Tag Archives: Travel

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #67 – Candid

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Ann-Christine has a fun theme for us this week for the Lens-Artists Challenge. We get to look at the candid photo.

Ann-Christine said, “Taking photos of people or animals when they have no idea that you’re doing it is called candid photography. One of the beautiful things with photography is being able to catch someone in the act. It adds natural life to your pictures.” 

 

1.You did what Took my donut photo

“You did what? You took that doughnut photo? Now everyone knows about it.”

“A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away.” ― Eudora Welty

 

2.Is that how I look when I don't pose

“I looked funny when I laughed, but thanks for the photo anyway.”

“The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.” – Andy Warhol

 

3.Ahhh, I can go from here to there without touching the ground

“Ahhh, I wasn’t that scared of the crowd!”

“Photography is the story I fail to put into words.” – Destin Sparks

 

4.What do mom and grandma put in their purses

“Hmmm, let me see what Mommy and Grandma put in their purses.”

“You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life.” ― Joan Miró

 

5.You need help.Nope I'm the flower girl

“Do you need help?”  “Nooo, I’m the flower girl!”

“In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.”
– Alfred Stieglitz

 

6.Come on I got plenty of seeds for all of you

“Don’t worry! I have plenty for all of you.”

“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.” – Aaron Siskind

 

7.Be quiet, he's taking a nap.

“Shhhh……”

“Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies.” – Diane Arbus

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #67 – Candid

 

 

 

SoCS 2019.10.12 – Ground, Sand and Tide

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Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “ground.” Use it as a noun or a verb in any tense (i.e. grind). Have fun! – Linda G. Hill

~ ~ ~

My sock escaped the patio of our condo on the fifth floor during our slumber on the third day in Maui. I scanned the bushes around the pool area at the ground level and glanced the walkway leading to the beach. Nothing resembled my sock.

Hubby and I walked on the beach two mornings ago. I gazed the trees at the far end curve of the beach and measured the rhythm of my steps. We could walk all the way there before turning around. Talking to myself.

 

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Ouch! I bounced, retrieving my right foot from the sand. Something shocked the nerve of my bared foot. It was the spikes of the fallen twigs. Hubby suggested walking in the salty water hoping it would sooth the shooting sensation. It was not bleeding, saved by the reflex.

The next morning, I worried other unknown objects might surprise my feet. Some people walk on the beach with shoes but most of them do it with flip flops. I didn’t bring flip flops and preferred not to wet my shoes with saltwater. Wearing socks seemed to be a sound idea. After the walk, I washed off the sand and dirt of the socks inside and out and left them on the patio chair in our condo. It was not windy when we went to bed. Well, I forgot about fetching the socks and lost one overnight. It was the least of things I’ve lost during our travel.

 

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Makena Beach

On a pleasant note, we went to Makena Beach that day to rekindle our memory of the beach wedding twenty-three years ago. It is a small beach at the end of the State Park. The size of the beach looks like a private beach in someone’s backyard. There was no disturbance from other visitors during our wedding and photograph. It was still a quiet beach when we visited it on multiple occasions during the previous trips.

 

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We didn’t expect this trip to be different or a busy tour season in October. To our surprise, the beach was busy with at least a dozen people playing in a pool of water, sunbathing or reading in beach chairs.

 

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The water was turquoise blue contrasted with the black lava rocks. The tide rolled in, hitting and splashing on the rocks to several feet high. Hubby spotted several turtles swam against the waves trying to get back to the ocean. Without Polaroid sunglasses, I missed the privilege of the sights.

 

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The blue sky, the fluffy clouds, the turquoise water and the smooth sandy beach made a pleasant memory on this sunny day.

 

SoCS 2019.10.12 – Ground, Sand and Tide

 

 

 

 

Lens-Artists Challenge #65 – Pick a Place

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The theme the week from Tina for Lens-Artists Challenge #65 is: Pick a Place

I knew exactly the right place for this post. I waited until today to do it because I’m traveling.

 

Maui was the place in which my hubby and I got married. We went back multiple times and stayed at Kihei where has less tourism. Maui is a small island. It took only three trips for us to go all the way around and go up and down. We went on the Road to Hana on one day, to west Maui on another day, and to the top of the 10,023 feet tall Haleakalā or the East Maui Volcano on a different day. We didn’t go to all those areas every time. One place we visited on every trip was Makena Beach where we got married. Hubby liked to get up early and walk on the beach by himself while I slept in. Then we walked together to watch the sunset.
We’ll be going back next week to stay for a week. We’ll go hiking in the Rainforest and the Seven Sacred Pools. We’ll also do some water activities like snorkeling and kayaking. It will be fun.

 

1.Road to Hana

Beach on the way to Road to Hana

2.Road to Hana

Beach and Cliff on the way to Road to Hana

3. west maui 37

West Maui

4.Vocano

Haleakalā Volcano

5.Makena beach 2

Makena Beach

6.Makena Beach

Makena Beach

7.Condo

Overlooking the beach from our condo

8.Beach by condo

Beach by the condo for morning exercise

9.Sunset by condo

We walked on this beach to watch the sunset

 

Lens-Artists Challenge #65 – Pick a Place

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #64 – Countryside and/or Small Town

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The theme from Amy for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #64 is: Countryside and/or Small Town.

 

I live in the big cities most of my life. The advantage of living in a city is the accessibility. But I realize that needs are relative. Lifestyle is a learned taste and habit. People can feel satisfied with a simple living. They may not know the existence of certain things and do not have a need for them; therefore, they may not miss them.

We bought a 10-acre land 35 years ago in Sequim, Washington Peninsula at the foot of the National Forest. It was an undeveloped parcel. The previous owner logged most of the big trees. They made a profit from the sales of logging. They poured gravels on the logging trail as a road to access the property. The purchase was to build a retirement home.

We rented a trailer to camp out there to do some inquiry. The minimum necessity to make the land livable was to have electricity hooked up, dig a well and connect the sewage pipe. The first thing we needed was water. Upon inquiry, we realized that drilling a well cost $5,500 per drilling for an average depth of 150 feet. If they detected no water, we needed to pay to drill another spot to find water.

I started to walk around the property and do some thinking. Even though the price of the land was reasonable, it required a lot of effort and resources to make it livable. One discouraging thing to me was that the closest neighbors were 10-acres away. It was hard for me as a city girl not to have neighbors close by. Eventually we sold the property.

When we travel, I appreciate going to see countryside that frees my mind and gives me a sense of tranquility such as Denali in Alaska, Bavaria in Germany, places we passed by in Amsterdam, Longleat and Stonehenge in England.

 

Alaska.Denali IMG_6710

Denali, Alaska

2.Germany15- Barvarian Alps

Bavaria, Germany

Amsterdam f59 DSC03875 (2)

Amsterdam

c21 Longleat (2)

Longleat, England

stone4

Stonehenge, England

 

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #64 – Countryside and/or Small Town

 

 

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #62: Silhouettes, the Sun and the Moon

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This week for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #62, Patti invites us to share the Silhouetted photos.

 

1.Alaska 2018

It was raining when we arrived Anchorage, Alaska, last year. We were apprehensive if there would be a sunny sky in Denali National Park. I was delighted the weather cleared up as the tour bus approached the Park. I took this photo of the clear sky with the bright sun behind the tree, giving me the image of a star on top of a Christmas tree.

 

2.Maui 2011

On this day in Maui, the clouds drifted on and off in front of the sun. I often come up with images of the shadowy clouds.

 

4.2017.07.07 full moon IMG_2285

I love to take photos of the full moon. On this night, I waited on the driveway of my house for the clouds to clear for the moon.  I like the turnout of the jagged and blurry image of the trees. Later that night, I took many photos of the clear full moon.

 

5.2017 sunset in the neighbor

The heavy traffic contributes to the smog in downtown Los Angeles. The sunset could be an awing color show and the silhouette of the buildings makes a unique framing.

 

6.KW281.Sunset1

This is one of my favorite sunset photos taken in Key West, Florida. I was running along the waterfront, trying to get a clear view. It turned out the silhouette of the people created a different dimension to the photo.

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #62: Silhouettes, the Sun and the Moon

 

 

 

 

SoCS 2019.09.07 – Cruise Experience

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Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “weigh/way/whey.” Use one, use ’em all, bonus points if you do that last thing. Enjoy! – Linda G Hill

 

IMG_5289

We travel regularly, planned the itineraries on most of the trips and joined tours on four trips. Several months ago, my husband and I wanted to explore a different way of travel. We checked out some cruises and booked a short cruise for the Labor Day weekend which was last week. This is the shortest available, from Long Beach, California to Ensenada, Mexico.

Friends told us this is a party cruise. My interpretation of a party cruise is seeing some young people singing, talking, dancing and laughing. School started in August and college students and school-age kids are in school. They wouldn’t be partying last weekend on a cruise.

We boarded the ship last Sunday night. The ship stopped at Catalina on Monday. It anchored offshore and people took the boat to go ashore. We had been to Catalina several times, so we strolled along the waterfront, visited the gift shops.

 

IMG_5245

Catalina, California

The ship was in Ensenada on Tuesday and Wednesday. We bought tickets for a city tour on Tuesday. The tour bus took us to La Bufadora which is a blowhole on the Punta Banda Peninsula. We watched the water exploded upwards from a sea cave. The height of the explosion depends on the tide. We had one hour there. After staying for ten minutes we didn’t see a dramatic performance, so we went to the restaurant to wait for the group to return. The bus dropped us off at downtown, the tourist area, for another hour. There was not a lot of shopping I wanted to do. The tour guide told us to be careful about food and drink, so we didn’t get any of those.

The dock is right by downtown area, so it took us a few minutes to get back on the ship. That night after dinner, my husband had a stomach problem all night.

On Wednesday, the ship was at sea all day. People stayed on the ship going nowhere. There was a small scale of entertainment such as vocal solo with guitar or keyboard, standup comedy, and movies. People gathered in the pool area and cafeteria, eating and drinking. Oh, now I see the party, a big party. I know there are about 60% population in the US is over weighed. Yet I had not seen the concentration of these folks until this day on the ship. Several ladies seemed to have more weight than their legs could carry, so they were on wheelchairs (they might have other problems).

My husband continued to have a stomach problem and stayed in the cabin all day. I didn’t pay extra to subscribe the internet or phone services. I stayed in the cabin and read the only paperback with me. Every hour or so, I walked around the ship, grabbed some fruit or a piece of bread from the cafeteria. It seemed forever to wait for the nighttime. We packed our bags and went to sleep early.

 

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On Thursday, the phone rang for the wake-up call at 6:45 a.m. It took us twenty minutes to dash to the line. We were the first one hundred people to get off the ship.

It was not a pleasant experience for our first cruise. It will take us a long time to get over with it before we consider another cruise.

 

SoCS 2019.09.07 – Cruise Experience

 

 

 

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #60– Framing the Images

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This week, Amy directs us to explore different ways of framing images. She reminds us that, “Many photographers agree on one thing about framing – that it can help direct the viewers‘ eyes to where you want them to look.”

 

1.IMG-20190123-WA0029

My granddaughter in the Wedding Tea Ceremony Garden in Hong Kong

“Your frame of reference is what you see.” – Jacque Fresco

 

2.frame M&D

My painting in a frame

“Thoughts frame your portrait, action paints it.” – Charles F. Glassman

 

3.CIMG3484 great wall2

Looking out to the Great Wall, China from the Great Wall window

“The frame through which I viewed the world changed too, over time. Greater than scene, I came to see, is situation. Greater than situation is implication. Greater than all of these is a single, entire human being, who will never be confined in any frame.” – Eudora Welty

 

4.IMG_7779 Barcelona

Sculpture art in Barcelona, Spain

“The human frame being what it is, heart, body and brain all mixed together, and not contained in separate compartments as they will be no doubt in another million years.” – Virginia Woolf

 

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Wedding Tea Ceremony Garden in Hong Kong

7.IMG_2258 (2)

Celebrating the wedding of my nephew and his wife

“Frame your mind to mirth and merriment which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life.” – William Shakespeare

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #60– Framing the Images

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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