Breckinridge Park 1

[click to enlarge, photo by gh]

[4/30/2007, Monday] We had fresh air, gentle breeze, and peaceful atomosphere at Breckinridge Park this morning while shooting countless poppies.

We will go again tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM; the flowers are in full bloom now and may only last one or two more weeks.

Look at a novice's work here:

[slelect Slideshow from here, photo by gh]

1st Annual DFW Dragon Boat Festival

[4/29/2007, Sunday] Dragon boat race is a hot event in Taiwan, China and Hong Kong each year, but it is the first time in DFW region. The program control was not perfect in terms of timing, discipline and coordination. However, anything has a first time and learning curve. Next year we expect a better and bigger event to attract more people.

We did have some familiar faces showed up in the program, including Charles, April, Fuchu, Lin, Windus, Richard, Jack, Ming and Greg. Ming even joined ACP as a member of their dragon boat competition team.

For speed photography, I don't get any good pictures with my point and shoot camera, though Charles enthusiastically instructed us the setting of aperture and speed for taking this kind of dynamic photos at the spot.

[Here they are, photo by gh]

Tyler Roses Garden Trip

[4/27/2007, Friday]Tyler trip was another excited experience. Instead of directly going to the destination by I-20, Dr. Lai asked us to take Hwy 80 most of the time. This gave us unexpected surprise.

Not too far after we passed the City of Terrell, we started to see wild flowers on the road side. We stopped at two spots at least, each for about 30 min, to take pictures of the morning Butter Cups and the Indian Paint Brushes. Though it was well over 8:00 AM, dew drops were still seen on many of the flowers. When the sunrays were pointing at the cups, they looked as beautiful as white and pink soft tissues.

Terrell is a historic city. It was a railroad town back to 1873 when it began as a “depot town” along the Texas and Pacific Railroad Company’s new transcontinental line from Longview (in East Texas) to California.

As early as 1938 the British Royal Air Force (RAF) realized they needed places to train aircrews outside of England, safe from enemy attack and the poor weather in Great Britain. In the United States six civilian flight schools began instructing RAF pilots; the first established, No. 1 British Flying Training School (BFTS), was located in Terrell.

Being in the US since 1969, Richard has traveled to so many places across the nation that he knows almost everything we discussed about highways, cities and scenery places. With broad knowledge of everything about the nation, Richard seems to us as a live dictionary. He told us a lot of stories, including the above.

[select Slideshow to view pics in Terrell, photo by gh]

When we arrived Tyler Roses Garden, all kinds of roses were still there, but most were a little over their peak time. We should have come one or two weeks earlier to see better flowers. Even though, we still spent more than four hours taking pictures everywhere.
When we finished Roses Garden, it was already 3:30 PM, no time for us to visit the free zoo. So we took a last short break before we headed for home.

When we were back to Richardson, it was almost 5:30PM.

[select Slideshow to view pics in Tyler, photo by gh]

Wild flowers in Breckinridge Park, Richardson

Report by Grace

DATE: Sat, 28 Apr 2007

SUBJECT: Wild flowers in Breckinridge Park, Plano

It's still the peak time of all the wild flowers there, especially the beautiful poppy flowers, but not going to last long. The park is on Renner at Brand in East Plano, East to North Star(which is Los Rios). Gate A,B,C on Brand all have the wild flower areas. The biggest area is in Gate B, between the lake and the woods to the creek, under hill. Take your family, camera and enjoy the gorgeous spring right here :-)

Bluebonnet trip to Ennis 5

Report by Walt Hsu:

After heavy thounderstorm on April 24th, we back to Ennis area again. This time we have GPS to map the pin point where the bluebonnets were.

經過四月廿四日的一場大雷雨，幸好大家都平安，花草也無恙，廿六日一大早，一行七名仍然由賴醫師領隊前往Ennis地區。

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I-45由260出口轉813，先在前次的山坡拍攝後，再轉往Sugar Ridge Rd 的Bulebonnet Trail享受。

我們有三名於八點廿分先回達拉斯，其餘四名由賴醫師領隊繼續其他景點。

[click here to view Walt's picturres]

GH Note:

This is NTAPA's 5th trip of the year to Ennis

Date: 4/26/2007 (Thursday)

Car 1: Walt, Fang Li, Lin

Car 2: Charles, April, Richard, Lei Zhou

Total 7 people

Pictures shared in the link are by Walt and Fang Li

Enjoy!

Bluebonnet trip to Ennis 4

April, our first President and current Advisor to NTAPA, joins the team and concentrates on her lens.

[Part I] Report by Walt Hsu:

今晨總共出動5部汽車，一行16人，於5點40分出發。從45號公路的260號出口出去後，左轉，沿HWY660約3英里，到達山坡。地主人允許我們前往拍攝。由於風大，不易拍花的細節，所以只拍了幾張。感謝賴醫師的策劃，讓我們大開眼界，也大大地增進了我們攝影的技巧。

[click here to view Walt's pictures]

[Part II] Report by Greg Hoh:

It was on Sunday, 4/22/2007, while most poeple were still enjoying their sweet weekend morning dreams, we, a crazy team of more than a dozen people, were already working 50 miles away from homes, somewhere close to Ennis, busily looking for angles and backgrounds for bluebonnet shootings.

Dr. Lai repeatedly reminded us to try different apertures while take a single scene so as to find out the best effects. This is learning by practicing, interesting and fun!
[click here to vew Greg's pictures]

GH Note:
This is NTAPA's 4th trip of the year to Ennis
Date: 4/22/2007 (Sunday)
Car 1: Walt, Fang Li, Daughter family (3);
Car 2: Charles, April, Tina, Greg
Car 3: David, Guest, Howard
Car 4: Richard, Sally
Car 5: Lin, Jack
Total 16 people, including a 4-month old baby
Pictures shared in the link are by Walt and Fang Li on Part I;
by Greg on Part II.
Enjoy!

Bluebonnet trip to Ennis 3

David was one of NTAPA's pioneers, who set up the Association and served two terms of the presidency chair. Now together with other few senior members David serves as our Advisor.

意猶未盡的再度跟隨賴醫師做第二次的Bluebonnet攝影，這次有David Hsu及Tina Huang同行，還是一樣清晨5點40分離開Richardson，這次從45號公路Ennis第251B出去再左轉往東，大約沿HWY660的Bluebonnet Trail，還是和上次一樣，充滿驚喜。Tina與我們於8點20分先行返回Richardson，David與賴醫師則繼續享受新鮮的空氣與獨特的美景。最後還找到一個長滿Bluebonnet200畝的私人農場，主人還邀請大家去拍呢！

明天大家再去吧！
[ click here to view Walt's beautiful pics ]

GH Note:

This is NTAPA's 3rd trip of the year to Ennis.

Date: 4/21/2007 (Saturday)

Car One: Walt, Fang Li, Tina; Car Two: Charles, David

Pictures shown in above link are by Walt and Fang Li

They all look great! Enjoy!

Bluebonnet trip to Ennis 2

Dr. Lai, Team Leader and Master of this trip
Professional Photographer, we learn from him

[Part I] Report by Walt Hsu:

Bluebonnet是德州的州花，盛開於四月份，花全高約30 至40公分。今日清晨五點半與賴醫師等從Richardson出 發,走75轉45號公路到Ennis轉鄉間小路，隨即霧氣濃厚，摸黑找景點，這些照片是依照拍攝的順序排列的，由朦朧霧氣到朝陽 初昇，Richard Chen，Greg Hoh 和賴醫師繼續尋寶，Lin Hwang 與我們先行於八時二十分離開Ennis。九點十五分就帶回了這些美麗的景色，回到 Richarddson 繼續每日的正常工作。
[click here to view Walt's slideshow]

[Part II] Report by Greg Hoh:

[Thursday, 4/19/2007] This is the second trip to Ennis for bluebonnet photo shooting. We are lucky that we have composed our photos with all kinds of special elements such as dim dawn, wet dew, thick fog, quiet ponds, steady trees, sun rays, cows and donkeys, remote houses and tons of fun on top of endless beautiful bluebonnets.

This is a fantastic trip. Everyone gains a lot. I took a total of 343 pictures in about 4 hours, compared to 400 last Friday.
[Here are Greg's pictures]

GH Note:
This is NTAPA's 2nd trip of the year to Ennis.
Date: 4/19/2007 (Thursday)
Car One: Walt, Fang Li, Lin; Car Two: Charles, Richard, Greg
Pictures shared in above links are by Walt and Fang Li on Part I;
by Greg on Part II. Part I are Professional; Part II are learner.

Enjoy!

Bluebonnet trip to Ennis 1

Dr. Lai and I went to Ennis for bluebonnet shooting early in the morning on 4/13. We started at 5:40 AM from my home and drove more than an hour to reach our destination.

I have heard a lot of bluebonnets before, but this was my first bluebonnet trip in my life. The weather was cloudy all day long with occasional small rains. We did not care the undesired condition and fully concentrated on our interest.

We followed the beautiful "bluebonnet trails" back and forth looking for good spots. Dr. Lai is experienced at selecting the right scenes. We met several others photographers who were also came from Dallas. We even saw two big tourist buses passing by us.

I bought this "point and shoot" camera Canon A610, a year ago. For the first time today, I started to learn to use "manual" throughout the 6 hours tour. I don't know how many pictures Dr. Lai took; I took exactly 400.

I was tired when arrived home in the late afternoon, but I couldn't wait for downloading and viewing my works.

It may not be good enough to others; but it is valuable to me.
[select SlideShow to view Greg's pics]

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GH Note:

This is NTAPA's first trip of the year to Ennis.

Date: 4/13/2007 (Black Friday)

Car One: Charles and Greg

Pictures shared in above link are by Greg
Enjoy!

Denison - Small Town Big Art

NTAPA's 1st term President, our photo Advisor, April Kao, has her Tibet photo exhibited at a studio in a North Texas small town called Denison, which locates at 54 miles North of Plano on U.S. Hwy 75.

On 3/31/2007, we, April, her Japanese friend, Dr. and Mrs. Lai and I, visited this small art town and spent most of the day enjoying the photos, paintings and meeting new friends there.

Denison is home to an exciting cultural hub of activity. With nationally-known artists opening their studios here, the Main street is becoming a mecca for artists. As soon as arrived, we first viewed April's photos, which were printed on canvas and then stitched onto another bigger canvas served as the picture frame. This unique idea saved her a lot of time and energy when carrying them to the studio and hanging them for display.

Then we were strolling in and out of the galleries, boutiques, and art studios, watching the artists as they were working. The artistic offerings are many and varied, from canvas, ceramic, metal, wood, paper, photographic, film and glass presentations to handicrafts and furniture.

Walking on the street we met a Chinese painting studio teacher with his wife. They were from China and stayed here for about 20 years. We chatted for a while, exchanged names and phones before saying good-bye.

Denison impressed me with the strong smell of fine art and peaceful air. I will be back someday.