Common and yet Not

I am feeling restless these days. We have mostly sunny days and rain comes down every now and then. Flowers and plants are bathed in cozy sun and are showered occasionally to reach their prime state. It is the time to plant annuals and make flower baskets. I prefer perennials, but annual colors are usually more striking. 

After selecting the primary colors for the pot, I began to grab some 'basket stuffers' which are mostly starters. I like starters for the price and also for the surprise. The pictures shown on the tag are not always accurate. I enjoyed watching colors popped out of the little green plants. And, this one is a nice surprise. I have not seen this flower not mentioning the deep cobalt blue color. The flower is only about one inch in diameter, but check out the details and multi colors.

Stuff in my pots are mostly starters. I think texture is the only way to clean up the clutter on the background, so here you go. I used 4 different kinds of texture plus couple of filters.

The process of texturing is so fun. I love to do it and also hesitate to engage in one. Once I sit down, I may not get up for a long time.

I will be showing the original pictures below in order that you can see the reason why I decided to use texture on these images.

In a recent doctor's visit, I walked out of the clinic and heard this beautiful bird singing that I have never heard before. Luckily I had my telephoto lens in the trunk, so I followed the song and discovered a bird perching extremely high on the limb. I started to shoot from distance and stopped below the tree. Even I was right below the tree, I could not tell what kind of bird it is. The song has a spell on me, and I had hard time to just drive away. 

Guess who it is? If I knew it is JUST a sparrow, I would probably not spend my time trying to snap these shots and have people stare at me curiously. It is not a bald eagle or snow owl, just a black-headed sparrow. I must be a joke in front of these passer-bys. But, if you look at sparrows closely and know how hard they are usually singing, I think you will enjoy and appreciate them more. 

The sky is a big blank white at noon, so I decided to give it some color and also  pay  this  guy a little

tribute. I have mentioned it before. Sparrows are no longer common to me. They are the best musicians. Meadow Lark sings beautifully, but sparrows sing a variety of songs that ML cannot compete.

You know I have driven almost 4 hours round trip (and more than once) to shoot tulips at Wooden Shoe tulip farm, but the one shot that I have been looking at is this small tulip that I planted bulbs last year. It is simple but graceful. It opens in the morning when sun rises and closes in the afternoon when the light is down.

While most of the tulips at the farm are winding down, this one stayed for almost a month. How does the most insignificant tulip (I thought) turn out to be my most favorite?

Common can become uncommon. I have the proof here.

Below are the original pictures of above three images:

Rainbow on Earth - tulip colors

Who will ever be tired of beautiful colors? Certainly not me. This is one reason that I have been going back to Wooden Shoe tulip farm year after year.  I thought I would be bored with the same flowers and presentations,  but I seemed to always discover something new from where I stand, where the light source lands, different angle of view and my promptu point of view. To me, it is almost like a treasure hunt. 

I usually have something pre-visualized, but as I walk along the path, something else seems so often to pop up that I put behind what I had in mind and pursued my new found. Some concept that I did not care for it previously, it jumped out and caught my eyes this time. 

Tango in Breeze

The small sea of colors is like rainbow on earth. Red has never been my favorite color. However, after I downloaded my pictures this time, I saw Red tones all over my computer screen. What's up with that? Don't ask me. I was tempted by its passion, I guess.

Drunken Rainbow

Either it is crack of the dawn with cozy sunlight combing through, or it is in the middle of the day with bright light, the rainbow is there. The bevy of the colors is in display. Red and Pink are dominating colors, and the multitude of them just take your breath away.

Passion Road

Pink Lady Lane

So many flowers, so many colors. After hours of walking, sitting and focusing, I was longing for fresh air and aiming for something simpler. Weather has been fantastic in the last couple of weeks, the moment just a bit past sunrise, it is bright and light is harsh. I found lots of SINGLE opportunities, but the contrast light has ruined lots of my shots. 

My Hidding Place

Blue sky is the best natural background for the flowers. I must have shot hundreds last year letting blue sky embraced my flowers. I either kneeled down or simply sat on the dirt ground. 

Sky is my Home

I love to texture flower images. At the same time, I think I should let the natural beauty unveiled itself. Just to try one for fun. Texturing is so addicting that you can go on and on and it still leads you to no end. I thought I was drawn to Red color this time, but as you can see, I have eventually found my true self in the textured version.  Art is a form that authors choose to unveil themselves. This is my conclusion.

after

before

Hearst Castle - nightly show

Chinese has an old saying, 失之桑隅,收之東隅. This means, if we lose something on one end, we will pick something else on the other end. I came to photograph blue pool in vain, but I ended up walking through 20's time channel and enjoyed something completely unexpected...

My heart sank when I walked up to the entrance steps and discovered Neptune Pool did not have single drop of water! I came to photograph the pool. The blue from the pool, the white from the columns and the green from the forest behind the scene have been in my mind since I visited the castle more than 20 years ago. My dream scene vanished the moment when I was finally here and ready to take pictures. Money is not all powerful, but because we've purchased the night tour, I thought, well, might as well make good use of it.

Majestic overlook

Hearst Castle is nestled in a sea of trees. It is romantically beautiful at dusk. Unfortunately, I could only snap some shots when the tour guide was not bugging me to stay with the group. Besides, no flash or tripod are allowed. I was struggling with my settings as we walked around the castle. The light condition varies from one spot to the other, and even more deadly, from outside to inside, and from one room to the other. 

Leisure in luxury

I am posting these pictures thinking you might be like me, have not been there for decades or have not been there at all. It is a place definitely worth visiting.  I don't care for the ornate decoration of most of the castles, but I love the location and surroundings of Hearst Castle. I enjoyed the exteriors more than interiors.

Heavenly location

It is a breath-taking scenery around the castle looking down and afar. The back end are mountains and front end is ocean. Imagine what kind of master pieces will come out of an artistic if this is where he/she is inspired? The reality is, most of the artists do not have such luxury. And, I now wonder if anything would be created if the life is beyond just a comfort level.  When money talks, there is no soul. When the stomach is overly spoiled, there is no art. Am I just here murmuring or do you also agree with me?

A musing spot

Looking beyond the windows

I can enjoy a tidy garden with some sculptured and colored pieces. Excessive wood or marble curving, sculpturing and painting can be choking, and that's what most of the castles  or  palaces look 

Show a bit of architecture

like inside. I intended to avoid heavy tapestries, woodcarvings, stoneworks, crystal chandeliers, and embroideries, but I found the onsite in-style (20's) people are amusing. They wore 20's apparels, dwelled in various rooms and lived the Then lifestyle. I felt that I was walking into 20's channel and actually observed their daily lives.

Rich housewives in high society

He was reading an authentic old newspaper.

A fair lady

Feather, Fur and simply dressed up for Fun

Cigar, suit and vintage antique type writer

Script discussion in the library 

Time to go home, old boy (a reading from her face)

If I am still dwelling on the blue pool, I would not take time to observe these people and these images would not be taken and I would carry on my disappointment to the end. Now I am amused and I hope you are, too.

Mobile Photography - "You have 5 seconds to shoot."

Since I started my photography journey, the destination of our trips have mostly been based on photography opportunities. However, I am reluctant to call them photography trips for two reasons: If it is a road trip, my shots were mostly taken from our moving vehicle. If we go on a tour, the results are either quick snaps or shots through the window of a moving tour bus. I take lots of pictures, but they are just random snap shots. I brought my tripod, but shameful to admit that I did not even get them out of the trunk.

When I don’t control the driving gear myself, I am in the mercy of my chauffeur (also the boss in our household). He is nice enough to say, “just tell me whenever you want me to stop”. If there are no cars behind us and a viewpoint is available, I may get 5-10 minutes to look around before I framed a shot. Otherwise, “you have 5 seconds to shoot”.  Making a 2000 mile road trip with 5 major destinations within 5 days, time is of the essence. If we stop whenever I found something worth a snap, we won’t never make it to all planned destinations. Besides, perpetual car traffic on freeways make constant stops a challenge.

I make sure that my camera strap is on my neck and I hold the camera as steady as I can in case the wind blew my camera out of the car. The vehicle was moving between 70-75 mph. Wind blew mercilessly whenever I opened the window. Sometimes, I did not remember the window was closed...

Little house in the prairie? It ain't little.

California has persistent drought issues. Brown color and sage brush are what I expected to see. But this trip has just about to change my perspective. Lack of lofty trees and massive forest, California is not short of green hills and beautiful landscapes, at least, in this time of the year.  Oregon has more sporadic farms and in a smaller scale. California has vast farmland and the operation is more industrialized.

Green California

I did not mean to, but I have often instinctively bragged about the nature beauty in Oregon. In fact California has the charm of its own. The outlook seems to be more sophisticated and established. However, there is one thing that California cannot make it up to Oregon: the coast and beaches.  We drove on highway 1 from S. California to bay area with expectations to discover some scenic spots. But I barely got my camera out of the car...

Hearst Castle at dusk

My last visit to Hearst Castle in San Simeon was more than 25 years ago. The only scene has always in my mind is that piercing blue water in Neptune Pool, the white Roman columns and the mountains surrounded. Unfortunately, the pool is now under construction to fix some leaking problem and the project will take a year to finish. I was so bombed!!!  I was also disappointed in the visitation policy. To see the place, you have to go with the tour, no individual exploration is allowed. How would I take pictures without doing some exploration at my own pace and choose the spots to my own likings?  Taking random pictures as the tour guides lead you to is no better than snapping in a tour bus or a moving personal vehicle.

Tropical Charm

I quickly snapped this shot as the group walking up the stairs with the tour guide. The tiny section of the exterior is as such, can you imagine what the interior looks like?  The castle is gorgeous and outstanding, but we are not allowed to explore the place on our own. I love to spend hours and days in that place to take pictures, but how? PS. I have snapped some interior pictures, I will share in my blogs.

Flash snap from freeway

Lake Shasta is gorgeous from distance. We tried to cruise the lake via a boat years ago, but it was a disappointment. Something looks great under microscope and some can only be appreciated far away.
I am leaning my life lesson here not to take the same measure on everything and under all circumstances.

Mount Shasta

I have never tired of shooting Mount Hood in Oregon and Mount Shasta in California. Their close-to-perfect cone and sculptured top often reminds me of the scarcity of our Nature that God has created. Mountain top seems to always leads me to God Almighty for some reason.

Thousands of birds

Last and never the least, Birds. I cannot identify the geese I am seeing here, but there are many thousands of them at Tule Lake wildlife refuge. I cannot identify the species. There are ducks and geese everywhere in Oregon, but I cannot say that I ever saw them before. They do know where to find their habitat. Wildlife refuges are usually located in the most natural environment. That is one of the reasons why I enjoyed being there.

All the images above are taken from our moving car or when I was following the tour guide. Just to give you a quick rundown, I did not edit the images much other than adjusting exposure.

Norway again

Today is April Fool's Day, but I am not joking.

I have not skipped any blog writing and posting new pictures I took during the week since I started in January, 2013. But there have been too many things added to my daily routines and I am ready to head out for a semi-photography trip... Stay tuned, I will be back with new pictures of which flowers and birds are not my main subjects.

I am not writing today except to show you some old pictures that I took from a tour bus, boat or train in Norway. Norway is one place in my list that I hope to go back and take tons of pictures with my tripod on the ground!!!