I Have A Life.

After travelling one and a half hour from Cheung Du by car, we arrived at City of Hill Happy. A monk in ancient time came to this place and turned the hill into a buddha statue to stop flooding of that area. Therefore there is a statue as big as a hill sitting beside the bench of river.The Buddha statue was near the bench of river. You can walk to the buddha statue. I recommend you to pay some fee to watch the statue from ship.







If you have a telescope with you, take it to the ship. There are a lot of small statues on the wall of the cliff. Many of them have been worn out or broken, but it is not bad to take a look to them. I used my tele lens as a telescope. The ship was shaking and I forget to set the shutter speed, so the photo quality for those close-ups is not very good. Therefore, when you take photos on ship, don't forget to beware of shutter speed if you use tele lens.



Autumn and winter are the better seasons to visit the statue and to take photos. It is too misty in summer.

李白故居(Home of Li Bai)

I never expect to see any impressive historical temples, buildings or homes of famous historical characters of ancient China. Most of those valuable cultural treasure had been wrapped away by the hurricane of the Cultural Revolution(文化大革命). However your tour guides would always tell you that they were damaged by Japanese in the WWII, or they just shut their mouth.

That house of Li Bai - one of the most renounced anicent poets in Chinese history - was occupied by someone until recent years. I noticed the house was once unskillfully painted to red. Indeed, Chinese before the turn of PRC doesn't like to paint their house to red very much. People in Ching Dynasty may paint their houses red sometimes, but not earlier. It is because that is the color of fire which may be bad for Fung Sui (風水). Almost everything in the house has been removed. Things left in the house ware damaged somehow. The house was recently retouched and painted to brown.

You can see the craft on the picture. That was the only thing I found in the house worth me to take a photo because it really gave me the feeling of ancient culture - the influence of culture from the west (I mean India and other countries on the Silk Road). I found it on the roof of something look like a staple.

Anyway, it does not worth visiting.

When I was walking on the trail, I was super lucky to meet six Tibetians (西藏人). Two men dressed like tibetian monks, holding a DV. Two women wore beautiful traditional clothes. Two old ladies wore modern sport wears.





So I stopped a little bit to block people behind me to get some distance between tibetians and me to shoot their clothing. However, I only got pictures from their back because I didn't want to do anything offensive to those people. I can tell you there is nothing special from the front, the red cloth covered everything on her shoulder and beast.



Her clothes is shining like silk, and the pattern on it is very beautiful and complex. You can see that her dress consists of a upper part and lower part of two layers, and they are all sawed in one piece. The outer layer is wider, covering the front part of the leg and tied with strips at the back. The under layer, I guess, may cover only the back of the body and be tied at the front because I could not notice any button or zip on the dress. She might broken her dress on the trail, someone used a green nylon thread to tie her dress. There is also some pattern of tibetian letters on the red cloth on her shoulder.

This series of journal is about my journey in Jiu Zhai Go. However, up to this day, there has been only one landscape photo of the valley posted. It seems that I took all my camera in vain. Of course not. Anyway, the weather was cloudy and misty, and it was sometimes raining. I was also frustrated by the crowd of tourists. I took only a few photos on landscape in Jiu Zhai Go.

五花海子(Five Flowers Lake)・九寨溝・四川

By D70 w/ AFD 18mm~35mm@24mm & f8.0People living in Jiu Zhai Go call lake as "海子"(son of sea). The Five Flowers Lake is very shallow and clear.

珍珠灘(Pearl Beach)

Can you remember the movie "卧虎藏龍"?

Highlander Cattle is a special spiese of long-hair cattle found in Scotland of Britain. Many years ago I saw one during my field trip and took a photo.

On the highland of Si Chuan, I saw an animal which is very similar to Highlander Cattle. People in Si Chuan call it "雪山牦牛" - Cow with long hair of snow mountain(?). Why snow mountain? Look at the color.

(photo by D70 w/AFD 18mm~35mm@f8.0) Look at the clothes of the man. That is tranditional pattern on clothes.Interesting, isn't it? It seems that cattle on highland always has long hair.







Minority in Si Chuan (藏族人) use this hairy cattle's meat to make a special kind of food called "牦牛肉"。



牦牛肉 is supposed to be wet. For easy handling, I bought only dry 牦牛肉.



My mother tried it. She said it is tastey and good to eat with congee.



There are many brand names of 牦牛肉 in market, but some of them use the meat of common cattle meat. Be careful when you are buying.

My photo records are one of the main content of this blog, so let me talk about photo-shooting equipments with me in Si Chuan.



D70 & AFD 18mm~35mm



I knew that I would mainly take landscape photos. Wide-angle lens is something I must take, and wider is better. So I picked Nikkor 18mm~35mm which is 27mm~52.5mm on D70. I still had 28mm on D70, not bad.



Another reason why I wanted 28mm lens so badly is that it makes me able to shoot "I have been here once" photos for my family on busy streets. In Mainland China, people do not care if you are taking photos, and they just pass in front of your camera when the street is busy. 28mm lens let me stand right in front of my folk, so no one can pass in front of me, but I still can cover upper half of my folk's body in the photo, not only the head.



a compact file camera & a compact DC



I let my mother take a compact film carmera, then she could enjoy taking photos, and I could have a "handy-n-quick-action" film camera.

Moreover, my brother took a compact DC, so I didn't bother to take a compact DC with me. If I want to use one, just take his.



FM2



I still needed a back-up camera to deal with unexpected or difficult situations because I may not have second chance to visit such a far-away place. When talk about travelling back-up camera, FM2! This cam can keep shooting unless you have no film or blow it up. I also gained the capability of shooting with 18mm wide angle.



AFD 50mm/1.8 & AI 80mm~200mm/4.5



I struggled if I should take a close-up lens and a tele lens. Close-up lens seemed not necessary, and I hate the weight of tele lens. Finally, I had still taken AFD 50mm/1.8 for close-up purpose because this lens is light and small.



Althought worrying about the weight and size of tele lens, AI 80mm~200mm/4.5 was also with me. Because of having it, I was able to take close-up photos of "Buddha Statue of Hill Happy" and to shoot more than 100 nice photos 30 metres away from the stage when I was watching Si Chuan's famous "changing face" show. I used ISO1600 of D70 all the way that night. That was a very enjoyable evening.



CPL & Cokin P-series ND8 Gradual Grey & "+3" Close-up filter



Things I didn't bring - Tripod and External Flash Unit. The result let me know that I have nothing to regard for not taking them.



Someone may think a compact high-power-zoom DC with a tripod can do the same thing as D70 with a tele lens in Chuan Opera Show. However, it is not true. The actors and actresses move and dance quickly. Slow shutter speed won't get clear image of moving objects, and flash light can't reach 30 meters away.

Although it was summer, but the temperature of Jiu Zhai Go Area was between 15-20 degree C. My mother and I did not turn on air-condition at night because we felt very comfortable at this room temperature.For people from Hong Kong, the temperature was similar as that of autumn in Hong Kong. However, the hills were green, and flowers're blooming angrily. When the bus left Cheng Du (成都) and climbed up to the highland, I saw a lot of beautiful flowers along the road, but I didn't have chance to get off the bus to take some photos.When I was in the valley, I still was not able to shoot flowers because people filled all trails in valley like fillings in an apple pie. I had no space to stand and had to keep moving forwards.At sunset, it started raining. People found places to hide or just got back to hotel as my team was waiting for lost members at a bus stop. I finally had time and space to shoot those sweeties.



All 3 photos From 九寨溝

By D70 w/AFD 50mm/1.8@F8.0

From 九寨溝(Jiu Zhai Go Valley) in 四川

By D70 w/AFD 50mm/1.8@f8.0



I have planned to write some journal for my experience in 四川 (Si Chuan). However I am now sick, so I am too tired to write long passages.



I post a photo of mushroom today. I will start the series of journal as soon as I get well. This series is going to be interesting. I promise.

This blog haven't been updated for more than 3 months. I got a cold right on the first day of summer holiday. Two week later, when I just recovered from the cold, I accompanied my family to travel in the Mainland China. I will talk about the trip in detail in next few days.



What is keeping me busy right now? Although it is now summer holiday, why can't people still see me online?



There are two things keeping me busy - developing a new career and struggling to realize my marathon dream.



That's a long story how I came to an idea of running in the race. Anyway, this is very difficult dream. I run extremely slow, slower than I walk. Even when I was healthy, I cannot bear to run on a MTR platform just for chasing the train. How come I can join the game? but, I am now still practising every day.



My first attempt of joining the Marathon was ended when I hurted my right knee after school on the day before the Christmas holiday 2 years ago. I started to practise in September of 2002. By that time, I couldn't run more than 10 steps, so I jumped over a rope for 10 times, then another 10. Over and over, one week later I could continously jump more than 50 times, so I started to run around a small park. Before I hurted my knee, I could finally run 10 km. The injure took me almost one year to heal.



I started to exercise again in November 2003, but I could only finish 1km. At the end of that year, I could run 10km within 2 hours. I thought I could try to join the 10km race in the spring of 2004. However, during the Chinese New Year holiday, I sprinkled my left foot.



Then now, the third attempt. Since the late July, I have been very tired every night. My muscle is pain. I rush to my bed early every night. That's why no one see me online - I am a pig on my bed! Last week, the muscle pains after exercises is finally gone. It is good news. I am getting stronger. However, my right knee and left foot started to give me trouble again. I went to see doctor, and when my mother knew it, she became worried and tried to stop me running. I know that I have to keep my legs healthy before the spring when I try to work out as hard as I can. Therefore, I have been swimming instead of running since Sunday. My mother will be angry when I run again. The road to marathon is not easy for everyone, but I have locked the target - Spring, 2005.

the Photographers - 写真の語る



When I went to a blog (いまここライフ) to visit, I found a very interesting link. It leads to a web site introducing some great Japanese photographers.



Special thanks to gaiaship.

A fire turned a large portion of the village into ruin, but both the villagers and HK government are not willing to pay the cost to rebuild it.



Now a lot of modern buildings are being built around the village. A landmark of HK is coming to its end.



The photo was taken with FM2 and AFD 50mm/1.8 on Kodak TC400N. It was recovered from a 4R print on color paper with D70 last Saturday.

This is a grotesque on the door of a Temple. People use it to drive the bad luck away from the temple.It looks scary, but gorgeous. It is shameful to tell people that this level of craftmanship is hardly found in new Chinese-style buildings in both Hong Kong and China. Even when people repair old chinese historial buildings, they are not willing to put in money to reconstruct the valuable artworks. People just use concrete to build the shape of a building as cheap as possible, then use paints to paint something on it.

The original picture was taken with TMAX 100 in Nikon F100. The negative was also scatched. It was recovered by shooting the 3R color print with D70.

Hey! Why don't you just give me a message? I am waiting.

D70 :: AF 70-210mm f4 @70mm :: ISO640 :: F8 :: 1/500s :: Portrait :: sunlight :: 0ev :: AF-C :: A-mode

Center-weight Metering



More photos in my album: WindyWood Album



Today I went to the same in my neigborhood again in the late afternoon. However, insteal of football, I took photos of people playing basketball. Count for basketball is a lot smaller than football field, thus the working distance of my 70-210mm lens reaching both sides of the count.



The weather is so good. The sky was very blue. I think a lot of people went to take landscape photos today, and properly they a going to post a lot of new and nice photos landscape photos in the coming few days. Sunny day, happy day.



Sunlight also gave good contrast and vivid color to my photos this afternoon. I recorded several series of movements and combined them to one file; that's a lot of fun doing that, also a lot of work.



I picked some photos and posted on my album "WindyWood Album" (Well, it's finally got a name.) again.

Everyone looks fantastic when he/she is trying the best, so get up! and fight!