Photo of Gus
taken with Pentax DA 50-200 f/4.0-5.6

Our family are saddened with the passing of Gus over the holidays. Gus is the male goose in my neighbor's garden. He left behind his spouse Lily along with his good friends Daisy and Digger. I dearly miss seeing Gus around when I drive by. It has been a long fight with diabetes and I am so proud of my neighbor's love for animals that every bit of care giving and nursery is given to Gus in the fight with his diabetes to his last day in the neighbor.

My neighbor has the best garden that I have ever visited. It is filled with awesome flowers, fruit trees, and it has a landscape designed to share the pleasant space with birds, cats, squirrels and many friendly visitors with fur and feathers. It is a special treat for my boys to visit Gus, Lily, Daisy and Digger on a daily basis. They are the human like animals with a big heart for people. They greeted you with a touch of fur and a genuine hello for your attention. Gus has the distinct voice when strangers are around the neighbor. He is the watchdog and great companion for Lily, my home and my neighbors.

Gus & Lily
with Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8

Gus is very protective of Lily and they have become such a romantic couple that I can envy at times when I pass by their path. They always follow each other strolling around their little ponds and lovely garden from dawn to dust. It is sad to see Lily sitting in the pond all by herself without Gus watching over her with a tender heart and watchful ears. The above picture of Gus & Lily reminds me of movie in March of the Penguins where the Royal Penguins dance in lovely pairs with rituals and charisma that are human like with love and romance

Photo of Lily
with Vivitar 70-150mm f/3.8 from Kiron

I am hoping time and good friends in the neighborhood will heal the passing of Gus. And my neighbor has been wonderful in keeping animals in pairs. And I am yet to learn about the name of our new friendly neighboring geese who keeps Lily in good company in her grieving period. But my boys and I do know Daisy and Digger who always keep Lily and my boys in good company

Digger
with Pentax DA 35mm f/2.8 1:1 Macro

Daisy
with Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8

Daisy & Digger
with Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8

my neighbor with AutoStich

1/30 sec, f/3.5, 115mm, iso 640, 0 Ev, hand-held

Photos taken with Pentax K20D and
Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8 and
Pentax FA 77mm f/1.8 limited

I met Babu in the shooting of a Bharatanayam Arangetram and Babu is the Director
Keerthana School of Indian Music & Fine Arts. Babu has a wonderful voice that I can't describe it in words, you have to be at the audience to experience his wonder of his songs. He has his own website with clips of his wonderful work in Babu Music. He also has great expression often felt in his deep voice and it is my pleasure to have met him in the dance. I am sure he has a fan base and I learn from him that he has an interest in finding a job on a permanent base in the US. I surely hope that I can meet him again.


The photo shooting of my first Bharatanayam Arangetram was the most difficult shooting that I have ever performed. I lack the photog experience. The lighting is good for the artistic image but difficult as there are times that high ISO 1600 and wide open f/2.8 still had problem to get enough lighting for the scene. Though I was exhausted and spent two days in the shooting and 16+ hours of photo editing afterward. I was not aware of the fact that my volunteering job of the photo shooting of my co-worker's friend actually took away two weekends of my family time and many editing hours in between. I spent many late nights after work to go through the rehearsal and formal pictures. It was my most excruciating editing job on over 2000 pictures taken in 2 separate days of the event: rehearsal on Thursday and formal dance on Saturday.

I love the challenge in learning to take pictures in a staged performance with difficult and constantly changing lighting while the song and the themes in the dance change from one stage to another. In hindsights, I should have spent time to find out the time commitment. Had the family informed me about the time engagement, I would have walked away from the gruesome tasks of 2000+ pictures. Was it my stupidity that make all this resentment in my heart after the shooting. And was it the family that tried to exploit my enthusiasm for free photo service. I think both are involved. I walked away from the shooting relieved as I did the best that I could as an amateur for the family but I felt bitter as the family really took advantage of me for saving the cost involved in their 2 days photo shooting for their daughter. I got no one to blame but myself to let my enthusiasm in photo learning opportunity to let others looking for free photography service to take full advantage of me

• The family mentioned no time commitment of 5 hours of shooting in each of the two long days of shooting. Perhaps, they didn't want me to know what I signed up for. I would have walked away had they mentioned about the long hours.
  
• In the formal dance, they gave me an Volunteer badge instead of the Photographer badge that I thought I rightly deserved. This is little thing that didn't bother me as I did volunteer for the service but it showed that they might have little respect to the profession of photography. I did not check on the professional that they hired for the formal video production and I would bet they had different treatment as an hired professional.
  
• My name and my service was not even mentioned once. I was honored in the last catch all phrase of thank you to all "volunteers" in the dance. That was no biggie too but it would have made my free service to be honorable and respectful.
  
• I was not given a bottle of water for my service in the rehearsal. In the formal, one of the five musicians actually offered me a bottle of their water when I asked them during intermission at backstage where I photoed the backstage lighting as well as candid photos for the musicians.
• I was finally offered dinner on the formal dance. I earned my right for the restful dinner as I finally took my camera down and placed them on a table while shoveling the food to fill the void. I took more guest pictures when I was asked to take more pictures with their guests after the gruesome photo shooting for the reception, introduction, formal dance backstage intermissions and ending ceremony. My mind and physical body was somewhere else in Mars and I couldn't remember the day and the exact location of my presence when I took my dinner sitting next to Babu and the three other musicians in the event.
  

When I finally finished the editing and upload of rough count of 600 pictures to flickr, I felt relieved as I did my volunteer job well for the family but I was totally resentful with the service and the family whom I had no relation other than acquaintance through a co-worker's son 1st first birthday in which I helped out with photography. That was an hour of my time and my co-worker provided all the thirst quenching water and great food in the party. I was thinking that the volunteering work was a matter of another birthday event, I could do it and I could make new friends with this unknown but seemingly friendly and well educated Indian family. Was I so wrong in my expectation?


My enthusiasm in helping people taking pictures for free has caused me an important lesson to learn. I went to the rehearsal, two days before the formal dance at 3:30pm on a Thursday in Palo Alto near Middlefield and San Antonio Road. I was invited to the rehearsal to practice the shooting. I eagerly agreed to it as I didn't want my inexperience to hamper the pictures of the family important and once in a lifetime dance graduation of their daughter. The ceremony of Bharatanayam Arangetram was an important and sacred event in the family. They hired separate professional video grapher as well as stage lighting and music crews on the formal dance. I returned home that Thursday night with 390 pictures on the rehearsal at 10:00pm as I took dinner in Taco Bell at 8:45pm. I slept past 2:30pm on early Friday morning finishing the upload of rehearsal photo set. The theater was at least 40 miles from my home. I was not offered even a single bottle of water. I was essentially starving throughout the 5+ hours of rehearsal practice while the dancer and the musician practiced in the theater well prepared with snack and water. I was not told anything about a 5+ hour long rehearsal and I could not have anticipated the long event but I was also occupied in studying the lighting, my hunger and thirst were second nature. No biggie and I was delighted and excited to see the Taco Bell before highway 101 entrance when I left. That $2.79 spicy crunchy wrap was the best that I have ever had.

I wasn't upset on Thursday as my mind was more focused in getting the best of the rehearsal shots to the family to show that I qualified for the task and their trust. I was relieved that my practice run was smoother than expected. Come Saturday, I was more prepared with extra slack and started the day with McDonald Ice Mocha. I loved the large drink from McDonald that it lasted through 3/4 of the dance for me. I was aware that the family really misinformed me on the shooting time required. I was totally naive in not knowing anything about the dance of 5 hours of shooting in each day. And I was not aware that the performance alone was 3 hour stretch in the dance with a 15 minutes intermission. Unlike the rehearsal, I was offered with snack like the rest of the guests in intermission and I finally earned my South Indian dinner after 10 hours of shooting in two separate days and the previous 4+ hours of editing for the rehearsal on Thursday night. In total honesty, I liked the dinner but I was so freaking tired anything would smell and taste like a feast from heaven. In the dinner, I met new friends and relatives of the family.

I have many Indian friends and colleagues who are great people with kindness, honesty, well education and best of all consideration for others not of the same ethnic background. This incidence has revealed a different face that I unfortunately have learned the hard way. After the Bharatanayam Arangetram, I was contacted by one of the relatives of the Indian family on a Friday afternoon with a quick next day photo service request. The gentleman and I work in the same company and he requested my assistance to photo service on the next day on an half marathon on behalf of an Eye Hospital donation in India. It was meant for a charity service and the event started early at 7:00am on Saturday with a 30 mile driving distance from my home. I normally will jump at a great opportunity to help and learn and donate my time for a good charity purpose. There was no way in my slightest imagination that I would be ready to find the shooting spots on a half marathon trail stretching in miles in the Shoreline park of Mountain View. Let alone the very little information and time for me to get informed from this gentlemen about the exact location of the shooting. I did not hesitate for a moment and said no to the urgent request as I was resentful with what I was about done at the time with all the 2000+ picture editing and selection for the Bharatanayam Arangetram event.

More free photography requests kept coming. One included shooting many Hindu Gods in their temple after certain activity where each Hindu family placed their Gods' symbolic figures for display. I said no right at the moment of request as I have conflict of religion belief in Jesus Christ. I did comply with two photo services from Indian colleagues as they were meant for an important functions of two different groups in my company -- Women In Tech and Indian Heritage Day in 2009. I helped out the two requests and declined the rest as I was simply exhausted and resentful to my enthusiasm in helping others with my amateur photo skills


Please ask me not for photo service again unless I have a good reason with interest or that my family approves my time spent for the service. And I have made it known in my contact page that I no longer offer free photography service. I am tired with the requests and I can not give a reason to justify the complaint from my family. I surely have met the people that I was perhaps not meant to help but I did what I could in helping them saving cost from a true professional service.


When the family asked me for a free DVD delivered to their home. I finally said NO and I explained my resentment to them. But out of my courtesy of service and that it is an important event to their family, I allow them to print as many pictures as they desire from my Flickr account.


But for my good friend Babu and the other three great musicians who did not ask me to work for their pictures, I let them download all of their photos and they are not the client who requested my presence and service. I hope that I can clear my mind with resentment and move on to another chapter where I learn to say no for a reason and learn to gather information so as to arrive at an informed decision in saying yes to a service.

1/200 sec, f/5.6, 115mm, iso 200, +1/3 Ev

1/200 sec, f/5.6, 138mm, iso 200, +1/3 Ev

1/250 sec, f/5.6, 200mm, iso 200, 0 Ev

1/125 sec, f/5.6, 200mm, iso 200, +1/3 Ev

1/125 sec, f/5.6, 200mm, iso 200, +2/3 Ev

1/200 sec, f/5.6, 138mm, iso 200, +2/3 Ev

All photos are taken with Pentax K100D and Pentax DA 50-200

My Pentax FA 50 f/1.4 and Pentax DA 50-200 are used mostly in weekend when I go dining out or visiting special events in the weekend. The Pentax DA 50-200 continues to be very versatile for its small size and light weight. And I can zoom in for mostly in the 150 to 200mm range for the young musician shots in the Moon Festival of Cupertino in California over the past weekend. The group plays excellent music and my DA 50-200 can stay in a far enough distance not making any distraction to the life performance.

My family just visited a Korean restaurant for lunch along with Pentax FA 50 f/1.4 and Pentax K100D. The pictures and my boy look as if the food are spicy, actually quite the opposite but they are as tasty as I can ask for -- very yummy and my FA 50 f/1.4 brings out the best in my lunch

Very tasty lunch plate with soup

Let me try this

Oh man, that is hot


Oh man, hot again. My boy is hungry
and that is how he enjoys his food

Only the soup is spicy


Home made noodle with black bean sauce,
very tasty and tangy

Water bottles are needed for tasty food

Come on, I want more

Combination of rice and noodles -- very interesting combo

None left when it is my turn for the pot sticker

The name of the restaurant is Za Zang in cupertino located on Steven Creek Blvd close to De Anza Blvd. I was so into the 'K' letter not knowing what to shoot besides 'Killing the Beast' and not until I stepped into Za Zang on Saturday, I realized I was in a Korean restaurant. Why didn't I think of that and I was lucky to have my camera gear ready. A true 'K' theme not planned and apology to WalksFarWoman for not having 5 favorite restaurants to join her meme on favorite eat out places. And I have 3 more places to go as my family eats out less for various reasons. And when we do eat out, we try to enjoy it as much as we can like my boys.

Last week ABC Wednesday is on Jack In The Box At Night.

All photos taken with Pentax DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 and
Pentax K20D

I woke up at 2:00am trying to shoot the falling stars with Perseid Meteor on August 12, 2009. I went for the wrong location where the city lights disrupted the beauty of the night sky and the meteor happened behind the mountains and trees lower in the horizon. Instead, I salvaged the moments on a couple of shots on the moon and a plane flying over.



Though the sky is not as dark as my encounter of the dark night in camping in Yosemite, I sat alone admiring the night sky while waiting for the camera ready to take the next contiguous shot of 30 second shutter shot. In between shots, I made the connection to the Almighty creator for the universe. I felt His awesome presence while appreciating His wonderful creations and I was in awe of its natural beauty at night. Though I have not made a successful attempt in getting a good picture with the falling stars in Perseid Meteor, I am renewed in spirit in the admiration of His countless stars in the sky sparkling in a great distance that show His wonderful creation and love of mankind.

Psalm 19

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

¹ The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

² Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

³ There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.

⁴ Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,

⁵ which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

⁶ It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is hidden from its heat.

⁷ The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.

⁸ The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.

⁹ The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever.
The ordinances of the LORD are sure
and altogether righteous.

¹⁰ They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the comb.

¹¹ By them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.

¹² Who can discern his errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.

¹³ Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me.
Then will I be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.

¹⁴ May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

I finally make the move to dSLR with Pentax K100D. Some pictures taken recently. We visited Walnut Creek once again in weekend and manage to take some hand held pictures with the kit lens


I was fortunate to have few moments to see the geese in the lake.


And earlier in the park, I took some flower shots




It was a pleasant visit to the Walnut Creek.

Related posts:

• Morning with Pentax DA 18-55
• Color from Pentax DA 50-200
• photozone.de review on DA 50-200
• Looking for Pentax Portrait Lens
• Portraits with Pentax DA 50-200
• 1st Day with Takumar Asahi 28-80 Macro
• Pentax SMC FA 50 f/1.4 Test Shots

Picture taken with Pentax K100mm f/4.0 1:2 Macro

Photo taken with Pentax SMC FA 28-80 power zoom

My cutest Z lion needing zzz......

We have the best new year celebration in taking a Bart train to San Francisco on the Powell exit


and we walked from downtown San Francisco Financial district to Fisherman Wharf. My Z lion is yearning needing some zzz along the train ride on Bart. But he was fine as soon as we got off from the station and met the city with nice view in comfortable sunlight.

And upon the third hotels that we visited and asked for a room to stay overnight, we got the last room in Wharf Inn and later we saw this New Year Eve scenery in Fisherman Wharf

with Pentax FA 50 f/1.4

with Pentax FA 50 f/1.4

and with fireworks on New Year in Ferry building. It was a very romantic evening for me though the boys got too tired and they stayed on bed while I ventured out the last hour for a photo shoot of fireworks walking from Pier 39 to Pier 5 to catch the fireworks without use of tripod. I was unprepared for the overnight stay and everything came up best without planning and I attributed that evening to the Almighty for his grace to fill my family with a fun evening out with no planning

Night scenes with Vivitar 24mm f/2.8 Manual

I thank the Lord for His grace and provision for a romantic and spontaneous evening for my family and I was thinking about my boys and my wife taking those pictures walking alone but filled with joy knowing that they were warm in bed ready for the morning visit to Pier 39 to see the real sea lions on New Year Day morning in 2008.

Last week ABC Wednesday is on Yahoo Year End Party