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Soft Light Magic

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For a while now I have been really enjoying the beauty of photographs posted by Bren at Ryan Photography. In her November 5th Flower of the Day post she describes how she post processes images using radial and graduated filters in Adobe Lightroom, which I actually have and know, more or less, how to use. So many of the techniques require photoshop or other fancy things I haven’t learned yet. Last week I had an afternoon free from other worries and while the chili cooked I took a few photos from a fall walk around my neighborhood and gave her techniques a try.

I found it to be relaxing, almost like meditation, to play with the light and shadows. A big thank you to Bren for sharing her techniques.

Lens Artists Weekly Photo Challenge: Magical Light

China, Picture Galleries, Shouguang, Snapshots from a Happy Life, Travel Tale

Take luck

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This afternoon I had a serendipitous experience. I was doing my coddiwomple thing after having coffee with my son and his girlfriend. They headed off to work and I just headed off. I tend to wander in a spiral, keeping a sense of where my ground zero is, but at the same time getting farther and farther afield. As I was headed back toward the center I spied a fascinating looking lion. Of the mythical type you often see on either side of an entrance in China. The thing that caught was the colors of the lion. It turned out that it was ceramic and the amazing coloration was from a brilliant job of glazing.

The shop appeared open but empty. I first peeked in through, then pressed my nose against the window to get a good view of the lions and other merchandise. From the shop next door a woman came out and said “Welcome to Shouguang” and invited me into her shop. She was happy to have me take pictures and she and her assistant served me tea. I believe, and I may learn more tomorrow when I visit another of her shops with my son, who will be able to understand her, it is a special collector’s type of ceramic. I am certain that it is gorgeous.

Many happiness peach man.
Dragon (my favorite).
Monkey vase.
Elephant vase.
Lucky horses, san ma.

This is one of those times when I couldn’t have planned to do something I really enjoyed, because I didn’t know it existed.

Ragtag Daily Prompt: Serendipity

China, Picture Galleries, Shouguang, Snapshots from a Happy Life

Shouguang in a row

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A gallery of rows I’ve seen around town.

Rows of pilings.
Rows of windows.
Rows of drying cucumber.
Rows of garlic.
Rows of tall buildings.
Row of teacups.
Row of toy shopping carts.
Row of dining with your cell phone stations.
Rows of pens.
Rows of teacups.
Rows of tea creatures.
Row of rental bikes.
Row of shops, with rows of merchandise.

Posted for Travel at Wit’s End: Photo Yoga: Rows

China, Picture Galleries, Shouguang, Snapshots from a Happy Life

Which Way to the fish?

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These are pictures of a pedestrian bridge across the Mihe River in Shouguang, a bit to the south of town, one of three I have found so far. It was damaged by floods a couple of months ago, when a typhoon passed over the area on its way to Korea. Being, technically, closed doesn’t stop the local fishermen.

Even though I have a map of town it doesn’t show these pedestrian bridges. Maybe the map is old, as in the US most people seem to use their phone for navigation these days. I like a map myself. It doesn’t have a tiny, hard to read screen, connections to lose, or batteries to die.

Posted for Son of a Beach’s Which Way Photo Challenge

China, Picture Galleries, Shouguang, Snapshots from a Happy Life

Keep on truckin’

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One thing I always enjoy when traveling abroad is vehicle watching. Here in Shouguang city most of the trucks one sees are not what one sees in Seattle, in fact I don’t think I’ve seen a single American style pick up or semi since I arrived. But people still need to haul stuff. Here are some of the trucks I saw when I was out and about yesterday.

These vehicles are more practical in many ways: inexpensive to run, less resource intensive to make and nimble for getting around in narrow, often crowded places.

Interesting “truck” trivia: in Chinese they usually call trucks “ka che” which is “pi ka che” shortened. “pi ka” is from what Chinese think “pick up” sounds like.

Ragtag Daily Prompt: Truck