richardfman is a bit awkward for the blog and .com domain. Unfortunately, richardman.com is taken – by someone who AFAIK is named Richard Lee (!). I have gotten richardfman.com and now registered rfman.com. There is no content there yet, but eventually it will be my primary site for calligraphy and photography.

Anyway, if you have http://richardfman.wordpress.com in your bookmark or RSS etc., please update it to http://rfman.wordpress.com

Thank you.

The Chinese reads, “Solstice 2008, Peace under Heaven (for all Creations).”

7:03AM

7:08AM, the red is already mostly gone

The Japanese generally likes to keep their places nice and neat, even their national parks. Stray leaves are swept away unless they are artfully arranged. Clearly, these people are keeping the riverlet clean (the wooden sign says “Bridge for Cranes to Walk Over,” but may be the Nihongo semantic is different from the Chinese, as I doubt any crane would walk on the bridge per se) but I can’t say I understand how a broom is the best tools for the job.

The Chinese I wrote is simply, “Kanazawa Kenrokuen (garden), Japan.”

In Japan, as with many other places in Asia, religions and spirituality are very much interwined with the People and the Land. In the Japanese countryside, you can’t help but feel that life is different there. The roadside Jizo that protect travelers, the stone lanterns, the Torii gates. It anchors us to the place. Here are two photos of the lanterns, a small lantern and a set of lanterns that dwarfs the human next to them.

Of the Small:

…And Large:

I love Hong Kong. I think it has the best skyline in the world. We spent Chinese New Year 2007 in Hong Kong and I miss the place. This is from the Giant Buddha temple area. The signs say, “Don’t Throw Coin,” and of course this guy is caught in the act.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture

Incredible photography. Color photography has come of age in photojournalism, although I have to say that comparing to some of the classic images, these seem visually more dramatic, but perhaps have less souls.

Solstice is the day of the “Sun Return,” after the day of the longest night. On the Northern Hemisphere, the setting Sun will set in the same spot for about 3 days, before making a northerly journey again, until the Summer Solstice. We have a tradition of holding a Solstice Vigil (i.e. an excuse for party) and some of us stay up all night, ensuring the Yule log burns all night and sing up the Sun the next morn, at Solstice.

This is one of the photos from 2007, “Solstice Morn 2007.”

// EDIT: added Chinese calligraphy. It reads:

The Winter Solstice arrives in California

In the morning, we looked to the East to wait for the Sunrise

(heh, the Chinese is so much more concise)

What if you can see through the eyes of an alien? Well, you sort of can, by taking infrared (IR) photos. Stanford’s New Guinea Sculpture Garden is my favorite place to test out new photo equipments as it offers unique scenery. And so here it is, “Through Alien Eyes:”

Winged Goddess

(Yes, this print is for sale, printed on fine arts rice paper)

A couple more behind the “more…” tag.

Under the Alien Sky

Sunset Blue

I love the panoramic format. I have a number of very good digital color photos from this session, but somehow “the look,” the tonality of the Neopan 1600 B&W film, and the pano format just speak to me.

The Hasselblad XPan II (or the FujifilmTX-2 version) is a spectacular camera for handheld pano photos. Expect more to come.

We were deciding where to ride our bicycles this last weekend, and our daughter suggested that we go say “hi” to the Shrek Donkey. Donkey? Shrek’s Donkey? Of course it immediately dawned on me that since Dreamworks was located in our town, it stands to reason that they would use a local model, but a donkey in our town?

Why yes! We have an outdoor skating rink (even though our daytime temperature is a balmy 60+ degrees), we have our own city’s utilities, so why not donkeys?

So here it is, Perry, the Shrek Donkey, and Niner in the back.