Life and Nature Photo Gallery

I rarely took a “set” of pictures because I believe if a story, an idea, or a concept couldn’t be communicated by just one still picture then it doesn’t matter if it is a set of 10 or a set of 100 pictures, it’s not enough to communicate a story, an idea or a concept. Nevertheless, it was not until I was cleaning up and re-arranging my work back at home in the US, I realized that these four pictures took in Beijing’s Hu-Tong (alley) could not only be viewed separately and individually but also could be communicated in a sense of a set.

I have to emphasize that I wasn’t intended to create a “set” of these four pictures while I was taking them. As the matter of fact, I couldn’t. I do not stage my work. Out of thousands if not tens of thousands pictures I took through out my life, there is no single picture staged. Of course, these don’t including pictures took as studio shots or staged drama pictures.

The first day I went back to Beijing’s Ba-Da Hu-Tong, “Big Eight Alley”, with my photo equipment after I discovered them accidently, I spent nearly 4 hours wondering around and creating my work. Just when the time was getting late, the light was fading, I was tired and on my way to find a way out of those hu-tongs, I saw this old lady doddering by. I was actually too tired to re-unpack my bag and pull my camera out so I kept walking. However, in less than 10 seconds I told myself if I skip and do not take these shots now, I would regret through the next day or may be the day after the next. I stopped, re-unpacked, pulled out my camera, turned around and ran over to catch up with the old lady. Right at the moment, the old lady was coming to a “S” shaped hu-tong and on her way to a turning point. It was exactly what I was looking and hoping for. To me, it symbolizes she has been gone through most of her life: it doesn’t matter if whatever she had been gone through was a smooth or a winding road, now it is a turning point at her life. Kept that idea flowing in my mind, I didn’t have much time for anything else but pull up my camera, aim and shoot. I barely had enough time for only one shot then I followed her. After the turn there was a stretch of hu-tong ahead of her and another idea flowed into my mind: this symbolizes that after most of her life, the winding road, there is still days and life coming ahead of her. I took another shot. Only at this moment, I realized there was a young girl coming face-to-face toward her. I couldn’t be more excited and had to contain myself. This is another great opportunity to take a picture representing and symbolizing old-versus-young, past-versus-future, vivid-versus-dull. I tuned down one stop on my shutter speed because I was hoping the lowered down shutter speed could make an action more stand out. I waited, which was merely few seconds, till both of them coming into a close to idea position and took the shot. While I was reviewing the picture, I was extremely happy that the girl was a bit blurred because of her motion. This even increases the contrast between a slow, old lady and an active, young girl. I couldn’t be more happier with the result considering the picture was taking in a very hurry and the decision was made in a split second. Once the girl left the scene, I thought that was it, it was the end of the day. Nonetheless, I saw the old lady was coming into a turn and facing straight at a wall, on top of that, there was an old and beaten three wheel cart lying against on the other side but old and decaying wall. That is another excellent scene to emphasize still object vs. live in motion, slow motion. Moreover, the position of them were lined up diagonally and perfectly which also created a visual guideline matched the flow of the hu-tong. Without thinking twice, I clicked the shutter release and made the day.

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I, personally, believe these 4 pictures could be viewed separately and individually because when I took every and each one of them, there was a different and independent idea, emotion and thought flowing through my mind. Nevertheless, they could also be viewed as a set of pictures and the theme could just be an old lady going through this old hu-tong symbolizes what she had been gone through and what’s her facing at has yet to coming into her life: confronting hardship by sorting out the “S” shape hu-tong, recalling and reflecting her youthfulness from the young girl passing her by, a still object, old three-wheel cart, projecting her slowness and stiffness and, finally, she came up to a wall symbolizes that her hardship was not over and she would have to keep struggling for the remaining of her life till the day of triumph.

We, as human beings, were born who we are, what we are and where we are: most of the time, we do not have a choice and, most of the time, we felt limited, confined, and even suffocated. It’s more or less like the old woman who was limited and confined in the “S” shape hu-tong (alley). She might be born in the hu-tong and walked all her life in the the hu-tong. Nevertheless, she has a choice whether to struggle through the hu-tong even with two sticks and doddering 5 seconds a pace, or simply gave up, sitting in a rocking chair wait for her final time to come. We Chinese has a saying “Sky motioning constantly, man must strive persistently for self-improvement. “ We struggle, we fight, we endeavor ourselves to get by, to survive, to make a mark for ourselves, for mankind. Our surroundings are not that much different than the narrowed, confined, and “S” shaped hu-tong, even our minds are narrowed, confined and shaped like a “S” hu-tong through most of our lives. One step, one foot print: we step through our lives just like the doddering old woman facing the capering young girl and the capering young girl passed her by just like our youth passed us by. It doesn’t matter who we are, what we are or where we are, as long as we are human beings, we struggle, externally and internally, and that is living. While there is constant struggling, there is hope and hope composes our lives.

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More often than not, I was accused or named as a photographer who knows only how to take “pretty” pictures or simply categorized as a photographer who knows only “estheticism”. Normally when this happens, I would smile and say nothing. My philosophy is what one could see or interpret a piece of art work usually reflecting personal opinion and point of view. Yes, I do not deny that many of my pictures were taken purely because of “beauty”. However, most of my creations contain not only “beauty” but also a theme, an idea, a concept behind them. Take most of pictures I created at Huanglong, Yellow Dragon, year 2006 as an example. They are beautiful, undeniable. However, most of them have lines flowing in their frames or a visual guideline viewers could follow in their forms. These lines were not picked accidently nor without a reason. These lines were intended, chosen carefully, designed to locate precisely where they are while the shutter release was clicked and released. If one looks closely and carefully enough, these lines always verge to either a center point or up to infinity. That, to me, is symbolizing there is always a purpose in life, there is always a point of living, and there is always an upward struggling as long as we are remaining as human beings. The line may be crooked and winding which perfectly symbolized no one’s life is smooth without surprises.

What or how I, as a photographer, interpret a piece of my work is the relationship between me and my work which doesn’t matter to my audiences and that is exactly why I did not say anything while I was accused simply as a photographer who knows only how to take “pretty” pictures or a mere “estheticism”. Audiences need to build, communicate, and cultivate their own relationship between themselves and a piece of art work because we are human and human are diversified, we are simply all different. What I see in a view and capture it, doesn’t mean anyone would see the same thing as I do. We came from different societies, we have different backgrounds, we were educated in all different ways. If one could see only beauty out from a piece of art work, then why not, why not let it be? If one could see things or meaning beyond what I could see in a piece of my own work, that is also fine because this person truly sees what he or she could see based upon his or her own life experiences and thoughts. If I dictate how an audience to view my work, then I am no more than a copy machine trying to merely duplicate my ideas into someone else’s mind. That is exactly opposite of the concept of art. Besides, who am I to dictate someone else’s thought and/or mind?

Of course, one may as well saying “so, it’s an old, on her way to death woman walking on two sticks through a decaying, messy and narrow alley, what’s so magic about it? Why does it even worth a shot?” If that’s all one could see, so be it. My job is to create a piece of art work based upon my feeling, my way of viewing things and objects and reflecting what’s inside of me. As what is reflecting inside other peoples’ mind, that is absolutely out of my scope.

I hope you all enjoy these images. Happy New Year and wish everyone has a triumphant 2008 yet to come!!!

All flowers have their charm, different charm, or charm in a special way. Nevertheless, lotus or water lily has an extinguish position in Chinese history and culture, especially in the view of ancient scholars. Lotus and Water LIly are usually grown in a pond and in ancient China it might just be a pond somewhere around a water rice field and sure the pond was not clean but muddy. However, when a Lotus or Water Lily was blossom, it is as pure as a piece of white paper and hence evaluated high in ancient Chinese scholars because they think Lotus and Water Lily were grown out of dirty mud but never touched it. It was symbolically projecting a person might grown up in a bad environment but could be as pure as a piece of white paper and prosper just like Lotus or Water Lily.

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I was pretty amazed to see this Lotus Garden located in Modesto, California where about two and half hours driving time away from my home. At first I did not pay too much of an expectation because I have never knew or even heard of it. However, once I was in the garden, I was totally hooked. If anyone has ever gone out and taken pictures with me, one would know what does that mean. That simply means all my attention and focus are fixed right in front of me and nothing else. Someone could be talking to me but I probably won’t answer it because the good chances are I didn’t hear it. All I saw and sensed were my subject and in this occasion it’s Lotus or Water Lily.

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It is also very interesting that under several occasions I asked some elders or friends what’s the differences between Lotus and Water Lily but everyone told me they are the same thing. I didn’t think so but I didn’t know what’s the answer either. Finally, I learned on the day I went to the Lotus Garden. The differences are Lotus has always flowers grown out of the surface of the water may be half foot or higher. On the other hand, Water Lily has always had flowers close to or “floating” on the surface of the water or sometimes even slightly under the surface of the water. I learn something new everyday, all the time.

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I took more than two hundred shots on the Lotus and Water Lily that morning but the one I like the most, after I did my cleaning and selection, was Lotus_070707_127 which did not even has a Lotus or Water Lily in it but it’s shadow. The reason I personally believe is because that single picture provided me the most room or space for imagination. The form of that picture was not perfect, at least from my personal point of view, and I wish the surrounding could be a little bit more cooperative, however, I made my best shot at the time and I like it very much.

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June Release

(I had to stop doing any typing in the past few days because I hope I am wrong but I am afraid my right hand is developing some sort of carpal tunnel syndrome. It bothers me very much. It doesn’t matter what, I will have to have my right hand to hold the camera and click the shutter release!!!)

Ah, Yosemite National Park, Yosemite always amazes me. I don’t remember how many times I have been here and now every time before I even think about coming here I would tell myself “That’s enough, you have seen enough of Yosemite and find somewhere else to go.” However, I was wrong, I was so wrong every time and every time I come here, Yosemite amazes me. I remember I had been onto 120 for at least once if not more but there were still so many beautiful sceneries and views worth to take pictures of. Not only that, I wish I could spend more time there.

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As the traveling season is getting into the peak time, there are more and more people around. One of the most serious problems with scenery or landscape photography is, amazingly, people. It doesn’t matter where you aim your camera at, there are some people, automobiles, or some sort of things left behind by people such as a water bottles, soda cans or empty plastic bag or some sort of things built by people such as a warning sign, a road sign or a fence. It is just distracting and annoying. Moreover, I really did not understand or could not comprehend how or who decide where were those warning or road signs placed, 90% of the time they are right in the middle of a beautiful scenery and block a perfect shot. I sometimes wondering if the park ranger or park administrator hired some artist or sort of art director to do this on purpose just to annoy us photographers.

Enough complaining. This was the 5th day for me to be on my trip and most places I had been to were desert where were very dry, high temperature and I sweated a log because I had to keep moving around to take pictures. I was very well aware the situation and kept drinking a lot of water to rehydrate myself. However, since yesterday while I was crossing the boring Nevada, I started to developing a symptom: I started to lose the taste of water. I was thirsty, very thirsty and I knew I was thirsty but I couldn’t drink another sip of water. I could feel that there were plenty of water in my stomach and I would probably throw up if I drink another mouthful of water but I was very thirsty. While I was filling up my gas tank yesterday on the road, I was looking for a cold drink at a gas station because all the bottled water I had in my car was pretty warm. I don’t normally drink soft drinks unless I was having a meal and really didn’t have any idea what to get from the gas station’s refrigerator. Just by chance, I spotted Gatorade. I was thinking why not, let’s give it a try. The effect was pretty overwhelming. I took a few sip and told myself I should not drink too much since my stomach was pretty full with all the water I drank previously. However, my body was craving for it. I had never addicted to anything but I think this is the closest it could be. A 32 oz bottle of Gatorade was down in my throat within fifteen minutes and I felt much better. While I kept taking pictures at Yosemite, it happened and I was very thirsty but couldn’t drink any more water. I settled with Gatorade again. It’s pretty amazing how technology effect people nowadays. Without rehydrate myself with this kind of specialized sport drink, I would probably collapse at some point but now I could keep going. By the way, the price tag of a Gatorade at Yosemite was not light.

Since the distance between Yosemite NP east entrance, Tioga pass, to the closest visitor center, Tuolumne Meadows Visitor Center, was roughly ten miles, I was pretty sure that I could get there with in an hour. I was wrong again. These ten miles took me up to three and half hours because I had to drive for like 100 yards, stop, took pictures, drive another might be 50 yards, wait there is another good shot, stop, took pictures, drive another 60 yards, wait, here is another one, stop, carried my photo equipment, hike for like 30 yards, took pictures, hike back to the car, drive another might be …… Three and half hours just for like ten miles. Regular people’s walking speed is about 20 minutes a mile, I could literally walk these then miles for the three and half hours. Yosemite definitely has its charm!

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I knew energy wise I probably not up to a long hike but I still wanted to do a hike to somewhere where not that many people and a good view, preferably with a sunset scene. I went to the visitor center and talked to the ranger there, she was very helpful and recommended May Lake. It was going to be a 1.2 miles hike and 500 feet increase in elevation. It’s not that bad, I thought. The important thing was that she mentioned it would be a good place to have a grand view of Yosemite NP and sunset. I was sold.

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After lunch and taking pictures along the highway 120, I parked my car at the hiking trail head around 4:20 afternoon. It was still very early. I took my time to pack all the food or anything smell nicely such as sun screen into a bag and then placed them in the bear proof storage provided by the park. Then re-arranged all my photo equipment, decide what to bring with me and what not to, I knew it’s merely a 1.2 miles hike but I was pretty exhausted at the time already and there was a 500 feet increase in elevation. What I did not know and forget to ask the park ranger at the time was the elevation was going to be 9,330 ft which was quite high. Anyway, I set a pretty comfortable pace and started my hike.
It took me a bit longer than I usually do but that was took into consideration when I started the hike. The lake itself wasn’t that outstanding but not too bad either. I walked around the lake, took as many shots as I could and then hike up the a mountain rim. On top of the mountain rim, as the park ranger said, I could oversee the entire Yosemite cap which was a very beautiful grand view. The sunset was also pretty amazing. Unfortunately, these shots were not included in this release. I took probably 6 to 8 shots for a panorama view and it will take me a lot of effort to stitch them together. If I wait till have that finished before I publish this trip, it would probably be end of the year.

Since the mountain range is opposite of the sunset, I was hoping to wait till I could get the amazing after sunset light to go with the grand mountain range view. So, I kept waiting and waiting. I first told myself, I would wait till only 7:45, then 7:55, then 8:10. Then I told myself, since I wait till 8:10 already why not till 8:30 till it’s all dark so I won’t have any regret. The time I left the mountain rim top, it was 8:47. There were barely light but enough for me to pack and hike down. I did bring my headlamp and a flashlight but I reluctant to put down my backpack, retrieve them and then put the pack back on my back. It’s tiresome to do all these steps after a long, long day’s picture shooting. Therefore, I hiked as fast as I could. There was a short period of time, probably 5 minutes, I was literally jogging on the mountain trail. In the mean time I was also very high alert on any noise around me. It’s a bear country! When I got back to my car, it was exactly 9:20pm. A little bit more than half an hour. Hum, I was not happy with the speed. For merely 1.2 miles and all downhill, I should be able to do better than that. However, I was in one piece and happy.

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Once I was in the car, I felt much safer, at least I didn’t need to worry about bear. Then the next thing I need to do was to decide where I was going to spend the night. I was pretty sure that I would need to cook another dinner by myself at the time. As I was driving out of the valley, I was weighing my selection: should I get to the camp site closest to me or farther down the road? If it is closest to me then I could drive the longest distances tomorrow morning on my way out of Yosemite and may be taking more pictures. If I choose the camp site farther down the road, I could get out of Yosemite early tomorrow and be home early. Then it suddenly dawn on me, tomorrow is Friday. It doesn’t matter when I am going to leave Yosemite, it’s going to be traffic, very bad traffic, out there. On the other hand, if I drive home now, there is no traffic and it’s much cooler driving in the night than any time during the day. I had been baked in my car in the past few days already and it is very attractive to drive during the night. My newly bought used Toyota has air-conditioning but it doesn’t matter how good the AC is, driving during the day through the blazing hot sun ray wasn’t pleasant. If I find a camp site now, then park the car, pay the camp site fee, set up my stove, start cooking, I could probably start having my dinner around 11:00pm and go to bed around midnight or 12:30 in the morning. On the other hand, if I start driving home now, I could probably be home 1:30am in the morning and stay on my very own bed. My bed actually wasn’t that comfortable but I think it is still slightly better than the car seat of my Toyota! Ok, let’s go home and the decision was made. It was 9:42pm.

Due to some complicated situation which was highway construction and detour confusion, I wasn’t getting back into my town till around 1:30am and then I went to Denny’s for my way late dinner but way early breakfast. When I finally stepped into my home and crushed down on my very own bed, it was 2:45am. The last thing I remember was I told myself “I am not getting up till I am too hungry to sleep!” And, that ended my June Release shooting journey. When I got up that afternoon, who knows what time it was, I surely drove out for a meal and just then I realized my car’s trip odometer reads “2400.6”. Two thousand four hundred and point six miles!!! In the past 7 days, strictly speaking 5 days, I drove Two thousand four hundred and point six miles and hundreds of shots. It’s an iron man trip (well, feel free to substitute the word “iron” with “crazy”).

It was tiresome, it was grueling and it was exhausting but I am looking forward for my next one already. I will and I promise I will plan much better and start my physical training right away so I could last longer, go farther, and take more pictures!!! I hope you like these works, it really took a lot to have them actualized and created.

I was slacking off again this morning and didn’t get up till 6:45am. According to my map and schedule, all I need to do today is just driving through Nevada, get into the east side of Yosemite NP and reach Mono Lake by sunset which is not a very difficult task to do, considering I did 670 miles in a day just a couple of days ago.

Before I even started my journey today, I had prepared and warned myself: this is going to be a very boring day and boring drive. That was also another reason for me to sleep in this morning, I really need the rest to fight with this long and boring drive. I had driven through Nevada probably two to three times already and there is only one thing I could say about Nevada: boring. It’s a desert state and one would see only desert and nothing more, nothing less. It was miles after miles of desert view.

Sure enough, it was boring. I had to put my mind some where so I won’t fall into sleep while driving. I started to pay attention to the road. I came to a crossroad and one goes toward my left hand side and the one I was on goes the right hand side. The one goes toward the left hand side was a beaten path and the color was all dull dirt color but any one could still clearly see it cuts through the desert and stretch all the way endlessly till out of sight. Same thing happened to the one I was on. The one I was on was newly paved asphalt and still dark and smooth. It also cuts through the desert and stretch all the way endlessly towards the mountain range till out of sight. Both of them surely look like scars, ugly scars left on the surface of earth. It’s like someone used a huge, gigantic knife cut through the desert and left an ugly scar behind on the surface of earth. Then I remember somebody said this before, highway built by human beings were like scars on the surface of the earth. However, one will really have to be here to get a real feeling or touch of it. It doesn’t matter how I look at it, it was really like a newly cut scar, ugly scar. Then I also remember someone else also said highways built by human beings were like blood vessels and it transports good, people from one point to another point. Isn’t this true? I am transported by one of the scars cut or one of the blood vessels built by human beings and going from one point to another. So, was it a scar or was it a vessel?

Moreover, exactly who and how do they make decision to either built these vessels or cut these scars? I was driving towards west, climbing over a mountain range and then turning towards north traveling parallel and in between two mountain ranges. But, then I was turning left towards west again to cross one of the mountain ranges. Why? Why don’t they cut through the two mountain ranges all at once but had to make me drive toward north first then west again? Base upon what reason they designed these vessels or cut these scars this way instead of another way?

I then also realized that there are small metal sticks along the highway. I looked at my odometer and count those sticks, there are ten sticks for a mile. I think they are road markers but why do they do this? Why do they need to mark the road endlessly with ten markers every single mile? How much money did they put into this? How much manpower did they need for doing this? How often do they need to do maintenance on these sticks? Some of these sticks were damaged and they must do maintenance on them, how much does that cost? One of the sticks was actually bent in a very weird way. I could understand if a metal stick on the side of a highway bent in any direction: it could be strong wind (who knows what mother nature could do in a desert, right?), it could be some one’s bad driving, or it could even be some animals did something to a metal stick. However, this stick I saw was bent in a “S” shape and it’s not a perfect “S”. It’s more like a “S” getting tired of being the form of “S” and finally decided to stretch its body a bit so it is like a “S” but smaller curve of a “S” or a “S” was stretching itself and trying to be out of the form of a “S”. How did it happen? What happen to this metal stick? It was really beyond my understanding and imagination.

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Not only the view of Nevada’s highway was boring, even the rest area on Nevada’s highway was pretty bare to the minimum and in the simplest form. A few metal tables with benches attached to them, a few trees to provide minimum shades on the side of those metal tables, a simple barbwire fence marks the surrounding and a bare minimum restroom, that was that for a rest area on Nevada’s highway. However, that bare minimum rest area sure provided some rest for travelers like me. I was bored out of my mind on the highway and getting really sleepy. I pulled over into one of these rest areas, even cooked my own lunch by using the camp gas stove again and then took a 40 minutes nap. It was desert and surely it was hot. However, the wind was also so strong and lower down the temperature dramatically. After parked the car under the bare minimum shade provided by those few trees, it was quite comfortable to have a nap there. The wind was so strong, the fire of my camp gas stove was blown out once and I had to pump a few more times to increase the pressure and re-start the fire again. Moreover, I had to eat pretty fast after the lunch was cooked because the wind would just blow it cold again within a fairly short period of time.

I started to understand why Nevada is the only state to allow gambling and built up both Reno and Las Vegas, two huge gambling cities. I really do not know how people could make a living out here with this kind of rough environment if it was not for gambling.

I reached Mono Lake early, it was only like 6:00pm in the afternoon. A bit too early for taking sunset pictures there but I had no other plan nor things to do. I drove up to the bank of the lake, prepared all my equipment and walked up to the shore. The lighting condition was getting better and better by the minute and I was happy with that so I could just start taking pictures. Sure those Tufa looked nice growing out from the water and also the lighting was helping out very well.

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What I could not believe was the flies they had there on the shore of Mono Lake. I would say if not in millions, it would be in a number close to hundreds of thousands. It was disgusting!!! At first one wouldn’t notice it because the send was wet and when the send along the Mono Lake shore was wet, it was in a very dark color. All flies were resting on the wet send beach. Then when I walked close to the beach to get myself into position to take pictures, they all took off from where they resting on. That was a phenomena! It was incredibly disgusting!!! The only experience ever came close to this I had encountered before was last year at Yosemite’s Cathedral Lake. That was not only incredibly disgusting but incredibly annoying because the great amount of number it was up there was not flies but mosquitoes! Flies do not bite but mosquitoes do and I had never seen so many mosquitoes at once in my whole life. Hey, this is from a person who was born, lived in a sub-tropical country where flies and mosquitoes were easy to breed and famous of. Here is the same thing, I have never seen so many flies at once in my whole life. Well, as usual, all I could do was ignoring it and keep taking my pictures.

On top of that, there were some rotten mud or something I really couldn’t tell or I didn’t have time to find it out or I just plainly do not want to know and that something apparently attracted those flies. Once I step on it, my foot sank into it for like 3 - 4 inches and the flies were agitated more than ever. It was like a small, dark, buzzing, cloud moving up from the ground and then away. Once I pulled my foot out from that something, then the small, dark, buzzing, cloud moved right back to where it was. I believe, I seriously and deeply believe, if I stayed there and observing it, I would probably throw up. Luckily, I was wearing my medium cut water proof hiking boots. If not, I wouldn’t dare to step onto this kind of terrain.

As the time getting later and later, the lighting was getting better and better. Moreover, there were a few birds resting on those Tufa and it was beautiful. My 80 - 200mm sure wasn’t enough to catch them so I pulled out the 2X adapter. I could compose with the 2X on but then later realized the 2X couldn’t give me a very sharp image. I believe it is time to upgrade my equipment in the near future after I am on board with this upcoming new job. Moreover, other than the 2X converter problem, my Fujifilm S3 Pro’s autofocus capability also quite on me. That was fine. I had been using manual focus for decades and that didn’t bother me as much than the 2X problem which made me unable to catch the image as sharply as I want.

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I took the last shot at the Mono Lake beach around 8:47pm and as usual I still had two problems for the day: dinner and lodging. Right after I left Mono Lake, I made a decision to keep driving up north to get close to Yosemite NP’s entrance. I did for two reasons: one, I believe there should be some travelers’ accommodations around there. Two, it would be easier for the next day’s trip since I planned to cross Yosemite through 120. Unfortunately, I was wrong. There wasn’t much up close to the Yosemite NP entrance so I had to drive back down all the way to Mammoth Lake vicinity. It was a 50 miles trip and I was hungry and tired. I had to settle with McDonald’s for dinner and Motel 6 for the night. Motel 6 was so crowded, I had to put up with a smoking room because that’s what they all had left for the night. Well, can’t complain much, I am on a photo shooting trip not luxury vacation cruise! I am actually quite happy with a bed to lie on and a hot shower at the end of the day. It’s life and I am living it every single moment!

June Release

I had a very good night sleep and got up around 6:30am in the morning. I knew I missed the sunrise already but I needed the rest. I made the decision in the previous night that I was not going to push myself as hard as usual this time because first, as I said before, I did not have enough time to prepare for this trip and hence I am totally out of shape. Secondly, despite the fact that the reason for me to be on this trip is to take pictures, I also need to drive and drive long distances by myself alone and safety is always the number one concern. Thirdly, as I always say “I could skip a meal but I have to take pictures. I could cut down my sleeping hours but I have to take pictures. However, I could not to take pictures but I have to keep myself alive so that I could take more pictures in the future!” As matter of fact, my original thinking was I would stay in Bryce Canyon NP one extra night since I missed last evening’s sunset already, why not stay one extra day to catch the sunset tonight and then sunrise tomorrow morning?

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Once I was up, I drove out of Bryce Canyon NP, took pictures at the surrounding area and came back on 12 which was the way I came from yesterday because I realized that side of the park would get better lighting during the morning sun light. Sure I was right. I took many good shots and even hiked several easy miles to get some really amazing views. I then drove back into Bryce Canyon again after lunch and tried to get more pictures. By about one o’clock after, I kind of getting enough of Bryce Canyon NP. In the past two days, I was shooting nothing but rocks. It doesn’t matter how beautiful Bryce Canyon NP is, it is still rocks. I was losing the taste of it. I was debating with myself whether should I stay for another day? I looked at the map and calculate my schedule, I decided to skip the sunset and sunrise at Bryce and continue my trip to my next stop, Zion National Park.

As I was driving on the way to Zion, I was talking to myself, this time I have to find out why, why is Zion a national park? I had been to both Bryce and Zion national parks equal number of times and I could understand why Bryce is a national park but I could never understand why is Zion a national park? I don’t see any thing special out of Zion. Of course, someone told me I had to hike deeply into Zion to know the beauty of Zion. That was also another reason for me to leave Bryce early this time because I want to spend more time at Zion and see exactly where is the beauty of Zion.

It was not long after I entered Zion National Park, I found out why. The beauty of Bryce and Arches National Parks are grand views. You see them right there: the formation of the rock, the shape of the rock, the massive volume of the rock and the color of the rock. They were all obvious right there. But, not for Zion National Park. The beauty of Zion National Park was still rock but in a totally different way: the texture of rock instead of the form of rock. One could see all different kind of texture, lines and roughness of rocks at Zion and I also realized why I didn’t see all of these in the past a few times I was here. I came to Utah usually during much cooler season to avoid the blazing sun ray and all the texture, lines and roughness of rocks in Zion were covered by snow. It was no wonder I didn’t see anything and couldn’t understand the beauty of Zion NP. I had finally see a different face of Zion, thanks for this unexpected and unplanned trip.

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Unfortunately, when I tried to find a camp site again and planned to stay overnight in the park but found out the only two camp sites were all full in the Zion Nation Park. I went to the park visitor center and asking if there is any other camp site available in the park. The answer was no. I then asked if I could just park my car in the parking lot through the night, then answer was also no. The rangers there were the least helpful I had ever encountered and kind of rude in a way when answering my question. I checked my map and driving schedule, I decided to leave Zion NP. To be honest, if the rangers could be a little bit more helpful, I would probably to find a way to stay one more night or even day at Zion but I lost all the interested with Zion. Moreover, from my point of view, both Arches and Bryce were a lot more beautiful than Zion, there was really no reason for me to stay around. I drove another 30 miles on 9 into town and stayed there overnight. After I checked in a reasonable priced motel, I had to drive another 3 miles into another town for dinner and that’s where I finally had cell phone reception. I had lost contact with the outside world for a few days now.

June Release
For such an expensive and tax heavy hotel, I did not even sleep well. I woke up around 2:30am and spent the rest of the night trying to fall back to sleep in vein. I found the sunrise time is around 5:30 in the morning so I left the hotel at around 5:20am and drove into the valley again. I was late, totally. The sunrise was stunning and I wish I could arrive 20 minutes earlier to get into position better.

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I am very happy with my newly bought SUV, because now I do not need to worry that much for being parked at a bad road surface and not able to get myself out, despite it is an used one because I sometimes worry when it would quite on me without any warning. (I admit, most of the time, I worry too much!) This might not be a big thing for most people but it is essential to me. As I am driving I am also scanning through my windshield to see if there is any possibility to take picture of and very often the angle I saw a potential shot is right at where I saw the view. If I am not able to park where I saw the view, then I might not be able to take that very particular shot. I had missed so many shots in the past and now I won’t miss as much as I used to because of this off-road SUV capability. I am not sure why most people buying a SUV but this is exactly why that I am having one! I am very happy.

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This was not the first time for me to come to Monument Valley and certainly not the first time to come to Arizona, therefore, I tried to take different route to travel so that I could see different places or even different views. As I traveling north into Utah, I took 163 to pass through Monument Valley, 261 going north and then 95 to pass through the Colorado river. The scenic view was fantastic. I had to keep stopping my car once very so often to take pictures and a three hours drive stretched into five-and-half hours. It was hot, it was dry, it was a desert. There wasn’t many other cars nor people. It’s miles after miles of desert road. The timing was a bit off because it’s getting into noon time and the sun light is too several, too strong and harsh for picture taking. I could only keep taking them and hope the post process could save these shots.

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At the conjunction between 261 and 95, it was a very interesting situation. If you look at the map, it is a “T” shape conjunction and you would expect to make a left turn at the end of 261 north. Yes, I did make a left turn, however, what I didn’t expect was I was literally driving upward onto a mountain wall. When I drove on 261 toward north, I could see there is a mountain range lie perpendicular right in front of me which is not uncommon. What really shocked me was I did not expect to drive upward and switch back and forth like climbing up a wall. The road was very narrow and steep which I really doubt what to do if there is another car coming from the opposite direction. While I was driving up the wall, the grand view just beneath my car was stunning which I didn’t even dare to look at other than take a few glances because the height was too scary. I admit, I am afraid of height, I am seriously afraid of hight. I know it sounds a bit odd, after all these high mountains and wilderness I had been to, how could I be afraid of height? But I am, I am afraid of height ever since while I was a child. I was even afraid of walking on a pedestrian overpass back in Taipei where I was born and grown up. At this moment of time, I was driving like I just got my license this morning: holding the steering wheel tightly by both of my hands, staring straight into the road 10 feet in front of me and didn’t dare to blink or even turn my head. As the matter of fact, I didn’t even dare to breath hard. There was a car behind me, I couldn’t bare the pressure so I had to park on the side of the road and let him go first. I was totally scared.

However, as I was writing this, I am planning and thinking that I should plan another trip to go back there with exact route but plan a better time to pass through there so that the lighting is better and I could take more pictures out of it. The first time I was taken by surprise but the second time I should learn from experience.

Utah is beautiful, Utah is astonishing, Utah is worthwhile going back there again and again and again.

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After 95, I got onto 24 to pass through Capital National Park. Capital Reef NP is also very beautiful and I wish I could spend more time there, may be a day or two. However, I never have had a long enough trip for me to be that luxury. I passed through but took plenty of pictures along the way. Capital Reef NP is also a very interesting NP, it is the only NP as I know so far doesn’t check tourist’s National Park pass. As matter of fact, it doesn’t even have a check point or gate to collect entrance fees. I stopped by the visitor center to collect the National Park stamp and been on my way again.

From there, I left 24 and taken 12 going south towards Bryce Canyon National Park. There were several State Parks on 12 and I am sure they have their beauty but I just didn’t have time to stop for them one by one. However, there is one which is worthwhile to stop for and that is the Kodakchrome Basin State Park. For those of you who ever used film before should know what Kodakchrome is. Kodakchrome is the king of film for decades, it is the standard and benchmark in the film history for photography. I myself used Kodakchrome 64 for more than a decade and this is the first time I notice that there is a park named after Kodakchrome. I decided to stop by and take a look. Sure the scenery was beautiful and I only wish that I could have more time to stay longer or may be even a day. The entrance fee for the state park is $6.00 and I think it is well worthwhile.

This is the third time for me to come to Bryce Canyon NP but first time coming from the east side of the park and it still amazes me. Generally, national parks are all beautiful and each park has different and distinctive view, scenery and characteristic. However, not every national park’s beauty could be seen this easily and a visitor would have to hike for a certain distance to view scenery spots. However, not for Bryce Canyon NP. Not long after one passes the park entrance, may be a mile or two, there is a view point named “sunset” right on the left hand side and it’s hard to be missed. If one could reach during sunset at the sunset point, that would even be a tremendous bonus. As of me, I missed it this time. By the time I reached that sunset point, the sunset was almost over and I only caught the tail of it. As I said before, one will just have to make the best out of it when things come down to photography. I did my best for that evening.

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It was 9:30pm already after I was done with my picture taking. I had two problems though: one, I hadn’t had dinner yet. Two, where was I going to stay for the night? I decided to camp. I didn’t bring a tent with me which was a mistake made in a hurry but there were several camping grounds in Bryce Canyon NP and I had no problem with sleeping in my car. I then found a spot in one of the camp sites and started to cook my own dinner. One of the reasons for me to drive instead of flying into Utah is because I could bring all the things I want to with me: not restricted by airline policies and camping gas stove is one of them. I had a can of ground beef, instant noodle, a cabbage head and, darn, I forgot my tofu. The vacuum sealed package tofu I bought specially for this trip was now quietly lying on my kitchen counter at home instead to be here, hundreds of miles away from home with me and, of course, swallowed by me. Oh, I felt so discouraged. I love tofu and how could I forget my tofu? How in the world could I have a meal after all day’s long and hard working but without my tofu? Oh, I was so depressed. What kind of a crime I committed to myself and how could I?

It was pitch dark at the time while I was cooking and I had to put on my head lamp. While I was waiting for the water to be boiled on my camping gas stove, I started to down load the images I caught for the day. As the image one after one popping up from the memory card onto my laptop screen, I was so excited and happy. (And, of course, hence totally forgot about my tofu problem.) Instead of using a knife to cut the cabbage head as I usually do, I decided to tear the leaves off by my bare hands. It was actually really fun to do this once in a while, just to be in the wilderness, to be living with minimum, to get in touch with nature, to be all human and no technology again. (I know, I know gas stove is part of technology also and couldn’t be counted as all human. However, it is restricted to collect woods, branches to start a fire in a national park.) As I was doing all these, some things just did not understand and tried to join me for dinner and that “something” wasn’t even a beautiful girl. They just don’t understand, I worked so hard for the day from 5:20am in the morning and now it’s almost 11:00pm of the night: I am tired, hungry, thirsty, cranky and there is no way in the world that I would let things like moths, mosquitos or any other kind or form of insects to join me for dinner. They just do not understand!!!

After dinner, I didn’t know why or may be it was the excitement I got from the pictures I took for the day, I even had the mind or energy to wash the pots and pans, wash my face and brush my teeth before I went to sleep. I even tried to find a shower but apparently the national park doesn’t provide one. Luckily I was the only one slept in the car. It was midnight.

Again, I had to praise my newly bought 4×4 SUV - Toyota Highlander, it was spacious, comfortable and functional, not mention reliable. Better yet, the seats were designed to lay flat for people to sleep on it and it was comfortable. As I lie onto it and used up my last once of energy to pull my sleeping bag onto my body, I was totally knocked out. Actually, right before I lost my consciousness, I realized I had a light headache but didn’t understand why. It was not till the next morning, I realized Bryce Canyon is as high as 8, or 9 thousand feet high in altitude and my body must have some light altitude reaction. Moreover, I also didn’t realized till the next morning I had my sleeping bag upside down on my body all night long. I was just way over my exhaustion.

Why was it named June Release? There are two reasons: first, as mentioned in the following content, this was not a planned nor expected photo-taking trip and I was in the middle of the “June Release” of my work while this was happening and it became the last task I had done at my previous job before I left the company. After all, I still like my previous company very much, this is just to make a mark for it. Second, After this trip, I decided that I should go out, take a week off and shoot some pictures every three-month which is a quarter so “June Release” may be a good idea to name this trip. Whether I will be able to make it every three months is another story, however, this is the goal that I am going to be pushing forward from now on.

This was not a planned nor even expected photo-taking trip. On the 29th of May I was offered a job by a company that I had been interviewed with in the past two months. I was very excited about the new opportunity because first of all, the new place offered me a much better deal and, secondly, there are tremendous growing opportunities for me at this new company in comparison with my current job. There was no hesitation to make the decision for switching. The starting date of this new position would be the 25th of June and my last day at my current job is 15th of June which means I have a whole week to myself.

My first reaction was let me ask for one more extra week and go to China again to take pictures at Xinjiang (New Territory). However, after a couple of phone calls, it did not work out the way I planned to be. Then my next thought was let me fly to Alaska where is the place always on the top of my list but never had a chance to go. By the time I received the hard copy version of my offer letter, it was the 2nd of June already and the departing date would be some where around the weekend of 15th and the air faire would be $700 or so, a bit too expensive for me. On top of that, I don’t think at current point of time I have appropriate equipment for Alaska.

Finally, I decided I would just stay close and re-visiting Monument Valley in Arizona, Bryce Canyon NP, Zion NP in Utah, Mono Lake, and Yosemite NP in California and taking pictures along the way. This will make the trip a loop: start going southern California and then come back from north. It’s a huge loop but it will be a fun one and this is will be a wonderful opportunity to test out the 4×4 SUV I just bought month and half ago.

Since this is a very short noticed trip, I did not plan and I actually did not have time to plan. This is bad. This is actually very bad for me. Normally, 6 - 8 months before a planned trip, I would start my physical training to get ready for the energy consuming photo shooting trip and then at least 3 months prior to the departing date, I would be gathering all the information and necessities from maps, hotel information, scenic spots, down to what to bring with me such as tooth paste, sun screen or even chap stick. But this time, I don’t have time for most or any of these. From the time it was decided to the time I left home, there was only less than 2 weeks and I still had to work in the mean time. I was completely out of shape since I came back from the China trip last December and I didn’t even had time to check the cleanness of my digital camera’s sensor. This is bad, this is so bad, this is unbelievably bad! I decided I would just go with it, hope for the best and see how it goes.

I left home right after work on Friday, 15th, and drove all the way down to L.A. I was planning to leave L.A. the very next day early in the morning and continue the trip. Nevertheless, I guess I was too tired and stressed over with my previous job, I decided to stay in L.A. for an extra day to shake off that tiredness and stress.

I left L.A. on Sunday, 6/17, morning and trying to get to Monument Valley by sunset. Unfortunately, I miss calculated the distance: I originally thought it was only 550 miles but it was actually 670 miles. When I arrived Monument Valley, it was 8:00pm. I drove directly into the valley and tried to see if I could get any after-sunset shots. According to experience, if I missed the sunset, don’t be too much discouraged. The light and color is almost as good as sunset 30 to 45 minutes after sunset but sometimes I would just have to be patient to wait for that. Since I was late this time, I didn’t have to wait. The light and color was very amazing in the Monument Valley that night.

Nevertheless, I made a big and stupid mistake. The previous night while I was at my friend’s house in L.A., I was testing out my camera. I changed the ISO speed to 800 because the indoor lighting was pretty poor and forgot to change it back. This is not the first time happening to me and I should know better by now. Moreover, this is a problem but a very interesting one. Back to the days while I was using film, I was hoping one day someone would invent a 35mm camera which could easily change different type or speed of films so that I could bring only one camera body and using different type and/or speed of films. (Just for the record: Medium camera manufacture Rollei did invent one in late 80s and early 90s and I believe the model number is 3000 - 3003. However, it was only shortly lived and discontinued very soon. As a poor student at that time, I could not even dream to afford to have a camera like that.) Now, digital camera allows me to do all these but became a curse sometimes since I don’t always remember to change the setting back. This always reminds me about a Chinese proverb: Water could float a boat yet also sink it.

So, here are a couple of examples and, unfortunately, they are a bit noised due to the higher sensor speed.

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After taking these pictures in the Monument Valley, I drove back into town, Kayenta, at around 9:30pm to first get some food and hoping to find somewhere not so expensive to stay over night. The food part was easy but it’s very difficult to find a place to stay. There are several hotels but they were all pretty above my budget. I thought about sleeping in my car just for the night but decided not to do so since I was really not familiar with the area and didn’t know how safe it is. The price tag for one night at the hotel was $109.00 but I was a bit surprised the next morning when I checked out. The total cost was a few cents short of $130.00 because there were State tax, City tax and then Tribal tax. I was wondering what happened to the Federal and County tax?

Without a doubt, Dandelions is a kind of weeds and I haven’t heard anyone in my life saying “I love weeds”. On the other hand, I have heard more often than not people were proudly announcing “I have no Dandelions on my lawn” or “I rooted out all the Dandelions in my yard.” Nevertheless, at the right moment and the right angle, Dandelions could be, how should I put it, “cute”.

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I was at Tahoe during the Memorial long weekend and helping out my friend Alan and his mom to pick up something from the local library. While they were working on their things, I took a short walk around the library. Suddenly these small and most of the time annoying plants to most of people struck my eyes. Something about light, it just came into my sight. I saw the tips of these small creatures glowing from the ground. I squatted down and suddenly they were dancing all over me and begging to be taken pictures of. I couldn’t resist but came back the very next day with carefully calculated timing to set myself into the right moment. Here they are, glowing and dancing.

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Be there at the right moment and find the perfect angle are essential elements in photography. Once the objective elements are there, the rest is depending upon a photographer’s subjective point of view. To be honest, before I got to the spot, I thought it was piece a cake since they were there and I knew the perfect timing to shoot them. However, once I got there and starting to set up my equipment, I started to realized that this is no easy task. First of all, they were all so close to the ground and that makes it difficult to set up my tripod. I had to struggle with my tripod a bit to set it up correctly to a right angle. Second of all, they don’t line up perfectly as I hoped. One of the most important virtues to a photographer is to analyze, decode a chaotic, cluttered and disarranged situation and sort them out to compose a form, a clean form, a pleasant clean form or better yet, a pleasant clean form with a meaning beyond its form.

What I want to present in these simple pleasant and clean forms is there is a shot everywhere as long as one looks hard enough or don’t even look, just wait till it comes into one’s sight, touch one’s mind, then a picture is there right. Dandelions may not be pleasant to most of people since it is weed but take off the stereotype, ignore the fact that it is weed, forget about root them off from a lawn and at the right moment and angle, they could be cute.

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In the world of art, the limitation is only one’s creativity and creativity is only limited to how open one’s mind is.

新近在勞形、困頓之餘，奮力抽空重讀湯晏先生所著、時報出版社印行之民國第一才子錢鍾書。當每一章節結束閤頁冥思時，每每不免感嘆，以錢氏之不世英才，當具鵬飛九天、才凌天下之勢，卻命運乖舛，獨逢中華民族史上對文人少有的鎮壓、摧殘及文化浩劫，僅因一時意識形態及政治鬥爭，以至於文人苟延殘喘皆心力交瘁，更侈言著書立說！而生命的變幻難測直如天之幻雲、林中飄風：可嘆、可惜復可憐，可嘆是如此天才五百年未必一見，卻幾幾乎虛耗一生。可惜的是錢氏之年代正值中國文化與西方文化對峙、衝突、融合的時代，而錢氏學貫中西、大才盤盤，本可為中西文化做橋樑之溝通、棟樑之支撐，卻因一時之時代悲劇鑄千古之錯、遺百代之憾。可憐的是我這才具不足卻有心一窺堂奧的門外漢即如汪洋中之棄舟，摸不著方向。更羞愧的是自己本身即缺乏才學卻不如錢氏之孜孜不卷、勤奮用功。生命的糾結變難實非文字語言可堪道盡。謹此一嘆！

Last year, 2006, I planned to go to China to take pictures at Nine Villages Valley (Jiuzhaigou) and Yellow Dragon (HuangLong), I had a plan in my mind before I even landed in China. I would fly to Beijing to meet up with one of my friends whom I knew from the 2004 trip I went to China and then the two of us would travel together. I wouldn’t even mind to pay for all the transportation expenses because spending US dollars is really an enjoyment there. Nevertheless, as soon as I landed in Beijing’s airport, I learned a bad news: my friend couldn’t come with me, he had to work during that period of time. I was doomed. I really didn’t quite know what to do. Was I going to go on this trip by myself alone? Was I ready to go on a trip to such remote places just by myself? I really reluctant to do so. I had been to both Nine Villages Valley and Yellow Dragon once in year 2004 and I knew it was not an easy task. I really……….

On the other hand, I had no choice. I departed Beijing and stepped onto a trip of unknown. I was not in a good spirit nor mood just by contemplating the idea of going alone. I arrived in the Nine Village Valley in one piece and was glade about it. I even found my way into a hotel, had a good night sleep. The second morning I woke up very early at around 5:00am because I wanted to get into the valley as early as possible. I didn’t want to lose the dawn light. As I heard, the Valley would be opened at 7:00am so I made sure I was the first one there at the gate and tried to get the ticket. I waited and waited and waited. There wasn’t anyone and it was 7:40am already. I was losing the dawn light so as my patient. I started to look around and tried to find someone to ask what’s going on. Then I saw four young foreigners walked into the ticket booth. Immediately I could tell they are photographers because all of them were carrying big backpacks and tripods on their back. At this moment, one of them (Adam, later I learned.) was complaining something like “this jacket is heavy, it’s filthy, it’s dirty ………..”, then the other one (Simon) was talking back to him as “Oh, shut up, at least it keeps you warm!” I was bored and just tried to get to talk to someone to kill sometime, so I intercepted by saying “That’s a good point!” Suddenly, all eight eye balls were beaming at me and one of the people asked “You speak English?” I replied in a cautious voice “Yeees.” Another question shot up: “Do you speak Chinese?” I replied again in a cautious voice “Yeeeeees!” Then at least two of them pointed at me and said “We like you!!!” There was a moment of silence and then we all burst into laugh together. It was an unbelievable incidence and became one of my best photo-taking trips I have ever been onto.

Mario, Adam, Simon, Kuan-Tung	Mario, Adam, Simon, Kuan-Tung

Things turned out that they were students from one of the very prestigious institutes in photography, Brooks Institute of Photography, and they were on their trip to accomplish a project. They didn’t speak any Chinese, couldn’t read any Chinese, of course. On the other hand, I need a partner or partners so that I could make my photo-taking trip easier and the four of us get along perfectly. (One of them left the group the second day to pursue her own project.) I helped them out from arranging transportations, looking for a hotel to stay, negotiating a price on anything they intended to buy, and even ordering food for them so that they could have a decent meal without been robbed. For them, they just been a good company to me. And of course, being foreigners in a remote place without knowing the language or anything, they made themselves a great deal of laughter for me. At one point of time, I had to warn myself stop laughing this hard, otherwise, the blood vessels in my brain might explode. They changed their schedule slightly to accommodate my schedule, I modified my plan slightly to fit into their plan, and we sticked with each other together for the next twelve days till my air plane was ready to take off. It was precious memories.

Last weekend, 4/14/07, was the time they debut their accomplishment of their project conducted in China, a sixteen-student-project. There was a DVD video first presented in Lobero Theatre and then an exhibition at Brooks Institute Cota Street Gallery. I was honored to be invited to attend these events. Since Brooks Institute is located in Santa Barbara, I had to drive 300 miles to go down there from where, Cupertino, I am on Saturday and then another 300 miles trip back on Sunday. It was tiresome but well worth while. I have to say these students did a great job, not just those images they took but also the way they put everything together and present them. Many people participated this event and there is going to be another run coming on 4/21/07 at Brooks Screening Room, 5301 North Ventura Avenue, Ventura, CA at 7 pm. If you are located close to L.A. area and interested in photography, I would strongly recommend you to go.

If, however, you are far from L.A. area, here is the web site for their project, enjoy the ride:

http://documentary.brooks.edu/china/index.html