Looking Forward to the Sakura at Nakijin Castle

If things go right this week, this what you can expect at Nakijin Castle.

The photo above was taken January 28, 2009.

It seems like we had a few years of rough typhoons and cherry blossoms don't like them.

Maybe, they will make a strong comeback, this year.

Traditionally, a good snap of cold weather, brings them on.

Well, I'm freezing my rear-end off, even with the heat on in my office.

Tomorrow, I think I might head up north and see how things are doing, sakura-wise.

I just have to get out of this office.

Did you ever try typing with gloves on ?  I hate it, almost as much as typing with without them.

Have Some Fun After Your Cat Dies

Here's What We Did

 

 

One day, RyukyuRusty came by with one of those dead cat stories.

Well, there's no sense in crying over dead cats. Get rid of the thing.

Don't get another one, either.  It will die, too.

But, you shouldn't waste the dead cat's food.  Find a hungry cat to give it to.

Bring along a camera and tripod.

Set everything up and wait for some action to happen.

Rusty and the Map It Okinawa dude went climbing trails in the woods.

Sometimes, I find other ways to entertain myself.

Just put the camera on burst mode and fire away.

No animals were harmed in the making of this blog.

And, if that cat would have eaten all that food, it would be no problem.

There was another bag up in the bicycle basket.

If you don't feel like having fun after your cat dies, send the food over my way. 

Auto Awesomenator makes my day !

Auto Awesome Animated the Red Helen Butterfly (Photo)

This animated image came from shots taken back in August of 2011.

If you have a Google+ account and upload photos, Auto Awesome does this for you.

Now, I don't know if the Awesomenator is a human or robot.

But, if you upload a bunch of similar photos, somebody makes the GIF for you.

Instead of fooling around, trying to create your own animations, you can let them do it.

And, get back outside with your camera, to do some more shooting !

Amcham Okinawa Colleague Published These Photos

Shuri Castle Gate

Tsunami Relief for Japan

Dragonboat in Naha

What the Heck is an Amcham ?

 

 

It ain't French, Spanish, Chinese or Korean.  I checked.

We were out celebrating last night and I only had one copy of the magazine to show everybody.

The wife and all my sweethearts, at every bar, wanted to know.

What's an Amcham ?

So, I just told them, it must be some kind of code-word.

Amcham, probably means, something like American Chamber of Commerce.

Americans like to do stuff like that.

For example, I use code words, whenever I go out drinking.

All the girls, working behind the bars know.  If I say "I love you," it doesn't mean I love them.

It means, I need another beer.

The missus knows, I do that, everywhere I go so, she doesn't get jealous.

She just says, "Do you still have money?"

After I have told about 5 or 6 girls, I love them, it's time to start singing some karaoke.

And, I do stuff like this:

All girls like to hear that song, even more, than me telling them I love them.


When I woke up this afternoon, the throat and head were both aching.


And, I don't know where that Amchan Magazine went.


But, I have more at the office. So, I did some research.


Amcham is part of the American Chamber of Commerce from the USA.


The President, at the time of their 60th anniversary, was Walt Christiansen.


He's an alright, old guy, you can poke LIKE over where he works.



And, if you like poking things over on Facebook, here's what you could do.

Go poke the people at the American Chamber of Commerce in Okinawa.

That's where I'm heading next.

15 Photos of the January 2014 Mini Full Moon with a Pentax K3

There were some serious, black clouds in the sky last night.

They called this one the mini moon because it's the smallest one we'll see this year.

The first time it peeked through the clouds, I shot it. These three photos were taken at 7:10PM.

 Normally, I wouldn't bother shooting cloudy moon pictures.

But, you never know. The moon might have never showed, again. And, It doesn't hurt to practice.

 The black clouds rolled-in and, I was sure we would lose sight of the moon, again.

 The two images above, were taken at 7:11PM.

The moon didn't come out from behind the clouds, again, until 7:15.

There must be a mule, somewhere, in my family tree.

Because, I can get stubborn. I stood out there on HWY329, freezing.

Every chance I got, I fired, three quick shots, using burst mode.

Because, I could see more clouds, blowing in, fast.

Look what happened at 7:16PM !

The stubborninity started to payoff at 7:23.

Chances were, I might never get to see the moon any better than this.

So, me and the camera went Click, Click, Click.

Clouds, wind, fire, cold and trucks, shaking the highway, couldn't stop me.

 The smallest full moon of the year was what I went out to get.

This just turned out to be one of my favorite images.

Kinda cool, what Google+ AutoAwesome does for you, too !

All 15 photos above were made with the Pentax K3 and a Sigma 50-500 lens at 360mm.

More about shooting the moon may be seen in my PHOTO TIPS