A Day at the Market - St. Pete, FL

During the Fall to Spring time, downtown St. Pete hosts Farmer's market every Saturday morning from 9AM to 2 PM.  It is kind of far from my house, so I don't get to visit there that frequently, but when I go, I usually enjoy the outing, even if I don't buy anything, just people watching, dog watching, and walking around to remind us why we enjoy living in Florida (Fall to Spring time)..


Free belly dancing exhibit today..

Northwestern Cuisine.

Had another trip to China/Hong Kong back in September.  I had a chance to check out this really neat restaurant.   

This is actually a chain, I went to the one in Guangzhou. 

This restaurant is very clean, perhaps because it is fairly new, but the decoration is nice, not tacky at all, and no smoking rules were really enforced.  For those of you who have been to China, the no-smoking sign is merely a suggestion, and rarely enforced, which is quite bothersome for me..


Outside of the restaurant, huge front doors..

Continuation of NYC Streets

Uploading some more of my past visits to NYC. 

Night time at Time Square

A day out at the FMoPA

Finally became a member of Florida Museum of Photography Arts.  Maybe I can join some classes offered by the museum, but another reason is that I signed up for the NARM (North American Reciprocal Museums) program, where I can visit member museums for free.  There are many in the Tampa Bay area that are members, so it should be money well spent.
FMoPA address:
400 N. Ashley Drive
Tampa, Florida 33602
813-221-2222
info@fmopa.org


The museum is located inside of what I considered as a business building.  It is very cool, just to look at the building alone.

Sunset

At Crystal Beach, Again...
But I am getting more people in my shots now, still don't have the nerve to go up to someone and just ask them if it's ok for me to take their pictures yet...  

Panasonic LX5 and Olympus E-PL1 w/14mm

Cyclist and the boy

Downtown Dunedin in B&W

past couple of days has been fairly dry, so that made it tolerable to walk around a bit.  I was hoping to go to the antique stores here, and see if I can pick up some old tools, but they were closed...   Oh well, not a total loss, still able to take some pictures...

Panasonic LX5

Train Station

Sunset after the rain

Unbelievable sky after the rain. 
It's been awhile since I used the LX5, it's nice to take it out for a spin.  I took the strap off this thing, now it's even more compact.  I accidentally left it at iso400, but it's not bad with the noise....

It's a small world

Been thinking about getting a dedicated macro lens for some time now...   The closest thing I have is this 28-105mm Nikon, which has a 1:2 macro capability from the 50-105 range.  It actually works very well, and it allows me to practice and see if I want to spend the big bucks to get a true macro lens.  

Most of these pictures are shot at f16, B+W NL2/Close up filter, and shoe mount sb-25 at 1/2 power.


Reaching out

Comfy bed

Dreaded love bug!

Bumble bee - these guys don't stay put too well, don't make me catch and freeze you now..!!

Onion blossom and companion

Beetle dude

Tibetan Temple - Near Shangri-La, Yunnan

While in Shangri-La, we had a chance to visit a Tibetan Temple.  This will have to be my first encounter of a Tibetan Temple, so I didn't know what to expect.  But I know I always wanted to photograph the prayer flags, and I didn't disappoint, however, I don't know think I did a very good job of capture them, somehow, it's just not very dramatic...  


Colorful

A view of the mountain and the city - it snowed that day.  We are at around 4000+ meter in elevation 

A 3-story tall prayer wheel, it was not easy to move, took a whole team of 10 people to move it.   

Ladies - I don't think they were nuns. 

Carving on the Prayer wheel 

Roof line - the satelite dish sort of ruined the old style look...
 

Looking back at the temple. 

Macau

Macau, former colony of Portugal, is now under China's rule.  Its a special district, and Chinese citizens must get a special VISA before they can cross the China/Macau border.  I am using US passport, so no problem at all.  It was only a 2 hour bus ride from city of Guangzhou. 

This place is much smaller than Hong Kong, which I enjoyed visiting a year ago - even though it was only a day trip.  This time, we spend a night, hotel rate was not bad at all, around $102, I was expecting much higher rate, and the room was very comfortable, so I am not going to complain much...   :)


Street scene - lots of pawn shops and jewelry stores, just like Vegas.

One of the older casinos.
 

European styled plaza.  I like this type of stuff, very relaxing feel to it.   but just around the corner, the massive humanity awaits
 

Here we go - people every where.   waiting in line for some food...
 

St. Pauls church - burned down many years ago, this is what's left.   This of course, a must see land mark.
 

 

Grand Lisboa in the distance
 

 

 

 

 

 

Can be very hilly here.  Get a good pair of walking shoes
 

Old fort 

Rio Casino at night
 

Another Casino - not a lot of people in this side of the island for some reason. 
 

Yours truly, pretending to be a photographer
 

Grand Prix Macau
 

Another casino, again, not a lot of people
 

A new casino, just finished recently

China - Road Sides

Province of Yunnan is located in a fairly mountaineous region of China.  Because of the mountains, it is very hard to open construct road ways to link cities within the province (translates to high cost).  The preferred methods of transportation is actually by air.  There are 13 airports for this province, which, considers who rural this province is, this is quite a bit of airports.   It doesn't mean travel by air is cheap, plan your trip accordingly to reach this place. 

What is Yunnan known for?  Actually, I believe you can find all 56 classified ethnic minorities in this province, which is a big draw for people who are interested in different cultures of these minority groups. 

We travelled by bus to go from cities to cities, very tiring, but we stopped at some rest area to stretch, or, restroom breaks....

 

 

Prayer flags.

Modified farm tractor to carry lumber.  Lots of construction in the Shangri-La area. 

Road side restroom.  Cute little girl.  Too bad I didn't get a clear shot as I took this when I was ready to board the bus.

Fruit vendor. 

Baked potatoes.  No sour cream or bacon to go with it...... 

Young and the old.