Maui - Wish You Were Here

In the last few days, we have seen a little bit of rain here and there, which has led to some beautiful views of clouds passing by the mountains to our west. It doesn't rain here as much as I would like it to, so I'm thankful for the days when I can sit by the window with a hot cup of coffee to see overcast skies and light drizzle.

I shot this picture (cropped digitally) from our window, looking northwest, yesterday just before sunset. Sometimes when Bethany and I are biking westward on this road looking to the west at the low mountains and the hovering clouds, we feel a little bit like we're in Maui, looking at Haleakala Crater in the distance.

If I had told you that this picture was shot on an inland part of Maui, you might think it'd be plausible, right? You would never have known that we live in the middle of a desert without any ocean nearby for hundreds of miles.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

No major news in our lives to blog about today. Though the snow stopped falling a few days ago, there are still remnants of snow (and iced pathways) all around. We might see a bit more snow in the next day or two.

Since there's no major news, we thought we'd share this one picture for you. The other day, I must have thought somebody was at our door or in our stairwell, so I went to look through the peephole. No people. Instead, this is what I saw:



Our guess is it was just an ordinary fly, nothing more.

Not Winter Yet, eh?

All of the local folks I have talked to say that it is not Winter yet. Come on, it's only November 2nd! Winter isn't for a few weeks!

So then, I point outside to the ICE that has frozen up all of the plants and bushes and walkways...



... and they respond, "Oh, this isn't cold. You'll see. When January and February come... that will be cold. This isn't so bad."

So, umm, ok... it's not winter yet.

And granted, it is pretty arid and dry where we live, so we're not expecting much precipitation... in the winter, we probably won't get much rain, and might get just a little bit of snow.

But when you leave the sprinklers on, and the nighttime low reaches -4°C (24°F)... you look outside in the morning, and it sure looks like Winter is here. And when you bike to school in the morning and your face feels like it will freeze, crack, and fall off your skull, it sure feels like Winter is here.




But, ok, I'll take their word for it. It's not Winter yet.

Nonetheless, for my morning bike commute, I have broken out my fleece-lined jeans, my thickest jacket, and my snowboarding gloves.

Starbucks VIA goes live...

You may remember a few months ago that I wrote an entry on an emergency stash of Starbucks VIA which I acquired through ebay (since it was only selling in select cities at the time).

Well, this last Tuesday, VIA launched nationally and is now available for purchase in all (domestic) Starbucks stores. So far, depending on who you're reading online, the reception seems to have been only modestly warm. It doesn't seem like VIA has (yet) caught fire as a huge and revolutionary new product.

I must say, however, that for an instant coffee... VIA is pretty darn good. Right now, our kitchen has a few packs of VIA and a few packs of Nescafe. And I definitely prefer the VIA. But, whether Starbucks will really be able to break into the instant coffee market - especially overseas, where instant coffee is pretty prevalent - is another question.

A few days before the VIA product launch, I found a message in my flickr inbox, because of the picture (shown above) that I shot of my obtained-from-ebay VIA stash. The message was from Starbucks, from a member of their product launch marketing team:

Just to say ‘thanks’ for taking the time to post something about [VIA] on the web, I would like to offer you a free 3-month subscription of Starbucks VIA™ delivered through the StarbucksStore.com!

NICE. That's a 12-pack of VIA delivered to your door around the beginning of each month. Hooray! Thank you, Starbucks, for your generosity, especially towards your loyal customers.

The message continued...

Second, I would love to include your content on our new Starbucks VIA™ website when it goes live on September 29th. We would be sure to attribute it to you and link back to it in its original setting so that it will bring even more attention to it!

This meant that I would have to agree to their use of my image on their website, agree to certain terms and conditions, and give up rights to royalites, etc. So, I went ahead and said OK. I don't make any money on my pictures; I'm happy just to get the free VIA packs; and I'd be happy to see my picture used on the VIA website.

So far though, I have not yet seen my picture anywhere on the VIA website. It turns out there is a whole section of the site dedicated to community-generated content - upload your photos, videos, comments about VIA, etc. I notice that Starbucks has uploaded some other users' flickr photos there, but my photo... hasn't (yet) made the cut. Oh well. Maybe it will show up somewhere else? Anyways, I check every few days to see if maybe my picture is somewhere on the site. Will let you know (and post a link) if I find it anywhere.

The Beijing Adventure Continues...

Today was another day of adventuring, spent almost entirely on my feet. The hope was to find a good scenic spot for some pictures, but to go somewhere that isn't on the standard list of tourist spots. I ended up taking a subway/bus ride to the western outskirts of Beijing, to 香山公园 (xiang shan gong yuan). This is supposed to be much more beautiful in late October, when the leaves turn orange and brown. But, I was determined to check it out anyways.

Little did I know, it was going to be a hike. And actually, I think this hike up to the peak was much harder than either of the Great Wall hikes I've done.

There was the option to take the cable car (ski lift) up to the peak, but the starting base was at a different location than the entrance to the park where I came in. Then, up at the top, it was already too late to take the lift back down, so that meant hiking back down too.



The hike up took me about an hour and a half. The hike down only took half an hour. But up at the top was a pretty grand view of Beijing. It's crazy to see just how big this city is.



Then, for the evening, I slowly made my way back, stopping at Pizza Hut for dinner. The menu for Pizza Hut here is crazy. Seriously, it looks more like a menu for Chili's or TGIFriday's. I passed on the calamari, the waffle fries, the shrimp scampi pasta, the clam chowder bread bowl, and the stuffed filo dough. Yes, those were all on the menu. Instead, I did a personal pan pizza and a grilled chicken salad. After a long day of hiking, this hit the spot.

The nightlife in Beijing is active no matter what part of the city you're in. Here's just one area where I was walking by, filled with inline skaters (and people renting out inline skates), musicians, street food vendors, and people taking leisurely strolls.


Also in the area were people selling kites. I had never thought about what it would be like to fly a kite at night... especially a kite with lights! Here's a shot of a kite salesman (and his girlfriend?) trying to attract business.



Half more day here. Sunday morning will (I hope) be the long-awaited 4-hour marathon at a Starbucks.

Picture from the Past

In the midst of packing and cleaning, I was able to track down some old CDs with backups of years past. I even found some backups going back as far as 1999.

One of the things I was glad to find was a folder of pictures from my 2002 trip to Singapore. I was especially looking for this set because I remember one picture I took during a thunderstorm. The thunderstorm was still slightly in the distance, but approaching. But it gave me enough time to sit outside and try to shoot some slow exposure shots of the lightning.

This takes a good number of attempts because you can never predict when the lightning is going to come. Also, I don't think I had a tripod. So I just balanced the camera on a wall, tilted upward, and repeatedly shot 3-5 second exposures, waiting for some flashes of lightning to fill the frame.

And, lo and behold, after a few minutes of shooting, here's what I got:

Photographing Objects in Motion

Here's a shot of Bethany doing the half-marathon this last weekend. Look at how she keeps up with all the Elite men runners:



Ok, I'm just kidding. Actually, I didn't get to go to this last Sunday's Pasadena race to take pictures. It was way too early in the morning to have to leave, and I instead decided to stay home to get experience changing diapers (for twins!).

These pictures are actually 2 shots I took during the Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon in San Jose this last October. (Above is F1 Elite runner Yuri Kano, 29 years old from Japan. She finished the half-marathon in 1:10:03) This was before we had our flickr account and this blog, but I've been wanting to post these pictures for awhile. This is a technique that I learned back in my photo class in high school. When your foreground object is in motion, use a slow shutter speed and try to follow it with your lens. The foreground object will stay relatively in focus throughout the motion, but the background will blur... thereby communicating the effect of motion.

A look at the shot below also teaches me something about running. It looks like it is primarily leg movement (duh.). What I mean is, their torsos are not moving up and down or anything like that. Their torsos are fixed, which is why they're not blurry. Really it is just their legs that are the objects in motion, and they're moving fast too.



Ok, and as a study in contrast, here is a picture of SLee and Bethany running in the half-marathon. You will notice that this pictures is... umm... not blurry at all.

SBUX Party Picture

So I know there is the phrase that a picture is worth a thousand words, so I decided to put up 6 pictures. That is 6,000 words! Can you handle it! Actually it is 6 pictures in one.

Thanks to my Photoshop class, I was able to fit all six pictures into one long picture. If you look very closely, you can see all my mistakes. Click on picture to see a larger size. I also took the pictures, which is why some of the pictures are darker than others.

*Funny thing I just noticed and verified from my original pictures. The guy ordering and the guy behind Carol are the same guy. He just moved after I shot the first picture.

Photoshop is frustrating yet so satisfying in the end. If you have any pictures you want me to work on, send them to me so I can practice.

Things Seen

Just wanted to share some pics of what my camera has seen here at the Oregon/Washington border. First, this is Thursday's sunset from the balcony at my sister's home. I love how the fog is rolling in, and that puff of smoke at the horizon just adds some life to the picture.



And then, here's a sign mounted at a street corner in Portland. I believe the reference is to train tracks there at the intersection. Or possibly it's a pothole warning. Whatever it is, don't get your bike caught in it... the front wheel will get tweaked 90 degrees and you will go flying off of your bike head first. I do not remember this sign from my driver's training handbook.

What's Missing from Photography

I don't shoot video. Shooting video is so different from shooting photography. I love how photography can bring crisp, sharp images that plant the viewer right into a single moment in time and leave them there fixed to take it all in.

But the thing that's missing, as you stare at a photograph and take in the beauty of the scene, is the sounds.

I was out shooting the freshly fallen snow on the landscape in Reading, PA.





It was peaceful and beautiful outside at about half past noon on Monday. But the one thing that the photographs don't capture is the sound of Canadian Geese in the distance. Everything else quiet with the snow falling... except for the lively chatter of geese. Something that photographs can't capture, but it was part of the moment.



I sometimes wish I carried a high-quality digital recorder with me, just to pick up the sounds around me. But I'm pretty sure I could never trade my SLR for a video camera.

Cold Day, Hot Coffee, Green Tumbler

On Wednesday night, we had a little bit of snow, which lasted for a few hours until it melted off. But just because the snow melts doesn't mean that it isn't cold out.



On Friday, we had a low of 6ºF. It was nice to be inside, sipping hot coffee... in a new, green tumbler.

Food Pics 01/08/09

Yummy dinner on Thursday night.

Pasta with tomato, basil, and mozzarella. One of B's best, and one of my favorites.


Chilled Jumbo Shrimp with Homemade Cocktail Sauce

Beautiful Cold

As I drove home in the middle of the afternoon on Monday, I noticed that the trees looked different. They weren't just bare and leafless from the winter... they were shiny white. It was... ice! Beautiful cold.

Christmas Food Pics

In the last few months, I've been trying to take pictures of food more. So that we can remember all of the good things we eat, and because I think good pictures of good food make the good food look even better.

So, here are a few samples of the yummy food we ate while spending Christmas in Los Angeles...

Pear & Jicama Salad


Ceviche (with Tilapia)


Lao Lao (bamboo leaf wrapped pork with salted fish)


Ginger-Scallion Dungeness Crab


Steamed Shrimp (Chinese-style... with head and eyes and everything...)


Mexican Dessert (what's this called? It's kinda like a churro...)


Red-Bean Mochi