On the side of a wind-swept mountain
There lives a lone dove
Without the companionship of her lost mate
She flies along a singular path in the mist
Fleeting shadows and a soft breeze
Wafts besides the bubbling stream
Emptiness is her sole friend in life
She takes him wherever she travels
Wide and far, past the wintry ray of the Sun
High and deep, beneath the traces of frost
Touching a faint breath that caresses the wandering mind
This dove knows no loneliness
Contentment is hers as she plows along
Not knowing words to describe her fateful path
In her ignorance she finds bliss few possess in their knowledge
What she lacks other dream to cherish
How bitter ones memories, enrich this solitary bird
Drawing from the rich well of emptiness
She finds a black soil filled with her potential
Lifting higher above the dew and the mountain
She settles to the Sun, merging with the horizon.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Morning stretching and RSI exercises
I found this great website recently that has three series of stretching exercises. One for a good morning warm up stretching, one for daily at work (even on the chair) yoga and the last one for RSI (Repetive Stress Injuries).
Naoko and I tried out the stretching warm up this morning and really enjoyed it! In particular, I found it really helped to open up my low back (which can be stiff sometimes). I hope you enjoy it!
http://www.mydailyyoga.com/yogaindex.html
Naoko and I tried out the stretching warm up this morning and really enjoyed it! In particular, I found it really helped to open up my low back (which can be stiff sometimes). I hope you enjoy it!
http://www.mydailyyoga.com/yogaindex.html
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Liberating the Soul with Breathing
Many years ago I was introduced to the idea of being conscious about breathing by a Doctor friend of mine when I was 18 years old. He put forward the idea that most of us live our life breathing by habit and controlled by emotions. As a result, the breath becomes shallow, done through the chest only, which in turn affects our health and well-being.
At first I was a bit skeptical, but I accepted his logic, and started on a quest to breath deeper, in through the diaphram (stomach area, the Chinese call it "Dan-tien"), and each breath longer in and out. I found after awhile I was more conscious of my breathing, and eventually by habit started breathing in from my diaphram, and much deeper each time. After awhile it was like I simply slowed down, everything, my life, my breath, my whole self. It was quite astounding the transformation. Looking back in my life, it is interesting that when I changed my breathing patterns, my entire life changed after that. At the time I was devoutly religious (Christian), but over the years, all that was swept away.
In a sense I like to think that breathing liberated my true soul. In the East, many sayings talk about life starting with a breath in and ending with a breath out. Life and death exist in a breath. Each breath is a microcosm of our entire life and death. Looking back, I see how truly powerful breathing was to my life.
If you have a chance, I strongly recommend reading the book called "The Science of Breath". It is one of those books I often re-read, and discover new things. Over the years, I constantly find myself reading books, or articles, that help me re-focus on my own breathing. Doing Yoga --> focuses my mind on breathing. Walking --> focus on breathing. Life ups and downs --> focus on breathing. Breath is the fuel that keeps us all going, not just the oxygen, but also the mental focus, emotional balance and deep breathing gives.
Deep, consistent breathing insures the mind is calm, focused, and emotions at the center. No matter how difficult your life, how much stress, how horrible the situation seems, when you focus your mind on breathing, all that passes, deep calm comes, and your emotions are stabilized.
Try it the next time you have a chance. Breath in deeply through your nose for 5 seconds, breath out slowly for 5 seconds through your nose. After awhile you won't even count, you will just sense the right feeling. Each breath will become deeper, longer, and richer. The world will seem lighter, your body will feel lighter, and each moment will seem like it has expanded.
At first I was a bit skeptical, but I accepted his logic, and started on a quest to breath deeper, in through the diaphram (stomach area, the Chinese call it "Dan-tien"), and each breath longer in and out. I found after awhile I was more conscious of my breathing, and eventually by habit started breathing in from my diaphram, and much deeper each time. After awhile it was like I simply slowed down, everything, my life, my breath, my whole self. It was quite astounding the transformation. Looking back in my life, it is interesting that when I changed my breathing patterns, my entire life changed after that. At the time I was devoutly religious (Christian), but over the years, all that was swept away.
In a sense I like to think that breathing liberated my true soul. In the East, many sayings talk about life starting with a breath in and ending with a breath out. Life and death exist in a breath. Each breath is a microcosm of our entire life and death. Looking back, I see how truly powerful breathing was to my life.
If you have a chance, I strongly recommend reading the book called "The Science of Breath". It is one of those books I often re-read, and discover new things. Over the years, I constantly find myself reading books, or articles, that help me re-focus on my own breathing. Doing Yoga --> focuses my mind on breathing. Walking --> focus on breathing. Life ups and downs --> focus on breathing. Breath is the fuel that keeps us all going, not just the oxygen, but also the mental focus, emotional balance and deep breathing gives.
Deep, consistent breathing insures the mind is calm, focused, and emotions at the center. No matter how difficult your life, how much stress, how horrible the situation seems, when you focus your mind on breathing, all that passes, deep calm comes, and your emotions are stabilized.
Try it the next time you have a chance. Breath in deeply through your nose for 5 seconds, breath out slowly for 5 seconds through your nose. After awhile you won't even count, you will just sense the right feeling. Each breath will become deeper, longer, and richer. The world will seem lighter, your body will feel lighter, and each moment will seem like it has expanded.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Vibrant morning air
This morning I woke up at 7am (early for me on a Saturday) to setup Ghenki's birthday party spot in the park near our house. Knowing that the early bird catches the best spot near the swings and playarea, I tumbled out of bed and headed towards the park with tablecovers in hand.
Lately I have always been pleasantly surprised by how fresh and vibrant the morning air feels. This may sound silly to country dwellers, but if you live in a metropolitan area, you know what the rest of the day is like. The air here in Northern California certainly is better than LA, but to me, it is amazing that each morning the air has such a vital quality to it.
As I setup the tabletops at the park, many local Chinese elderly people walked by, enjoying the warm air. It reminded me of my time living in Taiwan and seeing many people waking up early and walking in the hills, "sunning" their birds, practicing Tai Chi, or just breathing in the vitality. According to Taoism, morning time is when the "Yang" energy is the strongest, and evening (when the moon is out), "Yin" energy is the strongest. The concept of Yin and Yang is about a balance of energy in your body. Too much of one kind and you are out of balance, leading to sickness or unhappiness. For instance, not enough "Yang" energy can lead to weak lungs, colds, etc. As my Chinese Doctor always said, too much Yin energy can lead to poor health.
Simply speaking on a "sense" feeling comparing the energy of evening with early morning, I can say they feel completely different. Last nite at 10pm, Naoko, Ghenki and I went for a half hour walk under the full moon. The air was nice, calm and the walk peaceful. This morning, the air was crisp, powerful, and provided a deep sense of focus (but still feeling calm at the same time). It is not easy to describe, but I definitely suggest trying it! Perhaps there is something to 3000+ years of wisdom found in the Chinese culture.
Lately I have always been pleasantly surprised by how fresh and vibrant the morning air feels. This may sound silly to country dwellers, but if you live in a metropolitan area, you know what the rest of the day is like. The air here in Northern California certainly is better than LA, but to me, it is amazing that each morning the air has such a vital quality to it.
As I setup the tabletops at the park, many local Chinese elderly people walked by, enjoying the warm air. It reminded me of my time living in Taiwan and seeing many people waking up early and walking in the hills, "sunning" their birds, practicing Tai Chi, or just breathing in the vitality. According to Taoism, morning time is when the "Yang" energy is the strongest, and evening (when the moon is out), "Yin" energy is the strongest. The concept of Yin and Yang is about a balance of energy in your body. Too much of one kind and you are out of balance, leading to sickness or unhappiness. For instance, not enough "Yang" energy can lead to weak lungs, colds, etc. As my Chinese Doctor always said, too much Yin energy can lead to poor health.
Simply speaking on a "sense" feeling comparing the energy of evening with early morning, I can say they feel completely different. Last nite at 10pm, Naoko, Ghenki and I went for a half hour walk under the full moon. The air was nice, calm and the walk peaceful. This morning, the air was crisp, powerful, and provided a deep sense of focus (but still feeling calm at the same time). It is not easy to describe, but I definitely suggest trying it! Perhaps there is something to 3000+ years of wisdom found in the Chinese culture.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Living longer (and smelling the roses along the way)
Recently I glanced upon an article in Forbes.com on "15 Way to Live Longer". I enjoyed the article because it was not simply focused on the typical reasons, but more on the statistical and philosophical ways to live longer and fuller lives.
"Be Optimistic" was #2 on the list, and did that ever resonate with me! It's nice to know that optimism can make one live longer, but to me, it causes me to live clearer right now in the present. Optimism focuses on the hidden potential in life that exists at every moment waiting to be unleashed by your will. Pessimism does just the opposite, it blocks so many aspects of your being and sticks to the finite measurable facts (albeit the bad ones). Optimism represents the best in every strong historical figure (or person behind that historical figure), a belief in something unseen, hoped for, cherished, or simply the human spirit.
Another one you hear alot, is the where married people live longer, well I enjoyed Forbes way of putting it "Marry Well". That's exactly how I feel. I tend to have the strong belief that I indeed did marry well, and feel proud of my decision marry Naoko every single day. I have to say with her in my life, each day is filled with light, full of happiness and a deep sense of calmness I have never experienced before in the past. To me, the right partner has caused me to grow and mature in so many good ways. Now that we are having a baby together, we are creating this beautiful new life together, growing each day. Marriage is deepening the well from which I draw life's experiences, and without it, I would have missed so much.
The highlight of the article was when I saw that laughter can make one live longer. Not only is it scientifically proven to be true, but each of us most likely know this inately anyways. If it makes you feel better, then it must indeed be good for you, in this case I feel it positively true. Laughter is directly tied to your view on life; and laughing at your life or things most people take so seriously causes optimism to flourish. When I laugh at my own mistakes, I let them go and cease to dwell on them. When I laugh like I did as a kid, I feel like a kid again, youth constantly flows through me and around me. This ways my family feels youthful and energetic. After a long tiring day at work, if I laugh others feel lighter and a warm sense of release. A secret elixer; the vitality of youth, laughter springs eternal. There are two sides to life, the lighter and the darker, focusing on one more causes aging, the other side causes eternal youth.
I was reading a book on Taoism recently on the concept of immortality, as in the "chinese immortals". Essentially they said the same thing. Focus on heavy things, serious stuff, difficult issues, insurmountable life obstacles, and you die and age quickly. In one sense you are already dead when you focus on the dark side of life (that is all is doom and gloom and boy what the hell are we going to do now). Waking up to the creative flow of eternal youth and one discovers a present moment that constantly expanding in time. It settles after expanding giving you a bubble around your spirit that tends not to constantly get bombarded, degraded and tarnished. Since you open that well-spring of vitality, you release self-concerns and "your issues", realizing you are now simply so intimately connecting with that source of vitality, that perhaps you are that and nothing more. Identifying yourself with something deeper than this lives associations tend to drop of the minor facts that weigh people down day in and day out.
The last part of the article pertained to meditating. At first I thought it wise to include the concept of praying in this definition of meditating, but it needs to be defined as mindless. Clearing the mind of all thoughts and taking a walk engaging your entire presence on the world you are immersed in shuts off all the clutter that pulls down the mind. Meditation frees the mind from its daily burden. It can be done sitting down, back straight, lotus style. It can be done walking, biking, driving, sitting on a chair, playing piano, doing legos, gardening... Gosh it can be done anywhere! Anytime you are so immersed in something that you stop thinking and simply "be" opens up a different energetic flow inside of you that leads to a deep sense of health and well-being. Like the article said, 15 minutes of meditation (sitting kind), eyes closed, has been shown to produce a significantly more relaxed mind state than one hour of the deepest sleep. How is that possible? It is simple, when the mind is freed of thoughts, and you have consciousness, body is relaxed, breath is deep, then your brain actually changes states and deepens. This deeper state relaxes the entire body, expands your mental clarity and creates a vast pervasive sense of well-being and focus. Having done meditation going on 15 years, and believe me, I have tried all kinds of meditation, it is a critical part of mental and physical health for everyone. Don't sleep well at night? Simple, sit in a dark quiet room at night, close your eyes, focus on breathe in, breathe out, focus on your body and your breath changes, and let your thoughts disappear with each breath. Keep doing this each night, and you will start sleeping better, deeper and wake up clearer.
"Be Optimistic" was #2 on the list, and did that ever resonate with me! It's nice to know that optimism can make one live longer, but to me, it causes me to live clearer right now in the present. Optimism focuses on the hidden potential in life that exists at every moment waiting to be unleashed by your will. Pessimism does just the opposite, it blocks so many aspects of your being and sticks to the finite measurable facts (albeit the bad ones). Optimism represents the best in every strong historical figure (or person behind that historical figure), a belief in something unseen, hoped for, cherished, or simply the human spirit.
Another one you hear alot, is the where married people live longer, well I enjoyed Forbes way of putting it "Marry Well". That's exactly how I feel. I tend to have the strong belief that I indeed did marry well, and feel proud of my decision marry Naoko every single day. I have to say with her in my life, each day is filled with light, full of happiness and a deep sense of calmness I have never experienced before in the past. To me, the right partner has caused me to grow and mature in so many good ways. Now that we are having a baby together, we are creating this beautiful new life together, growing each day. Marriage is deepening the well from which I draw life's experiences, and without it, I would have missed so much.
The highlight of the article was when I saw that laughter can make one live longer. Not only is it scientifically proven to be true, but each of us most likely know this inately anyways. If it makes you feel better, then it must indeed be good for you, in this case I feel it positively true. Laughter is directly tied to your view on life; and laughing at your life or things most people take so seriously causes optimism to flourish. When I laugh at my own mistakes, I let them go and cease to dwell on them. When I laugh like I did as a kid, I feel like a kid again, youth constantly flows through me and around me. This ways my family feels youthful and energetic. After a long tiring day at work, if I laugh others feel lighter and a warm sense of release. A secret elixer; the vitality of youth, laughter springs eternal. There are two sides to life, the lighter and the darker, focusing on one more causes aging, the other side causes eternal youth.
I was reading a book on Taoism recently on the concept of immortality, as in the "chinese immortals". Essentially they said the same thing. Focus on heavy things, serious stuff, difficult issues, insurmountable life obstacles, and you die and age quickly. In one sense you are already dead when you focus on the dark side of life (that is all is doom and gloom and boy what the hell are we going to do now). Waking up to the creative flow of eternal youth and one discovers a present moment that constantly expanding in time. It settles after expanding giving you a bubble around your spirit that tends not to constantly get bombarded, degraded and tarnished. Since you open that well-spring of vitality, you release self-concerns and "your issues", realizing you are now simply so intimately connecting with that source of vitality, that perhaps you are that and nothing more. Identifying yourself with something deeper than this lives associations tend to drop of the minor facts that weigh people down day in and day out.
The last part of the article pertained to meditating. At first I thought it wise to include the concept of praying in this definition of meditating, but it needs to be defined as mindless. Clearing the mind of all thoughts and taking a walk engaging your entire presence on the world you are immersed in shuts off all the clutter that pulls down the mind. Meditation frees the mind from its daily burden. It can be done sitting down, back straight, lotus style. It can be done walking, biking, driving, sitting on a chair, playing piano, doing legos, gardening... Gosh it can be done anywhere! Anytime you are so immersed in something that you stop thinking and simply "be" opens up a different energetic flow inside of you that leads to a deep sense of health and well-being. Like the article said, 15 minutes of meditation (sitting kind), eyes closed, has been shown to produce a significantly more relaxed mind state than one hour of the deepest sleep. How is that possible? It is simple, when the mind is freed of thoughts, and you have consciousness, body is relaxed, breath is deep, then your brain actually changes states and deepens. This deeper state relaxes the entire body, expands your mental clarity and creates a vast pervasive sense of well-being and focus. Having done meditation going on 15 years, and believe me, I have tried all kinds of meditation, it is a critical part of mental and physical health for everyone. Don't sleep well at night? Simple, sit in a dark quiet room at night, close your eyes, focus on breathe in, breathe out, focus on your body and your breath changes, and let your thoughts disappear with each breath. Keep doing this each night, and you will start sleeping better, deeper and wake up clearer.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Spring gardening for the silicon valley techie
Working 9+ hours a day staring in front of a computer monitor, and barely a glimpse of sunshine and whiff of fresh air, there is immense joy in the simple pleasure of planting a garden. Feeling the earth with your hands, smelling the crisp morning air, feeling the dew drop after you've planted everything, rewards like this await all who venture into the world of gardening.
Why plant you say when you can buy from Safeway (God forbid!) ? For one, please don't buy from Safeway!! Where the heck do they get those fruits and vegetables from anyway. Someplace very far away, usually un-ripened and often radiated en-route or in the store. Safeway recently launched a line of "Safeway Organics"; that's like buying a book on stopping global warming by George Bush. I simply don't buy it (literally). If you must buy, buy from a store that buys local produce, organic produce (and has done so for years); or buy from a farmers market!
Simply put, there is no comparison between vegetables and fruits grown in your own organic garden and those bought at stores (or even in good stores or farmers market). Making a salad in the evening? Just walk out back to your garden, harvest different varieties of lettuce and tomatoes and enjoy the best salad ever. It's my belief that the difference lies in the fact it is on your land, born by your own hands, harvested exactly when you need to eat it. If you fancy eating food filled with the essence of earth, bathed in the moonlight, and drenched in the sun, give gardening a try.
What to plant? For first timers, I suggest the simple things like tomatoes, preferably an heirloom varieties, pear and cherry. Next is lettuce, romaine works good, any varieties you enjoy eating (we have 5+ kinds this year). If you plant early or live in a colder area, plant sugar snap peas, snow peas, blue lake pole beans (stake them and let them vine up). Herbs are good, like Basil, Rosemary, Italian Parseley, all your favorites. Whatever your choices, start small, dig deep removing old soil down to 12-18 inches, and use good topsoil if you don't naturally have it. Planters work fine also. The biggest key to having a healthy garden is an irrigation system that can water automatically. Especially out here in California, this is key with our hot and dry summers.
Dig in, get your hands dirty and enjoy your summer garden!
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Poetry on the eve of disaster
Fair maidens seek shelter from the onslaught of spring
Calamity strikes us all without leaving a trace
Evening comes hidden in silent melodies
We all discover passion in a moments light
Too soon it all ends and we wake up with empty hands
Dreams holding golden jewels and scattered relics
Look again, see the fairness of my hands
Precious woven in the simple emptiness
Before me opens up, the slit somewhere new
As I fall into the darkness, I merge with nothingness
I feel whole again, no expectations, no attachments
Just simple wholeness, from within and surrounding
A poem to me is like a bold brush stroke on a white canvas for the first time. The logical mind ceases to exist and something else emerges. There are no thoughts, no rhyme, no form, just passion, emotion, color and flow. It is a breath of fresh air from the world of material and logic. Like flicking off the switch and experiencing so much more.
I love the feeling of walking into an empty room in the dark, on a warm summers eve. The window is open, a gentle breeze wafting into the room; stillness pervading my entire being. It is such a personal feeling but utterly enjoyable to express. How many experiences in life have so many variable feelings. Imagine yourself here in this scene, listening, observing, not talking -- A Crowded market, buying and selling -- A heated argument in a conference room -- Lush forest at first light, animals drinking by the brook -- The desert at midnight, crescent moon, the sounds of infinity -- A child standing at your feet, staring up in your eyes, so innocent and curious. How multitude the feelings!
Our life is the poetry, our death the final beat. Without wisdom, we miss the connecting link.
Calamity strikes us all without leaving a trace
Evening comes hidden in silent melodies
We all discover passion in a moments light
Too soon it all ends and we wake up with empty hands
Dreams holding golden jewels and scattered relics
Look again, see the fairness of my hands
Precious woven in the simple emptiness
Before me opens up, the slit somewhere new
As I fall into the darkness, I merge with nothingness
I feel whole again, no expectations, no attachments
Just simple wholeness, from within and surrounding
A poem to me is like a bold brush stroke on a white canvas for the first time. The logical mind ceases to exist and something else emerges. There are no thoughts, no rhyme, no form, just passion, emotion, color and flow. It is a breath of fresh air from the world of material and logic. Like flicking off the switch and experiencing so much more.
I love the feeling of walking into an empty room in the dark, on a warm summers eve. The window is open, a gentle breeze wafting into the room; stillness pervading my entire being. It is such a personal feeling but utterly enjoyable to express. How many experiences in life have so many variable feelings. Imagine yourself here in this scene, listening, observing, not talking -- A Crowded market, buying and selling -- A heated argument in a conference room -- Lush forest at first light, animals drinking by the brook -- The desert at midnight, crescent moon, the sounds of infinity -- A child standing at your feet, staring up in your eyes, so innocent and curious. How multitude the feelings!
Our life is the poetry, our death the final beat. Without wisdom, we miss the connecting link.
Building a house in Palo Alto
(more photos on my Flickr photo album)So I've decided to try to blog a bit about my experience building a house in Palo Alto. This is a project that I have been working on for the last 15 months or so. Home building is not something to be taken lightly, this coming from someone who is deep in it now. But, it ranks as one of the best experiences of my life, perhaps apart from getting married to my lovely wife.
My wife and I have been following the real estate market in the bay area, particularly Cupertino and Palo Alto, for about 4 years now. We saw the dot.com market crash, eroding away the landscape that Silicon Valley once was. In theory, it was supposed to work that the housing market would soon follow, and boom it would crash too. Well that never really happened. On the high-end of the scale ($2 million+) in high-end neighborhoods, indeed it did adjust quite a bit. But in many neighborhood (and overall bay area in general), after a bit dip in 2001-2002, the market has been progressively going up.
Knowing there was no way in hell we could afford what we wanted in Palo Alto, and wanting to live there (lived there for 7 years back in the day), we started scouring PA for fixer-uppers in good neighborhoods. Thanks to our lovely real estate agent from Coldwell Banker, she quickly hooked us up to two properties in mid-town Palo Alto. One turned out to be a real dump (in terms of property location), and the other a charming ranch style house on a quiet street near midtown. We won the bid against 15 other bidders, and off we went.
Palo Alto is not an easy city to build in. But, honestly, the people who work at the building center are gems. This being the first time I ever tried to build a house, I had lots of questions, and needed lots of good advice from professionals. First thing off, I thought I needed to talk to a good architect. In retrospect, the best option was to find and talk in detail to a good builder. Once I found a good builder, in this case RJ Haas in Saratoga, it made a huge difference to the project.
So not to bore you, here's the last 15 months:
- I designed 5 house designs myself using Better homes & Gardens home designer
- Handed off my blueprints to the architect after picking one
- A good 6 months of back and forth reviews with the architect
- City of Palo Alto individual review with the architectural review board (4 months)
- Building permit for the City of Palo Alto (4 months)
Finally we got the building permit this spring, and now around 3 weeks into the construction we have ground cleared, foundation done, and the framing started. More to come!
Canon 30D Digital Camera Lens choices!
For anyone who has purchased a digital camera lately, particularly a Canon, Nikon or Olympus with a non-full frame sensor, you understand the frustration with picking lenses. I am one of those frustrated souls. I recently bought a Canon 30D, with the bundled junky 18-55mm lens (anyone want to buy it? never used it). Well for the last two weeks or so I've researched lenses on Popular Photography and other onlines sites searching for answers.
The problem with the Canon Rebel XT, 20D, 30D is that they magnify everything by 1.6X. So a perfectly good Canon 24-70mm L lens is now 38-112mm. This is great if you want zoom, but not so great if you want wider. Canon is starting to make a 17-55mm f2.8 lens, but not being an L class lens, its hard to justify the $1200 or so.
After all my angst, here's what I've decided upon: 1. A Canon 10-22mm f3.5-f4.5 (special to XT, 20D, and 30D), 2. A Canon 50mm f1.4 (Portrait), and 3. a Tamron 28-75mm f2.8. Why Tamron you say?? Well having tried the bulky and expensive ($1200) Canon 24-70mm f2.8 and tested next to the Tamron, I much prefer the lighter, and extremely fast and sharp Tamron. Only thing I prefer on the Canon is the USM auto-focusing is quieter, and faster.
Well, that's just me, I'm sure you have your choices as well. A friend of mine swears he is going to the 17-55 f2.8 lens, but then again, we'll see how those new lenses perform.
For now, I can't wait till my order comes in with the new lenses, stay tuned...
The problem with the Canon Rebel XT, 20D, 30D is that they magnify everything by 1.6X. So a perfectly good Canon 24-70mm L lens is now 38-112mm. This is great if you want zoom, but not so great if you want wider. Canon is starting to make a 17-55mm f2.8 lens, but not being an L class lens, its hard to justify the $1200 or so.
After all my angst, here's what I've decided upon: 1. A Canon 10-22mm f3.5-f4.5 (special to XT, 20D, and 30D), 2. A Canon 50mm f1.4 (Portrait), and 3. a Tamron 28-75mm f2.8. Why Tamron you say?? Well having tried the bulky and expensive ($1200) Canon 24-70mm f2.8 and tested next to the Tamron, I much prefer the lighter, and extremely fast and sharp Tamron. Only thing I prefer on the Canon is the USM auto-focusing is quieter, and faster.
Well, that's just me, I'm sure you have your choices as well. A friend of mine swears he is going to the 17-55 f2.8 lens, but then again, we'll see how those new lenses perform.
For now, I can't wait till my order comes in with the new lenses, stay tuned...
Palo Alto Spring Garden Tour
I had a wonderful time the other Saturday on a garden tour in Palo Alto, hosted by the Elizabeth Gamble Garden in Palo Alto. It was a chance to tour five houses in Palo Alto that have immaculate gardens and often the houses to match. It is generally around Old Palo Alto, so the neighborhood is perfect for a stroll and enjoyment of the spring flowers.
Outside of immersing myself in the gardens, holding hands with my wife and just enjoying the day, I was shooting constantly with my new Canon 30D digital camera.
This rose is one sample of some of the shots I took, but I have quite a few more on my Flickr site.
I've been using the Canon 30D for about three weeks now, and I have to say I love it. As a slide film shooter for 20 years +, there is no going back to film for me now. The lens I have is my old Canon 28-105mm USM, and it just isn't working all that well. I've ordered a few more lenses, so I will have a chance to talk about them later. After much anxiety, I have decided to go with the Canon 10-22mm, the Canon 50mm 1.4 and the Tamron 28-75mm 2.8. I'll decide on a zoom later.
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