Japan - Temple Life, Gargoyles

Don't know what these are or what meaning they might have, but they were a fixture at all of the shrines we visited.  For the sake of convenience I'll call them gargoyles.

Japan - Temple Life, Hakone Trees

Captured above is one of the huge trees that are everywhere at Hakone.  I came to conclude that they are sacred somehow after seeing the tree below, which was adorned with tassels.  It's easy to imagine that this guy is close to a thousand years old, if not more:

Japan - Temple Life, Hakone Predictions

...and here he is, translating from Japanese to Taiwanese a piece of paper that my son acquired, the function of which is very similar to a fortune cookie or horoscope prediction of the future.

The first one Andrew got said some good things, which felt pretty good to him.  So he thought, "Hey, I'll get another, to see if it agrees."  Sure enough, it was similarly positive.  A little later on he pushed his luck, however, and obtained a third.  This last one was not at all positive and sank the good vibes accumulated with the other two.

Fortunately, there is something you can do with the negative predictions.  Those pieces of paper can be affixed in a place where the negativity will not follow the person outside of the temple, but stay in the presence of monks who can squelch their influence:

Japan - Temple Life, Lake's Edge at Hakone

In another part of Japan, on the southeastern shore of Lake Ashi, is the beautiful Hakone temple complex.  This 2-shot panorama was captured later during our visit after we'd hiked down to the shore.  The foreground was kept deliberately dark so the tree would not lose its silhouette.

Nestled in the midst of huge cypress trees that were hundreds of years old, this temple/shrine was the most unique and interesting of all that we visited.  A real workout, though...lots of steep hillside to navigate via interminable stone stairways.  My 86-year-old father-in-law demonstrated amazing stamina in keeping up with it all.

Japan - Temple Life, Shinto Steeple

By far my favorite steeple picture of all time was posted here.  Different religion, different part of the world, but this one is slightly similar in its composition.  Had to be highly photoshopped, however, due to the strong mid-afternoon sun.

Japan - Temple Life, Circular Tree

This sacred circle tree is in  the Kiyomizu Kannon-do Temple complex right in the middle of Tokyo.  We could have spent days in this place alone, as very near there is an archeological site and many museums.  Unfortunately we had only a few hours to explore.

Because the sun was high and bright, most of the pictures taken here were adjusted for lighting, particularly in the shadows.  Fortunately enough data was captured to make that happen without too much noise.

Below is another picture taken in the same complex:

Japan - Temple Life, Among Skyscrapers

This pic, also in Tokyo, shows the old-style temple architecture nestled among the skyscrapers of the city.  A little skewing to straighten the sides of the building against the edges of the photo was necessary to give it proper symmetry.

I love juxtaposing the old with the new, and will never forget a photo I saw in a Spanish college textbook at SFA way back when.  The professor - an excellent teacher named Ignacio Muñoz - pointed out the contrast between an aqueduct in some Spanish city that was built in ancient times, with modern skyscrapers showing through the tall archways.  Stuck for some reason, and occasionally now I'll search for similar opportunities.

Japan - Temple Life, Incense Wafting

This incense pot was seen in the foreground of the upper photograph in yesterday's posting.  The idea is to waft the essence toward you to gain...something.  The girl approaching from the left is obviously caught up in the ecstasy of the experience even before arriving.

Japan - Temple Life, Huge Tokyo Complex

There was a huge temple complex in the heart of Tokyo, a bustling place that covers the gamut of worship practices, but was mostly full of camera-toting tourists (such as myself).

Just beneath the edge of the green roofline, and to the left of the left-most column in the distant gateway, you will see a small patch of orange.  That is the beginning of a blocks-long street crammed with vendors on both sides. The picture below was taken just on the other side of the gateway, illustrating the sheer size of the complex:

Japan - Temple Life, Toddler Outfit

Evidently there was a reception associated with the wedding nearby - here someone, easily assumed to be "grandpa", helps a toddler get fixed up with her outfit.

Japan - Temple Life, Wedding Procession #2

In a stroke of incredible luck, I managed to capture the exact moment that caught the profile of the bride's face when she was either accepting or giving a handkerchief to the lady dressed in black...something I didn't even observe until working in post-capture.  The shot is cropped so the boundaries of the doorway are more visible in this shot as well.

I used the work luck, but reservedly because luck is such a conditional term.  There are two things that, in my case, greatly increase the chances of capturing those "lucky" shots: volume and hard work.

Volume in that I always have my rig handy when on a trip and during special occasions, and have it set in burst mode at four frames per second.  Knowing that it's there all the time, if there is a single shot I want to capture I release immediately after the first click.  In a case such as what you see in the shot above, when there is motion and predictability, I kept the shutter down in burst as the procession approached this position.  Subsequently, in post-capture I was able to select which frame was the best from all the frames captured.  After a trip/occasion, upon sitting down for the first cull, typically a majority are thrown away - about two thirds.  From those a very small minority are what can be called "keepers".  Even fewer from among that batch are what I consider to be blogworthy - that is, good enough to share with the world.  So from among about 200,000 pictures taken since 2002, a tiny fraction of one percent are here for all to see.

Hard work in that I consider it intellectually stimulating to learn a program like Photoshop or Lightroom so that the best possible image can result, and don't mind spending a bit of time with it.  It's relaxing for me to sit down, look at an image on the computer, and adjust or tweak it to achieve a pleasing result.  The digital darkroom makes that process so much simpler and diverse that the sky is really the limit in what you can create.  And this in record time!  I am old enough to remember the days when everything was done in a chemical/analog darkroom, when you couldn't see the results of your work until after a laborious (and smelly) process, which had to be done all over again if it didn't work.  Now that whole business can be accomplished in mere seconds and reversed if necessary, ad infinitum.


Anyone can do this, and you don't need an array of expensive equipment to achieve good results.

Japan - Temple Life, Wedding Procession #1

Sometimes when one travels he or she is fortunate enough to witness a cultural event, something deep and authentic.  Such was the case when we were walking the grounds of one of the larger temple complexes.  As my son Andrew and I were heading back to the main buildings, I saw this taking shape in the distance and sprinted for a closer look, Big Cahoona in hand.  A large open doorway separated us from what was happening (you can see the threshold panel along the bottom of this cropped-in shot), and just a few moments after snapping a couple of shots a man in a suit stood in the doorway and motioned for me to stop, which I did.  He must have had his work cut out for him, because there were plenty of other gawkers, as you can see in the smaller, less-cropped-in picture below of the same shot. 

This is a wedding procession.  Did not know this, but learned subsequently that the bride, shown here under the red umbrella, is wearing the white head covering in order to hide her horns!  According to the belief of their religion, the female in a relationship is the devil, and the horns come off only after a proper marriage.  I'm supposing that there is a ceremonial "removing of the veil" at some point during the service.

The Big Cahoona's capabilities are certainly showcased here, as even the cropped-in shot at top can, using the proper enlarging techniques in Photoshop, be made into a decent-sized print.

Japan - Temple Life, Blessing Placards

These were present at every temple - placards (purchased at a nearby venue) on which a person can write a note of gratitude or supplication for blessings, as seen here in English.  My religion does not place any faith or stock in such gimmickry, but it was kind of touching to read some of these, and to see languages from all over the world represented.

Japan - Temple Life, Hand Washing Ritual

Before entering the temple building itself it is necessary to ritually wash your left hand with the accoutrements you see here.  Face washing is also common.

Japan - Temple Life, Entrance

The next 25 or so postings are going to be about the temples visited during our hop to Japan.  We went to a bunch of them, so I'm not going to even attempt to identify where they all are or even what they're called, except the latter postings in this series.

This is my wife and son, Andrew, in front of a huge temple complex in the Tokyo area.  Technically - and even compositionally - this is not a great photo, but does show the huge posts that frame the entrance to the temple.  One item of interest to us was that the logs came from trees in Taiwan.  The wood is known for its noticeable and pleasant scent...look closely behind Andrew and you'll see a few tourists with their noses literally pressed against the beam.

Japan - Outdoor Life at the Fancy Restaurant / Mom and the Cop

As everywhere, the entire grounds of the restaurant were clean and trimmed immaculately - it was a treat just to look at.

The picture above was taken on the grounds along a pathway very near the restaurant itself, and is similar to one that I captured in Estes Park, Colorado, but required a lot more work.  The moth in this shot was out of focus, so I borrowed one from another pic that was not composed as well, but at least the moth was in focus.  The borrowed moth was assigned to its own layer, rotated, sharpened a little bit more, saturated a little bit more, and brightened.  Even after all of that, the background proved to be much too busy and distracting.  Thus, I decreased the color saturation of the background and flowers by 30% and learned about a BRAND NEW TOOL (to me) in Photoshop - the TILT SHIFT BLUR TOOL!  Wish I'd discovered this amazing capability much earlier on.  The background photo, after being desaturated in the amount described, was progressively blurred away from the moth to make it less busy and distracting.

I had to get on my old knees to capture the frame below, of this praying mantis.  It's fairly cropped in, but I missed focusing on the eyes by a fraction, so had to fix it in post-capture:

I became convinced during this trip that my walkabout lens might need to be focus fine-tuned.  I looked up in the manual on how to accomplish that, but it seems to be a bit of a hassle.  One thing that attracts me to the D500 is the claim that fine tuning the focus on a lens can be done automatically.  But WHY did they exclude the built-in flash?!?
_______________

Mom and the Cop

Last week's story was about my friend Kenny Sanford in Nacogdoches, Texas.  As stated then, I was raised to appreciate and respect the older generations, and have always felt at home with them.  Conversely, they appreciated the interested attention of someone from a younger generation, someone with whom to share stories and experiences from an earlier era.  It was a win-win.

Mom did two things which drove home to me the lessons of respect for the elderly.  One was her volunteerism.  She visited the Jones Rest Home in Orange every single Saturday (and probably more than that, while we were at school), bringing me in tow.  My two older siblings never came on these visits, and I learned later that it was because the residents at Jones just took a shine to me and enjoyed my visits.  Thus, every Saturday I trailed Mom down the halls visiting our favorite residents, getting to know a few of them fairly well.

The other was sharing our Thanksgiving.  There was a man named Mr. Spurlock at Jones, and as long as he was alive Dad would drive by the home to pick him up to spend Thanksgiving with our family.  I have memories of him laboriously walking up our sidewalk and entering our dining room to take his seat at the table.  If you were to look at our pictures from those years you would see Mr. Spurlock right there alongside the members of his adopted family, at least for that holiday.  It must have been a very special time that made a huge difference in that man's life, thanks to Mom.

As comes with the territory for such a calling, the death of our friends was all too frequent.  These affected mom, and she grieved for each and every one.  I was sad, too, for some of the ones who had befriended me from those Saturday visits.

After the death of one of these elderly ladies, Mom brought home a watch that had been hers...the last real possession and only valuable that she owned.  She made it clear to Mom that I was a very special boy to her and that she wanted me to have that watch to remember her by.  Dutifully, Mom brought it home and I kept it in a safe place.

A day or so later she attended the lady's funeral.  After the service was over, a big, strapping police officer approached Mom and asked her about that watch, and that he thought he should have it since he was her son.

I can see it now.  Without a moment's thought or hesitation, Mom - all five feet of her - rared back her hand and slapped him hard on the face, right in front of the family and everybody.  No time to recover from that before she berated him loudly - how DARE he even THINK he had a right to anything belonging to his dear mother, whom he neglected to visit EVEN ONCE in spite of the fact that he lived but a few miles away!  He had NO RIGHT to expect ANYTHING that belonged to her.  With that she stalked away and nothing more was heard of the matter.  I kept that watch in a false book on a shelf in our living room for years, and have it still to this day.

Thank you, Mom, for your spunk and example.

Japan - Fancy Restaurant's Rock Fish

After we finished the meal we were given time to explore the grounds outside a bit.  Thought this was a clever take on making a rock look like a fish.

At this point I had no idea where we were within the country, as the bus had traveled several hours to get to this place.  The picture below was taken so that I could Google the phone number later on.  It worked!  Found out that the restaurant is called Oshino Fuji at www.oshino.net/kurumaya.  Google Translator did a fair job.

Japan - Fancy Restaurant Place Settings

One of the nicest things about going with a tour group are experiences that would not be available - or even known about - otherwise.  On the second day of our journey we pull up to a restaurant, and upon walking in realized that we were in for quite a treat.  The tour was such size that they were able to set up this awesome lunch in a room (just about) to ourselves and this is what awaited us on a low, flat table.

As can be seen, each place setting had its own fire-cooker-thing with all accessories at hand.  We were free to sit and cook the meat to taste, mixing and matching with the other stuff that was there.  Great fun.

After finishing I stepped into an adjacent room where a similar meal was being prepared for another group.  This photo had to be highly processed and lightened, so lots of noise will be evident if you choose to enlarge:

Japan - Fish Sticks

This is a fairly cropped-in shot that takes the meaning of fish sticks to a whole new level.  We would have been willing to try them, but weren't sure what the white stuff was.

The red in the lamp was desaturated by about 20% to keep it from being too much of a distraction.

Japan - Shady Knot

Since the mid-afternoon sun was bright and strong while were were in the Town-of-Seven-Springs - the bane of a serious photographer - I yearned for an opportunity to take a shot at something less contrasty.  The angles, earth tones and rope pattern in this shady spot caught my eye, this being the result...

Japan - House in Town-of-Seven-Springs

This is a two-shot panorama of a house that caught my eye in this little town.  This was typical of houses in every spot we visited, in that everything is immaculate and well cared-for.

The level of neatness and order in Japan is many magnitudes higher than any other country we've been in, including the U.S.  Never do you see the least little speck of trash on the ground, and their cars are always clean.  In fact, in the days before we arrived for our tour it had rained, and we didn't see a single car that wasn't spotlessly clean anywhere - city or country.  And their houses are without fail very clean and well-manicured.  If there is an empty lot somewhere it is never overgrown or trashed-out.  Amazing.

Regrettably did not get a picture of this, but here and there you'd see very tall, narrow structures that look sort of like buildings but with no windows.  Took a bit of figuring out, but finally realized that they were built to hide smokestacks!  Indeed, since smokestacks look a bit tacky they build structures around them to hide what might be an eyesore.

Japan - Sun Umbrella

I forget the name of it, but there was a town with a (distant) view of Fuji that was famous for its seven springs.  A pretty little tourist town surrounded, as you can see here, by tall hills and beautiful vistas.  This and the next several postings were captured in this place.

The reason this photo was chosen was because of the umbrella, purpose-built for shade instead of protection from the rain.  Never had seen one of these.

People ask us what was our favorite place or thing to do while in Japan.  For me it was something that, ironically, could not be photographed.  In this little town there was a guy with a monkey that wore a uniform and did the most amazing tricks.  At about four and a half feet standing it wasn't small either, but not a chimp.  He did somersaults, hand stands and high jumps.  He would follow his owner's instructions to do human-like things that almost gave you the creeps.  And, during intervals of the show - which took place under an awning next to the street - he would stand very close, facing the audience of a few dozen who'd gathered to watch the spectacle.  As he was standing there, he would survey the crowd, looking directly into the eyes of the spectators.  My gosh, how intelligent those eyes were!  Makes you think about what a spectral thing life is, species-wise.  But alas, no photography was allowed (for good reason), so it'll have to remain committed to memory.

Japan - Hotel on Lake Ashi / Kenny's Crackers

Taken from one of the pirate ferries, got lucky on this one in terms of composition and exposure...virtually no post-capture work was needed.
_________________________

During my sophomore year in college, in 1978, I made a friend.  Kenny Sanford was not your average friend for a college student, as he was in his eighties, but we felt at home with one another from the very start.  He and his wife, Dona, were members of the East Main Church of Christ in Nacogdoches, where I had begun to attend.  It was a very small congregation - at the time about 40 on a good Sunday morning - and, like Kenny, the membership was getting on in years.  They were very pleased to have someone young like me take an interest in their little place, and I went to work right away leading singing.  It was a good fit, because I was raised by my mother to appreciate the elderly and had no problem working among them.

As we grew closer and I began to spend more time with Kenny and Dona on Sundays at their dinner table, I grew fascinated with the stories he had to tell.  He was born in 1896 (the year Harriet Beecher Stowe died) and remembered well the events of his youth. One of his earliest memories was when he was four years old and witnessed someone being killed by the proprietor of a saloon...an old-fashioned "saloon shootout", he used to say.  And he told of a time his family moved down to Trinity County when twenty miles was a good day's travel up and down the hills of East Texas in a covered wagon.

Kenny served in World War I, but never made it to Europe because the Armistice was signed the day before his unit was supposed to depart.  In spite of that he was proud to have served and a picture of him in uniform was proudly displayed on the living room wall. Soon after he got back home from boot camp, right around 1920, he heard of an opportunity for veterans to buy "school land" east of Houston for $2 per acre.  That was an offer that he forever lamented passing up.

He wasn't stuck in the past, though.  His favorite TV show was the Dukes of Hazzard because he loved the car chase scenes, and we would often talk about the news, with "all the meanness going on nowadays".  It was a delight to know Kenny, Dona and, later Kenny Jr, who, among his seven surviving children (one died in WWII), cared for them the most.

Because of their age, health issues occasionally popped up and I'd hear about what the doctors would diagnose and prescribe.  One Sunday Kenny shared with me that he was supposed to cut down on salt, and that he and Dona were trying to figure out how.  I observed that he was about to eat crackers with his soup, and pointed out that they were covered with salt on one side.

"Really?", he said, looking up.  "How am I supposed to get it off?"

"Easy," I answered, "just get the salty sides and rub them together.  All the salt will come off."

Willing enough to try, he did just that - found the salty sides of two crackers and rubbed them together...right over his bowl!  He was satisfied that he'd done what the doctor said, and commenced eating his soup, which was now a bit saltier than before.

Our friendship endured for as long as I was in Nacogdoches, but the day had to come when he passed away, I believe in 1985 (I was living in Memphis, Texas, teaching high school at the time).  On my first visit after that happened Dona took me to his closet and asked if I wanted any of his old shirts.  I took a long-sleeve western-style shirt I'd seen him wear many times, and to this day it is hanging in my closet as a keepsake of our friendship.

Japan - Pirate Ferry

This is a zoomed-in shot of the ferry vessel in the middle of the frame posted yesterday, a few minutes later when it was closer.

Boy, I sure like the reach of the CX sensor format, with its 1.5 crop factor.  My walkabout lens is the Nikkor 18-200, which gives it a reach of 300 mm when fully zoomed in, and if you've followed my (much) earlier postings you know that's why I chose the D300 over the D700 when given a choice.  Except in some low-light situations I have never regretted that decision.

But what to do when I upgrade?  I'm lusting for full-frame, but realize that I'd be losing one of the best advantages of shooting with a CX sensor.  In that vein the D500 seems a no-brainer, but why in the world did they leave the flash out?  Lots to think about...

Japan - Fuji Lake Panorama

This 3-shot panorama had to be touched up quite a bit to bring in enough contrast to see the mountain in the background.  To the untrained eye it might look OK, but one of these days I'm going to take the time to make a suitable layer out of just Fuji and the sky and adjust so there is no fringing at the edge of the hill to the left.

There are two "pirate" ferry boats in this shot, taken on Lake Ashi.  They are a tourist draw, but the locals really use these as a taxi service to get to the various places along its shores.

Japan - Fuji with Branches

In the spirit of taking pictures of things through things, the shot above is Fuji viewed through the branches of a small tree.  The photo below is from a few steps to the left.

As fantastic as the opportunities were, with the great weather and all, these photos gave me fits.  There was so much distance between us and the mountain (about 25 miles) that fighting haze became a major issue in post-capture.  We didn't know the bus was going to stop when it did, so I just grabbed the camera and made a beeline to the vantage points without taking the time to mount a polarized filter, which I carried with me everywhere.  Nevertheless, we have some passable frames from a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The alignment of the tree branches with the side of the mountain in this case was done on purpose.  Another time, however, during a shoot at the Houston Zoo, matching angles was quite by accident, as in the photo linked here.  I had posted the pic in my cubicle at work and was looking at it one day - probably a year or more later - and observed that the angle of the giraffe's neck match the shadows perfectly!  No bragging rights, though...

Japan - Fuji Panorama with Hotel

Our tour guide was kind enough one day to have the bus driver stop where there was a panoramic view of the landscape along with Fuji in the background.  This is a three-shot panorama, with about a quarter of the image clipped off the left side for this posting.  The white building on the left edge is the hotel where we stayed the night before...the one that offered such a good view of the mountain.  A zoomed-in shot of the property is below:

The ledge you see at the top of the hotel is the restaurant, which has a glass wall facing Fuji.  Beyond the hotel complex is a vast city, which we (thankfully) never entered.

Japan - Pond Scene

Turning to the right from my position on top of the museum, captured this in a 2-shot panorama.  There was a white sign on the hut that was removed, as well as some mid-tone contrast enhancement to make the reflections stand out more.  I thought about taking out the group of tourists also, but realized it would have to be done in the reflection as well, so let them be.  Besides, I reasoned that they give it perspective.

Gave this one to one of my nieces, printed 12" high and mounted on Gatorboard.

Japan - Fuji HDR

One aspect of photography that I've wanted to try is HDR photography.  The acronym stands for "high dynamic range", and relies on a technique to get the shadows and highlights to display in a way that mimics the 13+ stops available to the human eye.  In other words, the shadows show a great amount of detail without drowning in the darkness, and the highlights are all there without blowing out.  The technique involves taking a series of photographs of exactly the same thing at different exposures.  The pictures are blended in Photoshop or another program, where the darker exposures preserve the highlights, and the lighter exposures bring out the shadows.

Naturally the Big Cahoona can do this with ease.  That capability, along with the bracketing practice I got in Taiwan the previous week, was recipe for a first trial.

The trick in HDR is to capture exactly the same image in the different exposures, and conventional wisdom dictates the use of a tripod.  Didn't have a tripod on this trip - and wouldn't have been carrying it around with my family even if I did - but very fortunately found myself in some spots that enabled bump-free shooting, away from the masses.

The photo at top was taken in a small town we passed through, and was done with two shots...the lighter exposure captured shadow detail admirably, and the darker exposure did a fairly good job with the mountain and sky.  I was able to hold the camera still enough between shots to enable Photoshop to line them up without too much trouble.  Turned out well for a first try.

The pic at bottom is another matter, however.  With what was probably the best $3.00 investment made during the trip, I broke away from the peeps and gained access to a platform built on the roof of a museum.  From there a visitor can view Fuji with the awesome setting that you see in the foreground.  The HDR was taken with five separate exposures, though in post-capture I just couldn't get it to balance.  I've kept the original JPEG's from which it was created, so can possibly go back someday to re-work it, or buy Photomatix and get a tutorial online.

Japan - Fuji at Sunrise / Brush with Slavery #2

This trip was my fifth to Taiwan, and for the first time we decided to make a hop over to Japan and take a look.  Chenjean's father is getting on up there in age, so this was an opportunity also to take him with us for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity...a win-win for all.

Of course, no one can be a tourist in Japan without at least trying to see Mount Fuji.  Having said that, I am issuing a POSTCARD ALERT! for this and the next several postings.

We were extraordinarily lucky in that the weather was perfect for the entire five days we were there.  Wisely, we went with a tour operator, and he stated that of the ten groups he'd taken to Fuji that season we were the only ones that got a good view, as it was rainy or foggy for the others.

We were also extraordinarily lucky in that our hotel room for that leg of the trip faced directly toward the mountain.  This was the morning at sunrise after our arrival.  It had snowed the day before, dusting the peak in white; the reason the snow is at an angle is that the afternoon sun melted it a bit more on the western side.
____________________

Brush with Slavery #2

You never know who you're going to meet in a small town.  I've discovered over the years that it is often in the backwaters of America that you run across the most fascinating characters.  Nacogdoches, Texas, is no exception.

It was in one of the smaller, outlying congregations of the churches of Christ in Nacogdoches, called East Main, that I, to my knowledge, first laid eyes on a Chinese person.  Her name was Chenjean.  I had lately fallen away from attendance and on a Wednesday night my landlord out in the country, Mr. Curry, offered to pick me up on his way to Bible study.  It turned out that there were only five in attendance at the service that night - in addition to Mr. and Mrs. Curry and myself, only two more, one of whom was Chenjean.

In spite of that inauspicious beginning I took up attending again, and as time went by there were enough young people to take on the appearance of a youth group.  We all got along and enjoyed doing things together, playing games on Friday nights and going on the occasional trip.  It was a blessed time when, looking back, I'm convinced that God was allowed to breathe a little life into East Main.

One of the duties we'd taken on as a group was the delivery of the Lord's Supper to the local rest home on the west side of town, on Loop 224.  The accouterments fit into a little box that neatly encased the unleavened bread, little cups and "fruit of the vine", as the emblem of the blood is called.  Eventually it fell upon Chenjean and I to take on this duty.

At the home there was really only one resident that we visited.  Her name was Lottie Upshaw, an elderly African American who lit the room with her smile and greeting as we walked into the room.  She was so fun to visit, full of stories and opinions on the news of the day.  Often we considered our time with Lottie the highlight of our Sundays.

As we got to know Lottie, we discovered some fascinating things about her life and history.  One was that she responded to the Gospel and was baptized well into her eighties.  Another was that she became a staunch Republican who adored Ronald Reagan, which was highly unusual for her demographic.  And lastly, she was the daughter of a slave.

When Lottie revealed to us that her mother was a slave I silently did the math in my head to ascertain whether it could be true, much as I'd done by the fence at the Pitts' home in last week's story.  This was 1987, and if Lottie was born late in her mother's life - as told by Lottie she was in her fifties - it was possible that as a child her mother could indeed have been a slave as a youngster.  This made our acquaintance with Lottie all the more interesting.

Chenjean and I had been delivering the Lord's Supper to Lottie at the home for a month or so when one Sunday she dropped another of her bombshells.  After visiting for a short while she looked at us and declared that we'd make a good couple, that we should just "get together"!  At the time Chenjean and I had not really dated, but we were doing more together, mostly for the church.  Lottie's comment changed things, though, and I began to look at her a little differently.  Thus, due to the seed planted by Lottie Upshaw, this daughter of a slave, our lives took a turn and the "rest is history", as they say.

Taipei 101 - Shady Side

We exited the building on the sunny side - as seen in the April 23rd posting to begin the 101 series - and made our way around to the other side later in the afternoon, where it looked like this.