Snow in Chapel Hill

Starting on the Christmas day around 8pm in 2010, a snow storm went through eastern United States. The snow continued until afternoon the day after Christmas accumulating over 6 inches of snow in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It was a presently surprised that we really had a white Christmas. While the snow was still going on on 26th December 2010 morning, we took our camera and walked around outside. We were amazed on what nature can do.

When the snow flake was settling on the trees, it turned all tree branches into white color. The outcome was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, it was cloudy. If we has blue sky, the photo would be much more attractive.

Puppet in New Orleans

There are talented people everywhere. On 18 November 2010, we walked by the French Quarter in New Orleans right before dark. We saw this artist playing with his puppet. He had a recorded song playing next to him and then he made the puppet moved just like the puppet was singing the song. The puppet mouth opened and closed according to the music lyrics. The puppet hands and foots moved just like a real person singing in front of a microphone. The puppet was so real and it shows some unbelievable movement. When the song was about to finish, the puppet even walked over to the console and turned the music off. It was simply amazing to see that.

In normal life, hopefully, we do not want to be someone's puppet. We would like to have our minds controlled by ourselves. However, we have seen a lot of human puppets around controlled by their bosses, their spouses, their kids, etc. One thing nice about being a puppet is that one does not have to think, just do as told as if there is a string pulling.

Balcony of French Quarter in New Orleans

New Orleans is famous not only in Jazz, but also in wide variety of buildings and architectures reflecting the history of New Orleans. French Quarter in New Orleans is particularly well-known in having buildings with balconies. On 18th November 2010, we traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana and walked around French Quarter to really enjoy the environment and architecture there.

Imagine sitting on such a balcony, you would be able to talk to everyone walking by on the street. Doing that in a few days, you probably know hundreds of people there. Being in the balcony will certainly give you a feeling of connecting to the community and people. That is why we have seen signs saying that owners are renting out the balconies for parties and special events. Apparently, people love spending special moments in balconies of French Quarter.

Birthday Cake in Chapel Hill

In May 2010, one of us was having a birthday party. We got many friends together. We talked, ate, and had so much fun. Our friends, Liu and Guan, bought us a very delicious birthday cake. On top of the cake, they thoughtfully decorated it with the words "Bee Happy". That is right, "Bee Happy" not "Be Happy". When we first saw it, our first impression was that it might be a typo. About having a deep thought for a few seconds , we realized that it was a compliment. At the moment, we all laughed so hard.

Thanks so much to Liu and Guan. They realize that we work so hard like bees and we are happy. Therefore, we are "Bee Happy". Life is really wonderful. There are so much to do and we have so little time. Also, we have so many good friends around the world and we are happy.

Unfired Pottery in Pittsboro

Pottery has been around for thousands of years on earth. No matter where you are from, you have used pottery before and will use it in the future for sure. However, you may not have seen unfired pottery. Unfired pottery is the pottery in final shape of the product but before the final step of firing and hardening in a kiln. Those unfired pottery will be heated to over a thousand degree Celsius for a long period of time in a kiln to become the pottery we see in our daily life.

On 4 September 2010, we went to visit Hewitt Pottery Open House in Pittsboro, North Carolina. In one of the kilns there, they displayed a bunch of unfired potters inside and not for sale. That was the first time we saw that many unfired pottery. The chief potter, Mark Hewitt, was telling me that it was really hard work to make pottery. I said to him that we would feel so wonderful using our bare hands to transform clay to pottery. We would enjoy the whole process and feel extreme satisfaction seeing the final product. Even though it is hard work, it is well worth it in our opinion.

Wetland in Bald Head Island

We visit the famous Bald Head Island many time. When someone asks us where we go, we normally say "beach". It is like a tradition that "beach" means "ocean", "coast", or "sea". Next time, when someone asks us the same question, we may say "wetland". Our guess is that the response of that answer would be "what?". In fact, when we are in Bald Head Island, we spend quite a lot of time in the north of the island, the wetland. The picture was taken on 23rd July 2010 while high tide was in progress in the wetland.

It is relatively quieter in the wetland compared with beaches on the island. But people on the island enjoy the wetland with different kinds of activities, canoeing, crabbing, walking on boardwalks, bird watching, etc. We enjoy the wetland a lot but we would still tell people we go to the "beach". It is not because we are not telling the truth. It is because the culture forces us to do so.

Sea Turtle Cage in Cape Fear

As human population is getting larger and larger, wild animal territory is being squeezed to become smaller and smaller. Sea turtles travel thousands of miles to go back to their birth place to lay eggs. From the statistics, only 1 out of 1000 newly born sea turtles will come back to its birth place. Sea turtle is now an endanger animal on earth. We simply can not allow sea turtle to disappear and we just have to help out.

On 23th July 2010 in the evening, we walked around the beach area at Cape Fear in Bald Head Island. We saw a lot of these cages protecting the sea turtle eggs underneath. The sign next to the cage actually says that it is illegal to even disturb the sea turtle eggs. Violation will result from $100,000 in fine and 1 year maximum jail time. We also saw a red fox running around the beach. We are hoping that the fox would obey the human law not to dig the eggs or do something nasty. Putting the fox in jail would not be a wise thing to do.

Fishing in Cape Fear

We dare not to go fishing because we know that we do not have the required characters to do good job in fishing. On 23rd July 2010, we traveled to our favorite place in North Carolina, Bald Head Island and spent the evening in Cape Fear. We saw this man fishing.

He prepared the fishing rod and the bait carefully. He threw the bait to the ocean skillfully. He got wet and soaked under, sweat a lot above with no complain. He waited for fish to get on hook patiently. If we think about it, all those fine characters are in fact required to be a decent human being to live in this society. Should we all go fishing and learn to be a good person?

Elephant Crossing in NC Zoo

We have seen a lot of interesting road signs related to animals including Duck Crossing, Horse Crossing, Deer Crossing. Those signs along the roads are used to remind vehicle drivers to pay attention to wild animals on the road. It is extremely dangerous for both the animals and motorists to band on each other.

We found this one in the North Carolina Zoo on 3rd April 2010 and we had never come across before, Elephant Crossing. If our city government decides to put up "Elephant Crossing" signs on the roads in the city, would you believe that? You probably don't, however, you may slow down your driving and pay more attention on the road to see if you really can spot an elephant. Then, the trouble of putting up such signs would be worth it.

Elephant in NC Zoo

Time after time, if we are in the right place at the right time, something good is going to happen. In photography, besides right place and right time, we also need to have right equipment. Taking pictures of a tiny little flower without a macro lens, you are wasting your time. Taking portraits indoor without lighting equipment, you will be upset on the resulting photos.

On 3rd April 2010, we visited the North Carolina Zoo. Elephants were all out enjoying the beautiful weather. This one stood right in front of a pond creating a very nice reflection. We were about 30 feet away from the elephant and therefore we were in an ideal location to take some nice photos even for non-specialized cameras. Since this elephant is so big and close, we simply do not need any telephoto lens. Also, this elephant stood still for a good 15 minutes. So, we had all the time we had to take good pictures, no need to rush.

Some people around us pulled their camera phones out and started taking photos for this elephant. That really told us that we did not need specialized cameras at that moment.

Owl in NC Zoo

There is an old Chinese saying, "Eating is citizen's primary need". This should not just apply to human being, it works the same for owl too. On 3rth April 2010, we spent a day in North Carolina Zoo with a lot of good friends. We saw this owl and it was a kind of uneasy. Its head turned to our left most of all the time. Since the owl caretaker was about to send in food, a mouse to be exact, the owl looked to its right all the time making our photography very difficult. It spent only a fraction of a second to turn its head to face us. The rest of the time, we could not even see its eyes.

Together with us, there were about 10 cameras in front of this owl. Everyone was complaining about the posture of this owl. "Cheese" someone said loudly. But, the owl did not respond, of course.

Taking photographs for animal is generally hard since animal would not be able to follow photographer's instruction. This may be another reason why human is far superior than animal. Even worse, some people do not like to be photographed. You ask them to look at you, they looked elsewhere. Some would turn their heads to you but with their hands covering their faces. In that case, I would rather spend time with the owl even the owl would not understand "Cheese".

Goose in NC Zoo

We have traveled to a lot of places in the world where the native languages/dialects there are not known to us. When someone talks and speaks in those tongues, we are completely lost. However, when a person is mad, even though we have no idea what he/she says, we knows that he/she is angry due to the tone of the voice and the body language.

On 3rd April 2010, we visited the NC Zoo. We saw this goose and we knew that it was not happy to anyone close-by. That goose's voice and body language were very simple, turning its head, opening its mouth, and making noise. We did not need to know goose language at all to understand its unhappiness.

How did we annoy the goose?

After looking at it closely, we realized that it was sitting on its nest. There might be eggs there. The goose was doing its job programmed by the genes to annoy any creature including human to get close to the nest. So, it was not us. It was the gene of the goose.

Parade in Magic Kingdom

On 26th December 2009, the day after Christmas, we spent a lot of time on the road in the morning trying to get into the world famous Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. Once we parked the car, took a tram to the ferry terminal, waited for a long time to get on the ferry, enjoyed a fairly long ferry ride, then walked into Magic Kingdom about noon. Once we got in, a big parade was already in progress. The number of people there was unbelievable. There was no way we could walk straight anymore. In whatever angle we looked, there were people.

The parade was beautiful. Because of too many people, it was hard to avoid head, hair, hand, etc. in the photos. We were lucky enough to take this picture for some marching band soldiers. We were wondering how the human inside that heavy colorful costume did anything. Apparently, the eyes of the costume were not real. How could they see? obviously, they were not robots.

Rameses in Chapel Hill

Rameses is the mascot of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Whenever there is a ball game, Rameses will show up and entertain fans in the court. On 6th January 2010, there was no exception in the women basketball game. Rameses walked around and greeted people. Although we did not have a chance to shake hand with Rameses, we were able to take some nice mascot photos. Here is one of them.

The trouble in taking these kind of pictures is that we have to be fast shooting. Rameses moved very fast and nice angle was not easy to come by. So, it was hard to catch the right angle with proper lighting. Fortunately, unlike normal portrait photography, Rameses has the same face expression all the time. After all, Rameses is not considered human.

Orchid in Chapel Hill

It is really not surprising to have a lot of orchid lovers around. However, it will be rare to find orchid lovers who have green thumbs. We are so fortunate to have Robin and Josh around who know so much about Orchids and grow them beautifully. The orchid in the picture is from them and it has been our pleasure to enjoy watching it in our house. Our good friend, Anne, told us that it is Cymbidium or Boat Orchid to be exact.

From our past experience, we have found that it is really hard to take good photos for orchids. But, we will not give up. On 7th February 2010, we used a table lamp with a 60W light bulb pointing to the flower. Then, one of us held a black cloth to make up the background. With a tripod and a micro lens, we were able to shot this one.

With this photo, we will always enjoy the look of it even though the live one may fade out and leave us forever.

Firework in Magic Kingdom

We have read a lot of articles on how to take firework pictures and it is not easy. It is always recommended to use tripod and we will have to do long exposure. On 26th December 2009, we spent the day in Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. We really meant the day, a whole day. At 10pm, Disney displayed half an hour spectacular firework to celebrate the holiday. Since we spent the whole day there, carrying a heavy tripod for some evening firework shots was not very practical. On the other hand, looking at such a wonderful firework without taking a few photos would be heart-breaking. What did we do?

Luckily, our Nikon D90 camera is able set to iso 3200, extremely high sensitivity. Then, we would not have to do long exposure, no need to use tripod. This is one of the firework shots we took, a little grainy due to the high iso setting, but it is acceptable. At least, this snapshot captures a piece of beautiful firework display which is quite memorable.

Castillo in St. Augustine

After visiting the Disney theme parks for a few days seeing all the amazing technologies, on the way home, we stopped by St. Augustine to check out one of the oldest cities in US on 31st December 2009. We spent a lot of time walking around the famous Castillo de San Marcos National Monument while we were there. The Monument includes the oldest masonry fort built in 17th century in North America. The fort is not in use for war now of course, on the contrary, it is so peaceful to be in there.

This picture was taken in the fort catching the moment of 2 people standing next to some palm trees. These 2 human beings are so small in size with respect to the trees. A rain storm was about to move in and therefore the cloudy sky. Even though it was still cold and windy, the fort still attracted a lot of visitors.