sunny098 Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 Being a photographer, on my past trip, I did some night photography of Mt. Whitney and Lone Pine, CA. Now I feel like dumb. Had my mom pull out on the side of the highway at night and turned on the emergency flashers. I walked through a cactus patch and then waited out in the cold and pitch darkness in the middle of the cactus patch for about half an hour as the long exposures exposed. Now checking my GPS data, I can see dirt roads and a parking lot right in front of me that I somehow missed with my super bright 4000 lumen flashlight! I could have shot so much longer while waiting in the warmth of my car. When life decides to screw with you. midnight_spell360 and jellysundae 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lakecat Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 Sorry about that Sunny. I guess we all do things like that sometimes...Do you post your photos someplace? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charelan Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 Hahaha I really enjoyed that, especially with the map for reference. I'm just picturing you prowling around right next to the parking lot. But the shots in your signature are great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jellysundae Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 I just HAD to come and read this, because the thread title's just the kind of one that I post. xD Like charelan I'm enjoying the visual of Sunny: Shunner of parking lots. Lesson learnt though, right? You're never going to go prowling through cactus again without checking for some friendlier ground nearby first. sunny098 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midnight_spell360 Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 15 hours ago, sunny098 said: Being a photographer, on my past trip, I did some night photography of Mt. Whitney and Lone Pine, CA. Now I feel like dumb. Had my mom pull out on the side of the highway at night and turned on the emergency flashers. I walked through a cactus patch and then waited out in the cold and pitch darkness in the middle of the cactus patch for about half an hour as the long exposures exposed. Now checking my GPS data, I can see dirt roads and a parking lot right in front of me that I somehow missed with my super bright 4000 lumen flashlight! I could have shot so much longer while waiting in the warmth of my car. When life decides to screw with you. I just wanted to say, I think you took amazing photos! Keep going with it. Because: "Beauty is just right around the corner... And yes, YOU ARE(I'm) a photographer" ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunny098 Posted February 20, 2018 Author Share Posted February 20, 2018 12 hours ago, lakecat said: Sorry about that Sunny. I guess we all do things like that sometimes...Do you post your photos someplace? If you go to my profile on this forum, there should be a link to my photography portfolio. I travel all over the place. @jellysundae It was dark and at night. I was tired. So my thought was park on the side of the road, and then I'll walk into the desert a bit off the road and do my photos. The dumb thing was there was cell signal as I was approaching the town. Next time, I'm definitely checking first. jellysundae and lakecat 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jellysundae Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 I'm just enjoying looking at your pics! I'm now googling Torpedo Wharf so I can get a clearer idea of where that is. I can see the Palace of Fine Arts there in that pic, but because of my enthusiastic but somewhat sketchy knowledge of SF I was first imagining this wharf is over the bay in Sausalito, and then maybe part of the Golden Gate itself, lol. But having looked on a map now I can see why I was thinking these things. Perspective was definitely playing tricks on me, lol. sunny098 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunny098 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 9 hours ago, jellysundae said: I'm just enjoying looking at your pics! I'm now googling Torpedo Wharf so I can get a clearer idea of where that is. I can see the Palace of Fine Arts there in that pic, but because of my enthusiastic but somewhat sketchy knowledge of SF I was first imagining this wharf is over the bay in Sausalito, and then maybe part of the Golden Gate itself, lol. But having looked on a map now I can see why I was thinking these things. Perspective was definitely playing tricks on me, lol. I thought you are from the UK. Have you visited the states before, especially California? I'm surprised a foreigner has such an interest in the area. Technically I'm a foreigner too, LOL but growing up in the US, I completely forget I'm Chinese. I'm surprised at the attention you guys are giving me. HA! Here is a small preview from my past trip to the desert (Badwater Basin in Death Valley). Not the photo from that night, but it is from the same trip. Hehe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jellysundae Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 7 hours ago, sunny098 said: I thought you are from the UK. Have you visited the states before, especially California? I'm surprised a foreigner has such an interest in the area. Technically I'm a foreigner too, LOL but growing up in the US, I completely forget I'm Chinese. I'm surprised at the attention you guys are giving me. HA! Here is a small preview from my past trip to the desert (Badwater Basin in Death Valley). Not the photo from that night, but it is from the same trip. Hehe I am in the UK, yep but I do have a bit of an obsession with SF, lol. I can't even pinpoint where it developed from, watching Charmed years ago, maybe? Pretty ironic as that wasn't actually filmed there, lol. I idly browse houses for sale on the Pac Union website, I have a daydream of one day having a cute house in the Outer Sunset with all its 1940s original features still intact. (so I now get to see all the places that have been gutted and painted grey, oh joy -_-). But I'm aware I'm in the minority with my interest in the city. I have been to the US, but not to California. When I was a kid we visited my mum's pen pal who lived in Indianapolis, and I've had a brief trip to Florida (wow, get that humidity away from me, yuk!) but no California dreamin' for me, nope. It's really nice that as a Chinese American you can feel that way! The Bay Area being such a cultural melting pot it couldn't be any other way I think That's a lovely moody shot, actually lovely's totally the wrong kind of adjective for the way the content could be perceived, sinister works well though, lol. Black and white is so good for completely altering the vibe of an image, isn't it. I bet in colour those two figures don't look menacing at all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunny098 Posted February 22, 2018 Author Share Posted February 22, 2018 @jellysundae That photo looks like the future of humans exploring Mars. I can now see why NASA sometimes tests their rovers here in the desert. Buy a house in SF. Yeah keep dreaming. Almost no one can afford a house in the bay area these days let alone SF. The house market has really gone too crazy and inflated here especially in the south bay, SF, and peninsula with companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, or another huge companies that dominate the world. HA It's a bit sad really. I'm still living with my parents because I do have some mental disabilities, so getting a job and getting my college degree is hard (I'm trying my best), but even for my peers who did get college degrees with top colleges here are living with parents because they just can't afford the houses here (and I'm talking about fresh out of college programmers working for FB, Google, Uber and its already pretty high paying for straight outta college)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jellysundae Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 Ah, but I saw something recently that said even Google employees can't afford to live in SF any more, lol. But then the city has partly caused the appalling current housing problem itself with its building restrictions. There's some 40ft height limit for buildings or something like that, in a many areas, so the city can't spread outwards because there's no land, and it can't grow upwards either. (and the towers they can build are sinking ofc xD) So the only thing going up is rent and house prices . . .I've seen what landlords are doing to buildings to take advantage of people like your peers, carving rooms up to create ridiculous spaces that they'll rent for $2k a month or something. The world's gone crazy. You sound like you're doing ok despite your brain misbehaving, so good for you. Will you be able to live on your own at any point, health-wise? Yeah that b+w pic definitely has a lunar look about it, those beings might be aliens then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sciurus carolinensis Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 7 hours ago, jellysundae said: There's some 40ft height limit for buildings or something like that, in a many areas, so the city can't spread outwards because there's no land, and it can't grow upwards either. (and the towers they can build are sinking ofc xD) The height limit makes sense. Part of San Francisco is built on bedrock, but part is built on filled in portions of the bay. My parents lived in the bay area at the time of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The fill under the Marina district where my mom worked basically behaved like a liquid (geologic term is liquefaction). Even small buildings are likely to collapse when that happens, skyscrapers don't stand a chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jellysundae Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 1 hour ago, Sciurus carolinensis said: The height limit makes sense. Part of San Francisco is built on bedrock, but part is built on filled in portions of the bay. My parents lived in the bay area at the time of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The fill under the Marina district where my mom worked basically behaved like a liquid (geologic term is liquefaction). Even small buildings are likely to collapse when that happens, skyscrapers don't stand a chance. Yeah, I totally get it about the liquefaction risks, a whole lot of the city's on pretty insubstantial ground, isn't it. But isn't the sinking Millenium Tower on sand? How were they allowed to build that I've seen stuff online about how people believe SoMa will just disappear into the bay if another big one hits because of it being poorly constructed from landfill. I guess really, people have been lulled into a false sense of security, because apart from the 1989 one the ground has been pretty well behaved for some time. If something along the 1906 level happens again the effects will be cataclysmic. I have this wonderful book by Charles Caldwell Dobie. It's half the history of the city from the first Spanish settlers and through the gold rush and so on, then the second half is a first hand account of his life in the city, starting with being shaken awake by the 1906 'quake. and he talks about the refugee camps in the sand dunes that would later become the Sunset District. That blew me away, I had no idea that was all sand before. That book's a fascinating read BTW, a pithy and amusing chap, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunny098 Posted February 23, 2018 Author Share Posted February 23, 2018 It's true... Back in my previous residence on the fault line, we'd get one quake 2 weeks or more, I totally got used to it. We really can't go any higher with our buildings because of it! And I do hope one day I can be self reliant and live on my own, but at the moment no... However my doctor and I are making great strides in medication and one I found recently seems to be working alright. Sadly with a lot of these psychiatric drugs, it is trial and error. After studying a bit of psychology and biology in college, for the most part, scientists don't know why they work, but they just know they do and it really is a guessing game... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jellysundae Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 12 hours ago, sunny098 said: After studying a bit of psychology and biology in college, for the most part, scientists don't know why they work, but they just know they do and it really is a guessing game... OMG so true! I have MS and information for my treatment makes it very clear that they don't know HOW it works, they THINK they do, but they're not sure. >_< TOTALLY reassuring when it goes on to list endless side-effects, up to and including death D:< I guess it's trial and error with a whole lot of meds, but when it's stuff that's impacting on how your brain works it's no fun being a guinea pig that's for sure! Best of luck with this new one then, and I'm glad you're hopeful for your future. Oh! With the earthquake thing. I saw a program recently about constructing tall buildings and they visited this over 1000 year old (1000!!) 5 story pagoda in Japan that's survived over a millennium while buildings all around are destroyed by endless earthquakes. Seems it's built so each floor can move independently, so during a 'quake it will basically shimmy like a snake! This is quite clearly a method that works wonderfully, but people don't like using old methods do they, lol. I guess structural engineers feel they need to earn their big pay packet by coming up with technological advances rather than using a method someone else dreamt up in the year 796. xD Though I'd NOT want to be in a 50 story building that was behaving like a belly dancer during an earthquake. I get motion-sickness, can you imagine! Actually no, scratch that, if the alternative was being buried alive under several million tons of rubble, yeah I'd put up with being swung to puking point and beyond by my living room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunny098 Posted February 23, 2018 Author Share Posted February 23, 2018 @jellysundae One of my problems is bipolar depression, and trust me it is really hard to keep my spirits up when it hits (which isn't all the time thank heavens) but the meds are helping and lately I've been self studying code (I'm quite a bit of a computer nerd, so it isn't too hard and I've gotten quite far) And earthquake, yeah, just being on the 2nd floor, I already lost my balance a bunch of times on quakes over 3 to 4... I can't imagine any higher. Also our tech here in the US (despite being Silicon Valley) is really out of date. Just look at the Shinkensen of Japan and high speed rail of China... Here in the US probably take several lifetimes to build. HA We really are moving slow. Even our highways girl, is so out of date. With the amount of people moving into the bay, a normal 30 minute drive takes like 2-3 hours during rush hour. It is a nightmare. Can't wait until self driving cars on mainstream. At least I doin't need to be driving bumper to bumper myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jellysundae Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 I'm really glad the meds are helping, now they just need to KEEP helping and not start doing anything nasty! I keep peeping back at the squirrel in your sig peeping out at me. xD Hello little guy! Not, I'm not easily distracted, not me. Yeah the UK's infrastructure's really out of date, too. I wonder how Japan and China managed with their trains, I guess they're just better organised than everyone else? We desperately need a faster system. It can't become bigger because there's no room, and the tracks won't be able to cope with faster/heavier trains. We need those ones that run on magnets or whatever it is but I can't see that happening, ever to be honest, lol. It's got to be a mindset thing, Westerners are just too stubborn or something! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunny098 Posted February 24, 2018 Author Share Posted February 24, 2018 @jellysundae I'm not sure about Japan, but for China, I feel super bad telling you this but... The Chinese government just takes land and kick people out on where ever they wanna build. They give compensation, but not enough (when I interviewed some local residents during my last visit). In China, all land belongs to the government, and you are borrowing from them. I'm so glad I moved out of that heckhole when I was 6. There are some instances where the local government opened up for talks and compensated correctly, but that was after the local farm owners made make shift missiles and bombs and launched it at the construction crew that came to bulldoze their house down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jellysundae Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 13 hours ago, sunny098 said: @jellysundae I'm not sure about Japan, but for China, I feel super bad telling you this but... The Chinese government just takes land and kick people out on where ever they wanna build. They give compensation, but not enough (when I interviewed some local residents during my last visit). In China, all land belongs to the government, and you are borrowing from them. I'm so glad I moved out of that heckhole when I was 6. There are some instances where the local government opened up for talks and compensated correctly, but that was after the local farm owners made make shift missiles and bombs and launched it at the construction crew that came to bulldoze their house down. Ah! lol. Gotta say, while it's tough to actually do, we really shouldn't feel personally bad about the things our country's government do/have done. But that's easier said than done, isn't it . . . I think the process you've mentioned there is pretty much what happened in any country, maybe just more hardline with China being a communist country. Pretty sure a lot of officials would really LOVE to be able to just kick people out of their homes when they want the land for whatever reason. I guess for any mass transit technological advances made, there's a trampled swath of disposed people lying in its wake. But that's "progress", right? Many, no HUGE amounts benefit from it (hopefully!) but there's always a small but significant amount of real casualties, meh! Hey, nice to know that local government CAN see the light with the right kind of diplomacy though. right?! So where are you and your camera heading for next? You may even find that communing with nature in the middle of a cactus patch becomes a thing you really miss and you feel compelled to do it again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunny098 Posted February 24, 2018 Author Share Posted February 24, 2018 @jellysundae At the moment, since my grandma is visiting from China. There are a couple plans... One is Yosemite National Park (which is real close by)... And other longer trip I have in mind is a trip up to Northern California and Oregon (I like in the bay) visiting Crater Lake, Mt. Hood, Mt. Shasta, Lava Beds, and maybe some other places (Portland maybe). At the moment, the weather is not playing along with constant rain and snow sadly. My parents and I don't wanna be driving through a snowstorm. We are not used to it since that never happens in the bay (we barely get rain as it is with the drought right now). I was thinking about the Southern California deserts again, but then I just got back from there last month! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jellysundae Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 32 minutes ago, sunny098 said: I was thinking about the Southern California deserts again, but then I just got back from there last month! I knew it! Those cactus are calling! You've got a lovely range of options though, haven't you Does your grandma speak English, or do you get to practice your Chinese with her? Hmm, "Chinese" isn't actually a language, is it, just to confuse all the rest of the world, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunny098 Posted February 24, 2018 Author Share Posted February 24, 2018 @jellysundae She doesn't speak English, but technically I didn't come to the US until I was 6. Although my Chinese really suffered growing up here. But yeah, I can communicate for the most part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jellysundae Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 1 hour ago, sunny098 said: @jellysundae She doesn't speak English, but technically I didn't come to the US until I was 6. Although my Chinese really suffered growing up here. But yeah, I can communicate for the most part. It's a shame we don't magically retain all the language stuff we learn when we're younger, isn't it. For people like yourself who were born in a different country, and for everyone who learnt French at school and things like that. I guess it's that use it or lose it thing. What about the rest of you guys? I didn't enjoy French at school, so DULL how it's taught! But I did half a year of Spanish and I liked that far better because it was basically tourist Spanish so conversational, rather than learning verbs by rote, SNORE! But that was a long time ago and I can remember very little now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunny098 Posted February 24, 2018 Author Share Posted February 24, 2018 @jellysundae Actually almost all my peers whether ABC or came here at a young age is like me. We can somewhat speak, can't read much, and we can convey basic ideas. I did try to learn Japanese a few years back online but it sucks because Japan borrows a lot from Chinese but is different in pronunciation. It was so hard, I somewhat gave up. I never learned any other languages, although growing up in California, you can't help pick up some Spanish along the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlushedRose Posted February 25, 2018 Share Posted February 25, 2018 On 2/20/2018 at 9:12 PM, sunny098 said: I thought you are from the UK. Have you visited the states before, especially California? I'm surprised a foreigner has such an interest in the area. Technically I'm a foreigner too, LOL but growing up in the US, I completely forget I'm Chinese. I'm surprised at the attention you guys are giving me. HA! Here is a small preview from my past trip to the desert (Badwater Basin in Death Valley). Not the photo from that night, but it is from the same trip. Hehe When did you take that photo? I was just there on the 15th/16th and actually accidentally stepped in that puddle lol. It was super slippery but got more gritty as you walked out farther. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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