Midnight Fog

Compared to the photo I took this morning, the same street felt very different.

It was past midnight and I was about to sleep. I noticed it was unusually foggy outside and couldn't resist taking my camera out to take a few snaps. No one was on the street. I felt like I was not in the real world, but in a movie set (John Carpenter's "The Fog", and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" came to mind). I could even walk in the middle of the road and took photos. Quite an unusual experience.

P.S. It's a good thing I didn't have to work the next day, or I wouldn't have stayed up so late.

New Toy

Bought a stylus for my Kindle Fire. The touch is still skittish, but at least there are no fingerprints.

A sketch I draw using the stylus and SketchBook Mobile ($1.99). It's fun.

Landscape in Fog

Last Leaves in Fall

Due to the high contrast, I overexposed this photo so the leaves wouldn't become too dark. The foggy grey sky now becomes pure white, reminds me Chinese painting.

I think this photo can make a very challenging jigsaw puzzle.

I wish the day was windy so I could do a long exposure and the colors would blend. Now I don't even bother to use a tripod. The micro contrast of the 24mm Nikkor can be a bit overwhelming.

The last burn of the Japanese maple. The sun finally came out in the afternoon.

Mushroom Paradise

My front yard has becomes the favorite place for mushrooms. It's amazing how fast they grow. The mushroom on the left side is the "small" mushroom in my previous photo, now it has reached the size of the "big" one (which, alas, had gone missing). They all look temptingly edible.  

P.S. wow, now the 3 small mushrooms are gone too. Scary.

Rose in a Paper Cup

Spotted this at Dana Cafe, downtown Mountain View.

P.S. I visited Dana Cafe today (11/27). This beautiful rose had started to wither. I am so glad I took this picture yesterday.

Miti Playing Cat Volleyball

Playing with Nikon J1

A camera that is fun to use, but in a bad niche.

I decided to joining the Black Friday crowd and visited Best Buy. Turned out the only thing in the store that I found interesting was the Nikon J1. To my surprise, with its metal body, the build quality is actually better than my D5100 (which is mostly plastic and speaks cheap).  Because of the mirrorless design, the focus is really fast (much faster than the D5100, but I didn't feel it exceeded the speed of my D3X). The 10-30mm lens on the camera is also better looking than the regular Nikkor. I took a few test shots and felt it would be a fun camera to use. 

The only problem is, it's in a bad niche*. I already carry an android phone and don't want to bring another compact camera with me wherever I go. And if I ever take the trouble to carry a camera, I want to be able to use my Zeiss lenses. So until Nikon has an adapter out for their F mount lenses, I will have to pass the Nikon 1 and save my money for the D800.  

*This only applies to me. If you don't own any other camera, this is still a good choice.

Fall Colors

I am getting better at taking photos with my cell phone.

Book Stroll

Women Power. Books of Lady Gaga and Oprah on display next to the Steve Jobs biography.

For biography readers, this is a wonderful year. We got Catherine the Great, Dickens, The Marx family (Karl, Jenny, and their daughters), Van Gogh, and just joining the passing great, Steve Jobs.

Forget about the piggy bank, the owl bank is way too cute.

Night light for the night owls.

Clash of Titans

After finding that big mushroom in my front yard now I am interested in Fungi.

In the Kitchen

Fruit Basket

What Can You Do with These Objects?

Playing Balancing Act

I had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at Chinchih's house (her boyfriend's mom was cooking). After dinner, while the hosts were busy cleaning up, I was playing with objects in the kitchen. I found the rich colors of fruits had a painting-like quality under the incandescent light (especially pomegranate, no wonder it appeared in a lot of western paintings). It would be interesting to see how they look under "painting with light". Maybe I should try that someday.

A Stroll in the Park on Thanksgiving

Empty Tennis Court

In Cherry Orchard

The Last Cherry Orchard in Sunnyvale

Before it became part of the Silicon Valley, Sunnyvale used to be a cherry orchard town. When I first came to California, there was still a large cherry orchard near downtown. Over the years, the orchard became smaller and smaller, replaced by luxury apartments and a shopping center. (Now even the Borders inside the shopping center is out of business.) Only a small patch left. Who knows how long it will last? Still, the small patch is beautiful. I promised myself to take some photos every time I drove by. Finally, I got time this Thanksgiving to snap a few shots.

Kindle Touch and Me

Took the Kindle Touch with me for my morning coffee.

My Kindle Touch arrived yesterday. After using Kindle Fire for a few days, it took me quite some time to get used to it. The reasons? Page turning is slower, there are less fonts available so books sometimes don't look as beautiful as on Fire, navigating my archived items (I have more than 200 books) is cumbersome, I can't listen to music when I read*, etc. For a moment, I questioned my decision to get a Touch after already owning a Fire. However, I decided to give it more time before giving it away to some friend. 

Because Touch is much lighter than Fire, it's much more comfortable to take it with me. I took it to gym and found the eInk display worked really well for reading on an exercise bike. I also found, without the distraction of color, music, and Internet, I was "forced" to read more deeply. I remembered how I read when I was a child, the focus, the concentration. Then I realized this type of reading was reserved for something special. Suddenly I realized the perfect reading material for Kindle Touch, poetry.  

I download Tennyson and started reading Ulysses. The eInk display looked just like the small, hardback poetry books I sometimes collected. It was wonderful*. I download more poems and created a poetry collection. Now the Touch has started to grow on me. I even see it as a metaphor, with the Fire as my "public" self, and the Touch as my "private" self. It may be flawed, but it has found its place.    


*None of them should have come as a surprise since I already had a Kindle DX for a few years. However, after using Fire for a few days, they became intolerable.
**I tried reading the same poem on Fire and found something was lacking on the LCD display.  

What Do I Learn from A Happy Day at Work

This week's flowers. I won't be here to see them next week.

Today is my happiest day at work. (Ironically it's also my last day at my current company.) There were actually a lot of things to do. I had to do knowledge transfer to a colleague and helped her setting up some customer environment. Setting up the environment was never fun and in normal days I would be under a lot of stress. However, since I was kind of lighthearted (I couldn't stop smiling), I didn't feel stressed at all. Whenever I encountered an issue, I just laughed at it and treated it like something interesting to play with. I was also cracking jokes to help my coworker lowering her level of anxiety. In short, it was a busy and productive day. I felt good.

Then it stroke me. I was doing almost the same thing a couple of days ago, but it felt totally different. I felt stressful, hated all the obstacles I encountered, and had no patience. However, because my mindset changed today, doing the same thing felt totally different. Not only the task became more fun, I was also more productive. So why not treat every day like the last day at work? It releases the burden. By being happy, you can actually make yourself happier.   

Worst USB Cable

  

I noticed some broken plastic on the floor, then found it was from the cheap USB cable shipped with my Kindle DX. Pretty scary. I think I need to report it to Amazon.

Sleeping Cat

I was reading and Miti was sound asleep even with music playing from my Kindle Fire. I could hardly resist the temptation to record this moment.  

In Local Market

The strange shape of the "winter" melon in the U.S.

One can hardly resist the rich colors of a local market

Lovely Jams

The Twinings teas remind me my trip to London last year

Spent some time doing grocery shopping with Chinchih. Can hardly resist taking photos in the local market.

Fall Arrived in California

Eat Me

Spotted these "delicious" looking mushrooms in my front yard. For the life of me I dare not eat them.

After Rain (In My Front Yard)

It's probably a bad idea to hand held the D5100, but I was too lazy.

The Best Camera Is the One You Carry with You

Reflection is sometimes more interesting than the real subject.

In perfect light, even a phone camera can do wonders.

Van Gogh will love the fall colors.

Love the texture

Unfortunately that means my cell phone. 

Snapshots from this morning's stroll.
California is unbelievably beautiful after rain.