Between Moon-set and Moon-rise

It's usually a 13-hour ordeal that involves 5 hours of driving and 8 hours of standing in freezing winds... But this time, it was a bit longer.

 

Inspired by my friend's eagle shots with golden river waves at sunrise, I got up at 3:45am and left home at 4:30am.  It was dark, as always, but the difference this time was -- the almost-full moon was setting right in front of me.  Reddish orange color, hanging quietly in the sky and sliding down smoothly...  It's nothing like sunset, where you can see and feel the residual power long after the sun sets.  With the moon-set, there is tremendous quietness to it.  It brings you beauty and imagination, but then it disappears suddenly and completely -- GONE, just like that!  You find yourself being left in the dark again... but with more thoughts and even more imagination!

I finished the day around 4:30pm.  As I drove home, the moon was quietly rising in the sky.  Unlike the sunrise, moon-rise does not scream for attention.  It just blends into the late afternoon sky calmly with its bluish white color and forever elegance... I wonder if there will ever be a time when people start paying more attention to the beauty of moon-rise and moon-set.     

In between the moon-set and moon-rise, I was able to capture some pretty awesome actions!  

February 9, 2017

Quad Cities, Iowa

Hunting for Lunch

It's usually a 13-hour ordeal that involves 6 hours of driving and 7 hours of standing in freezing winds... We were very lucky on Sunday when the temperature was pretty mild (at 37F).

Just an FYI -- except for the first photo, all other photos have a fish in them. So look long and hard for it -:))

Quad City, Iowa
February 5, 2017

Let There Be Voice

This is dedicated to my father, who was a successful journalist in China and never had a chance to taste freedom of speech, free press and democracy!

The closest "democracy" he ever experienced was on 4/5/1976.  After the Chinese Prime Minister Zhou En Lai died, hundreds of thousands of people gathered on Tian An Men Square in Beijing to pay their respect to Zhou.  It was toward the end of Culture Revolution, even when people had tremendous dissatisfaction with the direction of the country, no one dared to openly shout out what's on their mind; and no one dared to bring a large sign with their favorite statement written on it.  Instead, they posted small hand-written notes on People's Monument -- thousands and thousands of them...  My father quietly went to Tian An Men Square on 4/5/1976, all by himself, and took nearly a hundred pictures.  Weeks following that day, we spent so much time together in our "dark room" to develop those photos.  I was stunned when I saw people's sad faces and read those beautiful poems -- it was so REAL.  None of them got published, of course.  In fact, none of his coworkers even knew that he had the courage to go and capture those precious historical moments.

I am so thankful for having the opportunity to come to America, where free speech and democracy is truly valued.  As I marched on the streets in downtown Chicago, as I read all the signs and heard all the words, I thought about my father, and I told myself to forever cherish democracy -- the very thing that my father had always wanted to experience. 

https://zine.la/article/f2114286e10f11e6b7ca52540d79d783/?from=singlemessage&isappinstalled=1
       

Women's March
Chicago, IL
January 21, 2017

 

My journey to digitize history...

It's an amazingly quiet weekend -- after all the holiday craziness, all the noise and crowds, spending a 3-day weekend quietly at home is indeed a wonderful treat.

I know it sounds a bit crazy... but I am continuing on my long journey to digitize history. 

For all the text messages between me and Michelle, starting on 6/9/2009, line by line, I put them in an Excel worksheet.  Each line has its date, time and the message.  As of today, there are 10,106 lines.  I didn't record anything prior to 6/9/2009 because it didn't occur to me that my phone might die one day...  

For all the emails between me and Michelle, starting on 9/11/1999, I put them all in a Word document.  As of today, the document has 503 pages.  The very first email was from my little Michelle, on 6/9/1999 at age 9, saying: "Hi mommy, how are you?  I miss you."  It was quite a revolutionary experience for Michelle to learn that we could communicate this way!

As many of you know, I have been putting all the emails into books.  As of today, I've made 7 books for Michelle, each contains about 70 pages.  Attached are the covers for those 7 books.

Book 1 = Horizon.  This is the book I made for Michelle as a part of her high school graduation gift.  It covers her young life from 1990 (when she was born) through 2008 (right before she graduated from high school).

Book 2 = High School Years.  This book covers Michelle's high school years from 5/2004 to 2/2008.  It contains all (and only) the emails between me and Michelle's high school teachers.  Seventy pages of them!! 

Books 3-7 = Footprints.  The fine prints at the lower right-hand corner of each book indicates the time period covered in that book.  These books carry all the emails between me and Michelle.

Let's hope that some day, in a very distant future, in our old ages, we would have the time, interest and calm minds to enjoy the history.

Hidden Beauty

To me, the challenge of photography is not just about getting up at 3am or standing in the freezing wind, it is also about having the discipline and patience to go through all the images and discover beauty...

I finally had the time over the holidays to process a few photos that have been left behind.  Enjoy!

Picture1 = Yosemite NP, California

Picture 2 = Big Sur, California

Winter in Chicago

Downtown Chicago, 
IL December 22, 2016

Embrace Winter

St. Joseph, Michigan
December 18,2016