If I Knew How Great Retirement Was Going To Be I Would Have Applied For Retirement As My First Job! Now I Can Find Those Undiscovered Images Among Us!
Here’s a photo of the old Red Barn in Bodie State Park when Deborah, other friends and I visited during their night opening in August last year. Hope I get to revisit this place again in the future.
Thank you for visiting my post and thanks again to Norm 2.0 for his creation of the Thursday Doors website that gives us bloggers an outlet to let our thoughts be put on paper or in this case, web space. For more posts and photos of doors by others please go to: Thursday Doors.
A lot of time has passed since my last post, over a month! I can blame it on a bit of door bloggers’ block as I spent some time in Hawaii last December taking care of family matters but I have to admit that when you break the discipline of doing the blogs on a weekly basis it disrupts a rhythm making it difficult to start blogging again.
So this is what I’ve come up with for this door post. My search for places that I have not visited in years since I left the islands really didn’t include doors but the back story is what this is all about. With camera in hand I did find some beautiful locations that brought back happy memories of how beautiful the islands are; but the kindness of most of the local people who live there was the ingredient that made it special.
As I drove along the rural neighborhoods of the town of Waimanalo in search of a good setting to photograph the Koolau Mountain Range I found a place of hope. Hope for the future generations that come from at-risk situations but with good people trying to help these young people face their challenges and succeed.
This is a section of the Koolau Range that caught my eye and inspired me to find a better spot for a photo.
I found a place to shoot a better photo and asked the people if I could park on their property to get some better shots. Shannon Kala-Wilsey, a Counselor for the YouthBuild Waimanalo, kindly invited me onto their property and told me about what they were doing in their program. She and Gary Silva, Construction Trainer, were teaching the young men in their program how to build small structures (sheds) for a pilot program to house the homeless people in their neighborhood. The young men in this program were composed of high school dropouts, drug users and juvenile offenders.
The young men posed for a photo in front of the shed they just completed but I noticed there was no door on it yet.
The only door that I was able to photograph was their container office structure with Gary Silva at the door.
I gave these young men a thumbs up and encouraged them to not give up; getting the training and opportunity is the hope that can help them succeed and also help to solve some of their homeless problems all cities face.
And, below is the Koolau Range backyard setting for these young men in this program.
On Christmas day, my search took me to the small town of Kahalu’u. Again, I was trying to capture shots of the majestic Koolau Range and got this shot. But there were some people trying to repair a fence near me so I struck up a conversation with Emelita. She apparently owned the land below this mountain range and her teenage children were trying to repair the fence so their cattle would not get out or stolen; yes, there are cattle rustlers in Hawaii. After talking to Emelita, she invited me, a stranger, to come up to her house balcony to try to shoot some photos from there.
This is Emelita, she is trying to farm her property using the more natural and environmental farming techniques (I’m sorry but I forgot the farming terms she explained to me but I recall she was doing some aquaculture farming, too). She was also getting into the Airbnb business so visitors looking for a more rural experience this is a nice location.
This is the balcony overlooking the pasture below and a couple of doors for this blog.
From the balcony, I tried to shoot a photo of the Chinaman’s Hat island but it was too far away and the telephone poles interfered with the composition so I drove closer and got a shot of the island and also a shot of the Kualoa Ranch.
This ends my Thursday Doors post for this week. I must say it was an effort to do but perhaps this will get me to posting on Norm Frampton’s website more regularly again. Norm is the famous creator of Thursday Doors from Canada and I hope you had time to stop to admire his doors on his Thursday Doors website. Read about his featured doors and then push the blue frog doorbell button to enter his portal of doors bloggers from around the world.
Thank you for visiting my post and thanks again to Norm 2.0 for his creation of the Thursday Doors website that gives us bloggers an outlet to let our thoughts be put on paper or in this case, web space. For more posts and photos of doors by others please go to: Thursday Doors.
It’s that time of the year, Christmas, when homecomings are supposed to be special joyous times with family and friends. I went home again; home for me is Hawaii, but this homecoming was a different kind of special.
This is my third trip home this year, the last being in September to visit my 92 year mother. When I left her in September I had hopes that she would stave off the ravages of age and time so that my next visit would be on her 93rd birthday in February. Time waits for no one and my siblings called me to inform me that it was time to come home. My homecoming was on the 9th of December and mom waited for me but she was mostly comatose when I arrived to see her. A day or two earlier, I was told, she was still alert and got to see her great-grandchild again in person for the last time. I am thankful for that!
I held a vigil with my siblings and we each waited in our own ways. I decided and told mom while sitting with her, that she was there for me when I was born so I was going to be there for her when she leaves us. There were several one-sided conversations when I sat with mom alone and the nursing staff told me that the hearing of dying patients was the last to go so she probably heard me. I truly believe that she heard me so while I did not say it enough while she was alive, I thanked her for taking care of us and let her know that she did a good job; lastly, that she was loved. While we would miss her, I let her know that she was now free to join my dad when he came calling. The date she chose to leave us might just be coincidental but in one of my one-sided discussions I reminded her that my brother’s birthday was on the 12th and she held on until that day came and went and then passed away in the shadows of the early morning of the 13th of December. My siblings and I assembled before her lifeless body that early morning, shed tears but rejoiced that she lived a full, long and good life. A life well lived is the gift we should all wish for; my homecoming was bittersweet but my mom, and dad, did a damn good job for our family and it took this homecoming to remember their lives in that perspective. Both mom and dad enjoyed trips to Las Vegas as many Hawaii residents do and mom was often lucky at the slot machines so I’m hoping they found that great casino in heaven that always hits jackpots; from hereon, every slot machine bell I hear will bring on memories of them (Pavlov’s Theory certainly is fact).
The doors that I am sharing for this Thursday Doors post, the last for this year according to the Door Creator, Norm Frampton, are mostly symbolic because churches are there for the beginning and ending of lives as well as other milestone events in people’s lives. The church was in Napa Valley while I was shooting some fall compositions last month and not in Hawaii.
The First Presbyterian Church in Napa.
Church doors and stain glass windows are always a good subject for Thursday Doors.
The history laid in stone.
And, the Church Office Door.
The end of the year Thursday Door post and my end of the year homecoming. What more can we ask for in life? My wish is for you and yours to experience a joyous Merry Christmas and safe passage into the New 2019 Year! I coined the phrase “safe passage into the New Year” years ago and a former co-worker and his wife loved it so much that he asked for my permission to use it in their Christmas and New Years cards; I couldn’t refuse such a request when honored with that praise so if you see it somewhere, you’ll know where it originated from.
I hope you had time to stop to admire the doors from Norm Frampton and his Thursday Doors website. Read about his featured doors and then push the blue frog doorbell button to enter his portal of doors bloggers from around the world. And, thank you for visiting my post and thanks again to Norm 2.0 for his creation of the Thursday Doors website that gives us bloggers an outlet to let our thoughts be put on paper or in this case, web space. For more posts and photos of doors by others please go to: Thursday Doors.
My last Thursday Doors post put me in Hawaii where my wife and I visited my mother, other family and friends. That visit ended and a new one began as we traveled to Shanghai to visit my wife’s mother. When we got to Hawaii we beat the hurricane by a couple of days but the trip to China with a few hours layover in Japan was less than a day before the super typhoon that plagued other parts of Asia was to hit Japan; we made it safely without incident.
Since the trip was to visit our mothers my wife informed me that she wasn’t interested in doing any traveling outside of Shanghai so my task was to find some places to do some photography that was different from places that I had visited before. Being in a land of strangers that did not speak my language meant that I had to stay within walking distances from the hotel or have my wife walk along with me. One idea that I had, was to find and shoot some of the elevated overpass roadways; I recalled taking a taxi and riding over a bridge and then a huge circular overpass so I did some computer research before we left home. I found a couple of the locations and the problem was finding a spot above the overpasses; some people suggested going to a cocktail bar and pay for a drink then try to get some shots from there but there was a cautionary tip that some places will not let you use a tripod. That was a concern.
My wife’s mother was doing ok and she spoke to me a lot but I don’t speak or understand Chinese so I just smiled and nodded; that worked for this visit because her memory is not so good these days. The weather was hot and humid to my surprise with dark grey smog which I had expected. It did rain one day and then things cleared up and we had some wind to help clear out the smog. I was pleasantly surprised to see blue skies during the latter part of my visit. Ok, you’re probably wondering about the doorscursion.
I took a walk from the hotel while wife had to take care of some business and I got lost on the return but thank goodness I knew where I got mixed up. During my extended walk going to an area that I didn’t know I got some random shots of some everyday doors from Shanghai.
Three doors; they look narrow but most of the Chinese people are very svelte anyway.
I shot this door and it dawned upon me that I did not recall seeing it before so bells and whistles started going off that I was lost; I turned around and retraced my steps until I found the modern shopping center which set me on the right path back to the hotel.
I don’t recall if this door was also discovered on my way back to the hotel or on my next adventure.
On another day, I mentioned a place we had visited on our last trip so my wife suggested we walk there. It was a long walk from the hotel and I was having mobility issues due to bad hips but we managed to get there (last time we went there during the night and it was crowded and hot with too many people around). This time, it was the late afternoon and it was crowded and hot! The place is called Tianzifang; you can find it in the tourist guides as it’s an old neighborhood of alleyways with a maze of shops and restaurants.
This what you see at one of the two entrances.
I think I noticed the last time that some people were at smoking bars but I didn’t recall it until I saw it this time. People were smoking water pipes or hookahs.
The next three doors were a few that I saw in Tianzifang.
I asked my wife if she knew of the cocktail bars in tall buildings where I could shoot some the elevated overpasses so she asked a taxi driver and he told us of one location that was near our hotel. So, one evening we walked to the multi-crossing overpass but could only shoot from the underside. These are a few shots that I shot there; the second shows a metal column with a dragon on it and the third shot was a multiple exposure shot with the moon shot with a long lens and then the landscape shot with a wide-angle lens (it’s a double exposure that my camera has a function to allow composite shots in-camera). The moon was actually behind me but once it is exposed I can see the image while placing in the next composition.
Then I got lucky. My wife asked her friend about where I could get a shot of the bridge with the elevated circular overpass and she told us that her cousin lives near there. She asked her cousin and they invited me to their apartment to do my photography from their balcony and window.
This is one of the shots that I got of the Nanpu Bridge and elevated circular overpass. I called it Heartbeat because it looks like how the blood would circulate in your body. I missed this shot by 2 to 3 years because they built that dark building during that time and it’s like a blood clot in my photo now.
This was my trip to Shanghai and you got to see some different doors and things from this trip. I hope you had time to stop to admire the doors from Mister Doors, none other than the creator of the Thursday Doors website, Norm Frampton. Read about his featured doors from his doorscursions and see his fantastic collection of doors and then push the blue frog doorbell button to enter his portal of doors bloggers from around the world. Thank you for visiting my post and thanks again to Norm 2.0 for his creation of the Thursday Doors website that gives us bloggers free rein to scratch our writer’s itch. For more posts and photos of doors by others please go to: Thursday Doors.
Surprise, I’m still around even if I’ve been silent for awhile. I had hoped to add a Thursday Door post early last month but I had travel plans to visit home, Hawaii, and then on to Shanghai, and the preparation time for the trip and door post didn’t work so I was forced to abandon the plans for a door post. The trip was mainly to visit my elderly mom who lives in Hawaii and then my elderly mother-in-law who lives in Shanghai while they could appreciate the visit from my wife and me. Both moms have age related challenges but they were still hanging in there so the trips to see them were good in those respects and we were also able to find some time to see some friends too. What was a bit concerning was the super hurricanes and typhoons that chased me all through the Pacific travels (first to Hawaii, then to Japan and again to Japan while I flew home).
Fortunately, the hurricane missed the island of Oahu; we had a few hot and humid days and then things cooled off a bit but overall the weather was good. One day, we dined at a restaurant in the old Honolulu Chinatown area which has undergone a restaurant revilitization. The experience was good and as we left to checkout the old Chinatown I saw a bright yellow door calling me. So that was my door for this week’s Thursday Doors post. A Tattoo Shop with a bright yellow door and artfully designed wall murals!
My wife stopped to look at some of the merchandise at the old Chinatown shops,
as I got creative with my photography; the sun glowed on some of the ginger roots on sale so now it became artful looking.
And, on another day, I played around doing some in-camera composite shots (double exposures) while visiting the new International Market Place in Waikiki.
This is the start of my return to Thursday Doors, that mysterious place where you stop to admire the doors from the Master Locksmith and creator of the Thursday Doors website, Norm Frampton. Read about his featured “doors du jour” and see his fantastic collection of doors and then push the blue frog doorbell button to enter his portal of doors bloggers from around the world. Thanks for visiting my post and thanks to Norm 2.0 for his creation of the Thursday Doors website. As mentioned, for more posts and photos of doors by others please go to: Thursday Doors.
My mea culpa is due here as I have not posted a door in several weeks. I had promised to do a Part 2 of my Sebastopol doorscursion but I’ll try to do that next week. This week, I’ll post a door from Bodie as I visited that site last weekend with photographer friends, including Deborah Z, our well-known Thursday Door blogger.
Excerpt from Wikipedia: Bodie (/ˈboʊdiː/ BOH-dee) is a ghost town in the Bodie Hills east of the Sierra Nevadamountain range in Mono County, California, United States, about 75 miles (121 km) southeast of Lake Tahoe. It became a boom town in 1876 and following years, after the discovery of a profitable line of gold, and suddenly attracted several thousand residents. It is located 12 mi (19 km) east-southeast of Bridgeport,[5] at an elevation of 8379 feet (2554 m).[1] The U.S. Department of the Interior recognizes the designated Bodie Historic District as a National Historic Landmark. More context of the history of this ghost town can be found: HERE
Bodie was really interesting and a great place for photographers. We found out that it was open at nights only three times a year and last Saturday was the last night opening for 2018. Needless to say, many photographers made the trek for this photo opt and it was my first visit there.
Some of our group got there earlier while my wife and I decided to meet everyone in the evening; we stayed at a motel that was closer to Bodie and stayed in to keep cool and get some rest after traveling all day the day before. Everyone visited the Bodie church which was one of the beautiful structures and that’s where we found our photography group.
First, here is the door of the museum building taken at night; there is a blurred image of a person near the right window and bench which gives it a ghostly feeling. The blurred image was the woman who worked there in a period costume as she locked up for the night and walked off.
During daylight, I was able to shoot part of the town’s landscape.
This is the picture of the iconic church taken at night (after 9:00 p.m.) with a light in the doorway. It is quite amazing how much the moon light painted of the church’s facade which the camera picked up
The church at sunset; we were lucky to have fantastic dramatic clouds light up the composition.
I’m going to end this week’s Thursday Doors post here. Please visit Norm Frampton, our caretaker and creator of the Thursday Doors website to read about and see his fantastic collection of doors and then push his blue frog doorbell button to enter the portal of doors from around the world. Thanks for visiting my post and thanks to Norm 2.0 for his creation of the Thursday Doors website. As mentioned, for more posts and photos of doors by others please go to: Thursday Doors.
Last Saturday, our meetup photography group decided to meet at the Sebastopol Farmers Market to do some street photography and later explore a neighborhood street known for its art sculptures.
I’m going to post a couple of doors on this post and then do a follow-up on my next post. We arrived early and got to see the vendors set up their shops and greet their regular customers. There weren’t many people and the temperature was cooler so that was the ideal time to be there.
The musician was warming up her voice and entertained the early visitors while the kows roamed.
Other vendors selling their fruits and vegetables and baked goods.
If you need a date, visit this matchmaker.
Kids roamed and let off some energy but keep that cocao away from them.
Artists displaying their crafts; she weaved that tapestry!
I guess well placed vegetables can look like art!
And after and hour at the market we headed for the Florence Avenue neighborhood to find those yard sculptures while I tried to find some doors. The first house I decided to photograph had a nice door but the setback made it difficult to get a good shot of the front door.
The second house had a nice door, too and the door was in a better position to get photos.
The last door for this post included a “Police Box” in the yard. The Police Box is probably a sculpture in the yard and is modeled after the Dr. Who series from the U.K.
Be sure to read Norm Frampton’s Thursday Doors post; who is Norm Frampton, you ask? He is none other than the Police Commissioner of the Thursday Doors serial and can open his Police Box to you if you press the blue frog door button to let you visit all of the other TD inmates. Thanks for visiting my post and thanks to Norm 2.0 for his creation of the Thursday Doors website. For more posts and photos of doors by others please go to: Thursday Doors.
