At Gazos Creek

Last day of 2008, I drove from Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz. I thought I knew all the beaches in between, but I was wrong. There were still new places to explore. The Gazos Creek beach is a lovely surprise.

New Year's Greeting from Miti and Me

How many hoops I have to jump to get Miti to take this funny photo, and she looks like in shock! OK, Miti, don't worry, you will still be the fat cat CEO of our home in 2009, and no new diet plans.

So, Bye, Bye 2008. See you in 2009.

Another Photo from Yesterday

Yesterday's lovely light. About 10 minutes after sunset.

Rock Patterns

Also saw these interesting rock patterns yesterday. Thanked to the recent storm the rocks on the beach were washed clean and showed their interesting patterns. Made me dizzy when I looked at them.

On the Beach Again

It had been almost two months since I did my last outdoor photo. Though I hadn't fully recovered from my cold, I had such a craving for beach and sunlight (as if I would become a vampire if I couldn't get them in time*). I decided to go.

Driving on highway 17, I had a sensation that I was flying. Everything seemed to be in slow motion. Wow, I never know catching a cold can make you high. (I didn't even take cold medicine.)

I was a bit worried that it would be too cold on the beach. Turned out it was not that bad. I was like in a trance and didn't really know what I was doing. (Photography is like dancing. If you don't practice it often enough, your body forgets.) Most of the photos I got were bad, but these two showed a glimpse of the lovely light.

*Nowadays being a vampire is actually quite popular.

The Life Before Her Eyes

Soon after the movie "The Life Before Her Eyes" started, we saw two teenage girls, one blonde, one brunette, happily chatting in the school bathroom. Then they heard some strange sound, the sound of gun firing. Soon the door of the bathroom slammed open, they faced the gunman, one of their classmates. "Please don't kill us", the brunette begged. "Who says I am going to kill you both", their classmate grinned. "The question is, which one of you is going to die?"

We heard one gun shot.

In the next scene, we saw the blonde again. It had been 15 years since the tragedy and she had grown up and changed. She seemed to have a perfect life, married to the professor she had a crush on when she was a teenager, had an angel-like daughter, lived in a nice suburban house (with a porch). However, she seemed to be troubled. There was something on her mind. In one scene, her daughter asked her what is conscious and she immediately became disturbed. Why?

What really happened in the bathroom?

To tell you more about the movie will deprive you the experience of seeing it yourself. In the end, when all the puzzles are put together, you would want to start again. Like witnessing a perfect water drop on a leaf. It is short lived and will soon disappear into the atmosphere, but its beauty may haunt you forever.



P.S. Watch It If You Also Like

• American Beauty
• Evan Rachel Wood
• Uma Thurman not in fighting suit
• Reading short stories and don't mind movie being a little bit slow

Christmas

For some reason my Christmas memories in the U.S. can be divided into two categories

• work
• sick

Since I don't have to work now, this Christmas unfortunately falls into the other category. I caught a cold a couple of days ago and was bedridden for a few days (there goes the Christmas shopping). Now my fever and sore throat recede but I am still left with a running nose and a lot of coughing (sorry for the details), so I try to stay home for fear of spreading the germs (there goes the movies). It will probably take me a few more days to recover to my usual self.

My cat, Miti, however, had fully taken advantage of the situation. She kept making noises and begged for food. I was too weak to say no to her so I kept feeding her. Now she looks more like a panda than a cat. I have always wondered how much a cosmetic surgery for cat will cost...

Cat Story

This is a true story my cousin told me today:

A coworker of my cousin had to be on an out-of-town project for a couple of months and asked another coworker to cat sit when she was away. Three weeks later, this coworker entrusted the cat sitting job realized she had totally forgotten the cat. The cat had been left starving for 3 weeks!

She rushed to the coworker's home and found, to her great relief, the kitten (yes, it's a kitten) was still alive. After feeding the cat, she noticed the toy mouse of the kitten scattered on the floor, apparently torn apart by the cat. Feeling kind of guilty, she decided to clean up the mess. Only when she picked up the toy mouse, she realized it was not a toy but a real dead mouse.

P.S. till today the coworker didn't know what had happened to her cat, she thanked the other coworker profusely at her return.

The Dark Force of Photography

Lately my cousin had fell passionately in love with his new camera. Things started like this. A couple weeks ago he went to Bryce Canyon with a friend and witnessed the most breathtaking sunrise he had ever seen. However, he found his small compact digital camera was not able to catch a slice hint of it, so he consulted me. I told him he needed more proper tool for that and suggested two entry-level DSLRs. Little did I know what a dangerous journey my cousin was about to embark on.

My cousin first spent several weeks researching which camera to buy. He read many reviews, surfed various forums, found all the potential issues with each model, and sent me tons of questions. Still he couldn't decide. One night he had gone so weak he almost bought both.

Finally he made his decision and chose the Nikon D90. I thought it would be the end of story. Wrong. Now it's the price war. After ruling out numerous hoax web sites selling cameras in unbelievably cheap prices, he finally bought his cameras from Amazon. Yes, cameras. Well, it turned out after he ordered his first one, Amazon lowered the price even further ($25), so he ordered again but was not able to cancel the first order in time. Fortunately he was able to sell it to a friend and recover his cost, so at least that part had a happy ending.

Then my cousin realized, camera was not the only thing he would need for photography, there were so many things he would potentially need and could still buy. How about them? In an email he wrote me he mentioned shopping camera equipments was like resisting the power of the ring. Calmly, I told him: resist the dark force, Frodo.

Last weekend he finally received his camera. He was in ecstasy. He canceled all his dates so he could devoted the whole weekend to the D90. ("Oh, she's beautiful", my cousin said.) Yesterday he called me at 5:45pm and said he had a few questions about the camera.
"Aren't you supposed to be at work now?" I was surprised getting his phone call so early and a bit worried if his job got impacted by the economic downturn.
"Oh, that, I am newlywed now, I have to be home early to be with my camera."

Sigh, now I can only hope I won't be blamed by my relatives if my cousin doesn't get married any time soon. Who would know D90 could be such a femme fatale!

What a month for movie goers!

Just two weeks ago, I was lamenting what a boring year it was for movie goers. Well, thanks to the Oscar rush, suddenly we are seeing a bunch of exciting new movies appearing this month. Here are a few I found interested. Now that I have a lot of time in hand, I may actually go to all of them.

• Doubt - based on the Pulitzer winning play, adapted and directed by the original author. With Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman in lead, who can miss that?
  
• The Day the Earth Stood Still - a remake of an old sci-fi, don't expect much, but will be interesting to see the special effect.
• The Reader - based on the popular novel. Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes in lead, adapted by Dave Hare and directed by Stephen Daldry. (Hare and Daldry had worked on "The Hours" before). Will it be as successful as "The English Patient" or "The Hours"?
• Gran Torino - At 78, how could Clint Eastwood still have 2 movies out every year? What's his secret? For those who wonder what happens to Dirty Harry when he grows old, the answer may be here.
  
• Milk - the quality of Gus Van Sant's work is always unpredictable (either very good or very bad), fortunately this one seems to be on the good side. It's also part of the local history.
• The Spirit - Though I am not a comics fan, nor do I agree with the male centric violence aesthetics of Frank Miller, the style is interesting.
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - don't like Brad Pitt, but I am a huge fan of Cate Blanchett (since "Paradise Road" and "Oscar and Lucinda"), so will not miss this one (also the director is good).
  
• Slumdog Millionaire - from zombie crowded London to outerspace, now it's the slum of Mumbai, director Danny Boyle (28 Days Later, Sunshine, Trainspotting) is really the most exciting director in these days. Wonder what he's up to after this one.
  

RED for prime time

One of the most exciting features in latest DSLRs is the capability to record HD video. However, the HD video capability in current DSLR is still primitive. For professionals who wants the full power of HD video, they use RED. RED was introduced in 2005. It used a design similar to DSLR (digital sensor, can use DSLR lenses with adaptor) and provided high quality HD video capability with a low (relative) cost. Since then, it had become a lot of independent filmmakers' best friend.

I just noticed the new Steven Soderbergh movie, "Che", was actually shot in RED. The preview looks pretty impressive (click here to see it). It will be fun to see what the "Scarlet Red" (the next generation of RED, out next year) can do and if we will see more video features on new DSLRs. HD video is just getting more and more interesting.

Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky

If you have seen the TV adaptations of Sarah Waters's "Tipping the Velvet" or "Fingersmith", you have seen Sally Hawkins. In TTV, she is the maid Blake, a minor character who plays a pivotal role in the protagonist's future. In "Fingersmith", she is the narrator Susan Trinder, the illiterate pick-pocket whose own fate will be revealed in the twisted plot. In the behind-the-scene footage of "Fingersmith", Hawkins cheerfully described the scene she was about to play and enthusiastically discussed it with Waters. I was surprised that off stage she could be so relaxed, so exuberant.

Her exuberance must have been noticed by others, for that's a perfect match for the character Poppy in Mike Leigh's new movie "Happy-Go-Lucky" and Hawkins won the best actress in Berlin Film Festival playing this role.

Leigh is a unique British filmmaker. While most of his British colleagues are busy making historical dramas or draw their inspirations from 19 century novels and Shakespeare plays, Leigh rarely makes any historical drama and always writes and directs his films. To say he "wrote" his films would be misleading because he never fully scripted his characters, but asked his actors to improvise the lines. It demanded a lot from the actors, but a good Mike Leigh scene is always edgy and spontaneous.

Unlike most of Leigh's movies, "Happy-Go-Lucky" seems lighthearted and sunny (versus his previous work "Vera Drake"). We still see Leigh's trademark social commentary in it, but this time, he seems to be more optimistic and in better mood. (There is also a flamenco lesson you will never forget.) Who knows? Maybe he got infected by Hawkins's exuberance too!

Annie Leibovitz Promotion Video with Pro8A

A promotion video which shows Annie Leibovitz at work. Notice how many assistants/lighting equipments she has. She also uses a D3 here. I think D3's high ISO capability works well with her hand-holding shooting style.

Interesting Bumper Sticker I Saw Today

The more I see of men,
The more I love my cat.