August 8th

{In which I celebrate a special day}

Lots of things going on these few days! August 6th was the Asian equivalent of Valentine's Day (July 7th on the lunar calendar). And today is Father's Day in Taiwan since 8/8 sounds like "dad" in Mandarin. My coworkers were surprised to hear that Father's Day happens in June in the States!

But neither of those is the reason for today's post. My dad already got his Father's Day post for the year, and as for Valentine's Day... well, if I ever get a boyfriend, that's when I'd feature photos of him as a kid or something. Because what are special occasion posts for, if not sharing old photos?

Look at this one and see if you can guess what's so special about today:

Yup! Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad! Here are more photos of my gorgeous Mom and handsome Dad looking young and in love:

Happy Father's Day!

My daddy as a boy:

All these years later, he still retains that boyish charm:

Thanks for being a wonderful dad — I know you will always be young at heart. :)

Love you and miss you!

with love,

linda

Baby Sis

Posting a photo of my sister since I posted ones of both my Mom and Dad - might as well complete the series, right? :)

Also, putting up one photo takes a lot less time than the posts I'm supposed to be working on. This week's Monday Musing will be bumped to next week, and as for this week's Photo Diary post... uhhh we'll see if that happens. Feeling so lazy lately.

Meanwhile, you can admire the photos of my beautiful family. I took this one of Diane on our 2008 family vacation to Death Valley.

Thanks for modeling for me and for being such a great sister, friend, confidante, and inspiration. Miss you and love you, baby sis! (And email me more often! :P)

with love,

linda

Happy Mother's Day!

Hi Mommy,

Happy Mother's Day! Hope you're treating yourself to a facial this month. :)

Thank you for being such a great mom. You not only gave birth to Diane and me (I can't even imagine how hard that must have been) but also nurtured us, taught us, and loved us all these years (but maybe that's even harder). I know you always have our best interests at heart, even when it's difficult for us to see things from your perspective. You made so many sacrifices for our family, even when we weren't always grateful. Thank you for supporting us when we want to go on adventures far from home, then reminding us of important things we'd otherwise forget. I don't know what we'd do without you!

I'm learning to appreciate everything you've done for us more and more as the years pass. Thank you so much, and I love you Mommy!

with love,
linda

Death Valley

{In which I process a photo from 2008 instead of the thousands I should be working on now}

Photo taken on family vacation to Death Valley in 2008, with the Canon SD800 from Uncle Eric.

Diane, Summer 2008

I took this photo of Diane in the summer of 2008 in Taiwan at 野柳 (Yehliu) with my Canon SD800 (thanks Uncle Eric!). 

Since my mom loves national parks and scenic landscapes, our family vacations tend to involve a lot of roadtrips to the middle of nowhere (because those types of places have the best scenery). My sister and I were not big fans of those vacations, but we learned to enjoy those trips more once we decided to treat them as photoshoot opportunities. Whenever we stopped at a scenic location, I'd point at a spot and my sister would obligingly begin modeling for me. It helps that she's pretty and doesn't need too much direction from me, although she says I should tell her what to do more often.

So yes, I have a lot of photos of Diane with beautiful landscapes as backdrop. I'll be sharing more of them on my blog. Can't wait until I can hang out with my sister again and take more photos!

with love,

linda

Crabbing

I took this photo in Fall Semester 2009 with my Canon SD800 (a gift from my uncle. Thanks, Uncle Eric!). I went to San Francisco for a crabbing trip with friends, complete with giant nets and lots of guts as bait. The tiny crabs we caught were cute, but since we couldn't keep them unless they were a certain size, we would throw them back into the ocean. If the crab was unlucky, a seagull would swoop down and carry it off before it was safely back at the bottom of the bay (poor baby crab!).

We had a delicious crab dinner after we got back to Berkeley, thanks to the people who bought crabs for us from the local grocery store. Although we didn't have an amazing haul of seafood (we caught exactly two crabs of acceptable size), I had so much fun. That was an incredible day of hanging out with Berkeley ICA. You guys are amazing!

At the Berkeley Marina

My new camera is awesome and I love it to pieces, but I don't think using it means instant awesome photos. I've heard it's the person using it that matters, and while I know I'm definitely a beginner and still have a lot to learn, I like to flatter myself that I took decent photos even before I got a DSLR. So in addition to posts of recent photographs and events, I also want to dig through photos from the past and share a few every once in a while. It's a good way to revisit past events and see how I have and haven't changed in my photo-taking habits. I definitely regret not taking more photos. You can never have too many, in my opinion.

That photo above was taken with my Canon PowerShot SD800 (RIP, dear camera!) in spring 2010. Danny took Michelle and me to the Berkeley Marina, where we ate sandwiches from Bakesale Betty's and talked about God and deep spiritual things. And boys (haha). And relationships. And how messy those can get.

We sat a table at a beautiful spot between trees and the sea. I loved the texture of the old wooden table and the lichen that grew in the cracks. I couldn't resist taking lots and lots of photos, and I'm so glad I did. That was an amazing afternoon.