictures here…

the inaugural bfg meetup will take place TONIGHT thursday, february 19 from 6-8 p.m. at o’faolain’s irish restaurant in sterling, virginia. if i were in town tonight i’d absolutely be there – it’s sure to be a good time.

the event is free and open to the public so whether you’re a blogger, blog reader, or just interested in this whole bfg concept, stop by. proceeds will benefit loudoun interfaith relief, the area’s largest food pantry.

to be listed as an attendee, join the bfg email list or blogroll, get the graphic, or for more information, join the bloggers for good group on facebook or contact: erin@bloggersforgood.org.

here is the third part of my photoshopping around series. there may be more to come but the next week will be so busy that it may be a little while. especially since i just got MY NEW CAMERA and we’ll be busy getting to know each other.

i decided the best way to keep learning and moving forward was to identify a few artists i really enjoy and use their work as inspiration. so, my inspiration right now comes from two people – linda plaisted (many muses studio), an amazing local artist whose work i purchased last year and whom i follow on flickr, and aaron nace (arfotography) who is so creative and talented that i go to flickr everyday to see his daily post.  you may not see their influence, but it primarily came through in playing with layering, texture and color. as always, i’d love constructive feedback. and if you’re not loving the prolonged east-coast winter, enjoy these scenes from kauai.

i lost the detail in the dock…   but i love the highlights on the water

today i’m going to the camera store. i feel like a little kid – it’s hard to contain my excitement. the only thing cooling me off is knowing the camera i’m going to purchase isn’t actually there – the new canon will have to be ordered, with no exact eta. i will patiently sit and wait…maybe even try to forget about it so i can be that much more excited when the phone call comes. in the meantime, i’ve started playing with photoshop again, so i thought i’d share some of my projects this week. i’ve mainly been working on highlights and trying to pull more detail from the existing image data – taking images that i always liked, but thought could have more impact. this series is from maine.  i’ll post the kauai and california series soon.

my body feels like i ran a marathon or climbed a few mountains… all from the past few days inaugural events in downtown washington, dc.  it probably sounds like an exaggeration, but since sunday i’ve gone downtown everyday to witness the influx of people, the vendors and crazy street merchandise and all the excitement in the air. even though i was too far to see the ‘we are one‘ concert at the lincoln memorial on sunday (although i could hear it!), and just part of the sea of people on the mall for the actual inauguration, i really felt a part of it all and was thrilled that, being a local, i could join in all of it without much planning.  and let me tell you – trekking through the city in ten tons of warm clothes in the frosty cold air, navigating the massive crowds to do anything, waiting for trains, taxi’s and tables – it’s all quite exhausting. but it was all worth it, especially the culmination in tuesday night’s parties, celebrating this historic moment with so many others… i’m grateful for it all.