This week for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Sofia Alves invited us to look at bokeh in photography. The following is her discussion.
“What is bokeh? We all have seen this effect; we have photos of it. The term bokeh was first used to distinguish normal motion blur from the blur obtained when things are out of focus. It literally means blur in Japanese. The Nikon website, after a more complex and technical explanation, reduces it to simply this: ‘bokeh is the pleasing or aesthetic quality of the out-of-focus blur in a photograph’”.
My newest photo today would do the job.
This is my first caterpillar of the year. I saw a Monarch flying around a few weeks ago but didn’t expect to have caterpillars soon. This little guy is early. Basically, my milkweed from last year is not grown yet. I bought two pots with one in a good shape, enough to feed one caterpillar. After this little guy, I’ll wait until summer to raise more butterflies.
The theme for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge this week is Memorable Events. Ann-Christine invites us to show some memorable events – new ones or delightful memories!
Our family trip to Hong Kong and Japan in January 2019 was full of memorable events and emotions. My husband Lynton, my daughter Mercy and her husband Will, their daughter Autumn, and I traveled to Hong Kong to attend my nephew’s wedding. We took advantage to stop by Japan on our return trip.
We arrived on January 12. Three days later, I got a message from sister #12 Yolanda, mother-in-law to be. She said sister #8 Canty was in the hospital. Later that day, Canty’s son messaged me that his mom had liver inflammation, hydrocephalus, and congestive heart failure. On the 17th, the third day of being in the hospital, Canty’s condition made a sharp decline at noon. The family was rushing to the hospital by taxi. She died in the evening with the family by her side.
Canty was passionate about Ballroom Dancing. She took part in the Dance Championship Fundraising on November 4, 2018, two and a half months before she passed away. Here is the video – 1:42 minutes. She wore purple and yellow.
My nephew’s wedding was a marathon ceremony. They played Chinese traditional games when the groom picked up the bride in the morning. The bridesmaids made up the games and the groom and best men responded. When the games had favorable responses, they opened the door for the groom to pick up the bride. There was a church wedding in the afternoon. After the wedding, we went to a restaurant for a cake ceremony in the garden. We took a break to wait for a nine-course Chinese banquet in the evening. The bride and mother-in-law (my sister) changed their gowns four times during the banquet.
Here is the wedding photo gallery.
“I do”
The Cake ceremony GardenAutumn had the garden all to herselfWill, Autumn, Mercy, and MiriamThe bride and groomThe groom’s family
Two days after the wedding, we were in Tokyo for four days visiting Mercy’s and Will’s college friends. Both husband and wife were engineers there on a five-year contract. We took the bus sightseeing.
Tokyo’s Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples are some of the most interesting sites in the city. We stopped by several.
We went to the top of Arashiyama to visit the Monkey Park.
In the Reindeer Park in Nara, Japan, the reindeer are used to the visitors. They were persistent in asking for food.
There were about 1,500 deer living in the park in July 2017. Wild Sika deer freely roam in Nara Park. This deer bowed to us asking for food.
Our theme this week is the Ordinary, hosted by I. J. Khanewala. There are many places, moments, things that we would say are ordinary. We may be surprised when the ordinary takes a turn.
My husband, Lynton and I started out this summer like any previous ordinary summers. Even though we didn’t take international trips, we took a couple of local getaways trips. We visited the grandkids. I took advantage of the summer colors and got some new flowers.
Lantana and Vinca
As soon as the summer rolled around the corner, things became a domino effect and tuned into an extraordinary summer. It was almost unstoppable without affecting the long-term effect.
There was an old 10’x8’ metal shed in the backyard. We had it for fifteen years. Lynton and I assembled it together. It was a major project we worked on it without getting upset with each other. I did my part, laying out all the nuts and bolts and parts. When Lynton assembled the panels, I handed him whatever he needed. I helped to hold the panels when he joined them together. The shed reminded us we could work together. What’s the big deal? It’s a big deal when two professionals live under the same roof. We could do our own things separately, but it takes extra consideration when working on the same project.
Finally, the shed was ready to retire. It leaked. The wooden floor was rotten and partly collapsed. We needed a new shed. We moved out everything from the old shed. Lynton demolished it.
I wanted a risen shed which is sturdier. I set a budget, but after looking for all the models, we picked one which cost twice as much as my initial budget.
“We better have a slab for the foundation. I wouldn’t be able to make a good leveled wooden foundation,” he said.
We got two quotes, but neither showed up for the job. It was a chance meeting when Lynton talked to a cement guy at a gas station. He came to give us a quote. He and his crew did the slab.
The section of the wall behind the shed bulged and threatened to collapse. We asked the cement guy for a quote. His quote was more reasonable than the one we got years ago. We needed a new wall, eventually. It would be hard to do it afterwards because there were only a few feet between the shed and the wall. We decided to have it done.
The guy and his crew demolished the wall, dug two feet deep and two feet behind the wall to pour cement for the foundation. All the dirt dug up was piling up on our lawn. It took them six weeks to build the wall.
The new retaining wall in front of the slope and the cypress trees
Lynton put the new shed together almost all by himself. I only helped to hold up some panels when he joined them together.
The shed has several windows and many skylights The new shed sitting on a six-inch high slab
The soil in the backyard was hard after six weeks without water. We nurtured the soil and waited for the summer heat to die down. Then Lynton put in the new seeds for the grass. The grass in the above photo is new grass.
While the back yard construction was going on, I replaced many of the annual flowers to perennial. I picked the flowers for hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. Lantana was not my favorite flower because I thought it was not artistic. But it’s butterfly food. I raised 20 butterflies in the summer. Milkweed is for the butterflies to lay eggs. The adult butterflies need food, so it made sense to plant some flowers for butterfly food. Now I have pink or orange mixed colors, purple and yellow single color Lantana on the slope, in the backyard and front yard. They’re ready for the butterflies next year.
I planted more Sylvia for the bees because I need the bees to pollinate the plum and orange blossoms. I went crazy getting the Pentas when it was on sale. Not only the butterflies, but the hummingbirds and bees like them also.
LantanaSylviaPentas
For two months, the backyard was like a war zone. I’m glad the work is over. There shouldn’t be any more home improvement projects for the backyard for the remaining years we live in this house.
This week Tina of the Lens Artists team invites us to join them in exploring places and things that have “seen better days”. I’ll explain the reason I close the photos for this theme.
My husband, Lynton, is a helicopter pilot. During our travel, we often visited the military aircraft museums, submarines, and battleships. He wanted to be in the military to defend this country, but he was in the middle of his schooling and missed the opportunities. He has family members who were in the services for many years, but I’ll stay on track to do this post.
When we went to Arizona one year, we visited the Luke Air Force Base Airpark. The aircraft had their glorious and courageous days to defend this country or assist other countries. I took many photos of the aircraft displayed and included these four in this post. They proudly retired. Their appearance reminds us of the price the heroes paid for our freedom.
“Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it… it flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.” – Unknown
Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish an air superiority in the battle space. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield permits bombers and attack aircraft to engage in tactical and strategic bombing of enemy targets.
The Lockheed C-5 Galaxy is a large military transport aircraft. The USAF has operated the C-5 since 1969. At that time, the air lifter supported US military operations in all major conflicts, including Vietnam, Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan, as well as allied support, such as Israel during the Yom Kippur War and operations in the Gulf War. The Galaxy has also distributed humanitarian aid, provided disaster relief, and supported the US space program.
The C-130H performs the tactical portion of the airlift mission and can carry out a diverse number of roles, including airlift support, Antarctic ice resupply, aeromedical missions, weather reconnaissance, aerial spray missions, firefighting duties, and natural disaster relief missions.
I’m not an aircraft expert and can’t identify this fighter aircraft. It looks like this is a single seat F-16 fighting falcon. I know there are experts and retired military heroes out there. You could help me identify this one.
Air Force Rescue helicopter can be deployed in casualty evacuation, medical evacuation, non-combatant evacuation missions, civil search-and-rescue, humanitarian aid, disaster relief, and insertion or extraction of combat forces.
In Boston, we took photos of the USS Constitution and toured the warship USS Casson Young.
“Honor to the soldier and sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country’s cause. Honor, also, to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field and serves, as he best can, the same cause.” – Abraham Lincoln
The greatest glory for Constitution came during the War of 1812. Constitution’s crew defeated four British frigates during three separate engagements. She earned the nickname “Old Ironsides” because the cannon fire from enemy ships seemed as if they couldn’t penetrate her strong oak hull.
Built for speed and capability, USS Cassin Young engaged in seven Pacific battles in World War II, survived two Kamikaze hits, and served another full decade beyond her expected lifetime. Built in 1943 in San Pedro, California, she is one of 175 Fletcher-class destroyers built during World War II.
When we were in Australia, we visited The Australian National Maritime Museum and toured the destroyer HMAS Vampire, and the submarine HMAS Onslow.
“The sanctity of our battlefields, monuments, and veteran’s institutions is of utmost importance to preserve military history and pay respect to those who fought.” – Henry Waxman
HMAS Vampire was the third of three Australian-built destroyers serving in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). One of the all-welded ships built in Australia.
The submarine Onslow was laid down at the end of 1967 by Scott Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Scotland, launched almost a year later, and commissioned into the RAN at the end of 1969.
This week Amy introduced the theme on Colors of Autumn.
Every autumn we enjoy the beauty of the brilliant colors. The mixture of red, purple, orange and yellow results from chemical processes that take place in the tree as the seasons change from summer to winter.
During the spring and summer, the leaves absorb the sunlight to transform the energy into the green color. But in the autumn, because of changes in the length of daylight and changes in temperature, the leaves stop their food-making process. The green color disappears, and the yellow to orange colors become visible and give the leaves part of their autumn splendor. Other chemical changes may occur which form additional colors through the development of red pigments. Some mixtures give rise to the reddish and purplish autumn colors of trees such as dogwoods and sumacs, while others give the sugar maple its brilliant orange.
Trees in the neighborhood
Autumn is a great time for restaurants and stores to decorate their front with pumpkins and straw figures.
Families take their kids to the pumpkin farms and pick out their favorite pumpkins for Halloween carving or decoration.
My older granddaughter’s name is Autumn. Here are the colors of my granddaughter Autumn. She just turned four. Hubby and I went to her birthday celebration which took place last Saturday, a few days before her actual birthday.
When I talked about Autumn, I mostly talked about her reading. It’s just fair to show some photos of her doing other activities. My daughter Mercy and her hubby are aware of Autumn’s interest in reading. They want her to have a well-rounded development. Autumn is excellent in outdoor activities. She could hike for two miles. Before she turned three, she climbed rocks at the rock-climbing gym by herself, and zipped her hike up and down the slopped driveways on both sides of the street. It scared me when I watched the video my son-in-law took. I’m not opposed to little girls playing dressed-up and other girl’s activities. From the very beginning the kids’ lives, my daughter and son-in-law don’t want to limit the girls into a stenotype of development. I think Autumn can do whatever a boy could do, and more.
Hawaii hiking
Rock climbing at 3 years old
excited about the coconut in Hawaii
Mommy’s cooking helper
Excited about animation characters
She wanted me to keep up with her
She just learned doing paddle boarding by herself since July this year. The background sound is Autumn’s baby sister Nora getting tired and fussing. I took the video in August when I went to Bend, Oregon and a national park with my daughter’s family.
The Showers of Blessings 