Yesterday's Flora Living in My Heart

Here I want to put up a special memorial blog for the previous camera I had - Canon Powershot Pro1. It was stolen in March 2008 by thieves working in the US Airports when my camera was packed within my checked-in luggage. The camera had accompanied me quietly for my bumpy life over the years. It had recorded many visual images faithfully. The following is just a collection of flora photos taken by this camera in the past. Also just like the camera, all these beautiful creatures have gone by now. However, they're all still living in my heart and will go on with their spelendors for ever and ever.

(Beijing Botanic Garden - April 2007)

(Outskirt of Mianyang - May 2004)

(Home Garden in California - July 2004)

(Beijing Botanic Garden - April 2007)

(Beijing Botanic Garden - August 2004)

(Beijing Botanic Garden - April 2007)

(Beijing Botanic Garden - April 2007)

(Home Garden in California - July 2004)

(Beijing Zhongshan Park - April 2007)

(Outskirt of Mianyang - May 2004)

(Outskirt of Beijing - June 2007)

(Beijing Jingshan Park - May 2007)

(Beijing Zhongshan Park - April 2007)

(Beijing Botanic Garden - August 2004)

(Guangzhou Inner City - June 2005)

(Guangzhou Yuntai Garden - June 2005)

Yuan Ming Garden in Early Spring

Because of close vicinity of Yuan Ming Garden to my work place (as virtually our next-door neighbor), it is the most visited place of myself in Beijing. I made another trip to this formerly Royal Palace and Garden of Qing Dynasty again today (with a friend of mine Howl). Here are a few interesting pictures that I took with my Canon 5D camera (plus a 20-mm wide-angle lens).

Bird Nest - the National Olympic Stadium

The snapshot photo-junkie is on loose and on move again. He's dangerously equipped with a handy Sony W300 camera all the time. He just got a chance yesterday to sneak by the National Olympic Stadium complex. More and more innocent-looking pictures were then unfortunately captured by this out-law dude. So, here he is sharing the Bird Nest cheap snapshots with people around this tiny globe.

The time is at dusk now and everything turns gloomy. The lights in the Bird Nest is just turned on, giving out a warm glow in the dark and cold winter evening.

Everything is in the gray mode now. Let's make this picture even older-looking with Sepia tone. On the other hand, at least the Beijing 2008 Olympics does indeed belong to the history.

The lonely entrance to the Bird Nest is still standing here without a word.

The red wall of the nearby Niang-Niang Temple is disappearing quietly into the remote horizon along this majestic central axis of the ancient city.

Houhai Lake with Cyan Filter

Among those pics from the previous Houhai Lake collection posted on this blog, most of them were taken by black-and-white shooting mode with Yellow Filter. But some of them were actually taken in full colors and were processed by Photoshop with neutral decoloring method. So, for the exploration of the effect of filters on black and white photos, I just did an experiment with Photoshop on these pics. Only a special color channel (Cyan) is copied out from original color pictures. It turns out I got some amazing black-and-white finishing result from them. All the sky in the pics is now showing a mystic deep-dark tone. Anyway, here they are, for your viewing pleasure.

Black/White Fun with Different Filters

Taking photos in Black/White (B/W) is very trendy these days. But seldom do people stop and think on how they could get intended B/W results from the colorful world that their eyes are used to see. As an examples below to show B/W pictures, I'm taking one of the pics from my "798 Art District" collection (The Red Boy) and photoshopping them into black and white, extracting out separate color tones. They should in effect correspond to finishing B/W photos taken with respective color filters in front of the camera lens. There is no special reason why choosing one filter over the other in photographic works. One could just pick out the one that would be the best and suitable for your intended B/W result.

The Original Color Photos

The B/W Result from Red Filter

The B/W Result with No Filter (Neutral)

The B/W Result from Blue Filter

The B/W Result from Yellow Filter

Impression of the Golden Gate Bridge

So, here we are. This is no doubt the most beautiful bridge in the world. No, it is not just a bridge. It is actually also the most magnificent masterpiece of art ever exited in the world. Through the camera, now we're going to explore the many different pretty faces of this masterpiece. The original photos were taken in both Nov 2005 and Feb 2006 separately. And this time we would like to experiment a little using an unusual frame size 9:16 (the DVD format). Hopefully this would give us a very extraordinary wide-angle to view this wonderful landmark which is standing in the gateway of the San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean.

Yeah, here is the Golden Gate Bridge

Now, let's get a little closer

Closer and closer, and now we can even see clearly the City's skyline

Hey, let's get even more intimate and have a walk over it

Curiously, let's take a quick peek on the outside part of the Bridge

This is the middle section, where the huge cable hanging just over the head

The walkway is co-existing nicely with the coming auto traffic in the center lanes

We wanted to have a quick look outside toward the City

The mighty pillars are really impressive

It stands tall and strong, capable to poke a big hole through the fragile white clouds and blue sky

A Casual Walk through 798 Art District

Beijing's 798 Art District may be seen by non-artistic flocks as "weird". But its weirdness is not without some merits. Here is just a small collection of photos taken by myself in several trips of mine over there during 2008 and earlier this year. I wish this would give you a brief glimpse of what kind of stuffs you might be encountering when you visit there.

Ah, Here is the Name of the Mighty Historical Factory

Loyalty Dance - Holding Our Pens as Weapons; Concentrating Our Firepower on the Black Gang...

The Polished Alien Object

The Red Revolving Doors

The Jealous Dude

Happy Jumpy

Distorted Stone Tablet

Worshiping the Piggy Goddess Almighty

The Piggy Figure Again

The Red Boy

The Girl on the Wall

The Joyful Pink Biker