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Photography Basics
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Photography: Basics - Final AssessmentMAPEH 6 Photography Basics: Using photography as a medium for artistic expression and documentation. Basics of PhotographyTranslator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast Before March, 2011, I was a photographic retoucher based in New York City. We're pale, gray creatures. We hide in dark, windowless rooms, and generally avoid sunlight. We make skinny models skinnier, perfect skin more perfect, and the impossible possible, and we get criticized in the press all the time, but some of us are actually talented artists with years of experience and a real appreciation for images and photography. On March 11, 2011, I watched from home, as the rest of the world did, as the tragic events unfolded in Japan. Soon after, an organization I volunteer with, All Hands Volunteers, were on the ground, within days, working as part of the response efforts. I, along with hundreds of other volunteers, knew we couldn't just sit at home, so I decided to join them for three weeks. On May the 13th, I made my way to the town of Ćfunato. It's a small fishing town in Iwate Prefecture, about 50,000 people, one of the first that was hit by the wave. The waters here have been recorded at reaching over 24 meters in height, and traveled over two miles inland. As you can imagine, the town had been devastated. We pulled debris from canals and ditches. We cleaned schools. We de-mudded and gutted homes ready for renovation and rehabilitation. We cleared tons and tons of stinking, rotting fish carcasses from the local fish processing plant. We got dirty, and we loved it. For weeks, all the volunteers and locals alike had been finding similar things. They'd been finding photos and photo albums and cameras and SD cards. And everyone was doing the same. They were collecting them up, and handing them in to various places around the different towns for safekeeping. Now, it wasn't until this point that I realized that these photos were such a huge part of the personal loss these people had felt. As they had run from the wave, and for their lives, absolutely everything they had, everything had to be left behind. At the end of my first week there, I found myself helping out in an evacuation center in the town. I was helping clean the onsen, the communal onsen, the huge giant bathtubs. This happened to also be a place in the town where the evacuation center was collecting the photos. This is where people were handing them in, and I was honored that day that they actually trusted me to help them start hand-cleaning them. Now, it was emotional and it was inspiring, and I've always heard about thinking outside the box, but it wasn't until I had actually gotten outside of my box that something happened. As I looked through the photos, there were some were over a hundred years old, some still in the envelope from the processing lab, I couldn't help but think as a retoucher that I could fix that tear and mend that scratch, and I knew hundreds of people who could do the same. So that evening, I just reached out on Facebook and asked a few of them, and by morning the response had been so overwhelming and so positive, I knew we had to give it a go. So we started retouching photos. This was the very first. Not terribly damaged, but where the water had caused that discoloration on the girl's face had to be repaired with such accuracy and delicacy. Otherwise, that little girl isn't going to look like that little girl anymore, and surely that's as tragic as having the photo damaged. (Applause) Over time, more photos came in, thankfully, and more retouchers were needed, and so I reached out again on Facebook and LinkedIn, and within five days, 80 people wanted to help from 12 different countries. Within two weeks, I had 150 people wanting to join in. Within Japan, by July, we'd branched out to the neighboring town of Rikuzentakata, further north to a town called Yamada. Once a week, we would set up our scanning equipment in the temporary photo libraries that had been set up, where people were reclaiming their photos. The older ladies sometimes hadn't seen a scanner before, but within 10 minutes of them finding their lost photo, they could give it to us, have it scanned, uploaded to a cloud server, it would be downloaded by a gaijin, a stranger, somewhere on the other side of the globe, and it'd start being fixed. The time it took, however, to get it back is a completely different story, and it depended obviously on the damage involved. It could take an hour. It could take weeks. It could take months. The kimono in this shot pretty much had to be hand-drawn, or pieced together, picking out the remaining parts of color and detail that the water hadn't damaged. It was very time-consuming. Now, all these photos had been damaged by water, submerged in salt water, covered in bacteria, in sewage, sometimes even in oil, all of which over time is going to continue to damage them, so hand-cleaning them was a huge part of the project. We couldn't retouch the photo unless it was cleaned, dry and reclaimed. Now, we were lucky with our hand-cleaning. We had an amazing local woman who guided us. It's very easy to do more damage to those damaged photos. As my team leader Wynne once said, it's like doing a tattoo on someone. You don't get a chance to mess it up. The lady who brought us these photos was lucky, as far as the photos go. She had started hand-cleaning them herself and stopped when she realized she was doing more damage. She also had duplicates. Areas like her husband and her face, which otherwise would have been completely impossible to fix, we could just put them together in one good photo, and remake the whole photo. When she collected the photos from us, she shared a bit of her story with us. Her photos were found by her husband's colleagues at a local fire department in the debris a long way from where the home had once stood, and they'd recognized him. The day of the tsunami, he'd actually been in charge of making sure the tsunami gates were closed. He had to go towards the water as the sirens sounded. Her two little boys, not so little anymore, but her two boys were both at school, separate schools. One of them got caught up in the water. It took her a week to find them all again and find out that they had all survived. The day I gave her the photos also happened to be her youngest son's 14th birthday. For her, despite all of this, those photos were the perfect gift back to him, something he could look at again, something he remembered from before that wasn't still scarred from that day in March when absolutely everything else in his life had changed or been destroyed. After six months in Japan, 1,100 volunteers had passed through All Hands, hundreds of whom had helped us hand-clean over 135,000 photographs, the large majority â (Applause) â a large majority of which did actually find their home again, importantly. Over five hundred volunteers around the globe helped us get 90 families hundreds of photographs back, fully restored and retouched. During this time, we hadn't really spent more than about a thousand dollars in equipment and materials, most of which was printer inks. We take photos constantly. A photo is a reminder of someone or something, a place, a relationship, a loved one. They're our memory-keepers and our histories, the last thing we would grab and the first thing you'd go back to look for. That's all this project was about, about restoring those little bits of humanity, giving someone that connection back. When a photo like this can be returned to someone like this, it makes a huge difference in the lives of the person receiving it. The project's also made a big difference in the lives of the retouchers. For some of them, it's given them a connection to something bigger, giving something back, using their talents on something other than skinny models and perfect skin. I would like to conclude by reading an email I got from one of them, Cindy, the day I finally got back from Japan after six months. "As I worked, I couldn't help but think about the individuals and the stories represented in the images. One in particular, a photo of women of all ages, from grandmother to little girl, gathered around a baby, struck a chord, because a similar photo from my family, my grandmother and mother, myself, and newborn daughter, hangs on our wall. Across the globe, throughout the ages, our basic needs are just the same, aren't they?" Thank you. (Applause) (Applause)Filmic Techniques Based on the work of Brad Smilanich Mis-en-Scene: originally a French theatrical term arrangements of all the visual elements of the stage area in film â âthe contents of the frame and the way those contents are organizedâ include: lighting, costume, dĂ©cor, props, camera movement or distance . . . all photographic decisions etc. Proxemics: Spatial relationship among characters within the mis-en-scene Rule of Thirds: a compositional rule of thumb in painting, design, photography etc. suggests image divided into 9 equal parts with two vertical and two horizontal lines important elements of the mis-en-scene should be placed along these lines and their intersections some suggest aligning with intersections makes for more interesting pictures than just centreing the subject Proxemics Camera Distance: Quite literally, how far the camera is from the subject being filmed The Hand Camera Camera Distance: Quite literally, how far the camera is from the subject being filmed Extreme Close Up: Singles out one small portion of the body or object Used to intensify emotion, or show reaction Camera Distance: Close up Shot: Shows head of character or small significant object Used to show emotions Camera Distance: Medium Shot: shows figures from the waist up allows character to be seen within background Camera Distance: Long Shot: shows figures from feet up similar to the âstageâ in live theatre orients audience to figures within a location or surrounding Camera Distance: Extreme Long Shot: Sometimes called an âestablishing shotâ Panoramic view of an exterior location orients audience to a location Camera Distance: Camera Angle: Cameraâs angle of view relative to the subject being photographed High Angle Shot: looks down on the subject often used to make the subject look small and insignificant (in combination with camera distance) puts the camera (audience) in âpowerâ position Camera Angle: Low Angle Shot: looks up at the subject often used to make the subject look large and powerful puts the camera (audience) in a âsubmissiveâ position Camera Angle: Flat Angle Shot: camera on same plane as the subject feels most ânormalâ to an audience Camera Angle: Canted Shot: frame is unbalanced in relation to the subject may indicate a symbolic unbalance in the character Camera Angle: Camera Movement literally the camera moving with or around or to follow the subjects in the mis-en-scene or frame Camera Movement: Tilting Movement camera moves up or down on a horizontal axis similar to head nodding movement may be used to show subjects relation to surroundings Camera Movement: Panning Movement camera moves side to side on a vertical axis similar to head shaking movement may be used to establish setting Camera Movement: Dolly Movement camera mounted on a vehicle that moves along with the subject (camera moves, not pivots) follows the subject to signify something important Camera Movement: Crane Shot camera mounted on a crane or boom permits camera to move in & out, up & down, backward & forward often used for high aerial establishing shots Misc. Shots: Hand Held: camera carried to seem jerky, giving ârealistic feelâ Push In: camera moves up to a characterâs face to indicate an epiphany (realization) Spiral: camera circles subject for effect End for ELA 20-2 and 10-1 Shot Transitions/Editing: artificial editing done to string together multiple shots to create a narrative scene or sequence a cut is the change from one shot to another usually separated in to âsoftâ and âhardâ cuts Jump Cut: an instantaneous change from one shot to another this can be very natural or may disorient the audience, depending on how it is used Transitions/Editing Swish Pan: A pan where the speed of the camera is so fast that images are blurry used often to connect events in different settings that are connected by time Transitions/Editing Dissolve: transition where one shot gradually dissapears while another shot gradually appears often used to suggest change of setting or long time passage i.e. flashbacks Transitions/Editing Fade In/Out: transition where the shot gradually overexposes to white or underexposes to black often used to suggest a lengthy passage of time or change in location Transitions/Editing Wipe: transition where one shot is gradually eliminated as another shot moves onto the screen can be vertically or horizontally often suggests movement of the camera to another location Transitions/Editing Iris In/Out: transition where one shot gradually appears as an expanding circle in the middle of an old image suggests . . .??? Transitions/Editing Shot-Reverse Shot: one character is shown looking (often off-screen) at another character, and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer unconciously assumes that they are looking at each other. Transitions/Editing Two-Shot: Face-up shot of two people. Often used in interviews, or when two presenters are hosting a show. A "One-Shot" could be a mid-shot of either of these subjects. A "Three-Shot", unsurprisingly, contains three people. Transitions/Editing Shot Transitions/Editing: Sound: used to reflect or enhance what is shown visually on the screen can include dialogue, music, sound effects, voiceover etc. Diegetic Sound: sound that has a source in the world of the story dialogue spoken by characters, sound made by objects, or music coming from a source grounded in the story of the film Non-diegetic Sound: sound that has a source outside the world of the story usually part of the score or the soundtrack Parallel Sound: sound that complements the image shown i.e. romantic music during a love scene Counterpoint Sound: sound that contradicts the âfeelingâ of the image a happy song played while images of graphic violence are portrayed Voiceover: voice of a non-visible narrator laid over the scene often provides some comment about the narrative of the film Sound Bridge: used to âsoftenâ the transition between one scene and another takes sound from the next shot and overlays it on the current shot 2-3 seconds earlier than we see the image Examples of Diegetic/Non-Diegetic: In the first clip, the non-diegetic music changes to diegetic music when the main character moves inside of the convenience store. In the second clip, the âduhn duhn duuuuhâ which often is non-diegetic becomes diegetic because it is the band in the passing bus playing that music! End for ELA 20-1 Lighting: Can be used by a director to: Control the mood of a scene guide a viewerâs eye to a specific place in mis-en-scene Emphasize and de-emphasize elements in frame Add texture and color Make people look beautiful, ugly, sinister, or angelic Standard 3-Point Lighting: uses three lights called the key light, fill light and back light forms the basis of most lighting. once you understand three point lighting you are well on the way to understanding all lighting. Key Light: main light usually the strongest and has the most influence on the look of the scene. it is placed to one side of the camera/subject so that side is well lit and other side has shadow. Fill Light: secondary light is placed on the opposite side of the key light used to fill the shadows created by key softer and less bright than key Back Light: placed behind the subject ; lights it from the rear. provides definition and subtle highlights around the subject's outlines. Separates subject from background provides a three-dimensional look. Standard 3-Point Lighting: http://www.zvork.fr/vls/ Try using this simulator to play with lighting with those 3 points.News Opinion Sport Culture Lifestyle Show more Books Music TV & radio Art & design Film Games Classical Stage âHollywood doesnât do very much of that business, they have the nice sign, and everythingâs good, but they donât do very much,â said Trump. View image in fullscreen âHollywood doesnât do very much of that business, they have the nice sign, and everythingâs good, but they donât do very much,â said Trump. Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters Film âIâm not trying to hurt the industryâ: Trump softens tone on movie tariffs California governor Gavin Newsom announces a $7.5bn tax incentive scheme as Trumpâs announcement of 100% tariffs on films âproduced in foreign landsâ is mocked by Jimmy Kimmel and Fallon Andrew Pulver Tue 6 May 2025 11.24 BST Share Donald Trump appears to be softening his tone after widespread dismay in Hollywood and further afield at his bombshell announcement of 100% tariffs on films âproduced in foreign landsâ, saying he was ânot looking to hurt the industryâ. In remarks reported by CNBC, Trump said he was planning to discuss the plan with film industry leaders. âIâm not looking to hurt the industry, I want to help the industry.â He added: âSo weâre going to meet with the industry. I want to make sure theyâre happy with it because weâre all about jobs.â Trump also took aim again at California state governor Gavin Newsom, saying the film industry âhas been decimated by other countries taking them out, and also by incompetence, like in Los Angeles, the governor [Gavin Newsom] is a grossly incompetent man, heâs just allowed it to be taken away fromâ. Trump added: âHollywood doesnât do very much of that business, they have the nice sign, and everythingâs good, but they donât do very much.â Trumpâs talk of film tariffs makes no sense, but itâs already doing damage â to Hollywood Peter Bradshaw Peter Bradshaw Read more Newsom responded with a statement saying: âGovernor Newsom continues to champion Californiaâs iconic film and television industry â recognising it as a cornerstone of the stateâs economy, one that sustains hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs across every sector around the state.â âHis plan to more than double the stateâs film and television tax credit reflects a commitment to keeping production here at home, supporting workers and maintaining Californiaâs global leadership in entertainment. If the President announces a proposal with more details, we will review it.â Newsom had earlier responded to Trumpâs announcement by proposing a $7.5bn federal tax incentive scheme, saying in a statement to Variety: âBuilding on our successful state program, weâre eager to partner with the Trump administration to further strengthen domestic production.â Tax incentive schemes in the US currently operate on a state-by-state basis, and Newsom had announced a plan in April to boost Californiaâs to $750m. California senator Adam Schiff also condemned Trumpâs tariff proposal while backing calls for a federal tax credit scheme, saying in a statement: âBlanket tariffs on all films would have unintended and potentially damaging impacts, [but] we have an opportunity to work together to pass a major federal film tax credit to re-shore American jobs in the industry.â Late night TV hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon also joined the chorus of dismay and bafflement at Trumpâs plan. Commenting that Trump was ânow aiming his wrecking ball at Hollywoodâ, Kimmel questioned whether foreign-made movies were a ânational security threatâ as Trump claimed. âI donât care where theyâre made. I really donât. I guess itâs what the late, great Hannibal Lecter wouldâve wanted. Sonic, the illegal immigrant hedgehog, is a national security threat and he must be stopped!â Kimmel also mocked actor Jon Voightâs role in Trumpâs thinking, saying: âThis is where he reportedly got the tariff movies idea â from Angelina Jolieâs 86-year-old father she wonât talk to. What a great idea. Next year, The White Lotus is gonna be set at a Hampton Inn.â Fallon also took aim at Trumpâs implication that foreign locations were somehow taboo, saying: âGonna be fun seeing the next Lord of the Rings filmed in Bayonne, New Jersey,â adding: âIf you donât like that, you can also watch Emily in Des Moines [instead of Emily in Paris]. Itâs just as charming.â Explore more on these topics Film Film industry Donald Trump Trump tariffs Gavin Newsom Jimmy Kimmel Jimmy Fallon news Share Reuse this content Most viewed Live German parliament votes again on Merzâs bid to be chancellor after humiliating first round â Europe live Trump and Carney to meet at White House in closely watched encounter Mushroom lunchâs sole surviving guest details deadly meal and its aftermath as trial of Erin Patterson continues âItâs the misogyny slop ecosystem!â How Candace Owens and the American right declared war on Blake Lively Wisconsin woman missing for more than 60 years found âalive and wellâ1.Linguistics is the science that studies language. 2.Linguist:Someone who studies linguistics. 3.The Subfields of Linguistics Phonetics deals with the sounds of language. Phonology deals with how the sounds are organized. Morphology deals with how sounds are put together to form words. Syntax deals with how sentences are formed. Semantics deals with the meaning of words, sentences, and texts. Pragmatics deals with how sentences and texts are used in the world (i.e., in context) Text Linguistics deals with units larger than sentences, such as paragraphs and texts. 4.Prescriptive: This approach consists basically of stating what is considered right and wrong in language. 5.Descriptive: This approach, on the other hand, consists of describing the facts. Descriptive linguistics is dedicated to describing the rules of the language, and the language is seen as essentially rule governed. 6.Language is rule-governed, creative, universal, innate, and learned, all at the same time. 7.Linguists understand language as a system of arbitrary vocal signs. 8.Linguistic signs: involve sequences of sounds which represent concrete objects and events as well as abstractions.Signs may be related to the things they represent in a number of ways. 9.Iconic: which resemble the things they represent (as do, for example, photographs, diagrams, star charts, or chemical models). 10.Indexical: which point to or have a necessary connection with the things they represent (as do, for example, smoke to fire, a weathercock to the direction of the wind, a symptom to an illness, a smile to happiness, or a frown to anger). 11.Describe the characteristics of human language: Creative: (The structural elements of human language can be combined to produce new utterances, which neither the speaker nor his hearers may ever have made or heard before.) Rule-governed: (Language is made of rules.) Universal: (There are some aspects that are present in all languages of the world.) Innate:(all humans possess an innate capacity for language, activated in infancy by minimal environmental stimuli. Chomsky) Uniquely human: (Language is what sets us apart from other species. It is what makes us human.) Learned:(Children acquire language from their natural setting.) 12.Differentiate between iconic, indexical and symbolic signs. A. iconic, which resemble the things they represent (as do, for example, photographs, diagrams, star charts, or chemical models) B. indexical, which point to or have a necessary connection with the things they represent (as do, for example, smoke to fire, a weathercock to the direction of the wind, a symptom to an illness, a smile to happiness, or a frown to anger). c. symbolic, which are only conventionally related to the thing they represent (as do, for example, a flag to a nation, a rose to love, a wedding ring to marriage). 12. Distinguish between different senses of the grammar word. The prescriptivistÂŽs grammar (Grammar is a set of rules that label the different utterances as either right or wrong.) The descriptivistÂŽs grammar (Grammar is a set of rules that govern the langauge spoken by people. ) The linguistÂŽs grammar (Grammar is the subconscious knowledge of the set of rules that enables speakers to use the language) The speakerÂŽs grammar (Grammar is the intrinsic linguistic knowledge within a native speaker) 13.Describe common fallacies about language and grammar: âșOne type of grammar is simpler than another. âșChanges in grammar involve deterioration in a language âșGrammars should be logical and analogical (that is, regular) âșPeople must be taught the grammatical rules of their language. âșOnly some languages have grammar. âșGrammars differ from each other in unpredictable ways. 14.Generality: All Languages Have a Grammar 15. Equality: All Grammars Are Equal 16.Changeability: Grammars Change Over Time 17. Universality: Grammars Are Alike in Basic Ways 18.Tacitness: Grammatical Knowledge Is Subconscious 19.Linguistics is defined as the study of language systems. It is the scientific study of language. 20.Historical approach:It is the study of language change. 21.Linguistic Competence: is the unconscious knowledge speakers of a language have about the system that enables them to create and understand novel utterances. 22.Performance: is the use of it. Performance is âthe actual use of language in concrete situations.â 23.I-Language (internal language): which is the intrinsic linguistic knowledge within a native speaker. 24.E-Language (external language): which is the observable languageâthe output from a speaker. 25.Parole ('speech') refers to the concrete instances of the use of langue, including texts which provide the ordinary research material for linguistics. 26.Langue: 27.Language: is a system of communication that is non-stereotyped and non-finite; it is unlimited in its scope. 28.Grammar: to refer to a subconscious linguistic system of a particular type. Grammar makes possible the production and comprehension of a potentially unlimited number of utterances. 29.Communication and animals: Selecting a mode of communication (speech,writing, gesture). Delivering the symbols through a medium, a physical basis for communication, light, air, or ink. Decoding of the symbols to obtain the information. 30.SIGNS: Communication relies on using something to stand for something else. Words are an obvious example of this: You do not have to have a car, a sandwich, or your cousin present in order to talk about themâthe words car, sandwich, and cousin stand for them instead. This same phenomenon is found in animal communication as well. 31.The signifier: A signifier is that part of a sign that stimulates at least one sense organ of the receiver of a message.A signifier can also be a picture, a photograph, a sign language gesture, or one of the many other words for tree in different languages. 32.The signified: The signified component of the sign refers to both the real world object it represents and its conceptual content. The first of these is the real world content of the sign, its extension or referent within a system of signs such as English, avian communication, or sign language. 33.Iconic signs or icons: always bear some resemblance to their referent. A photograph is an iconic sign; so too is a stylized silhouette of a female or a male on a restroom door. 34.Some iconic tokens: a. open-mouth threat by a Japanese macaque; b. park recreation signs; c. onomatopoeic words in English. 35.An indexical sign, or index, fulfils its function by pointing out its referent, typically by being a partial or representative sample of it. Indexes are not arbitrary, since their presence has in some sense been caused by their referent. For this reason it is sometimes said that there is a causal link between an indexical sign and its referent.The track of an animal, for example, points to the existence of the animal by representing a part of it. The presence of smoke is an index of fire. 36.Symbolic signs: bear an arbitrary relationship to their referents and in this way are distinct from both icons and indexes. Human language is highly symbolic in that the vast majority of its signs bear no inherent resemblance or causal connection to their referents, as the following words show. 37.Mixed signs Signs: are not always exclusively of one type or another. Symptomatic signs, for example, may have iconic properties, as when a dog opens its mouth in a threat to bite. Symbolic signs such as traffic lights are symptomatic in that they reflect the internal state of the mechanism that causes them to change color. 38.Signals: All signs can act as signals when they trigger a specific action on the part of the receiver, as do traffic lights, words in human language such as the race starter's "Go!", or the warning calls of birds. 39.SIGN STRUCTURE: No matter what their type, signs show different kinds of structure. A basic distinction is made between graded and discrete sign structure. 40.Graded signs convey their meaning by changes in degree. A good example of a gradation in communication is voice volume. The more you want to be heard, the louder you speak along an increasing scale of loudness. There are no steps or jumps from one level to the next that can be associated with a specific change in meaning. 41.Discrete signs are distinguished from each other by categorical (stepwise) differences. There is no gradual transition from one sign to the next. The words of human language are good examples of discrete signs. 42.A VIEW OF ANIMAL COMMUNICATION âșLargely iconic âșLargely symptomatic âșLittle arbitrary âșNot deliberate âșNot conscious âșNot symbolic âșStimulus boundAre you feeling adventurous? Then spread your wings and travel km southeast of Taiwan, where you'll discover a part of the country unlike any other. Known as Lanyu* or Orchid Island, this tiny drop of earth in the Pacific* is home to the Tao*, Taiwan's only ocean-dependent indigenous* tribe. The Tao people are the people of the "alibangbang*," or flying fish, one of Mother Nature's greatest gifts. The annual flying fish season is at the heart of Tao culture and comes with many traditions and taboos.        Spanning around eight months of the year, the flying fish season involves multiple customs and rituals. A special religious ceremony, usually held in February, marks the beginning of this important period and ensures a prosperous and plentiful season. Tao boat captains head to the beach with elaborate costumes on. There, they pray and make sacrifices to appeal to the flying fish spirits to bless their tribe, and to the gods for good fortune and courage on the dangerous seas.        Although local fishers can catch flying fish between March and June, they are restricted to capturing only those found in shallow waters. During this period, netting* any deep-sea or coral reef fish is not permitted. If the fishers didn't follow this rule, various species would not have the time needed to recover their numbers, and harmony with nature would be lost.        At the end of June, the annual sea harvest concludes with another ceremony to express gratitude and respect for nature's endless* cycles. After the ceremony, flying fish can no longer be caught. Therefore, from July onward*, only dried and stored alibangbang can be eaten. Furthermore, after the Mid-Autumn Festival*, even these dried fish must no longer be consumed. This custom seems to have been engraved in the localsâ hearts* and is believed to prevent ill luck and guarantee abundance in seasons to come.        Just as the locals are concluding their scaly* harvest for the year, scores of tourists begin arriving on Lanyu for the summer season. To make sure you don't feel like a fish out of water, here are some basic guidelines to help you enjoy your stay while respecting local traditions. First, it is considered a taboo to touch or photograph the Tao fishing boats without permission since it would bring bad luck. Also, you should never enter localsâ private gardens uninvited* to view or sample drying fish. Additionally, avoid asking about future fishing trips, as locals believe that the gods may be angered and that the harvest may be spoiled as a consequence. Finally, as a sign of respect for the local community and environment, don't snorkel* or dive in the island's traditional fishing waters during the flying fish season. Such activities can disturb the local ecosystem.        The customs and taboos mentioned above reflect the importance of preserving and cherishing natural resources and local culture. The ancient wisdom of Lanyuâs Tao inhabitants thus appears to give us much to learn about living in harmony with this planet. Everyone is, after all, in the same boat under nature's wing.