Xiao-Rong and Reza came to SF  

It's been nine years, but the day finally came – Xiao-Rong and Reza came to SF to visit us! Jia, Yongyi, Michelle, and Tiffany also joined us for a couple of days. Here are some of the photos:

posted by gz 9:55 下午 留言/

Outdoor Testing  

I still haven't got my SD card. But the weather has been so lovely this weekend (continuing the weekly trend), that I just had to go out and take some outdoor photos, even when I have a cold. I'm such a dedicated photographer, if I must say so myself!

And here are some samples of my hard work:

At dusk, we took a little walk in Candlestick Park

The fishing piers

The cliffs at Fort Funston, our new favorite beach

On the beach: Matthew perching like a bird (or fisherman?)

posted by gz 10:13 下午 留言/

相机  

我们的"老"照相机—其实也就4岁—不幸于圣诞期间在Denver就义了. 想起我们上一代相机, 也是干了4年寿终正寝. 数码相机大概就是这个寿数吧. 在此表扬一下咱老相机(#2), 这几年跟着咱, 上山下海, 任劳任怨, 最后牺牲在工作岗位上—他的镜头至今还凝固在"开机"的状态 (怎么也关不上了), 在冥冥之中注视着这个世界.

经专家介绍, 本周我们又迎来了新相机 — Panasonic DMC-LX3, F2.0 24mm Leica DC Vario-Summicron 镜头. 看上去挺专业吧:

相机到家了,可是卡还没到, 内存只有50M, 所以还不能使劲照. 以下是几张室内的试照:

处女照: living room at night

Matthew working on the kitchen counter

俺首次炮制的馅饼 (凌阿姨秘方)

黄昏, San Francisco Bay

夕阳 • 蝴蝶兰

上午 • 蝴蝶兰

Some of our house plants

大叶子

San Francisco Bay, 正午, 烈日炎炎

怎么样, 高级吧? (反正我觉得挺高级的.) 我很喜欢相机的广角镜头, 还有超强的感光 — 晚上的照片都没用闪光灯, 我的手也并不稳, 效果还不错, 虽然有些颜色有点funky, 大概可以调white balance? 等卡来了,要好好去室外照一照...

posted by gz 8:50 上午 留言/

Thanksgiving, Xmas, New Year  

Time flies..... I sometimes wonder why it is that the older you (I) get, the faster time seems to fly by. I can still vividly remember sitting in a classroom when I was, say, eight, and painfully counting the minutes and seconds when the class would be over (which seemed to last a life time). But now, whole months and years just flash past.

I finally had a revelation: when we are young, our senses are hyper-charged, and you take in everything around you more vividly, everything tastes stronger, every sound sharper, and every passing second registers on us. As we grow older, we lost that sensitivity - we need to add more spice to our food to taste right, and time blurs along with our vision.

So, my point is... I have an excuse for not posting anything for 2 months (that is because it felt like 2 weeks to me). And here is part of what happened during this period:

1. Thanksgiving in Toronto and Ashburn:


2. Xmas in SF and Denver


More Denver pics from Chantal here.

Happy new year everyone!

posted by gz 11:16 上午 留言/

There and back again, the photo edition  

So I happened to take a look at the blog, and was shocked to find that there was actually a recent post by Matthew -- the only post in the last half a year, and not even by a real Zong (not trying to be exclusive here, just admitting to the sad state of the blog, due to my neglect).

Inspired (or shamed) by this , I have (finally) uploaded all my photos, and hereby presenting them to all for your viewing pleasure, so that there's some visual context when you read Matthew's account of there and back again... and maybe, I'll add some anecdotes of my own, all in good time.

Here they are, roughly in chronological order:
1. Beijing before the Olympics: family, parks, temples, food, etc.


2. Trekking an unrestored stretch of the Great Wall, between Jinshanling and Simatai:


3. Lushan: a week up in the mountain retreat with the whole family


4. Sanqingshan: fantastic mountain scenery, and Hell Hotel


After saying goodbye to the big group, Rong and I went on an adventure of our own:
5. Wuyishan: fascinating tea country


6. Xiamen: the city and island on the Taiwan strait


7. Quanzhou: once the biggest sea port in the world, now described by a local as "nothing to see or do" (which is not really true)


And then we're back in Beijing:
8. Beijing during the Olympics


While I'm at it, here are the photos from our recent Hawaii trip:



That's it for now, folks! Oh, those of you who can, don't forget to vote tomorrow! (I so envy you guys...)

posted by gz 6:36 下午 留言/