Ethereality News & Weblog

Weblog:
I took Elena to Palo Alto and drove around the rich neighborhood so she could gawk at the multi-million dollar houses that the rich people live in. We then walked around University Avenue for a bit and had lunch at some Mediterranean restaurant. I took a bunch of photos of Elena at University Avenue, and they turned out to be some of the best I took on this vacation so far. Here are a couple of my favorites:

You can see the rest in the Kitty Cat Diaries area of the Photography section.

The photos Elena took of Palo Alto are here.

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For dinner, the whole family got together and dinned at a Chinese restaurant in Sunnyvale, then went to my brother Stephen’s house. Today is actually Elena’s birthday, and since my sister Grace’s birthday was three days earlier, we celebrated both of their birthdays together on the 5th.

More boring family photos here.

Weblog:
We’ve been in California for a few weeks now, and today when I asked Elena what were the unexpected things that stood out the most to her about being here, she listed:

1) The beautiful clouds and the vast open sky she’s seen every single day since we arrived in California. She would squeal with delight whenever we’re just out driving around, because everywhere we looked above, the sky was like a beautiful painting. She filled the memory cards of our cameras with tons of cloud photos, and still couldn’t get enough of it:

See more sky photos here.

2) How very little skyscrappers there are and how far apart everything is. The vast amount of space available prevented the need to build things really tall in the States, and she’s not used to seeing so many one-story houses.

3) She had believed everything in the States would be more expensive than China, but it surprised her that some things are actually cheaper, while of much higher quality.

4) The amount of Chinese people and Chinese businesses in California. She’s heard about it, but to actually see Chinese stores, banks, auto shops, restaurants..etc everywhere and seeing/hearing Chinese people everywhere still surprised her.

5) The ridiculosly large servings in typical American restaurants. It freaked her out so much that she made me take photos:

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Tonight we had dinner at my buddy Nadim and his girlfriend Vicky’s place tonight in Oakland. Oakland is a scary place for me because everytime I go there I feel oppressed–as if there’s a possible gang shooting or other violent crimes just around the corner. Vicky cooked Fajitas and it managed to change Elena’s negative opinion about Mexican food. Elena’s had Chevy’s and Taco Bell while in California, and they gave her a bad impression of Mexican food (although I explained those are not really authentic Mexican food). Vicky’s Fajita’s weren’t overly greasy or slathered with melted cheese, much to Elena’s delight. I talked a lot more than usual–maybe because I haven’t had anyone to really speak English to for the years I’ve been in China, and the topics were about sampling libraries, photography..etc, so I just couldn’t shut up. It’s been five years since I’ve seen Nadim, so it was awesome to see him again. He’s a pretty good musician, and is about to get his master’s degree in photography. You can see his website here.

Nadim looking seriously German.

Nadim and Vicky like two peas in a pot.

Unfortunately, Elena had to play deaf and mute again. I hope it pushes her to want to learn English faster–because she’ll be looking at many more situations where she’ll be forced to be deaf and mute once we move back to the States.

Weblog:
While wandering around San Francisco, we put the Fuji F10 through its paces by shooting with it exclusively . It felt strange leaving my Canon 1D MKII in the trunk of the car, as I felt a little naked without it. However, it’s a refreshing change to shoot such a tiny camera–so convenient and so light! I noticed immediately that the dynamic range is much narrower compared to the 1D MKII (what did I expect from a $329 camera?), which is a totally unfair comparison as the 1D MKII body alone costs $4,500, and you can put as expensive of a lens as you want on it. As advertised, it does startup very fast–by the time you have it up to eye level, it’s ready to shoot. The AF and the wait between shots didn’t impress me at all, but it’s a slight improvement over the Olympus C3030Z. The one frustrating thing about the Fuji F10 is the variable aperature. At the widest end, it’s f/2.8, but at the longest end, it’s f/5, which is annoyingly slow even at ISO1600. If you want to shoot low light wihout flash, you better use the wide end exclusively.

Here are a few shots taken with the Fuji F10:

As you can see, under normal circumstances the Fuji F10 is a respectable performer, but once you put it in more demanding situations, the limitations of a point & shoot camera becomes painfully obvious. See the full set of photos here for more details.

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During the last week, we had hit most of the places you take a first timer to see in San Francisco–Fisherman’s Warf, Union Square, Chinatown, Japantown, Lombard Street, Golden Gate Bridge, the Presidio, Market Street, Mission District, Sunset District, Richmond District, Palace of Fine Art, San Francisco Shopping Center…etc. Of course, detailed exploration would have to wait until we move back to the Bay Area.

Weblog:
I took Elena to San Francisco to hang out with Cindy, and we drove through the Presideo, stopped for a bit at Palace of Fine Art, then drove around downtown. For dinner, we ate at one of my favorite restaurants in the city–Straights Cafe on Geary Street.

Elena at the Palace of Fine Art. More could be seen here.

Weblog:
How many of you know that Snoopy is supposed to be a beagle? He really doesn’t look much like one though. Here’s my brother Dennis’s beagle, Milo:


Omigod he’s trying to gnaw off Elena’s hand!

No vacation is complete until you hit a posh shopping area for the rich, so off to Stanford Shopping Center we went:

You can see more photos taken at Stanford Shopping Center here.