Light source from the front

This is my first experiment of taking the portrait of Elly using the light that comes towards the camera. To take a better photo, I intend to place my camera nearer to Elly so that Elly’s face will not become dark when compared with the strong light source.

I like this photo because the profile of Elly’s face is lined with light and the light that floods on her left hand, the piece of bread and clothes creates good contrasts. Elly stops eating because she is watching a cartoon on television. Her cup of milk on the table reflects that Elly’s demand for milk is not strong nowadays.

Small pieces of Art

Beautiful cakes can become pieces of art. Here, you can see a decoration of different fruits such as a raspberry, a strawberry, a blueberry and a thin sheet of white chocolate on top of a small heart-shaped prismatic cake. It is a wonderful dessert after lunch or dinner.

Pao de Acucar

Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf Mountain 糖麵包山) is a peak situated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the mouth of Guanabara Bay (瓜納巴拉灣) on a peninsula that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean. Rising 396 metres (1,299 ft) above the harbor, it shapes like concentrated refined loaf sugar.

The mountain is only one of several hills of granite and quartz that rise straight from the water's edge around Rio de Janeiro. A glass-walled cable car (teleférico), capable of holding 65 passengers, runs along a 1400-metre route between the peaks of Pão de Açúcar and Morro da Urca every 20 minutes. The original cable car line was built in 1912 and rebuilt around 1972/1973 and in 2008. The cable car leaves a ground station located at the base of the Babilônia hill, to the Urca hill and then to the Pão de Açúcar.

Passengers must take two cable cars to reach the summit. The first ascends to the shorter Morro da Urca, 220 meters high while the second ascends to Pão de Açúcar. The Italian-made bubble-shaped cars offer passengers 360-degree views of the surrounding city. The climb takes three minutes from start to finish. Departures are available every 20 minutes between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm and the adult fare is 44 Reals ( for the whole way to Pão de Açúcar.

Inside a plastic tube

Only Abby and Elly in their small sizes can climb into such a plastic tube at a playground and sit comfortably inside. For us, we can squeeze in it, but cannot sit up straight. For some time at play, this tube-like structure becomes the temporary home of our grand-daughters. It is waterproof and colourfully red. It opens at two ends, so it is well- ventilated.

What were they doing?

In the top left photo, Abby and Elly seemed worshipping.
Below it, Abby was sitting with legs crossed.
In the centre photo, Elly was happy to see me taking photographs.
In the right-hand-most photo, Abby closed her eyes to show her short nap of “a few seconds”.

Recent fruit diet

After Chinese New year, lovable pomelos (沙田柚)and mandarins（柑）from China begin to fade out of the market. We turn back to Sunkist oranges（新奇士橙）, Chinese “Fuji” apples(中國富士蘋果), green USA pears（啤梨）, Chinese pears (貢梨), Gala apples (加拿蘋果).

Pomelos are rich in fibres, a little sweet and in sizes much bigger than oranges. We never know the actual size of edible core until they are cut open. This is simply because the outer skins are often very thick. To separate the segments of a pomelo is a difficult job. It is often the case that the remaining lump of flesh we get after cutting are full of “wounds”. Another thing is that we have to extract the pips, big and small, before we can eat. Both Abby and Elly love eating pomelos, but the fruit appears at CNY or Mid-autumn Festival.

Ever since this Chinese New Year, Abby and Elly begin to love the taste of juicy mandarins which appear sweeter than those of Sunkist oranges. The girls usually seize the cut-up pieces from the dish with both hands and they swallow them as fast as they can.

The green D’ Anjou pears from U.S.A. (美國安琪啤梨) have become a must for our two grand-children after dinner. Comparatively speaking, the demand from Abby from this fruit is a little stronger than Elly. I think they love the sweet and soft nature of the flesh.

Our faith in Sunkist oranges from California never fails because the texture is good and they are always filled with juice. Those Sunkist oranges from South Africa are inferior in taste and texture. Maybe the soils from the two different continents are different in fertility.

The Chinese “Fuji” apples look all right in outlook, but some lack of taste. It seems to me that their sweetness has all gone. I always believe that the fragrance from Gala apples beats those of other apples. They are the "winners" in my heart.

The Chinese pears (貢梨) are coarse in texture, but very sweet. I accept both specialities because fibres and taste are important in our fruit diet.

Lovely chocolate

We cannot resist the temptation of chocolate in our daily life. The chocolate chips on the surface of cakes and biscuits, inside ice-cream and buns are inviting.

Cadbury (吉百利朱古力) chocolate mastered for some time in the past because their brick-like look always filled the mouths with satisfaction.

Chocolate beans such as those from Smarties have cheered small children to adults like me. Later on, M & M joined in to the market with lovely cartoon figures and plastic toys. Kinder Surprise chocolate wins the hearts of many children because of the mysterious toys under the thin egg-like shells of chocolate.

Toblerone (三角朱古力) specializes in its triangular shape and Maltesers (麥提莎) in its malt honeycomb centres.

High-class chocolate from Europe such as Ferrero Rocher (金莎朱古力 Italian made), Lindt (瑞士蓮 Swiss made) and Godiva (歌帝梵朱古力 Belgium made) come into Hong Kong.

Here you can glimpse the making of Lindt chocolate wrapped up by beautifully coloured paper-dress. Anyone who is in favour of chocolate sandwich biscuits, Arnott's (from Australia) Tim Tam is a good choice.

Jackie Evancho

“America ‘s Got Talent” on TV has entertained me every Saturday for months in 2011. I stuck to this contest and enjoy watching the performances of the contestants, some may be very stupid, some thrilling and some very talented. I pretend myself a judge at home and predict who is going to leave the contest after each screening. My prediction reaches almost 100%.

One contestant on the fifth season of the America's Got Talent TV show who impresses me is Jackie Evancho. She is only 10 years old. Her sweet voice beat most of the contestants and entered the final 4. It was so unlucky for me to have missed watching the last programme when announcement of the winners of the contest was made. It was then like a blank page to me to whom the winner of the contest was. Would it be Jackie Evancho? The answer is “No”. Jackie only got the second place. This totally upset me for a while.

Let us see how Jacqueline Marie "Jackie" Evancho (born April 9, 2000) become an American child singer in the following scripts from Wikipedia:

Evancho's dedicated singing began just before her 8th birthday, after she saw the film version of the musical The Phantom of the Opera. Her mother bought the DVD, and Evancho began to sing the songs around the family home. Her parents have said that they did not recognize that her voice was unusual until her first talent competition. In April 2008, her parents allowed her to enter the Kean Idol, a local talent contest. She finished as first runner-up. She began taking vocal lessons after her success in the contest, and her parents began receiving requests for her to sing at various events. She also started a YouTube channel and was a member of the Children's Festival Chorus of Pittsburgh during its 2008–09 season.

In January 2009, Evancho competed in Las Vegas in the 15th annual U.S.A. World Showcase Talent Competition, where she also finished in second place. She entered the 2009 Kean Idol contest and was again runner-up to an adult. She entered other talent contests, winning the Golden Ribby Award – Wonderworld TV in April 2009 and the Talent Quest TV Show in June 2009 (both in Massachusetts). Also in 2009, she sang "Ave Maria" in composer and conductor Tim Janis's PBS television special "Celebrate America” and performed in other concerts and TV shows with Janis, who sought her out after seeing her on YouTube. She also made various singing appearances around Pennsylvania in 2009 and 2010.

Jackie is described as a classical crossover artist. After entering some talent competitions, issuing an independent album, Prelude to a Dream, and attracting interest on YouTube, she gained wider popularity in 2010 with her performances in the fifth season of the America's Got Talent competition, at the age of 10, finishing in second place. With the subsequent release of her O Holy Night EP, she became the best-selling debut artist of 2010 and the youngest top-10 debut artist in U.S. history. In June 2011, her first full-length major-label album, Dream With Me, debuted at #2 on American album charts, and she became the youngest top-5 debut artist in UK history. Billboard ranked Evancho the top Classical Albums Artist for 2011.

Evancho was accepted as a contestant on the fifth season of the America's Got Talent TV show (AGT) by placing first in a YouTube competition sponsored by the television show. On August 10, 2010, Evancho performed "O mio babbino caro" by Giacomo Puccini. She received a standing ovation after her performance and was awarded a trip to Universal Studios Florida for receiving the most fan votes of all the YouTube submissions to the show. Judge Howie Mandel said in his critique that the show sought to "find that one moment, that one gem, that one star from a place we've never looked before ... This is the moment. You're the star. After Evancho's performance, astonished commentators queried whether her performance had been lip-synched. On the next evening's live show, Mandel, requested that Evancho sing an impromptu voice exercise as proof that the broadcast heard by the audience was Evancho's live voice.

Her semifinal performance was "Time To Say Goodbye". She advanced to the Top 10, where on September 7, 2010, she performed "Pie Jesu" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem and was voted into the Final 4. Her final competition performance was her rendition of Gounod's "Ave Maria" on September 14. The following evening at the AGT season finale, Evancho performed "Time To Say Goodbye" together with guest artist Sarah Brightman; then Evancho was announced as the runner-up, finishing second to singer Michael Grimm. Many viewers and commentators felt that Evancho should have won, and even Grimm expressed surprise. Evancho performed in 10 of the 25 cities in the America's Got Talent national tour from October 1 to November 5, 2010. During the AGT competition and for some months thereafter, Evancho coached with voice teacher Yvie Burnett, a mezzo-soprano from Scotland, who has worked with many of Simon Cowell's acts

I must say here that, sooner nor later, this little girl would become a world famous soprano singer and I forever love her singing.

風車草

某次，舊同學見到這種多年生莎草，立即指給我看是風車草。

圓柱形桿從地下莖抽出，葉片軸射狀排列，形似風車，但其實它是不會轉動的。最吸引我的是那些輻射狀分枝的細小花序，我認為風車草作為賞葉植物是值得的！

Photos taken with S100

To test and find out whether S100 brings me good photos, I intend to use it to take some photos of my two grand-daughters at play. Here, both Elly and Abby are playing the swing; Elly is driving a tricycle and drinking of Vitasoy; Elly has her first touch of abacus.

The night scenes of Shatin

Canon says that S100 is better in shooting night views in its advertisement.

Yesterday night I used both cameras, S100 and 860 IS to take the night views of Shatin. The results come out that in the two sets of photos are more or less the same. The top two photos are from 860 IS while the bottom two S100.

The performance of 860 IS using Macro

The camera 860 IS is able to catch the details of the fabrics of the same stool by Macro. This disproves what I earlier said that S100 is better than 860 IS in taking close-up pictures.

Performances of two Canon Digital Cameras compared (2)

Details of object recorded by S100 is better than 860 IS because the former has a higher resolution.

The bottom two photos show the close-up view of the fabrics of a round stool. The S100 camera does a better job than 860 IS because the former shows detailed textures while the latter a blurred piece of cloth.