I was traveling by train from Hualien in Taiwan in the late afternoon on my way back to Taipei in 2007. Fortunately, I was able to make a few photographs like the one below before the light out the window quickly disappeared making it pointless to try to capture anything while in a fast moving train.

Behind the lens: I’m not a fan of tilt-shift or lensbaby effects that makes photo scenes look like a miniature world though I find it interesting that the photograph I made while in a moving train has a bit of the same effect without using such lenses.

As I sat back in my seat with the view of the green countryside and the vast mountains in the distance, I was shocked to find some different kind of mountains coming into my view from the window. Two industrial mountains of technology (maybe about 15 ft high) seemingly from First World countries and a few people among the high hills of e-waste who were clearly not equipped to be around those materials. I saw a woman walking among the tall mounds whom I can only assume had the duty of sifting through it.

I have seen images of our technology garbage piled high shipped off to other countries in the news and such like:

But actually having seen it for myself… it changes you.

I will never forget that feeling I had when I saw what I saw. The disbelief, the sadness, and the urge to show what I saw even in that short span of time. I’ve always wanted to go back and make photographs of that harsh reality caused by our lifestyles of excess. Maybe someday I will be able to find that place once again… the place that also made me realize that photography can show more and do more.

I recently learned of Chris Jordan (from Chase Jarvis) and his photography work in highlighting the human impact on nature and life. It’s unbelievable. It’s sad. It’s powerful.

And the story behind his work:

“We all have to grow our hearts big enough and expand our minds big enough and face the realities we live in.” —Chris Jordan

Do you remember when they met?

I know! Check our old email messages! There must’ve been an email about it.

There we stood at the wine store, pacing back and forth poking at our iPhones trying to find the email we may or may not have gotten about meeting up for brunch to meet our friend’s new guy.

I’m not a big fan of giving gift certificates or money (though I absolutely don’t mind receiving them myself) because I like to add some creativity to gifts, especially meaningful and/or practical gifts. I think it’s related to the photographer in me where I like to gift memories whether it be an experience or items that can conjure up memories or create new ones.

For our wine loving friends, we had already decided on giving them a wine blending experience and a few bottles of wine from the same vineyard as something they could actually open for an engagement gift. I then suggested that we specifically find wine from the year our dear friends met.

Great idea, right? BUT it was so difficult to remember the year because it seemed like forever since we all knew them as a couple and it seemed so foreign that there was a time when they weren’t together. After several lifeline phone calls with our other friends recounting the details of group outings and trips and pacing too many times back and forth in the store, we concluded that it was 2006 and were finally on our way out of the store.

And so we put together an engagement gift package that included the wine blending seminar certificate with wine from 2006: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Zinfandel.

We picked Ravenswood for the blending seminar and wine. They were a pleasure to work with in making gift arrangements for our friends and even let us design and print our own certificate.

The gift package seemed to need a bit more variety, so we found ourselves browsing the food aisles at Cost Plus World Market for ideas to add to the wine themed gift. Their Brix Chocolate for Wine (Dark and Extra Dark Chocolate) and wine infused salami (Volpi’s Chianti, Pinot Grigio and Rosé Salami) seemed like a perfect complement!

I’m told they did not last long and they wanted to know where they could get more of the chocolate! Success!

There are many people who cross our paths in our lives. And sometimes we get to cross paths once. Twice, if we’re lucky. Some people call it serendipity. Others call it fate.

Larry and Tim rode the same San Francisco Muni bus to work in the mornings and although they saw each other on the bus, they never officially met and didn’t know each others’ name. Until… MySpace made their paths cross in a different way… when Tim’s picture randomly popped up on Larry’s screen while he was on MySpace. And before we knew it, Larry and Tim were introducing each other to their friends and family as more than friends. It was like a movie.

I’ve known Larry since high school and he’s always made school look effortless – studying minimally yet earning a fair amount of not just As, but A+s. I have no doubt he breezed through two of the nation’s top universities, even being given a leadership award from UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering. Larry, during his Engineering graduation, represented his class by giving the department a check from the class’ fundraising effort. On top of that, he received an award after graduation for the general fundraising work he did while at UC Berkeley. And in Larry’s spare time, he teaches a test preparation class. Tim’s also an academic – a PhD candidate at the time. Now that he’s got his PhD in Education, we can call him Dr. Tim. Oh and in his spare time while working on his dissertation, Dr. Tim helped start a non-profit organization, too!

I still remember when some of us were introduced to Tim at brunch one day. Seemingly not intimidated by the situation of meeting several of Larry’s friends, he was calm and cool and won our hearts. Smart, silly and stylish together with a love of food and wine and cooking, these two accomplished scholars are perfectly made for each other. It may have been serendipity that initially brought them together, but in the end it must be fate!

I was honored to be invited to celebrate their engagement at Town Hall in San Francisco last September. The dinner was held in the private dining room on the second floor.

Each table was adorned with beautiful fall inspired centerpieces made by a friend of theirs.

It felt like a wedding reception, rather than an engagement party… they sure know how to throw a party!

The evening began with a cocktail and hors d’oeuvres hour and followed with a delicious three course meal:

First Course
Lemon cucumber and heirloom tomato salad, feta cheese, niçoise olives, lemon vinaigrette
Tuna tartare with fried green tomato and green onion Tabasco vinaigrette

Entrée
Filet mignon with potato puree, mushrooms, corn and bordelaise
Blackened Atlantic salmon with white corn mace choux, okra, red wine sauce

Dessert
Campfire s’mores tart, Scharffenberger chocolate, salted caramel marshmallow, house made grahams
(Served with Blue Bottle French Press Coffee)

As close friends and family toasted to their happiness, watery eyes quickly filled the room as friends and family shared about how much Larry and Tim had touched their lives and taught a thing or two (actually several) about what it means to love.

Early in the evening, I caught this moment between mother and son.

Behind the lens: There is a little motion blur as I caught them leaning in and it was one of those split second moments in time, but I really like the moment captured (“Expression over perfection” as Bambi Cantrell would say). I was handholding at 1/60 second at 2.8 with ISO 3200 using a 50mm and was initially hesitant to push up the ISO further. More later on the challenging lighting.

And as friends and family said touching words during speeches, I was waiting for reactions and caught another special moment.

What a memorable night with friends and family!

Congrats guys!

Behind the lens: I had just bought a Canon 5D Mark II full frame DSLR and had literally opened the box for this event. I tried to look through the restaurant’s website and elsewhere to see if I could get a sense of the lighting situation since many restaurants aren’t necessarily well lit for making photographs. All photographs were taken with a 50mm without flash except for the wide shot of the dining room which was taken with the 24-105 lens. The room ended up being rather dark to shoot in and I didn’t have a flash at the time (the 5D Mark II doesn’t have built in flash and I was still trying to decide on buying a flash). I had my 50mm f/1.8 and was shooting wide open or almost wide open at an ISO of 6400 (maximum), sometimes as low as 1/10 second and sometimes creatively using the candles on the table in order to get enough light while also getting used to the new camera’s manual controls. In the early evening, I was already pushing ISO 6400, 1/60, 2.8 luckily with some window light and by nightfall, I had to push up the exposure in post processing for most photographs. I must say, though, that I am very pleased with Lightroom’s noise reduction capabilities with the 5D Mark II photographs. But after this celebration, I decided I needed to buy a flash and have since gotten one (it’s not about the gear, but the tools are useful). Also, the room had several overhead neon green exit signs which casted a less than desirable green light on people, mostly heads, who were near them.

When I give advice about buying cameras including point and shoots, I usually advise to allow for time to get used to the camera… this was good practice during a real event though I wish I had more time with the camera beforehand.

Let me explain. It’s because of computers…

I had gone through two computers by the time I graduated from high school. My first one didn’t have a hard drive and my second one did, but was accessorized with an external modem sometime later.

By the time I started college, I was on my third computer, a klunky yet then new laptop that cost $4000 that I paid with my own money that I had saved up from working a few jobs and some red envelope money. It had a wired Internet connection through a card I plugged in. $4000 was a lot of money, but to me I got a fast laptop with awesome features that would hopefully last me for a long time… hopefully through four years of college. (Plus, my friend made me feel better when he spent $5000 on his Apple laptop!)

Technology has been everywhere and so much a part of my work and daily life. I’ve spent my time providing support for computers and advising on what to buy. My tech friends and colleagues try to get ahead of the game with Moore’s law which says that your computer becomes obsolete… like yesterday. For the most part, we want to maximize what our money can buy.

I’m the same when it comes to cameras.

Mostly.

“A photographer went to a socialite party in New York. As he entered the front door, the host said ‘I love your pictures – they’re wonderful; you must have a fantastic camera.’ He said nothing until dinner was finished, then: “That was a wonderful dinner; you must have a terrific stove.” — Sam Haskins

I agree that “it’s not about the gear” and I know that getting a better camera will not suddenly make me a better photographer. One of my photographer instructors would say, “The best camera is the one you’ll use.” However, the tools do make it easier for me to use the techniques I do know. There are almost always workarounds, but the alternative may take more time or the situation may not allow me to use those workarounds.

In 2003, I bought my first digital SLR camera (Canon Rebel XT, an entry-level DSLR). 7 years later, I decided it was time to upgrade. So there I went, trying to chase Moore’s law and get ahead of the curve… waiting for the next release, or rather refresh of cameras. I was going to get the next prosumer camera (the next line up) and patiently waited for the rumors (of the 60D) to meet reality. And just a week before it actually did, I realized that what I wanted was a full frame camera — 5D Mark II, the professional line — for wider angles (i.e. no camera sensor crop factor) and better low light performance (i.e. less noisy higher ISO). The price tag of $2300 for the camera body alone made me mull over it for a long time.

Until last September. I bought the 5D Mark II and along with it came my very first “L” lens (shown above). The coveted L glass for luxury, aka splurge. Total cost = $3210… which I must point out was less than my first laptop!

I bought it and used it and the camera was great, except that I did notice some focus locking problems with it (which I think was eventually addressed by a firmware upgrade).

I did feel a little weird because some people had noticed the camera when I had it, especially people who seemed to know a bit about photography and based on the reactions, I felt like it unnecessarily marked me with an elevated status or skill level and I wasn’t a big fan of the attention. Also, it made me nervous to hand over the camera to someone because since it wasn’t insured, an accidental drop could send a few thousand dollars down the drain.

I no longer have it, though, and since then have tried the 60D and the Rebel T2i. And admittedly I’m feeling a little more comfortable with the reactions, or lack thereof.

I’ve come around back to the 5D Mark II professional line of cameras and have given myself permission to own it. It’s interesting to me because when I first bought my Rebel XT, I thought I would never buy the higher end cameras because they were also too heavy, but now their weight is acceptable. I feel like I’ve outgrown my Rebel XT and I know a new camera won’t make my photographs better, but I know I will enjoy it and the photographs I get to make with it. Never say never.

Since I previously purchased the 5D Mark II at a lower price though, I can’t seem to convince myself spending more to get something I had in my hands months ago, so I think I’ve pretty much decided to wait for the 5D Mark II successor (Mark III perhaps?) because it’s in my tech nature. And I keep hearing it’s around the corner, but I’m still waiting… on the edge of my seat. Who knows, maybe after the official announcement, I’ll just get the 5D Mark II when the usual price drop happens. We’ll see.

Oh and… 10+ years later, my first laptop still turns on and works. ;)

These three amazing short films pretty much sum up why I love to travel.

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

EAT from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

LEARN from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

The 3 guys took 44 days, traveling 11 countries with 18 flights, logging 38 thousand miles. They used 2 cameras and generated almost a terabyte of footage to create this great imagery.

Makes me want to go out and wander again.

Words and photographs cannot describe how much traveling has changed who I am today.

Ma, isn’t there a temple near here? I said to my mom (in Cantonese) as we were walking around District 5 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam last year. I was thinking of the temple we had visited the last time we were in Vietnam… the temple where my grandfather’s ashes had been laid to rest.

She answered my question with an Ay?, a little surprised by where we found ourselves and then she started walking towards a side street. I followed her wondering where we were going. We went down an alley with a dead end. I was confused, but before I had a chance to ask my mom, she exclaimed three Chinese words with short pauses between each word as if she was counting 1-2-3. Even more confused, I realized she was saying the words to a woman sitting in front of a door in the alley. The woman, after a short pause, widened her eyes and replied in the same pronounced manner with three different Chinese words I recognized this time… my mother’s Chinese name.

This was my mother’s childhood friend. Whom she hadn’t seen or talked to in over 50 years! Yet the way they greeted each other was as if it had been much shorter than that. And my mom remembered exactly where her friend had lived over 50 years ago, next to the temple.

While sitting in small red plastic chairs, I sat with them outside the home as they recounted their lives and caught up with each other and everything that has happened since the War and since my mom left the country.

And then, the friend went back inside her home and came out with photographs… photographs over 50 years old.

The photographs were of their friends including my mom… some were posed athletic team photos, some were candid, and some were wedding photos. They talked and laughed over the photographs… about the good ol’ times, their lives as friends, their other friends in the photos, and what became of their friends and their families especially after the War, the weddings and deaths, piecing together the missing timelines of each others’ lives which they couldn’t be a part of. I was moved that such photographs were bringing back memories as vividly as if it were just a week ago. Seeing what was unfolding before me, I even started taking photographs of them while they reminisced and fast forwarded through their half a century worth of life experiences in the middle of the alley in the red plastic chairs… new memories being created from old memories, a new cycle.

Many months later, Bambi Cantrell said the following during her CreativeLIVE online photography workshop on Posing & Lighting:

When your parents are deceased, your grandparents are deceased, your sister is deceased, and many of the people that you have loved and known throughout your life are no longer around, that’s when pictures become treasures to you because that’s what we have left of those people and so I think that it’s really important for us to document those wonderful people that come in and out of our lives and that I think family pictures especially are extremely important, not to us as much as they are to our children and the generations that come after us.

And the cool thing that we have the ability to do today that they didn’t have 100 years ago… when we look at pictures of our grandparents from 100 years ago, we can tell by looking at them very few things… we can tell what they wore, we can tell maybe whether they were rich or poor, but we could tell nothing about their personalities. You see, today, we have the wonderful privilege of not only documenting what a person wore on their wedding day, and the fact that they had a wedding cake, and that they danced at the reception. We have the opportunity and the privilege of being able to document who they were and all of the wonderful nuances that made them those quirky people that they were… because we are where we are in the scheme of time, we have that wonderful privilege of going farther and documenting the human spirit, not just the shell of that person.

I wanted to shout Amen at the computer screen as she said this! There is a reason why one of the first items people take are photographs when they have to evacuate their home. There is a reason why my mom, when she left her country, had hardly anything in her possession once she got to the United States, but did have a stack of photographs of her friends, her family, and her wedding.

And it was the old photographs of a parent who had unexpectedly passed away without having a chance to say goodbye that gave me great comfort and happy memories to reminisce when needing to select photographs for the funeral… and there was unexpected relief to have that one recent family portrait that didn’t seem as important to take at the time because there was supposed to always be time to take them later.

Recently, I saw Chase Jarvis’ post on The Power of an Image:

A photograph – an image – is an incredibly powerful thing. It can be a tool, intentionally or incidentally. It can tell an entire story of a month, year, decade, or a generation, captured in perhaps just 1/1000 of a second. An image [can] change a life, end a war, start a riot, bring someone joy, inspire a revolution, open or close a debate. An image can move the world.

As I experimented a bit with video last year or so, especially with the new DSLRs that can capture amazing HD crisp quality photo, I found that I (as Chase puts it) “still respect and value for the 130 year old concept of a photo” and often even more so than a video. It’s the 1/1000th of a second capture of time that freezes a story and emotion that captivates me, a split second in time that you may not otherwise easily notice in moving images. It’s the power of a fleeting moment that may never return again. To be remembered over a half century later.

This is why I love photographs and why I create them.

I’ve always passed by it and wondered what it was like on the inside. The exterior always kind of gave an impression that it was an oldie. So one night last year, while looking for some place to eat for dinner, I had a chance to finally try it.

The brown interior did look oldish, like a transportation back in time, but near the front door, there was a lounge and bar area which seemed like a neat and comforting place to hang out and watch some sports.

Since I was going through the Jasmine Star Wedding Photography CreativeLIVE Workshop, I had brought my DSLR with me, on the prowl to look for an interesting photograph and the light fixture in the ceiling caught my eye, unexpectedly (photo above).

I got the Tortellone Napoletana which I didn’t like so much mainly because the texture of the filling was too fine and ground up:

And we tried the calamari (something I tend to do any time I see calamari on a menu). It satisfied our hunger.

I was in elementary school and we were going on a field trip! Field trips were always exciting to me because it meant we were going to go out and do something instead of stay inside the classroom. Our teacher passed out a piece of paper and I had a pencil and then we were set free to explore… and write down the answers to the questions on the worksheet.

I remember the crocodiles, the two headed snake, the pendulum showing that the earth rotates, the earthquake simulator, the planetarium exhibit where you got to stand on a scale and see how much you would weigh on the different planets. And there was the touch tidepool… where you could touch all sorts of living sea creatures. There was the exhibit showing all the organisms in a droplet of sea water and I still think about it every time I go into the ocean like the time I unexpectedly fell into the water while jetskiing off Maui and accidentally swallowed a bunch of water or the time I was scuba diving for the first time in the Great Barrier Reef and in practicing how to breathe underwater with the scuba gear, I instead drank a motherload of super salty Australian ocean water and microscopic sea friends to go with.

I can’t remember how many times I’ve been to the California Academy of Sciences in my childhood, but when they closed for renovation, I was curious to find out what they did with the place that was such a big part of my exploration as a kid. So I went on opening day back in 2008, but there were so many people that they ran out of tickets and I got to see the building from the De Young Museum instead.

It took me about 1.5 years and three tries to take these photos and see most of the new Academy. And did you know… that the California Academy of Sciences is actually a research institution? Years ago, a friend of mine told me this and I was surprised because I had always thought it was just a museum, just exhibits.

A few months after my first attempt, I was able actually go inside, but unfortunately wasn’t early enough to pick up planetarium tickets (and it was only an hour after the Academy had opened). But I was enamored with the sea life and the jellyfish…

This one in particular reminds me of a UFO.

Their shapes are so fascinating.

(I hear that there’s a Jellyfish Lake in Palau which must be a beautiful sight to see.)

Of course, there are fish to see. Lots and lots of colorful ones.

And this caught my eye. It’s art in life… living and simply beautiful.

And my favorite pendulum.

And the Rainforest Dome which is new to the Academy… also really hot and humid in there.

On a separate occasion, my cousin was visiting and we went to the Academy for their Nightlife event. Music, drinks, and exploring life… it’s like science geek meets cool.

Lots of more pretty fish to admire.

And I was mesmerized by the orange jellyfish and with the blue background, they were just stunning.

When I was a kid, I thought the California Academy of Sciences was a cool place. Now, each visit to the Academy has also reminded me of how beautiful life is, especially through my own camera lens.

Happy Valentine’s Day! From the cuddly penguins.

It will be yummy and a place I suspect no one has been……..curious?

That’s what the email said last August.

Back in 2004, some of my friends and I used to get together randomly and spend time with each other whenever we were free. Simply spontaneous and unplanned. Hours would turn into whole day affairs. It was as if we had nowhere to be and had all the time in the world to just hang out. Sometimes we ended up going into dinner time and cooking together. And if we had things to do, we would just do them… together because doing things together no matter how mundane is always better with friends… like grocery shopping, errand shopping, studying or working remotely, and even taxes (yes, tax calculating and filing… we were so wild). There even used to be a time when the guys (mostly) would go golfing and the girls would hit a few balls at the driving range, and then join the guys to watch them play the rest of their 18 holes… and golf is definitely not a short game!

But as the years have gone by, we’ve gotten more busy with work, home ownership, relationships and marriages, and just life in general. And those days became less frequent. Before they disappeared completely, we resolved to make an effort to see each other more regularly than special occasions or parties… and our (roughly) monthly dinners were born so that we could all catch up on each others’ lives like we used to.

I was not part of the original discussion, so my impression of how it works may be flawed. As I understand it, each person takes turns organizing the dinner (significant others are not exempt from rotation) – finding a best date and time for most, picking restaurants that most of us have never been to before. And I think we’re supposed to have it on an evening during the week (Monday through Thursday).

Last August, our monthly dinner was held at the Basque Cultural Center Restaurant in South San Francisco since the organizer had seen this restaurant featured on Check Please! with favorable reviews. It’s definitely one of those unexpected kind of places at a random location (a cultural center!) where you wonder how everyone eating there knows about it. It reminded me of the Garden Club (an Italian restaurant in the back of a dive bar where early bird specials are the norm, also in South San Francisco). But the Basque restaurant felt more like going over to a relative’s house for dinner.

Dinner started with complimentary soup and salad and one of us ordered Prosciutto of Parma with Melons:

And the entrees were hearty especially the Pepper Steak and the Fresh Seafood of the Day:

We couldn’t turn down dessert, but having had too much food, we all split a few… spoons for everyone!

And an Italian version of neopolitan — spumoni. I’ve always thought chocolate, pistachio, and cherry was an odd combination, though:

I usually focus on taking photos of just the food and might ask someone to take a group photo for us, but this time, I decided to take some candids of my friends. They were great and mostly pretended the camera wasn’t there… which is how I like it!

At the time, I was right in the middle of the creativeLive online photography master course on wedding photography with Jasmine Star and Jasmine Star’s favorites includes many prime lenses like the 50mm.

I had actually bought a 50mm f/1.8 4+ years ago since it was cheap and good (I heard it was a very good value at around $100), but didn’t really use it much over my 18-55mm kit zoom lens. But Jasmine Star and a few other people were saying how they loooove it and the co-instructor for the photography workshop I had taken also liked his 50mm and was reminiscing about how back in the day (he learned on film photography), people used prime lenses and if you wanted to zoom in or out, you actually walked closer or backed up; his pre-digital remark was in a “they don’t do it like they used to” kind of way. I almost forgot, too, that I also learned film photography on a 50mm… and had to walk to get the picture since I didn’t have zoom lenses (or as Jasmine Star likes to call them, a “lazy girl lens”).

So during our dinner, I thought I’d give my 50 a more fair chance. And I must admit that it grew on me more and more. Even if these pictures were taken on my very old Canon Rebel XT. (I have replaced the XT since, but still testing which one will be the winner.)

Since a few friends have asked me about getting into photography and I’ve noticed more and more people carrying DSLRs now and posting their photos on Facebook, I thought that it might be a good assumption that the general public has become more interested in photography. I had only been through a semester long photography course, so I wanted to explore a photography workshop not only in what they teach, but how they teach it to potentially incorporate it into our services in my day job. So last August, I found a workshop on making Images with Impact by Marc Silber (who studied at the SF Art Institute around the same time as Annie Leibovitz). Images with Impact seemed like a fitting topic with other academic applications such as copyright and presentations.

We talked about the presentation of photographs and how online sites like Flickr aren’t exactly the best way to share photos not only because of uncalibrated monitors and different lighting, but because the commenters don’t necessarily provide constructive feedback, the kind of critique that would help photographers grow.

We also discussed the type of photographs that we normally take and then Marc challenged us to shoot the kind of photos we don’t normally take. For me it would have been photographs of people. To be honest, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to that. When we went out on the street, however, there weren’t too many people, so I worked on textures and shapes instead with my mind on Ansel Adams’ notion of pre-visualization (or visualization as he later called it).

Some of the shots I took:

When we talked about pre-visualization, I was also reminded of pre-visualizing a photo I took with my point and shoot camera in St. Peter’s Cathedral in Vatican City, Italy back in 2003:

So with the photography workshop… I didn’t exactly anticipate being reminded of my love of photography, but that’s what it did. And coincidentally, shortly after the workshop, I saw a post by Chase Jarvis on For The Love of Photography, that summed it up for me:

But where is your love of pictures? Where are your actions that back this up?
Can you pick up a book of photographs and get lost in it?
Can you walk around with your iPhone or Android or your point and shoot or whatever and take 100 pictures knowing that they’ll never be for a client or a portfolio?
Do you love hunting for pictures?
Will you stay up late or get up early for pictures?
Do you sometimes ‘see’ life as a photograph?

I thought about it and thought, oh yes, I have stayed up late or gotten up early for pictures! And then I remembered this photo:

My friends and I were visiting the Kyoto Imperial Palace in 2006. It had starting raining (maybe it was even hailing). I was trying to take a picture and when it started pouring, my friends took cover under some trees with their umbrellas, I stayed put, with my camera in my hands and holding my umbrella awkwardly with my neck with both my hands super crazy freezing just so that I could take the photo. Although now I think it’s just an OK photo, I didn’t want to regret not taking the photo and I’m glad I don’t.

Reading Chase Jarvis’ post, I felt relieved. That it was okay that I’ve taken photos that I haven’t shared. And that I have hundreds of personal photo albums I haven’t processed or posted. And despite that, I still keep making photographs and keep shooting, and now even the kind of photos I don’t usually take, expanding my skill and experience as each provides different sets of challenges.

And as I mentioned in a previous post, I hope to be posting more frequently now that I’ve figured out a workflow so you’ll probably see some photos “From The Files”.

To see a slideshow of my photos from Japan or Europe from the files, please visit my Japan and Europe albums.