Guilin | The Showers of Blessings

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Lens-Artists Challenge #166 – Artificial Light

Posted on September 25, 2021 by Miriam Hurdle 81 comments

This week, Ann-Christine invites us to look at artificial lighting in our photography.

Artificial Light is any light source that is not naturally occurring. Artificial Light includes things like flash light, streetlights, indoor lighting, or other man-made light sources. Technically, the only sources of light that are totally not “artificial” are sunlight, moonlight, and starlight. Ann-Christine learned something new, that candles do not count as artificial light.

The major advantage of artificial light sources over natural light is that we have them under our control. There are many tools for changing their characteristics. Artificial light lets us photograph topics that would be impossible to handle under natural light.

We went to Beijing, Xi’an, and Guilin in China on a family vacation. The tour guide took us to Guilin Crown Cave, which is a magnificent karst cave in Caoping Hui Nationality village about 29 km from Guilin. It is a part of Crown Mountain. The overall length of Crown Cave is 12 km (7.5 miles). The 3 km (nearly 1.9 miles) near Li River has been opened to the public. Stalagmites and stalactites are illuminated by an interior lighting system. Tourist could do sightseeing by boat or bamboo raft, but we went to a walking tour section.

At Key West, Florida, the fog moved in before the sun went down. The colored lights only increased the intensity of the mist in the air. You can only buy Cuban cigars from certain places and some online sites, but we found them in Key West. Hubby bought one and made a few puffs just for the fun of it. The light on his face is from the flash of the camera.

We often drive to Las Vegas for a short getaway and stay at Luxor ever since it was open. I took the following tw0 photos at Luxor. The light source came from the bottom of the statues creating outlining the contour, muscles, shades and shadows of the status.

Christmas is the best time to see artificial lights at night. We enjoyed driving around the neighborhood to see the Christmas decoration and the lighting at night. We also had a fun time taking the Holiday Light cruise at Huntington Beach to see the Christmas lights and the boat parade in the harbor.

The final image is my shot on the TV screen of the New Year’s Eve. Countries around the world incorporated the laser lights with the fireworks in their celebration of the coming of the New Year.

Lens-Artists Challenge #166 – Artificial Light

Thank you for reading.

Have a Wonderful Weekend!

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #92: Going Back – the Second Time Around

Posted on April 12, 2020 by Miriam Hurdle 37 comments

This week John Steiner at Photo by Johnbo is the guest host for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #92. He picked the theme: Going Back – the Second Time Around.

He said, “Considering the current world situation, I decided to focus my challenge to your sharing images from your previous travels rather than asking you to go out to photograph new examples to share.”

There were several countries where we went back to visit for the second or third or fourth time. In this post, I included Hawaii, China and Alaska.

Makena Beach is a tucked away small beach in Kihei, Maui, Hawaii. It was on this beach my husband and I got married. We have been there four times. It was always enjoyable to go back to this beach every time we were there. Maui Makena Beach1a

On thing we did differently during the last trip was hiking in Haleakalā National Park to visit the seven Sacred Pools. We hiked up to Waimoku Falls which can mean water that cuts, severs, amputates, or breaks in two as a stream often does after heavy rains.

Maui 2a

I have been to China three times but didn’t do too much sightseeing until the third visit when seven members went on a family trip. Even though growing up in Hong Kong, I didn’t go to see the Great Wall until this trip. I’ve heard and read about the Terra Cotta Soldiers in Xi’an but never seen them in person until this trip.

China Xian

The spiky mountains along Li River in Guilin inspired many painters throughout the Chinese history. One scene of the mountains along the Li River is an image on one of the Chinese bills. We had one family member holding the money and had the photo taken when we passed by that famous spot (not included here). It was a treat to cruise on this river.

China Guilin

Our first trip to Alaska was the week after the summer tourist season. The train to Denali National Park was closed as the snow piles up in the winter. When planning for the second trip, I made sure we wouldn’t miss the visit. Most of the tours to Denali National Park are five days or longer, but our stay was only six days. I found a two-day tour as an excursion of a cruise. We were also fortunate to be there on a sunny day. Alaska has more than 57 million acres of designated wilderness which accounts for about 30% of the nation’s wilderness. These wilderness areas support diverse wildlife populations and we were excited to see several creatures such as this baby moose.

Alaska 2b