JiuZhaiGou National Park (Seven Lakes in China) - Tiger's Lake

九寨沟老虎海. 老虎海海拔2298米，位于树正瀑布之上，深邃恬静，沉默中蕴蓄着暴烈，安谧中隐藏着桀骜。泼云泻雪似的树正瀑布正是它陡然爆发的活力与激情，瀑声沉雄浑厚，宛若虎啸。 老虎海深邃宁静，关于它的得名有三种说法：一是它近旁的树正瀑布水声如雷，宛若虎啸；二是每到深秋季节，湖岸山上层林尽染，姹紫嫣红的林木倒映在清澈的湖水中，斑驳陆离，犹如老虎身上斑斓的虎纹；三是山中的老虎最爱来这个海子喝水。

Jiuzhaigou means "valley of nine villages," a place that thrills visitors with mysterious water. The Tiger's Lake is tranquil and peaceful. There are three sayings concerning the source of its name. One is that the sound of Shuzheng Waterfall is as the tigers' roaring; the second is that in late autumn, the reflections of Five-Colored Pond forests shine upon the lake which look like the lines of tigers; the third saying is that the tigers in the mountain are fond of this lake and used to drinking the water of the lake.

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Sunday Brunch at LeeLa Palace (Bangalore) (1)

我认识一些没事找事到人。这些人闲下来就搜肠刮肚的找事来折腾。给漂亮的甜点拍照片算是其中之一吧。

到LEELA酒店去吃一个早餐。反正有空，那就尽情地欣赏精心点缀的甜点吧。

Sunday, after going to Church with Thomas, I went for the brunch at LeeLa palace. A perfect place for food photographing.

Soak in the love of beautiful desert.

Everybody Is Entitled with Their Own Delusions

昨天晚上同NIKHIL和她太太去吃晚餐。是一个非常高级的露天餐厅。景色，装修，菜的味道都一流，但是印度的蚊子真的跟轰炸机一样，一个晚上就把我给完全俘虏了。

Went out dinner with Nikhil and his lovely wife at this very fancy restaurant in Banaglore.

One of the major challenges of visiting Bangalore is to fend off the tireless and fearless mosquitos. The whole night, even with the incents burning right next to my foot, those little creatures did not want to give me a break.

According to Nikhil, the Indian mosqitos have used to the Indian fresh, and want to have some Chinese food for a change.

After the dinner, when we walked out the restaurant, the mosquitos are no longer that friendly with Nikhil, as he also got a few bites on his arms.

Nikhil (calmly) "Now those mosquito are having their desert, so that they picked the sweetest person to bite."
Marsha(surprised):"Hmm...I would not think those mosquitos would think you are the sweetest thing among us three. Maybe your lovely wife?"
Nikhil's wife(indifferently):"You know, everybody is entitled with their own delusions."

Indians woman are the most lucky in the world, as they have an amazing huge selection of colorful clothes. I would imagine Nikhil's wife's closet might be as big as my master bedroom. And for each set of Indian dress, the girls are supposed to have matching earings and bangles. No wonder almost of the Indian girls I have talked to, they loooooooove shopping.

Two girls in the office took me shopping the last year. Here is one set of Indian dress and matching sandles. Lovely color, isn't it?!

Alright, here is the evil Nikhil, who totally discouraged my photo-shooting confidence yesterday...:)

The Colorful Bangalore

来班加罗尔好好几次了，但每次都是忙工作忙得昏天黑地，酒店，公司，餐厅三点一线。到底班加罗尔长什么样，还不清不楚。这次总算是因为新买的相机的原因，找着借口出去对此地重新认识。

NIKHIL是我的同事。一大早我们就跑到各处拍照片。

瞎猫也有撞上死耗子的时候。怎么样？这张还真的让我有点洋洋得意。；)

拍了一张自我感觉良好的照片，准备到NIKHIL那里显摆一下。一看到他的照片，我就泄气了。就像他说的，“你的照片嘛，拍得好看，全部是你的相机的功劳。” 我郁闷了。。。

I have been to Bangalore for work for a few times but spent most of my time in the office and restaurants. This time, Nikhil took me out to shoot the beautiful flowers in Bangalore.

When Nikhil joined the team, I assumed he were one of those boring support guys. The truth is that he turned out to be 180 degree opposite to what I assumed.

When he told us that he likes concerts of heavy metals during his first team meeting, I noticed that the jaws of a few of us almost dropped to the floor. I mean, how it could be? Support guy, heavy metals?!No connection what-so-ever at all!

My coworkers, Nikhil, Ashok and Thomas, are a bunch of fun people. They said they could never be too serious with me and like to tease me a lot. Anyway, I don't care what they do, as long as Ashok delivers the coding I want. :)

Nikhil and I initially planned to shoot pictures of wild life in the juggles. Here is some typical teases among us...
Marsha:"Nikhil, where are we going to stay, if we go to the jungles?"
Ashok:"Under a tree?"
Marsha:"Ah...!@&$#%, ?!?!"
Nikhil:"Oh, we can stay in my car and keep the window open, so that the tiger may come over and say hi to us."
Marsha:"Ah...!@&$#%, !@&$#%, ?!?!"
Ashok:"Marsha, you'd better finish up your work before you go. So even if the tiger eats you for dinner, the development work won't get delayed."
Thomas:"Marsha, you should give Ashok your computer before you go..."
Nikhil:"Marsha, don't worry. Indian Tiger does not like Chinese food."
Ashok:"Maybe the tiger wants to have Chinese for appetizer for a change this time. But, Marsha, don't worry. You are too lean for the tiger. The tiger might eat Nikhil first."
Marsha:"Ah...!@&$#%, !@&$#%,!@&$#%, ?!?!"

Nikhil and I were taking pictures of the same flower. I took a look at mine and felt it was pretty decent.
Marsha(showing my picture to him):"Nikhil, Hey, this one looks pretty good. What do you think?"
Nikhil (glanced at it for a second):"Let me show you what I got. Now I can really make you feel bad..."
God said:"Don't judge a person from the looks." I guess sometimes, God can be right. Nikhil is one of those guys who look nice but are evil deep inside. :)

On a serious notes, the Canon 40D does have very vivid color of the flowers.

Just like Nikhil said - My pictures depend 90% on the quality of the Canon 40D, 10% on my own composition.

现在正是班加罗尔繁花似锦缎时候。

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Hiking in GuiLin Da Zhai

玩够了桂林阳朔，如果要再想折腾折腾的话，大寨是一个看梯田的好去处。那说去就去吧。LAURA和付隽折腾的本事我是领教过的。

当年毛主席学大寨的时候，光忙着昏天黑地的瞎忙活，多半没有想到会以旅游点的方式造福子孙吧。这就是鼎鼎大名的七星伴月了。

当地的少数民族和卖的小物品。

看这烤竹筒饭的架势，乌烟瘴气，挺吓人吧。我们决定一定要试试这个。说实话，用竹筒做的野鸡和糯米饭还真的很具一番风味。

吃完了洗个手。继续赶路。看她俩这一摇三晃的，那里是在爬山？同她俩在一起，我经常郁闷呀！但谁叫她俩是我这十多年的好朋友呢？将就吧。

手工做的草鞋和别的小玩艺。

好不容易同她俩摇晃到山顶。拍照留恋吧！

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Dinner at LeeLa Palace

到印度班加罗尔出差真的不是一件轻松愉快的事。第一个星期调时差，根本睡不好觉。等到习惯一些时间和环境的差别，又该回家了。但不管怎样，忙里偷闲，同同事一块出去休闲消费一下。去了这间叫LEELA的酒店。很高级，很漂亮。让我们暂时忘了，我们居然是在印度。晚餐前，随便逛逛吧。5星际酒店的价格绝对是同美国接轨的。

Annabel and I wanted to do some window shopping at Leela Palace before the dinner, since the place is considered as one of the most luxurious hotels in Bangalore. While I was taking some random pictures along the way, Annabel is a rather forgiving judge of my pictures. As long as the shot was taken with clear image (right focus), it's a great picture. Not sure she is so easy with the bunch of developers who work for her. :)

Dinner was served - Layered thin-sliced eggplant with pickled spring onions and tomato basil salsa. One simple way to evaluate the quality of a restaurant is to taste its bread rolls. The Italian bread with green onion and a tiny bit of olive oil and garlic went harmoniously with the eggplant.

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Photographing 101

教授近物拍摄的基本。遇到的这帮专业摄影师真的是耐心到极点。手把手的教授拍摄要点。就差没有帮我按快门了。

True photographers have eyes that can spot intriguing subjects which often overlooked by beginners. So, on our way back, they spotted this flower, and decided that it's the time to give Marsha the lesson of Macro 101.

It was such a hands-on training with Ron that he almost set up all the settings of my camera and provided the detailed instructions on the composition. The only thing left for me to do was to simply push the button. Oh, BTW, the photo-shooting position in the picture was a total ab work-out. :) The left was how the flower finally turned out to be.

Marsha (enthusiastically showing the picture to Teddy):"Teddy, hey, look at this! How do you like this?"
Teddy (shaking his head):"This needs some cropping. How could you leave the flower right there in the middle?

Totally confused.. 光圈，焦距，快门速度，。。。。，这一连窜的摄影专业术语把我搞得晕头转向。

Pretending to be a photographer. 这个是鼻子上插两根葱就能装象的时代啊！

A cute photographer! Only after Teddy's photo-shops. :) 经过图像处理之后，不想当美女都难啊！

By the end of the day, after exhausting the patience from Ron, Teddy and Prakash and owning them bags of cookies, I finally got the basic understanding of the photo-shooting 101.
Prakash:"You guys are totally confusing her..."
Ron:"Marsha, we got you so confused that you are looking at the wrong side of the camera..."

Two pictures taken with Teddy's ideas. If the pictures did not turn out to be great, it's only because the teacher is not very good. :)