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Now there is an idea. We could probably start a project.

婺源小记

婺源之名，早就有所耳闻了。真正决定安排行程还是在网上看了一些照片之后才有实际行动的。

一、晓起

我们一行八人租了一辆国内叫做“商务车”的小面包，车的外观与 minivan 没有多少差别，但是车内却多了一排座，显得有些拥挤。我们也没有机会细做安排，到了婺源县境，天色已透亮。在路边看到了晓起村的大广告牌，就将车拐进了晓起。

此处乡间曾经是商贾流行，文风淳厚。晓起村口这块牌楼虽然有些怪异，村人想要引人注目的心情可以理解。村中旧日徽商家居犹在，只是残败了，如南唐后主的词里写的，“雕栏玉砌应犹在，只是朱颜改。” 虽然婺源的乡村美景，不知吸引了多少游人，但村里人生活不富裕，还是很明显的。

村里的新老房屋还基本保持了这一带的“徽派”建筑风格，白墙、灰瓦、飞檐、画栋。村口的溪流边一座两层木制小楼，一边飘着“木楼饭店”镶蓝杏黄酒旗，想来春夏之际，在此小餐，听听溪水潺潺，心境一定不错。

二、江湾

江湾号称是前国家主席江泽民的老家，实际上是不知道多少代之前的老家了。不过，借着老江这一面大旗，江湾显然是获益不少。一座萧江宗祠修得就气势不凡，让人好奇修缮这座祠堂的钱是谁掏的腰包。而一条主街也是别的村子里看不到的，街灯柱上挂满了红灯笼，在江南冬日的细雨洗濯之下，显得清新可人。尽管空气湿的似乎可以捏出水来，颇有寒意，但是也赋予眼中景色浓重的江南诗韵。不过，满街的店铺也给江湾增添了浓重的商业气息，或者这也是这一偶游人较多，供求关系之故吧。要看江湾的真实一面，还要走进主街之外的小巷里，去寻找那些村里人家门前高挑的酒旗、茶旐。

我们的车出了江湾，回头看去，白墙黑瓦的村子在烟雨中格外醒目。我们在路边停下车，我奔向村子的方向，拍下了《江湾 - 雨中印象》。没有三脚架，只好把有些模糊的照片处理成油画了。

三、李坑

如果是开春了来，李坑一定是江南“小桥流水人家”绝对完美的写照。不过，细雨绵绵的冬天却好似为李坑的景色泼上了浓墨重彩。

这个小小村落里浓缩了人文、佛教的理念，村里更有旧日的“大夫第”，与今天村里人酿的青梅酒的相对。从村头走到村尾，我们看了村人家里旧日嫁女的花轿，又见了村中唱戏的高台，一样的白墙、灰瓦、飞檐、画栋，想来这村里过往的读书人就是这一方水土在这样的氛围里养育出来的。一条溪水绕村而流，溪中停靠着空载的游船，不难想象春夏旅游旺季的时候这村里村外是怎样一番景象。

一日游过，婺源给我留下的就是这三个村子的冬日印象。要记下来的似乎很多，可是过了这些日子，许多细节就像那日的烟雨一样有些朦胧了。私下祈望后面还有机会在春天油菜花开的时候再去拜访婺源。

Waiting for dinner

Waiting for dinner.jpg
Originally uploaded by jiggerpress.

A classic long exposure photograph. But this one is extraordinary not just because it is done with a digital camera, but also because it has packed so many factors of excellent photography in it.

The extra long (2491.5 seconds) exposure has recorded tracks of stars, movement of clouds, even a car driving across the desert scene. Night scene is transformed into day. Reading this picture, you see time frozen in this snapshot, yet you feel time flying away fast at the same moment.

This is only one example of the photographer's marvelous work.

Ah, Shanghai!

P1000084a
Originally uploaded by xie-wei.

The thumbnail version of the image did not show much beyond the magnolia in thick fog.

When I got to the larger sized image, I saw the TV tower further in the fog. This tower on the east bank of the Huang-Pu River has been a landmark of the new Shanghai.

It should be early spring now in Shanghai. Soon the wet season will begin. Shanghai, and large parts of China south of the Yangtze River, will be drenched by spring rain that never ends. But then the earth will become green -- may be it already is over there...

The layers in the photo is intriguing. The three birds not only balance the composition of the image, but also add motion to it as well. Over all a non-flashy photograph, very much like the subtle season in that land.

"Mary wasn't a virgin"

Flickr Queen is probably not at all an overstatement. I have admired her creativity for some time but I probably have never commented on her images before.

This one drew me in. It is good photograph, although may be not the best from her. The title certainly caught my attention.

Many people seem to agree with my thoughts expressed in my "God's Billboard" entry on this blog. I am not religious but I do admire people who truly believe. I just despise those who only want others to believe that they believe.


Back to the photo. The tension from her hands creates an attraction to the red flower in the center of the picture. Overall, the lighting is very well done and the red colors make the entire image dramatic.

[Edit]: The owner has chosen to remove access to the static image referenced here. But the image is still available by clicking the image above.

Giants

These giants always attracts my attention. These were seen on I-10 in California outside of Palm Springs. The scene on the day before was much more interesting. The air was clear. A sudden shower cleaned up the dust in the air. But we were running somewhere fast on the highway.

We drove around quite a bit the second day and took some pictures. But the perfect lighting and shadows from the previous day's clouds were gone.

Looks like California has moved one step ahead of the rest of the country.

Bush is a WMD

I can't agree more with that sign! If you don't, just take a look at the Iraq Body Count, and mind you, those are reported deaths. The Lancet statistical findings are much more shocking:

Three misattributed clusters were excluded from the final analysis; data from 1849 households that contained 12 801 individuals in 47 clusters was gathered. 1474 births and 629 deaths were reported during the observation period. Pre-invasion mortality rates were 5·5 per 1000 people per year (95% CI 4·3–7·1), compared with 13·3 per 1000 people per year (10·9–16·1) in the 40 months post-invasion. We estimate that as of July, 2006, there have been 654 965 (392 979–942 636) excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war, which corresponds to 2·5% of the population in the study area. Of post-invasion deaths, 601 027 (426 369–793 663) were due to violence, the most common cause being gunfire.

The first full sentence comes out of the movie Flags of Our Fathers is: "Every Jackass thinks he knows what a war is, especially those who've never been in one." This one certainly does not know what a war is. But from watching the two Clint Eastwood movies, the Flags and the Letters from Iwo Jima, the first thing a war does is destructing humanity. A solider does not just kill enemies, he (or she, nowadays) destructs him/herself in that process as well. That is true even for today's American soldiers in Iraq who have the ability to kill from miles and miles away. The ones who raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdered her whole family were not killed by terrorists. They are destructed by the war itself. War brings out the worst of man. Soldiers are just human sacrifice for those politicians who use wars for their own agenda. Bush is just the latest example of such politician.

Streen Scenes

Digital camera is a wonderful thing!

It makes me observe the surroundings more carefully when I carry mine around with me. These two were taken the other weekend when I drove the kids to the new Y building in town. On the way back, this yellow house looked so cheerful in the rainy daylight. I had to stop the car.

lightpainter: being without clothes

The female body is a natural beauty of its own kind. Lightpainter's being without clothes set shows both the beauty and the fragility of its subjects.

The lights reflected off the skin gives it a soft, almost touchable, sensation.

It takes both great models and great photographers to create great pictures.

Sunset

I drive by this field outside the office park everyday. But I have only stopped a few times to watch the sunset.

The sun was setting. Orange rays of light came through the trees on the far end of the empty corn field. I walked through the field towards the setting sun, taking pitctures of this same tree and its surroundings. Planes from the nearby Ann Arbor airport were making their rounds.

The Moon

I was driving home from the office the other day, the moon was hanging high up there. An airplane was flying right through it. The sun was setting. There was silence all around. The white line the airplane drew on the blue background was growing longer silently. I stopped the car by the road side and took this one.

Flickr: lightpainter's Ivette

lightpainter's portraits are of professional quality. In the ivette set, the photographer has truly captured the what are lovely about this young and lively woman -- The eyes, the lips, the expression on the face.

I look forward to seeing more.

God's Billboard

I saw this black billboard as I was stuck on I-75 somewhere in Tennessee. There was nothing to do but snaking along with the rest of the traffic. I started wondering about whoever made that billboard: Did he think he was the God? Or did he think the God was speaking through him?

I turned on the radio. There were reports about the death of pope Johan Paul II. I admire the pope as a decent human being, not as a religious figure of any kind. The reporter was talking about what a tremendous burden the late pope must felt being the world leader of the Catholic church. That made me think, yes, indeed. If there was anyone in this world knew what the God was all about, he had to be the one. Having that knowledge yet still must try to convince the world otherwise -- There could be no burden heavier than that.

Flickr: lightpainter

This is not one of the best pictures from lightpainter. I just happen to see it today. There is a book of photographs of old, abandoned automobiles in the waiting room of the mechanic's I visit most often. When I see those old relics, I wonder what exactly happened to them, what happened to their owners, why they left them there.

This piece of junk had its days. It probably brought a lot of fun time to its owners. Soon, they will probably meet again.

Flickr: syzygynick

I have not been on Flickr very long. So my exploration there is quite limited. Furthermore, I never liked New York city very much. But syzygynick's photos on Flickr has given me a wholly different view of both the city and its people. Almost all his pictures so far have been my favorate. Click the one posted here and go take a look -- I bet you will like them too.

More favorates will come.

生计: All in a Day's Life

Life is getting better in China for many people. But it is still pretty tough for many others -- I imagine that may be the case for the guy in the picture. I took this picture while walking out of a grocery store full of goodies.

Huron River

Ann Arbor is a beautiful small city. The Huron river runs through it. All the photos in this entry are taken in Ann Arbor, by the Huron river.

All these pictures were taken last fall. Fall is the most colorful season all over the city while the parks along the river show their best in a year. There are people boating all the time, probably more in the fall as well.

My daughters love the river as much as I do. As the weather gets warmer, we will definitely visit the river more often.

朱家角

This is a photo composed of five. I did not try to get rid of the seams. This is where my wife grew up. We went to see her grandpa -- who was 90 some years old and passed away recently.

色影无忌

本来想用这个命名，突然想起国内的一个网站叫色影无忌的。今天上去还发现了这个金山岭长城的一页：金山岭印象。同时也想起，我最喜欢的不是金山岭，而是司马台。

长城：A set of pictures

Posted a set of picture taken at Badaling（八达岭）last June. Number 6 and 7 are oilified using GIMP -- an open source image processing software.


The sky was full of smog that day. And I was told that Beijing is often like that these days.

I should add, most of the walls in these pictures have been renovated. Photo number 5 shows a spot where the wall ruins are almost invisible. Badaling is likely the most visited section of the great wall by tourists because it is the most accessible. I believe there is still a regular tourist train running between the city and Badaling several times a day. There are other sections of the wall -- all north to Beijing -- open to tourists for many years but much less visited. My favorate was Jinshanling (金山岭). I also hope to make a stop at Juyongguan（居庸关）someday, which is on the way to Badaling.