Dream Ship

It was like a giant ship sailing towards me in a night when I was half sleeping.  The big engine of the ship was running and roaring... instead of blue water and white waves, I saw a bright pink blanket with hint of turquoise.  This pink seemed also to penetrate the body of the ship, and then, gradually, orange, yellow, green colors appear simultaneously. It is like a man-made rainbow.

Some part of the ship was rusty. I felt the weight of the heavy metal but I was even more overwhelmed by the stunning colors. I had never seen a ship as colorful and beautiful as this one.  Ship owners usually have thier favorite names on the body, not the colors.  Who would be so creative and powerful that even the ocean changed its colors?  There was certainly nothing like this here on earth.  Can it be sent from heaven? Or is it a newly-invented space ship that I had not seen in the movies?

There were rows of windows in three different sizes. Did the Beings inside also have different height? I thought they were all very uniformed and every movement of theirs was strictly governed by computers and scientific gadgets. They should be more like robots and robots are usually the same size.  What's up with these long and skinny strips close to the bottom of the ship? Weren't they afraid that water would pour in and get them wet and eventually the ship would sink?  Were these long strips designed for laser beams to go through? No, laser beams pierce through everything, and metal is nothing in comparson.

God can make Red Sea with dry ground for Moses to lead his people through, what things are impossible? I don't mean that these Beings are as powerful as the supreme Creator, but they are more advanced than our human beings... and on and on. I noticed that I was in dozing mould but now I am awake.

Long time ago, I bought a stainless strainer that I barely used.  The shape is not conventional and I found it very little use in my kitchen. I almost took it to Goodwill, but I kept it eventually. And this strainer is what you are seeing here, my dream ship.  I dreamed a lot wanting to be someone when growing up and I am still dreaming.

After Hour

For decades, I was addicted to work, or, nicely put it, dedicated to my career. I barely spent time with my family including my parents and my children. My parents are no longer around, my regret. I am now an advocate of Family Time and Family First.

I love to photograph people when they were not aware of the camera. It is Ok that I can only take snap shots since it is the only way that I can capture people's natural emotion and expressions. The one who was photographed the most is my grandson.  He is a very happy boy. He is energetic, funny and photogenic.  I can never get enough of  him.  There is another type of photos that I like to do, i.e Before and After shots.

Every time when I invited family or friends to come to our house, I always went out of my way to serve pretty big meals.  My husband called it 'feast'.  There are just so many different kinds of Chinese dish we can make. Serving is an honor and I love the presentation. Usually when the meal was served, I would sit down for a short while just to say 'help yourselves' before I reached out to my camera and sneaked away.

People came with great spirits and fresh outlook. After couple hours down the road, they started to look stuffed and tired. Some of them were getting a bit loopy that they started to talk no stop and the conversation gets louder and lengthier.  My camera is honest and faithful.  It is very entertaining to compare Before and After pictures. Below is an After shot:

Unexpected, I found a piece of insulation material in our basement.  The material is shining silver and there are straight lines and circles.  I turned off the bright lights in the kitchen, just left a minor light strip way behind the material. I did not know why I decided to try long exposure on this one. After 8-10 second, I was surprised to see the result.  The reflection of the silver material has actually become the light source of my subjects. 

Simplicity

For a long time, I have decided that simple is better and less is more.  I come from an old culture and I have seen enough old stuff, tradition, relics, finely-curved pieces of furniture, hand-painted porcelain and so on...

It is another cloudy and rainy day here. I like northwest, but I have to learn not to be dismayed by the weather. Rain or shine, business as usual. If outdoor photography is not as temping, do something inside. I started to go through my kitchen. Still lots of gadgets and my lazy Susan is also getting slower as it is heavily burdened again.

See why I want to get rid of old stuff and old burden?  When an old attitude gets on you, that is habit.  When old habit takes over your life and is not a positive one, we are recycling back to where I started. I need to impress Simplicity on my head and in my heart.

Odd enough, last night I had a nightmare about getting lost in a deserted street somewhere. I did not have my car, purse and my smartphone.  And, there was neither public phone booth nor business in this desolate area.  Well, I thought I could walk home to get my purse and phone, but I did not have key to get into the house.  In this age, no cell phone, out of luck. I cannot even call a locksmith to open the door and let me in.

Simple is good, but not overly simple. Still keep the needy things while letting go greedy things. I can remove quite a bit of clutters, but for sure I want to leave my cell phone alone.

Wanting to find something in the kitchen that I can photograph. I picked Fork.  Fork is simple but useful.

Table is ready.

Full Circle

Reading and writing were what I like to do for fun before I started working to put myself through college. I always wanted to be a teacher and a writer. I thought that teachers have long summer vacations and that is when I can have more time to dive into my hobby.

After graduating from college, I went to a vocational high school to interview for a teaching job.  Instead, the principal offered me an English secretary position in his trading company. I was  young and enthusiastic.  Whatever opportunity came to my way, I took it. The switch from writing to trading has made me a business woman for decades. I began to travel around the world in my early 30's and left my foot prints in many airports.  I was able to establish business relationships and opportunities from scratch and I gained confidence that I could thrive in the business world....

My own business lasted less than 10 years. I have since worked in several good-sized corporations managing new product development and even ended up as a handbag designer. I attempted to start up a new handbag business, but the sluggish economy scared me and I decided to put it on hold. Did I enjoy business because of Money? It is essential but not my primary objective.  People? Yes for true friendship, not that much because I am an introvert and not very verbal. Product? Yes! Creating new products and getting down the details to perfect them have always brought me satisfaction.

When I finally dismissed my desire to be in business, my yearning for creativity and my inner world were calling. I tried to learn drawing when I was young, but I seemed not be able to accomplish anything. I used to write in Mandarin, my home language, but now I have forgotten some of the characters and my second language, English, is barely covering my thoughts and ideas. God has given me a pair of good eyes and a liking for artistic forms of anything. Photography seems to be the only way that I can possess an image and transform it into a visual that I can view, review and express my thoughts.

Life is a full circle. I did not realize that I have taken so many pictures throughout the years while I was immersed in my business career. This new awakening to photography has brought me back to my original goal - to be in my INNER creative world. I am happier when I am exploring Nature, snapping my shots and working on them in my own quiet space.  I like to stay in touch with some of my friends, but not going out of my way to engage social networking.

Everyday when I looked out the windows or took a walk up the trails, I saw things and an environment that I desire to frame and bring them up on my computer screen to appreciate.  I have traveled a lot in my life and traveling is still on my bucket list. I cannot let go of dramatic scenery, a genuine facial expression (mad or sad or joyful), and a corner of unique architecture. I can get closer and closer to tiny vegetation and never get out of it. It is that intricacy, the undiscovered, and the mystery that a camera lens can fetch that satisfies my desire for artistic expressions.

Nature photography, Portraits, Events, Birds and Close-ups are my primary interests in photography.

Nature is created by its owner for our pleasure. There is endless treasure and beauty hidden if not explored, enjoyed and appreciated.  

I now have a grandson and the second one is on the way soon.  At this stage of my life, I am longing for our family to be together, including my siblings.  There are many precious moments that I like to capture. When my grandson did something really silly. My business-oriented sister burst into a laughter. I ran into my high school friends that I have not seen for decades. Casual portraits (not cheesy smiles) and Events are what I like.

Summer time is great to spend hours crawling down on the ground to do Macro shots.  It is my new discovery that even during freezing days, the white frost and icicles hanging on the limbs look so amazing. I cannot stop snapping away.  It is so cold, but I would rather triple my layers of clothes and pray for the frost to stay.  

In the last couple years, I have been taking pictures of my backyard birds. I love to observe their habits and personalities. Just very recently, I found out that my husband is also very interested in birds. While we have become bird watchers, our focus is on birds photography. He likes to take action shots of big birds and I like simple capture of birds when they were spying on me thinking my camera is a fatal weapon of some sort.

This is my first post, my fresh adventure.  Last year was my year of Birds, Bloom and Braxtyn (grandson). Most of my work was surrounding these three topics.  Below are some  of my pictures:

the Beloved Grandson

Lavender Dream

Red Cardinal (Maui, Hawaii)

Bubbles vs Pearls

Simple is less complicated, not plain. I like to have a life full of colors, not just plain black and white.

From photography point of view, however, black and white images transmit different mood and messages. They are almost like silent languages, understated as they seem, they can actually convey intense feelings. I always believe that art is in the eyes of beholders.  And, the mood of the images has lots to do with the viewer's mood.

I have been taking flower close-up shots. This is something that I won't never get tired of. I can easily bend my knees and crawl down on the ground for hours and forgot about the time. Flowers are created for human being and other creature's pleasure.  The beauty can be discovered in flowers are endless and they are work of art.

Some time ago, I thought to shoot something else other than flowers to give myself a break, or maybe a break-through for me to go out of my box, to explore other aspects of photography. I used my macro lens to take this photo and it reminds me of Lemon and Beer. I don't drink much of anything. I usually just took a little sip out of my husband's glass. I cannot tell you why I thought of beer.

Lemon and Beer

A hint of colors and a little bit of bubbles are what I like my life to be.  I don't expect anything dramatic, I just want that fresh and simple colors with little twist of bubbles.  This picture is a good representation of 'what's in your mind?', but I am not interested to share this intimate feeling of mine to everyone, I want it known only to my family and/or friends who would understand me through my photography.

Life Stream

Today I decided to revisit what I did and instead of lemon, I chose orange, something sweeter than lemon. I used flash for the shot, and the bubbles became like little pearls, beautiful and delicate pearls. The orange slice was floating. I let it go freely and it ended perfectly where I liked it to be.

The open space gives me air to breathe and the dense spots bring me excitement that I see the multitude is thriving.  I  never get tired of the yellow, blue and green. Red or pink are not my favorite, but it is a nice touch for the whole color scheme. How I am so excited myself by just looking at these colors?!!!  Orange slice is like a boat floating on water and it ends where the harbor is, down the stream. The pace is easy and peaceful. And, that is exactly what I want.

Abstract

I am so obsessed with the pearls and the color scheme of this shot. Pink is not my favorite color, but

somehow I just love it here. That sharp pink and bold black lines keep calling me back to look at it, I hope you like it, too.