Taiwan - Chenjean's Village, Hanging Blooms / Ed Krempel

Debated about flowers vs blooms, but suppose blooms make more sense, as this was hanging from a tree.  Tried hard to focus on the droplets but after we'd been traipsing around in the jungle for an hour it was hard to hold steady.  Still out to capture the proverbial water drop with a neat image refracted from the background, but will have to wait a little longer I suppose.  Also, buying a nice macro lens and setting up with a tripod will go a long ways toward achieving that goal.

Speaking of lenses, I had a good friend in church named Ed, a very good photographer.  He, another friend from church and I went to Bayou Bend one Sunday to snap a few (pictures from that jaunt posted here), and Ed was equipped with a backpack full of Nikon gear.  We found a hole in a door that would make a good shot, so Ed was debating on which lens to use and, thinking aloud, said, "think I'll use the [xyz] for this one".  I was using a Fujifilm point-and-shoot and immediately thought, "Boy, I'll never buy a DSLR...so many decisions to make and so much trouble changing those lenses!"  Well well, here we are, and Ed is not even around to see it.

In fact, nobody knows where Ed is.

Ed is one of the most unique individuals I've ever know.  Had no family anywhere - no parents, siblings, cousins, wife, kids, aunts, uncles, grandparents.  None of those...totally alone in the world, as far as family goes.  Yet he was one of the most positive people I've ever met, always smiling, laughing and cheerfully sharing his joy - particularly with regard to photography - with everyone around him.  Very fun and comfortable to be with.  Great guy.  And had a good job in accounting which afforded him the opportunity to buy all the Nikon equipment that he wanted; in fact his influence is the reason I'm shooting Nikon now.

One day Ed announced to us, during dinner at our house, that he was going to quit his job and travel the world for a year taking pictures.  He'd just bought a $10,000 600mm lens to put on his D300, and wanted to put it to good use in places like Antarctica and Scandinavia.  And sure enough he did just that, returning to regale us with tales of his many adventures.

Not long after his return the depletion of funds made it necessary for him to get another job, which he found, but in China.  So Ed goes off to China some ten years ago, and nobody's heard of him since.  And it's a little ominous that not too long after departing he stopped maintaining his website.  All us photography geeks from JV (our church, the Church of Christ in Jersey Village) miss his friendship and expertise and wonder whatever happened.  But whatever did happen, we hope to see him again to let him know that his influence has lived far beyond his time with us here in Houston...