The Good Old Days

My back went out on me and my desktop computer froze for two days. Life is a bit challenging for me :-) when I could not sit long and no computer to work on my photos... When I was gradually able to get back to normal, sunny days are behind (and ahead), just not today. Life is a Beach, well-said, whoever started this statement.

I have tons of pictures in the library. However, when I have no clue what to write, I would just roll up and down, and come up nothing.  I am not a regular Facebook visitor. If I do get online, 5-10 minutes are all what I spent there. I know I must have missed out lots of friend's postings, but how would I ever catch up when new postings are rolling in by minutes or even seconds?

Today, a friend's posting titled "The good old days" inspired me to think of my good old days and prompted me to grab couple of picture frames to have some fun.

30 years ago

The girls in the frame of the music box are my two babies who came to America when they were only 9 and 5. Laura only learned 24 alphabets and Shirley was in a kindergarten for a few months. I was a busy working woman in Taiwan, Laura literally self-taught herself English alphabets by roaming in my office and asked around from office girls. From single knowledge of 24 letters to become a 4th grader, it was a dramatic jump in a foreign country, but she made it through successfully. Believe or not, she was elected to be in a writing contest at her 5th grade, merely the second year here. When she graduated from high school, she was honored on Register Guard (a local newspaper) as one of the top 8 students in that graduation year.

I took Shirley to work one day. She had to go to restroom while I was expecting a client's phone call. I took here there and rushed back to my office. By the time when I finally finished my call, I heard a door knock. Shirley was brought in by the building manager with tears in her eyes. She could not speak a word of English then and the manger figured she must relate to me. When I took her to school the first time, she cried for the whole week. It was quite intimidating for her to be around all 'strangers' who speak a language that she knew nothing about.  However, she immediately became her teacher's pet. Her middle school teacher even cried when we were leaving California for Oregon.

If I want to point out one pride in my life. These two girls are my pride. I have never been a typical home mother. My world was my business and my office, but they grow up trouble free and turn out to be the way they are (parents all think their kids are the best, no need for me to say here).  If I begin to count my blessings, this is Number One.

20 years ago

If you only have to marry once, you are the lucky one. A failed marriage can cause significant trauma in life. However, hope floats, it rises above all, in high or down time. In retrospective, I realized how God has led me to Northwest... I am a Christian and should not talk about fortune telling. But this one is a bit freaky and I am sharing it just for entertainment sake. An educated fortune teller (also a friend) told me that I should live in the place surrounded by trees, "more trees and taller trees are better", she said. 

I knew nothing about Oregon and have never thought about to come here, but now I am living here. How do you explain that? I thoroughly believe that He sent me here because the honest and honorable man He has set aside for me lives here.

 less than 5 years ago

Grand girl became two years old yesterday. She is our second grandchild. The baby boy in the frame is our first grandchild. He was 6 months old then. It was definitely a life changing experience to become a grandmother. That 5 years old girl is now the mother of three adorable children. How can I not feeling aches and pains?  My goal is to keep up with my mental and cope with my physical as I age 'gracefully'.

To me, good old days are the time period to be remembered, bitter or sweet. 

I used this opportunity to play with textures, compositions and such. I seem to like the last image the best, I purposely put the (picture) frame among the (window) frames. The texture I used is actually a texture that I created myself. OMG. I am so addicted to textures...

On Tulip Magnolia Project

When it is a sunny day, have to make use of sunrise or sunset light.  Grab the camera. When it is an overcast day, good ambiance, don't miss out, shoot something. When it is a rainy day, water droplets are everywhere, time to take some close-up shots... My days seem to get shorter.

Ever since our tulip magnolia tree bloomed last week, I have been trying to figure out how to shoot this flower. The pink blossom is huge. The saucer shape petals look gorgeous up in the air. When I bring them down and look up-close, the curved petals look sculptured, nice.  But it is very thick and rubbery. Outside is a gradient pink. Inside is white. Center is very simple, no intricate details like other smaller flowers. I made several attempts for some close-up shots, but I like none of them.

The flowers are growing in clusters. It is hard to pick a focal point without involving in the 'clutters' around it.  People walking by often adore this tree, and I've challenged myself to come up some decent shots, but these are all I have so far:

Somehow this picture reminds me of old TV soap opera, 'Three's Company' broadcast in 80's, by John Ritter and Joyce Dewitt. Life is good when we have circle of friends who bring us forever laughters. Laugh till you are in tears. I love that experience.

A day of rain brought down tons of loose petals and that reminds me of the classic Chinese novel, 'Dream of Red Mansions' (紅樓夢), a tragic love story between Lin Daiyu (林黛玉) and Jia Baoyu (賈寶玉). Daiyu is one fragile and sentimental girl who wrote a poem to mourn for the withered flowers. 

This cluster of flowers are way up there embracing the sunshine. Background bokeh and translucent flower petals look interesting. I added a texture with frame and it looks like a glass block people used in the bathroom where the fancy spa tub is. How would you like to have your bathroom windows replaced with this glass brick with flower prints embedded?

In heavy fog, I discovered a perfect background for our tree. Deep pink on pale pink plum tree, awesome.  While I could not perceive much from the whole tree, I found this small batch attractive.
They stand out because of the plum tree in the background.   

Before and After

Spring is here. Sun is here. New growth is everywhere. But only a few early spring flowers are blooming. I have only two kinds of flowers are blooming in my yard. I became desperate and went to Trader Joe to look for cutting or potting flowers. Thinking of all the flowers I will have soon, I was only willing to spend $3.99. Photographers need to be able to shoot anything and everything under all circumstances, I thought.

In two days, I have been taking these flowers in and out of the house. They are one of the most common flowers you can find. Even if I have good light, good angle of view, they will still come out, common. How do I make them looking better and people would even want to take a look? I did not count the numbers of the pictures I have deleted, but I seem to like this one.

Early morning with a little bit of sunlight. Somehow I ended up with a dark background. White flower on dark background sounds good, but not quite what I wanted, so I added a second flower to give it a little twist.  It is this added second color prompted me to think about a purple texture. With three textures added and some adjustments, I was happy to see the transformation.

Our tulip magnolias tree just started budding last week and is now in full blossoms. They are up high. Even standing on a stepper, I am still too short. Instead of macro, I have to use a telephoto lens. It is great that the tree is full of buds, hundreds of them, but not easy to get a shot with a focal point.

Just like Scrub Jay, Hummingbirds are frequent visitors, but it is a challenge trying to get a decent shot of them. An impatient photographer like me, I should not be shooting birds, but I love birds for the reason that I cannot even explain myself.  My original shoot includes a black railing close to the bird. While trying to remove it, I thought why not just adding some texture. Hummingbirds look much cuter in distance and I like the image softer...

Original picture was taken in a cloudy day. Pot was hot. Tea was warm. Charming fragrance of my own naturally-dried potpourri was being released in the air. But the image looks cold. My camera did not do it justice, or, I should say, I did a poor job. The After image has finally illustrated how I actually felt at that moment, the truth. I am gradually and most certainly, understanding the importance of post processing.

A Day of Relaxation

No music, no spa, not in the woods, not on top of a mountain, it was simply around the house...

I have just read an article '7 Super Seeds that will change your health'. This is a good article. I think you should read it, go to http://news360.com/article/280825326. The super seeds are Chia seeds, Flax seeds, Hemps seeds, Pumpkin seeds, Sesame seeds, Sunflower seeds, and Papaya seeds. Coincidently, we have chia seeds and sesame seeds in our daily smoothies. We have flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds in our freshly home-made granola. Out of 7, we are consuming 5 of them daily and we don't even know about it.

Heathy Life - Smoothie in the Morning

One of the reasons that I like to make smoothie is to enjoy the different colors coming out of the mix each morning. I have my basics (such as apples and oranges, chia seeds and ground sesame seeds plus one vegetable item) and I mixed them with anything else I may have in my refrigerator. Like this morning, I added carrots, fresh pineapples and strawberries. 97% of the time, the smoothies is delicious and comes out with beautiful colors.

Lantern Rose shines regardless color or not

Coffee aroma is one reason why many people love it so much. I cannot enjoy my morning without a cup of coffee. I grow up drinking tea. Tea is great, but it is lightweight and not as fun as coffee. Though the air is still cold, the bit of sunshine makes a lot of difference. Sipping coffee and going through the pages of travel photobook is absolutely enjoyable. Coffee aroma plus that sweet memories... what else do I expect? not much.

Total Relaxation

Learning something new keeps me interested in all aspects of photography. I used to think that photographers are not artists, but now I have to say that a photographer is more than an artist, he has to be a technician as well. Something can be accomplished instinctively, but others we just have to learn the nuts and bolts of the science behind.  I have been experimenting various method to process a photo and what I've got out of the process is amazingly satisfying.

The images I posted on my blog are the results of my experiments. They are not set for prints and I don't spend too much time trying to fine tune the details. As long as I remember what I've done and you got the point, they served my purpose.

A surprised visitor, Rufous Hummingbird

I thought I spotted a reflection of something shining briefly landed on my photobook. I was utterly stunned when I realized it was a golden hummingbird.  We have mostly a green Anna's or a grey black-chinned hummingbird come to our feeders. I am not an export identifying hummingbirds, but I know this guy is a Rufous. He was there for a good 2 minutes, moved around and made his feather all fuzzed up. It was a nice surprise. 

A tribute to the soon Passing-Away

Even after I have doubled the dosage of the spray, my lantern roses are still a bit under the weather this year. They grow face-down. If I don't remove them from the twig, their beauty is hidden. If I do, they don't last too long. I love to take more pictures, but I also feel reluctant to torture them any more. 

Smoothies, Birds, Flowers, Books, Memories... I am beginning to feel more like in retirement.