Geez Louise, where has all the time gone!

I can't believe the last post I made was in May. Where or where has all the time gone? I feel like breaking out in song a la Joan Baez...Well, in May I started a new job which I attibute to the lack of time spent on my blog.

I guess it is time to evolve this blog a bit to make it more interesting. But what route shall I take it? I know I dedicated it earlier to art and musings by me.

Here is a poem I wrote a while ago...

Wandering

Our hero awoke a wondering
‘bout where in life to go
And looked out to the horizon
At sunshine’s morning glow

He had dreamed of epic adventure
Of travelling to foreign lands
Years ago he’d jotted thoughts
Made grand and intricate plans

But today inspiration just hit him
And among the morning dew
Before he had a chance to doubt it
He left the home he knew

He didn’t pack at all
Just started on his way
No place in particular
But to horizons end they say

I’m sure I’ll find adventure
And with that thought in mind
He dreamed of lands he’d visit
And the adventure that he’d find

The Yellow Challenge

There is only one thing I think of when someone says yellow. While I would like it to be a Maize out at the University of Michigan, I have only one truly yellowy experience. Dust storms in Iraq.

Check it out! You probably think I switched my camera to a sepia mode. But I am proud to say there is no trickery or photoshopping at all. These yellowish orange days would last up to 96hrs, in Baghdad no less.



So this is a self-portrait taken sometime in 2008. Its not a glamor shot and I think the lens distorted the size of my nose and the shape of my head. But, this week the theme is yellow, not beauty. Pictures don't get much more yellow than this one!

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Cheers!!

Yuki

Faces and Flowers in China

The photo challlenge this week on iheartfaces is 'faces and flowers.' And flowers reminded me of this photo I took while on a trip to Beijing with my wife. I will apologize up front for the fuzziness, as all photographers have experienced at one point or another: you see an image but do not have your digital camera handily turned on. Such was the case here. We were driving through a police checkpoint along our way to the Great Wall. In an instant, we saw this scene develop as the cab slowed. I don't think I even looked through the view finder, trusting that the 35mm would capture the moment.



I didn't edit the photo, hoping for a more documentary style image, perhaps in the vein of Henri Cartier Bresson.

Please visit the works of other photographers at the following site:



Cheers!!

Yuki

Celebrating Mom on Iheartfaces

So this week, iheartfaces is celebrating the one person that binds all of us in the web of humanity. We celebrate mothers, not just here but everywhere!

My contribution this week is one of my favorites. It was seen during the Places I Love week and thankfully can be seen again! This time I converted the image to black and white and cropped in a little closer.



I took the photo on an excursion to Chalk Ridge Falls, TX. The babe was only 10 months old.

I like the image because I believe it exemplifies motherhood.

Humbly, I also think it juxtaposes Dorothea Lange's photo "Migrant Mother." In Ms Lange's photo we see the worried despair of a mother during the Great Depression (you can view Ms Lange's work at the Library of Congress or by doing a quick Google search--Ms Lange (1895-1965) was a pioneer and inspiration for women photographers everywhere).

In my photo, we see a modern American mom filled with hope and faith, knowing that we live in a day and age where we control our own destiny and even if today is bad, tomorrow will be better.

Thank you for your indulgence!

Check out more photos at the following link!



Cheers,

Yuki

Then and Now on iheartfaces.com

So I have returned to the iheartfaces weekly photo challenge/share because I find this week's theme particularly meaningful. It is 'me then and me now' week! I believe it is important to look back on your life to effectively evaluate where you are or where you want to be. Any how...



This picture is of much simpler times. My brother and I are enjoying a picnic in Sweden with our parents and grandmother. Ever the intellectual, my brother looks like he is entertaining a deep philosopical discussion. Me, on the otherhand, well let's just say I look like I've been wading in the shallow end of the gene pool...That was then, my guess is 1980-ish.

This is now, 30 years later.



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Cheers!

Yuki

Some cowboy poetry...

Love’s Gunfight

In the gunfights of love
Blood flows hot from the hearts
And cupid’s bullets fly true

Through the wind and the dust
The gunfighters’ lust
Leap like whirlwinds in Sonoran hue

Heaven’s horizon embrace
Casts saguaro shadows through space
While coyotes bay for the moon

The cordite caress
Fiery ‘neath bullet’s lead breast
Propels to make lovers swoon

When struck they awake
And love overtakes
Bang, bang the awakening sigh

For the ghosts of love’s breath
Forever ride west
To the place where earth meets the sky

Where gunfights of love
With the hot moon above
and cupid’s fly bullets true--

Bull’t Riddl’d Moon

The howls of history
Fade to dusk
At the rise of the burning sun
The shades retreat
And phantoms drown
In the land that blood once won
But when darkness creeps
And the bright orb fades
The old world is born anew
Soft on the winds
The stir of guns
Ghosts the past once knew
They dance and delight
Beneath the unearthly light
Of a bull’t riddl’d moon


Thanks for stopping by!

Yuki

Experimenting with Corel Painter and my Bamboo Tablet...

So I have a Bamboo Tablet that puts the F in fun! The great thing about it is the fact that it is not sensitive to touch, only to the pen that come with it. So you can write naturally and draw as well. But the drawing will take a little practice, it will take time to get accustomed to not looking at the pad as I draw.

Here is my first attempt. I find that I have to use sketching techniques to create the image whereas with a pencil I usually draw more deliberately.