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Author Archives: untouchedtcphotos

Never Giving up my Old Tickets from Candlestick Park

02 Saturday Jan 2021

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Baseball, Candlestick Park, Canon, Former Home of the San Francisco Giants, Lost Ballpark, Remembering Candlestick Park, San Francisco Giants, SF Giants, the stick

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ballpark art, Baseball Stadium, Candlestick, Candlestick Park, Candlestick Park Days Past, Candlestick Park Photography Art, Canon, Etsy Untouchedtcphotos, Former Baseball Stadium, giants nation, giants nation united, Lost Ballpark, Remembering Candlestick Park, San Francisco Giants, SF Giants, Stadium Art, the stick, Untouchedtcphotos, We are Giants, we are sf

These were some ticket stubs from SF Giants games I went to at Candlestick Park in 1988. I took this picture sitting in the general admission section behind the centerfield fence before a night game. I took the picture with 35mm color film with my Canon camera.

My wife asked me if I still have these tickets. My answer is “YES”! I am glad I kept these tickets especially whenever we go back to seeing live games, we will be using tickets on our cellphones. If we print out our tickets, they will not look like the old paper tickets. 

We are celebrating the new year – 2021! Often we think about getting rid of the “old” to make room for the “new”. We are trying to clean up. But I will keep these Candlestick Park tickets forever.

Why do I want to keep these old tickets? They remind me of the good times I had at Candlestick Park. For many sports fans who grew up at Candlestick Park, we remember the good times where tickets were easy to purchase. The tickets were cheap. I did not have to plan way in advance to buy the tickets. I could just walk up to the ticket window and purchase a seat. It is cool I can buy a ticket online whenever we can go back to Oracle Park. But the experience of going up to the ticket office to purchase a ticket is history.

It is a tough decision to know what to keep and what to throw away. We need to keep our good memories especially during this pandemic period when times are tough. We keep mementos and photographs to get our minds to think about good things. Our hallway has canvas photographs which make us smile. 

Our goal for 2021 is to keep what makes us smile and get rid of stuff which makes life difficult. We hope to create our happy space and improve it to be more efficient and functional.

Be happy with good memories and pictures in 2021!

Keep Photos to be Happy!

 

 

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How About an Insect for Dessert?

01 Friday Jan 2021

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Anna's Hummingbird, Back Yard Garden, Backyard Garden, Cuphea Vermillionaire, Garden, Home Garden, Hummingbird

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Anna's Hummingbird, Backyard Garden, Cuphea Plant, Cuphea Vermillionaire, Garden, Home Garden, Hummingbird, Sloat Garden Center

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I took these series of photographs in sequence as I followed this hummingbird’s actions. These hummingbirds are constantly looking for food to maintain their energy level.

It is amazing to see the different positions of this bird’s wings from the back to the side and forward. I love the forward curved wing positions.  He enjoyed the nectar from the flower and kept moving his wings while drinking the nectar.

The hummingbird’s green back blends in so well with the greenery in the garden. The Creator gave the hummingbird pretty colors to match his surrounding and to be hidden from any predators.

The hummingbird’s expression is interesting as he gazes at the insect dessert. Not sure how he compares the insect snack with the flower nectar. I usually prefer sweets over savory. But it is a hard choice since I love all food.

I can identify with the hummingbird and his constant need to feed. It doesn’t take me too long to get hungry after a meal. I often am hungry by bedtime. Unfortunately, I do not have the metabolism of a hummingbird. So I cannot afford to eat before bedtime.

As this difficult 2020 ends, we all possess an abundance of mixed emotions about the events of this year.

One of my goals during this pandemic was to get healthier. I learned to increase my steps per day and managed to lose about 10 pounds. Perhaps, I would not have accomplished this goal, if it were not for the pandemic and sheltering in place.

During this pandemic, our household tried to cook and eat different foods. Fortunately, my wife did bake comfort treats to ease our SIP mood. We needed our desserts to soothe our anxieties and the changed social interactions.

In the midst of trials, we do need good things to comfort us like dessert.

This hummingbird enjoyed his insect dessert, as he stared at his spec of a meal.

In 2021, make sure to find ways to reward ourselves, since we do not know how long until we transform into a new and better normal.

What pandemic goals will we seek to achieve in 2021? Let’s give ourselves comfort rewards for our achievements in the new year. We all need our comfort foods, but I would not choose an insect dessert.

May we find photographs to motivate us to do better in 2021!

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Prime Rib Heaven on Christmas

26 Saturday Dec 2020

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Christmas Dinner, Foolproof Standing Rib Roast, Paula Deen Recipe, Prime Rib

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Christmas Dinner, Foolproof Standing Rib Roast, Paula Deen Recipe, Prime Rib, safeway

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Christmas was different this year. We could not gather with my parents, siblings, aunties, uncles and cousins to celebrate the holiday this year. It was a quiet and less complicated celebration. But we all try to bring in some normalcy into our pandemic celebrations.

Food is a way to bring comfort and normalcy into our Christmas celebration. Annually, we enjoy prime rib for our Christmas celebration. We try to be healthy and do not eat lots of beef though we love it. So we could not leave this out of our Christmas food fest.

We raved to our family and friends about our prime rib recipe which our good friend introduced to us about 10 years ago. There is a fear in overcooking an expensive prime rib and ruining this investment. But this recipe truly is foolproof. You do not need to figure out how long to cook your prime rib depending on the size and weight. It works for us whether our roast is a Costco king size prime rib or the 4 rib prime rib we bought for this Christmas.

Foolproof Prime Rib from Paula Deen

We seasoned with Costco 21 salt less seasoning, garlic salt, fresh garlic, garlic powder and fresh rosemary the night before. We roasted for the designated 375 degrees for one hour and turned off and waited 3 hours before turning on for 30 minutes not waiting for the 375 degrees to come back. The meat came out rare. We prefer rare. Especially for leftovers, we will not have overcooked meat. We saved the drippings to make gravy the next day. We savored the flavor without the gravy. We were in prime rib heaven.

Cooking took time to prepare! But what else are we going to do during this pandemic life?

We also enjoyed the Safeway deal of utilizing the coupon to buy our roast for $5.99/lb. So we enjoyed a big 10 pound roast for the cost of one serving of beef from our local popular prime rib restaurant. We look forward to prime rib sandwiches using Costco Artisan rolls, Trader Joe’s Whole Grain Dijon Mustard, and avocado.

Our accompanied side dishes were scalloped potatoes and ginger butternut squash, carrot and broccoli medley. For dessert, we enjoyed Meyer lemon bars utilizing about 4 lemons from our garden.

Our cooking skills have improved during this pandemic. We refined our tastes and hope to continue to improve.

Even though, we could not spend our Christmas with our family and relatives. Instead we were able to notice the flavors of our food better. Normally, we are blessed with a lot of dishes prepared by relatives. So we over indulged and the flavors are a little intermingled. We do not get to truly appreciated each dish’s unique flavor.

Lesson learned is to slow down and savor the flavors. I am a fast eater. I did participate in a couple of food eating competitions with success. But fast eating does not allow for noticing the nuances of flavors.

Hope we can learn to continue to slow down to savor life in 2021.

Photos Remind and Teach!

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Townsend’s Warbler Enjoying some Sun in our Backyard

24 Thursday Dec 2020

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in birds, Townsend's Warbler

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birds, SF Birds, Townsend's Warbler

A Townsend’s Warbler enjoying the scenery

Scouting where to go

Getting ready to take-off

Taking off!

Airborne!

Watching birds has become my new passion during 2020. This bright yellow Townsend’s Warbler occasionally visits my backyard. When he lifts up his wings high enough, the 4 black stripes are more pronounced. He is hiding his stripes under his wings. Initially I noticed the bright yellow chest underside of this bird.

As I was watching the bird getting ready to launch and fly, he revealed his stripes underneath his wings.

When he was perched on our fence, he has a fluffy and round shape. But when he is leaving and flying, his body stretches out long to show a thinner shape as he takes off. I wish I could look that lean by changing my positioning.

It is also interesting how he has the black mask look around his eyes. He does not need any black eyeliner to make his eyes more pronounced. He is fortunate that his black shading around his eyes gives him the super hero mask appearance. This is a pretty cool built-in look!

This year our Christmas will not be spent with our usual large group of family and relatives. Our Christmas will consist of 3 of us at home. We will cook Christmas dinner and drop off food to my parents. But unfortunately we will not be able to interact with family and relatives.

Holiday parties and interaction is great. But do we tend to participate in small talk especially when the party is with a large group? When it is a large party, we usually do not practice a lot of intimate conversation, just because it is hard to do in a crowd. We may not share any problems or issues during our holiday celebrations, since it may not be appropriate.

When I saw this bird reveal its hidden black stripes under the wings, what are we hiding underneath? Maybe our burden would be lighter if we shared it with someone.

If we lift up our arms and let go of a worry or a problem, we could feel lighter. Anxiety over our problems will not make them go away. Working on a plan to possibly resolve a problem could be the answer. Allowing a friend to support us in our problems could relieve anxiety. How about trusting God to solve our impossible situation?

Let’s lift up our arms and show our hidden black stripes. Can we fly higher seeking help to resolve our black stripes?

Photos Teach!

 

 

 

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Crazy Wings

18 Friday Dec 2020

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Anna's Hummingbird, Back Yard Garden, Backyard Garden, Canon, Cuphea Vermillionaire, Garden, Home Garden, Hummingbird, Sloat Garden Center

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Anna's Hummingbird, Backyard Garden, Canon, Cuphea Plant, Cuphea Vermillionaire, Garden, Home Garden, Hummingbird, Sloat Garden Center

Since I have been shooting photographs of hummingbirds, I never realized how many different poses and positions these birds have. The more I shoot the more I am surprised by the many different positions they move their wings. These wings look curved forward in their position. Also this bird’s head gives a different position of looking at the top from a slight angle.

Being a good photographer means catching natural images. I dread having my photograph taken. I probably only have a couple poses when I asked to be in a photograph. Being a typical guy, I am not flexible. I miss not playing sports. I walk for exercise and keep an eye on my fitbit to get 15,000 to 20,000 steps a day. In addition to walking, I do get low when I am gardening, but that’s my limit. My wife does pilates. She is flexible and gets into stretch positions I cannot even figure out.

One of my best pictures are taken as I am in position to shoot pictures. That is my natural position. It is best to capture any living creature doing their own “thing”.

A good picture reveals who we are. So my perfect pictures show me in action.

The hummingbirds are pretty focused on getting their nectar. They need the energy, since they move so quickly. So most of their pictures show their beaks in the flower.

How can you improve your photography? Try to catch your subjects in their natural habitat where ever or whatever that is.

See how you can improve your picture taking during this Christmas? Can you take some creative pictures other than just around the tree? What kind of fun poses can you shoot of your love ones?

Photos Teach!

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Up Close & Personal

17 Thursday Dec 2020

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Anna's Hummingbird, Back Yard Garden, Backyard Garden, Canon, Cuphea Vermillionaire, Garden, Home Garden, Hummingbird

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Anna's Hummingbird, Backyard Garden, Canon, Cuphea Plant, Cuphea Vermillionaire, Garden, Home Garden, Hummingbird, Sloat Garden Center

It is difficult to get an up front photograph of the hummingbird. Most of my shots are from the side. The hummingbirds are timid and are getting accustomed to me in my yard. They fly closer to me to check me out and access if I am safe. I try to wear colors to match the environment and to blend in. I am pretty still and do not move much.

It is hard to find the right spot to catch the hummingbird. It is unpredictable knowing where the birds will fly to get their next sip of nectar. It was pretty remarkable to get in front of the bird to see him face to face.

Since being sheltering in place, we hardly see anyone. We go grocery shopping and see the other shoppers whiz by.

It has been a challenge to be up close and personal with people via video chats. Our family has been just as busy with activity. We save time by not traveling as per our old routine. Instead we spend more regular time with our friends, family and relatives. We are hearing about experiences from the younger generation as they are learning to develop their passions. We enjoy their acting, dancing, writing and ambitions to make this world a better place. We share our worries, problems and triumphs during this pandemic life.

We are learning how to be involved with each others lives. For example, my cousins are enjoying my recent nature pictures. One cousin passed on my website info on a Nextdoor thread about hummingbirds. This probably would not have happened if we were not regularly meeting together.

Surprisingly, we are getting up close and personal with our loved ones, even though we do miss being together physically. Our relationships have become stronger even during our video meetings.

I’m glad I could get up close and personal with this hummingbird. It took effort on my part to get close to this bird.

In the same way, it takes time and effort to get up close and personal with the people in my life. But it is so worth it to be a part of people’s lives. I

Are you going to be up close and personal with your people? Find your people and get involved. A Pandemic is not an excuse to be a spectator. Can you expand your circle?

Photos Teach!

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Reaching Forward

14 Monday Dec 2020

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Anna's Hummingbird, Back Yard Garden, Backyard Garden, Canon, Cuphea Vermillionaire, Garden, Home Garden, Hummingbird

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Anna's Hummingbird, Backyard Garden, Canon, Cuphea Plant, Cuphea Vermillionaire, Garden, Home Garden, Hummingbird, Sloat Garden Center

This hummingbird’s wings look translucent. They look a little angel-like. It is interesting how he has his wings going forward. Humans reach forward to obtain an object. A referee will put his 2 arms forward to signal his call for a play. During a worship service, some people will raise their hands to symbolize surrender to God.

Is this hummingbird just reaching forward in excitement for his next drink of sweet nectar? When I was able to attend a live game, fans raise their hands up to cheer when their team scores. Even when at home while watch a championship game, my friend had her own style of raising her arms up to cheer.

How often do we reach forward to grasp something and clumsily drop it? Consider the football player reaching for the ball during a pass and accidentally drops it. The ball was in his grasp. But something goes wrong, and the grip was lost. This hummingbird is fortunate that it does not have hands to hold onto anything. It just has the wings to hold upward and onward.

Do we have something to be excited about during these pandemic times? We can be grateful for this waiting period for COVID-19 to be resolved. Why should we be grateful for this time? We don’t know how long this waiting time will last before things become our new normal without the threat of catching this virus. There is a lot of uncertainty.

The only certainty is that we have to wait. Waiting means having a hope to reach forward and pray for solutions. We have not because we ask not. Reaching forward means we expect to receive something in our hands.

Can we reach forward in hope?

Photos Teach!

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Who is that Masked Bird?

11 Friday Dec 2020

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Anna's Hummingbird, Back Yard Garden, Backyard Garden, Canon, Cuphea Vermillionaire, Garden, Home Garden, Hummingbird

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Anna's Hummingbird, Backyard Garden, Canon, Cuphea Plant, Cuphea Vermillionaire, Garden, Home Garden, Hummingbird, Sloat Garden Center

Light creates interesting patterns and effects for photographs. Due to the change in the seasons, the light is best between 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. The position of this hummingbird is getting the black shadow on his face with a backward “C” around his eye. The black shadow resembles a black mask on this hummingbird’s face.

One thing I enjoy about watching these creatures, who are visiting my garden, is their nonchalant persona. The hummingbird does not try to hide who he is. He shows himself as he really is. This bird is not afraid to show how much it likes the flower nectar. He flies from flower to flower and keeps drinking the nectar. Birds have no inhibitions. They know their purpose in life.

Man typically hides his insecurities, fears and anything else he does not like from other people. Being under a mask to pretend we are someone we are not makes it easier to face the world.

My wife is working from home. Like many others, she has meetings with groups of co-workers. Often times, the camera is turned off as they converse about work. Most people do not want to show they are working in their pajamas. Or they may not want to show their hair which has not been cut for a long time. Many are hiding what they look like since everyone is just staying at home.

Wanting to connect with other people at church, she participated in a virtual choir. A video file with the audio singing is required to be merged with the other singers’ files. It was difficult for her to see and hear herself in the videos. It took quite a few takes to create a halfway decent video and audio file.

Ironically, this could be how we approach showing ourselves to the world. Maybe we need to do more practices of life to improve and get out from behind our masks. Imperfection is ok.

I hope my photographs of birds, bees, butterflies or people would show their true individual essence. Yes, I want to capture a sharp and clear image. But a true artist is able to capture the expressions that show who the subject really is.

Photos reveal reality!

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Greenback

11 Friday Dec 2020

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Anna's Hummingbird, Back Yard Garden, Backyard Garden, Canon, Cuphea Vermillionaire, Garden, Home Garden, Hummingbird

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Here’s a real greenback of a hummingbird who visited me in my garden. These hummingbirds seem to recognize me now when they come to feast on my flowers’ nectar in my backyard. I try to be quiet not to scare of the birds. The birds are getting accustomed to seeing my big camera equipment. Initially, they were a little scared of the equipment.

A greenback is a slang term for the United States paper dollars issued during the American Civil War. This paper currency was not backed by gold or silver but only by the American government’s credibility.

I prefer the greenback on this hummingbird than the old time greenback reference. It is glossy and the color highlights the darker speckles. His wings are perfectly pointed out to the sides, as he approaches his next flower.

I do not utilize any software to change my photos. So the hummingbird’s greenback color is true to his actual appearance.

Being credible and true is important. We all should endeavor to be real and authentic. Nobody enjoys a false persona. I would not have wanted to utilize the original greenbacks. I would not have trusted this currency without any real value backing it.

My goal is shoot photographs which reveal true colors and the intricacies of the subjects.

Individuals may try to hide their true colors. But reality is usually revealed with bright lights.

Let’s try to be credible and real. If we are not content with our current reality, then let’s seek to improve and change.

This hummingbird has the best real greenback!

Photos teach reality!

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Bright Guy

10 Thursday Dec 2020

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Anna's Hummingbird, Back Yard Garden, Backyard Garden, Canon, Cuphea Vermillionaire, Garden, Home Garden, Hummingbird

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Anna's Hummingbird, Backyard Garden, Canon, Cuphea Plant, Cuphea Vermillionaire, Garden, Home Garden, Hummingbird, Sloat Garden Center

I am not a guy who wears pinks or bright colors. I like darker colors. Male hummingbirds possess bright colors like this bird. Notice the scale pattern with the varying shades of purples, pinks and white from under his eye moving down to his wing. These are the colors my wife loves. It’s interesting how he has one wing forward and one wing going back.

Dreams should be pursued. I thought of this idea of shooting images of birds, butterflies, and bees almost 30 years ago. Due to this pandemic and SIP, I created my garden oasis and upgraded my camera equipment for this quest. I go to my yard for almost 2 hours around lunch time when the lighting is the best. I got a heavy duty chair that will hopefully hold me and my heavy equipment. Since I am in my yard, I do not worry about thieves coming behind me to steal my equipment. It’s already happened to me in the past. In the Bay Area, we’ve heard of many incidents where thieves steal camera equipment from individuals and filming crews.

New equipment means spending time to learn. One can only learn by trying and doing. I figured out how to use some new settings to make this bird look sharper and brighter. Practice does help to improve skills. Since I’ve figured out a schedule to shoot pictures due our pandemic situation, I’ve been practicing and am learning how to improve my photographs.

Please note my website is “untouchedtcphotos”. How did I come up with this name? These colors are not altered via any software program. These are the actual colors from my photo shoot. The picture has not been brightened. The picture has not been sharpened. By the way, “tc” refers to the initials of my name.

Dreams can be pursued even during a pandemic. Pursuing excellence in my photographic skills is my goal.

I hope my sharing these bright hummingbirds in my blog brings a little brightness to our SIP time at home. My bird watching and photography has helped to improve my disposition too.

Photos bring brightness!

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