Spring is coming late this year, due to the cold weather. Tulips are overdue at least a couple of weeks. It’s still raining most of the time. We managed to find a shining window though.

I have decided to try out the firmware hack that has been around for a long time.

The firmware can be downloaded here . The manual can be found here .
Features:

• ISO3200 now available (represented by an “H”, same as what 10D does.
• FEC adjustment via the JUMP button, use the dial to adjust as shown on the LCD
• Immediately pressing the ERASE button after taking a photo, you can delete the photo by pressing the SET button again instead of selecting Ok previously, to not delete the photo press any other key
• Ability to define how the SET button behaves (same menu found on the 10D - refer to the 10D manual for full explanation of these new enhancements)
• Exposure level increments either 1/2 or 1/3-stop
• Option to enable 1/200 flash speed sync in AV mode
• Ability to change the JPG size when shooting in RAW mode
• Shutter release with or without CF card
• Mirror lockup available via enabling the option in the custom function, works by pressing the shutter button which flips the mirror up, then the shutter opens after the timeout defined in C.Fn17 after MLU - note that this is different than how it is implemented on the 10D where you press once to flip the mirror and press again to open the shutter
• Mirror lockup delay adjustable via C.Fn17 – possible delay includes 1.5 sec, 3 sec, 4.5 sec, 6 sec, 7.5 sec, and 10 sec
• In shooting mode, left button changes the focus mode and is displayed on the LCD as follows:
  • AF OF Lens set to manual focus
  • AF OS One shot
  • AF SE AI-Servo (selectable but cannot take a photo - one workaround, hold the shutter button all the way down then switch the lens to manual focus)
  • AF AI AI-Focus (first takes one shot then the camera may switch to AI-servo depending on what you are focussing on)

Pictures of China Night ‘06. ISO set to 1600, but the lighting was too poor, still didn’t get too many sharp shots. And my Canon 75-300 USM III is a little crappy on the 300 end. Color noise is too much even for ISO 1600. Anyway, can’t afford a telephoto fast lens

It was a fun event though. It’s my 6th China Night here at OSU but the first time to sit down and watch the program and eat, although I was walking around the whole ballroom and taking pictures Here is the proof how yummy the foods were:

Took some pictures of fall foliage last week. Might be the last sunshine this year.

Monday morning, we got up early for the ferry to Vancouver Island. The first ferry is at 6am. We were not that desperate though. We took the one at 7am. It was a big ferry, Spirit of British Columbia. The wind in the morning was a little chilli. The sun hadn’t made it way out of the clouds covering the sky. The sea becomes very open immediately after we took off. Then it zigzagged through the small islands. They are so small that I don’t even know they can called islands. On some of the big ones, I can see houses built on the coast surrounded by trees.

It took about 1.5 hours to get to Swarts Bay. Our first stop on the Island is Butchart garden. It is a garden raised from the debris of a quarry about 100 years ago. Again, the tickets were expensive and charged on the basis of person, not vehicle. This would be a busy place everyday. We arrived early so it wasn’t too crowded yet. The garden consists of several small gardens, including Sunken Garden, Rose Garden, Italian Garden, etc. I enjoyed the beauty of the flowers. But my lack of floral knowledge makes me unable to name all the flowers. It was possibly a little past the blooming season of roses. They were already beginning to fade. Seeing the gorgeous roses fading is sad. It reminds of the line “fading like a flower, fading like a rose…” by Roxette, it is a melancholic song, so is “林花谢了春紅，太匆匆”. The lotus in Italian Garden were still at their youth stage, ready to bloom. Too bad it was already noon and the sunshine was too strong. Otherwise I could have had better shots. There is also a statue of Mercury (the messenger, not the planet or metal in Italian garden. Don’t know what’s the connection to the theme. Anyway, I shot a lot of good pictures of flowers:

Another 20 minutes of driving took us to Victoria, the capital of BC. We had a lunch at an Italian restaurant on Pendora St. By then, we were very low on Canadian dollars in cash. Since the credit card companies usually charge 2%-3% on foreign currency exchange, we tried to use cash as much as possible. We had already spent all the US$800 we exchange at the border, not counting the hotels. We exchanged some more cash at a bank and then began exploring Victoria.

Victoria is in fact a tiny little town although it’s not easy seen by looking at the map. A majority of the city lays around Inner Harbour. Right in front of Inner Harbour is the Express Hotel, a historical hotel where Queen Elizabeth has resorted. It was said that you need to reserve months in advance for their afternoon tea place. I guess I can never plan an afternoon tea so early ahead.

Another famous place in the Inner Harbour area is the legislative building of BC. I was even worrying about finding the place when I studied the map at home. But it turned that the worry is totally unnecessary. You just can’t miss it. It stands just south to the harbour, behind an open meadow. Right in front of the building, there is a statue of Queen Victoria.

The building is open to the public. They even have free tours. We even met a Chinese speaking guide. She told us they can provide Chinese interpretation. I guess we are fine with English :). The tour introduced some background about the building. I was so surprised to know that the designer was only 25 years when he accepted the project. The interior of the building is very neat and baroque. The general feeling is that the decoration is very royal. On the wall of the lobby hangs the Coat of Arms of British Columbia. The guide explained the meaning of the symbols. There is an explanation on wikipedia too. The latin phrase “splendor sine occasu” means “splendor that does not perish. Literally, it’s “splendor without setting”.

Outside the legislative assembly, a picture of the Queen and her husband hangs on the wall. I forgot the name of the photographer, who shot the famous picture of Churchill smoking a cigar toward the end of WWII.

After leaving the legislative building, we walked to Market Square, the old town of Victoria. It’s one of the most famous landmarks of Victoria. There are many unique shops, bars and night clubs in the square.

On our way to dinner, we stopped at a small café and had a cup of coffee. The coffee was so so. But I was really excited when I heard them playing Miss American Pie. We had dinner at an Italian & Greek restaurant called Passero. While we were waiting for the order, they were playing Carpenter’s Super Star. What a beautiful song! I used to listen to it a lot in college. I can’t help but sing along “long ago, I fell in love with you, before the second show…”. I believe beautiful songs like this one can pacify souls. I ordered a dish of roasted lamb, which was so yummy. The presentation was good too. I took pictures of all the dishes before devouring.

After the dinner, we were so full but decided to order a desert anyway. We shared a Tiramisu. But I think it was not as good as that in Olive Garden. A walk after the dinner is a good exercise for digesting. We walked all the way back to where we parked. It was sunset time. Like a canvas, the sky is painted with blood red clouds. They get redder and redder as the sun travels down. The sky is like a big bottle of red wine. I believe I was intoxicated.

We went to the Inner Harbour after settling down in the hotel. We heard that the night scene is beautiful. I have to say I am a little disappointed. The lights were a little too dark and not grandeur enough. We walked by two guitarists sitting on a bench practicing. I immediately recognized that they were playing Nirvana’s Where Did You Sleep Last Night. They played very well. I stopped and stood by for a couple of minutes, imagining Kurt Cobain’s voice, with despair and anger: “My girl, my girl, don’t lie to me, tell where did you sleep last night…”. I went up and told them this is one of my all time favorites. I am not a super fan of rock, but this song, as well as Alanis Morissette’s You Oughta Know always make me so passionate.

This is an interesting day, with encounters of so many old music.

We stayed in a hotel near the downtown. It is the most crammed hotel room I have ever seen :(. Saturday morning, we got up not too early and had Dim Sum at 新瑞华 in Richmond. The restaurant was highly recommended on the Travel board of mitbbs. I agree that it is very good. The price is not that expensive considering the average price in Vancouver.The first place we visited in Vancouver was Queen Elizabeth Park. It is the highest point in Vancouver. The highlight of the park is a conservatory, with various plants and free-fly birds, most of which I can’t name. We were able to recognize phalaenopsis spp (蝴蝶蘭) though:

There are also some parrots and other birds. Take a look at the picture gallery here . We also see several couples having their wedding ceremony in the park. It is said that this is the most popular place for weddings in Vancouver.Museum of Anthropology at UBC is our next stop. Sharon and other people strongly recommended this museum for its rich collection of native Indian cultural items. UBC is located in along the west coast. We drove along the north boundary of UBC on a road shaded by big trees before we arrived MOA. We took a tour by a staff in the museum. She introduced some basic facts about the native Americans in BC as well as the art works.

We strolled around in UBC campus after visiting the museum. The campus is very well organized. It spreads along the beach. There are great views of the sea at many places. I liked the old library, which is a very 16th century European building.After dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Richmond, we took a stroll in the downtown area. Vancouver in the evening is charming when the city lights are up. Salty breeze gently caresses the face bring the smell of the ocean. There are many bars in the downtown area. It was probably because of the weekend, a lot of people were lining up in front of the bars. Having lived in a small town, we haven’t seen such night life for long. It reminds me of Reno and Las Vegas. We walked all the way from downtown to Canada place.The next day is Sunday. We got up and drove to downtown area. I was worrying about parking but it turned out that it’s not a big problem on Sudays. There are plenty of parking garages (which they call parkades). We went to an Italian coffee shop called Caffe Artigiano. We have heard many praises for this shop when we were doing research before the trip. The lobby has a high ceiling. The tables are nice, with stone tops. We ordered some coffees and snacks and took a table to sit down. We were all amazed when our orders came. The coffee cups were snow white ceramics, very traditional coffee cups. The presentation of the coffee was fantastic. They used the creme to draw shapes on the top of the coffee. It’s a tree for mocha and a heart for latte.

The light in the room was tender although a little dark. The color of the ray was a little yellowish which I really like. So I took a picture of Tian sipping coffee. ISO is set to 1600 since I hate using flash light. I should haved used a longer focus and backed up more. But anyway, it wasn’t a very bad picture after all.We walked along Granville Street toward Habour center, passed Robson Square. We had lunch at the revolving restaurant at the top of Habour Center. The food was OK, not excellent. But the view was great. The whole downtown and the Coal Habour are under your nose. Mount Baker is also clearly visible in distance. BTW, the elevator to the top of the tower costs $10 but free with the buffet.

Our next stop would be the famous Capilano suspension bridge, located in the north of the city. It’s not very far from the downtown but there was a little traffic which took us about 20 minutes to get there. This is something so great about the city of Vancouver. It’s a urbanized area, but with all the forest and wilderness nearby, even within the city. Vancouver is a perfect example of combination of human and nature.The admission is expensive! About $24 per person. We were eligible for student rate, which is around $17, still not cheap. The bridge extends over a gorge. It isn’t swinging very much, not as exciting as I expected.

It was almost 6 when we were back to town. We then went to Granville Island. It’s actually a peninsula. We strolled around the seawall which meanders along False Creek. It was a little late. The famous public market closed soon after we got there. During the day, it would be a busy place. But we really enjoyed the scene of the city and the mountains from Granville Island.We were to leave Vancouver for Victoria the next morning. It would really be a pity if we didn’t visit the historical Gas Town. The Gas Town is where Vancouver has originated from. It’s so named because of the gas clock. The clock is still working! We also walked along the street a little. There are some small gift shops along the street. Interestingly, most of the shops have signs in Chinese even if the shop owners are not Chinese. It’s actually a universal phenomenon in Vancouver, Chinese is being widely used. On the contrary, as an official language, French doesn’t seem to be used anywhere. The only chance I had to practice my French was in a French restaurant later on Vancouver Island.

This concludes our visit to the city of Vancouver, although we would later come back and have a dinner before leaving.

I heard that Vancouver is a beautiful city long ago. It’s actually not very far away, just 7-8 hours driving. But we need visa to enter Canada as Chinese citizens. The first time I planned a visit was in the summer of 2001. But when I tried to get a traveling signature, I couldn’t find my I-20 and then realized that I mailed it back to China for Yinan’s visa. So I had to cancel that trip. Now four years later, we finally decided to implement the visit, with Tian and Guohua.

After some preparation and research, we took off on August 18th, Thursday in the afternoon for Seattle. The traffic in Portland was quite heavy. It took us over 5 hours to get Seattle. Fortunately no one was starved to death when we arrived at around 8:30. We had a dinner together with the Seattle gang at Old Sechuan in Redmond near Microsoft. I haven’t dined there for a long time and their dishes are still so delicious. I guess I was devouring since I was so hungry.

We got up early the next morning for the visa. The Canadian consulate is very close to where Zhihong works so we had no big problem finding the place with Zhihong on board. Things went quite smoothly. The visa officer just asked several regular questions. I guess I had been sloppy for too long. When she asked me if we have any friends in Canada to visit, I replied “not really”. She seemed a little unhappy and asked “what do you mean not really”. I had to rephrase and said “sorry, I mean, not at all”. She has some French accent but generally I had no problem understanding her. Anyway, we had to wait for a couple of hours before getting the visa. We decided to walk to the Pike Place Market which isn’t too far. Well, Seattle isn’t that big anyway. It was nice to walk in the morning fresh air on the waterfront. Pike Place Market is quite busy even on a weekday. I had been to the market for so many times so I showed the two kids the original Starbucks shop and Athenian Bar where Tom Hanks and the crew resorted when shooting Sleepless in Seattle. I always liked that bar and its unspeakable romantic atmosphere.

We got the visa a little before noon. We had a lunch at Seven Star Pepper near downtown. The lunch wasn’t that good but we were lazy to drive too far. We then hit the road heading Canadian border. The traffic on I-5 between Seattle and Everett was quite heavy. It became a little better after Bellingham which is already very close to the border. There was a hell of traffic at the border too. We waited for about an hour until we finally stepped on Canadian soil. As we nearing Vancouver, we were stuck in the traffic again. Having lived in a small town for a long time, we are not used to heavy traffic. Since we were not moving too fast anyway, we took off Highway 99 and headed for Steveston, a historic fisherman’s wharf just south to Vancouver. When we arrived, there were a bunch of people sitting by the dock fishing. But I didn’t see them catching anything. Well, I guess the spirit of fishing is sitting there having nothing to do instead of catching fish. The scene in the dusk was beautiful and peaceful. Washington State’s Mountain Baker was in sight to the east with the rosy ray casting on it from the setting sun above the Pacific Ocean.

There is a famous historical fish & chip place at the wharf. The chips were terrible although the fish was good. But hey, I got several very good shots for Tian by the wall.

We headed back to Highway 99 and went to Richmond for dinner. Richmond looks like a new and clean city. There are Chinese restaurants everywhere. The restaurant we went was not bad. Better than those in Seattle, in my opinion. Vancouver has the fame of having the best Chinese food in North America, which I would later found true. But it was not cheap at all. And we have to pay 15% tax!

We hit the road for Vancouver after the dinner. The evening breeze blows into the car through the open window, brining salty air into my hair. The smell of the sea intoxicated me. It seems that no one was obeying the speed limit. I was already doing 60 miles per hour where the speed limit was 60 km per hour but I still was having problem catching up everybody. People were probably stuck in the traffic jam for too long :). Richmond is very close to Vancouver. After about 5 minutes, we were on the bridge connecting Richmond and Vancouver. The first half of the bridge was a slight uphill. After climbing all the way up, suddenly the night scene of the whole city is presented in front of us! It was all dark and the lights were up. The scene was just fantastic.

A day without rain in Corvallis is heaven. We had some sunshine, with clouds, which makes it a perfect day for shooting pictures. ISOSU’s spring festival event gathered all people in the world. I crazily shot over 100 pictures. Not too many turned out to be good. But hey, I did got some cute ones :). They are mainly portraits and welcome to visit the gallery.

There was a time that I was crazy about Oregon covered bridges. There are all together about 52 covered bridges in Oregon and I had seen about half of them. I was lazy to arrange the pictures though. While waiting for my battery to be charged today, I decided to pull them out of my iPhoto collection and sort them out.

May is an iris season. We paid a visit to Schreiner’s garden in Keizer. It was raining, but I did have some nice pictures. It is a very lovely garden. Unlike Wooden Shoe tulip farm in Woodburn, it is not very big and a little English.

I had a very nice picture and I don’t think it is iris. If anyone out there has idea what flower it is, please let me know.