Family outing to the zoo

With the Spring semester ending on June 13th, I have a week off before the summer sessions begin for me at both of my colleges. On Monday of this week, our family spent the day at the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens. It was a hot day, and most of the animals weren't very active. However, it was fun walking around and getting to see many of the various creatures the zoo had to offer. The highlight for me was watching the four Sumatran tigers, a mother and three cubs, as the roamed about in there enclosure. The cubs were about the same size as the mother and very active.


In this image, one of the cubs is attacking mom.















This image shows a couple of the cubs play fighting.















This third image, shows a cub playing with a log.
















More images can be seen from my webshots album in the sideshow below or hit the link under the show to go to the album. (The motions in the show are random and not set by me.)



Day @ the Los Angeles Zoo

Early Morning Call from Afar

After having enjoyed a nice relaxing Mother's Day as a family, we settled in to bed for the night. At 1:50 Monday morning, May 12, we were awaken from our sleep by the ringing of our phone. "Who in the heck was calling at this time," I thought to myself as my wife answered the phone. Then then I heard the conversation being conducted in Chinese and knew it was Cindy, my sister-in-law. It wasn't the first time that she had called at this time in the morning, so I didn't think anything of it; after all, it's not always easy to remember the time differences, which would have been late afternoon or early evening of May 12th in my in-laws' city--Chengdu, Sichuan in the People's Republic of China. After my wife got off the phone, I asked if everything was all right. She said that there had been an earthquake and that Cindy was calling from her parents' land line because there was no cell phone service available. Everyone was fine except for being shaken, so I thought. We went back to sleep not thinking much more of the earthquake. After all, I know what it is like to experience an earthquake having lived in Southern California most of my life.

I was stunned when I first heard the news report of the magnitude 7.9 earthquake centered 57 k northwest of Chengdu with thousands of people killed, tens of thousands injured, and even more missing or unaccounted for. My wife tried to call her family again but couldn't get through this time. However, I was thankful to know my in-laws were among the living and not injured because of the early morning call. Then I began to think of all the people I know in the province of Sichuan and in the city of Chengdu.

Chengdu:

I would have to say that Chengdu is my favorite city in China, not just because it is the place where my bride is from. No, I first visited Chengdu in the summer of 1993. It was a stop over spot when my teaching team from the English Language Institute China (ELIC) was on its way to Lhasa, Tibet for our summer teaching assignment. It was on the return trip from Lhasa to Beijing when I had my first chance to roam around the city of Chengdu for an afternoon. Something about the city grabbed a hold of me, and I knew I wanted to come back to see and experience more of the wonderful place.

I applied to spend the summer of 1994 with ELIC, my third summer, and requested an assignment to Chengdu. I was sent as a member of one of two teams of teachers assigned to teach at the Sichuan College of Education. After couple of days teaching,I began to spend a lot of out-of-class time with many of my students taking trips to various parks and sites around the city. The place is full of history, and China has a long history. It was while I was teaching that summer when I met the very petite Chinese woman who was temporarily working for the Foreign Affairs Department at the Sichuan College of Education. We spent time talking in the lobby of the place where the school housed the two teaching teams. After leaving Chengdu, I exchanged letters with several of my students and the young woman from the Foreign Affairs Department. The relationship, if you can call it that, changed from pen pals to something different. We married in Chengdu in 1997 after I had finished teaching for a year and a half in another city and province.

So, back to Monday's earthquake, the news and images from this terrible disaster has been on my mind all week. I wonder about my former students. Are they alright, or are some of them victims? Most of my students were English teachers in high schools or junior high schools through out the province of Sichuan. I wonder, "Were any of the teachers killed in high school the colasped killing over 900 people my former students? " I wonder, "How are my in-laws doing?" I know that they are having to deal with sortages of food and clean water, but they are alive and not injured. I am very thankful for this.

Here are some links to videos from the earthquake area:

Asia Brief

Chengdu airport A place I've flown in and out of several times

Search for Survivors

News link

Keep these people in your thoughts and prayers.

Ken

Two more wide angle views

On the way home from my morning class at Mt SAC, I happened across a train making a long shove on the Los Angeles Sub. to the Alhambra Sub. in Pomona.

This first image is of one of the trainmen guarding the shove as he acts as the engineer's eyes. He was talking on the radio as the train approached my position.















The head end of the train passes by my vantage point.














I can't decide which of the images from these wide angle views I like best. I'm sure more are to come this month.

Ken

Wide Angle View

At another website that I visit, there is a photo assignment to capture an image using 21mm focal length or less. The prompted me to get out and try to capture some images with my 17mm to 40mm lens. Here are a few of my favorites so far.

A lone hopper sits in an industrial spur in Pomona.













A set of tank cars parked in the spur at a candle factory in Pomona.













A couple of views of the cabooses and private cars inside their cage at the Fullerton Amtrak Station.

Fullerton March 15, 2008

I went down to the Fullerton Amtrak Station to hang out with some of my friends on Saturday, March 15th. It was cold and windy when Samantha and I first arrived. The group of friends wasn't as big as I had expected, but that didn't matter. The train action was better than the night before and offered a few photographic opportunities the results of which I plan to share in this post.


This first image has BNSF 5224 heading east and backlit with light shafts streaming down from the clouds.














BNSF 5432 heads into the setting sun as a couple photographers on the passenger platform capture images of the train going away.















After BNSF 5432 cleared the station, SACX 868 pulled into the station for its scheduled stop.















A westbound trailer train passes through the station on track 2 as the Southwest Chief, bound for Chicago, approaches on track 1














Passengers line up to board the Chief.














One of the crew shoots the breeze with a couple people on the platform.















All in all, we had a good evening hanging out with friends and watching the activity around the station.

Day at the Getty Center

Saturday, March 8th, my daughter's school had a get-away-day sponsored by the Getty Center.
We boarded one of the charter buses at the school and enjoyed the ride to West Los Angeles. We arrived around 10:30 and got in line for the tram up to the Center. Samantha looks out the window of our car as one of her classmates looks back toward us.

We spent more time outside the galleries. There were many photographic opportunities around the Center. We grabbed a few images before making our way up to the main lobby.

Samantha checks out the flower pot and the water flowing down to the lower fountain pool.

I tried to take a long exposure of on of the fountains in the main courtyard.

We stopped by the Family Room where Samantha had some fun decorating a mask and tracing some oranges.

We made a brief walk through the lower level of the West Pavilion and looked at some the paintings and sculptures on display.


















We eventually made our way to the garden area where Samantha enjoyed the sculpture of the "Walking Flower."















Speaking of flowers, the garden area provide a lot of chances to capture images of the many different flowers that were growing there.













We stopped and had our lunch under the shade of the umbrellas made of rebar with bougainvillea growing up through the structure.













We made our way back to the bus and made our way home. It was a nice day with Samantha.

Presidents' Day on the Needles Sub.

With winter session having ended and a holiday, I had some time to take a day trip out into the desert along the BNSF Needles Subdivision. I left home around 5:15 a.m. and drove directly to Daggett, just east of Barstow. I got there just after the sun started to rise. The tracks were empty which provided me with a chance to grab a sunrise image looking down the tracks.







The first train that I was able to capture was a westbound led by BNSF 4678. I got this image somewhere between Daggett and Newberry Springs.














The green signal in the distance made me aware of an eastbound approaching, so I was able to swing around and set up for this image of BNSF 7575.













A little further down the road near Newberry Spring, I set up for an image using the stenciled shield on the road.














Just on the other side of Newberry Springs, I set up for another westbound train. BNSF 7688 leads a manifest toward Barstow.














At Ludlow, I tried to be a little creative using a couple wildflowers that were growing trackside.















Speaking of wildflowers, I found a large patch of them between Ash Hill and Klondike. BNSF 5420 heads west toward Ash Hill in the background.











BNSF 5420 approached my location as it heads away from Ash Hill toward Ludlow.














I made my way to Amboy and found BNSF 8234 waiting for a set of helpers to hook up to the back of the train. After getting everything hooked up, the train began to roll.













Just east of Amboy is this tree full of shoes. I had seen it on other trips out this way, but never stopped to photograph it until this trip. There were none in my size, and they seemed a bit over ripe.












The helpers were getting quite a workout because of track work going on near Klondike. The trains had to single track on the steeper of the grades, so the helper set would hook on at Amboy and assist the train to Ash Hill where they would unhook and go back to Amboy to assist another train up the grade. BNSF 822 is the trailing unit of the helper set as they pass by my location at Amboy.






On the journey back toward home, I set up for an image of BNSF 7660 as it climbed the grade leading to east Siberia. This is one of my favorite perspectives on the subdivision. This train didn't need to use the helpers to get up the grade.









I had a fun day and would like to get back out there again since it looks like it's going to be a good year for wildflowers in the desert.

Winter Session @ Mt. SAC

My winter session schedule at Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) has afforded me more time to spend trackside before and after work. I, therefore, would like to share some of my favorite images from my commutes to and from work over the past few weeks. The first day of the winter session began with snow in Cajon Pass which was reported in the "Morning in the Snow" entry below.

On the morning of January 8th, as I was crossing the tracks on San Antonio Ave. in Ontario, I saw some distant lights of an approaching train, so I went to a place to set up for an image and caught UPY 2737 leading a local job entering a siding. My guess is that they were on their way to the Ontario industrial lead to deliver some cars to the customers in that section.






After capturing images of UPY 2737, I headed down State St. along the Montclair Yard a box car sitting on the tracks caught my eye. A former Penn Central car, which is not that common out this way, was posed for the capturing.












After work, I found UPY 2737 working at an industry in Pomona. It was shoving a set of cars out of the spur on to the main line.














After capturing a few images there, I made my way to a spot along the tracks, a new location for me, to get the train as it headed eastward.















Wow! The first two days of my new schedule really gave me some great results.

Some other highlights include capturing eastbound trains, one right after another after waiting for a Metrolink train that passed through the area just before 9:00 every morning, when I am normally teaching. Examples of the this succession of trains can seen in these next three images from the morning of January 17th. UP 4608 heads east through Ontario(9:32 a.m.).





Passing by the Montclair yard, I found UP 5292 stopped (9:37 a.m.).












Continuing my commute to Mt. SAC, I saw headlights approaching and pulled over to capture UP 4481 passing through Pomona near First St. and Oak St. (9:54 a.m.)













These commutes along the Union Pacific tracks also afforded some surprises:

One of these surprises was an eastbound UP 1982, one of UP's heritage locomotives. I didn't have time to set up for this train, but I managed to find a side street to make a u-turn in and position myself for this grab image as the train passed by (Jan. 18th). It is not a great image, but this locomotive hasn't been out this way very much.







Another surprise was finding WAMX 3510 in the power consist of a UP train that was picking up cars in the Montclair yard (Jan. 23rd).















One last surprise, was the appearance of UP EC-4, a track geometry car, as it paused on the main line in Pomona near the Chino industrial lead (Jan. 14th).














My temporary work schedule has also afforded me some non-rail image opportunities:

While driving up Temple Ave. toward Mt. SAC, I notice a large group of birds on this pile with one white cow there. The scene grabbed my attention enough to decide to pull over to capture a few images (Jan. 10th).










The landscaping around the campus also catches my eye. This image of red berries was on a bush near one of the staff parking lots (Jan. 10th)














Continuing up to Building 66, where my classroom is, these red flowers found their way into my veiwfinder (Jan. 10th).














One last image in this post is of an eastbound train as it passes by the downtown Pomona Metrolink station. UP 4326 appears in the sunlight with storm clouds in the background.











There are two weeks remaining to my winter session schedule, and I am looking forward to what my viewfinder will find along the way. Spring semester will have me return to a schedule of class beginning at 8:00 a.m. and a need to leave earlier and not spend as much time commuting along the rails on the way to Mt. SAC; however, there will still be trackside opportunities on the commute home.