Titanic Exhibit at the Tropicana Hotel

My high school buddies and I spent a day touring Las Vegas. We ventured into the Titanic Exhibit at the Tropicana Hotel. We were not allow to take any photos inside the exhibit. However, we did take a photo by the house photographer in front of a green screen. She then superimposed us in front of the grand staircase of the Titanic. By the way, this is a real set. They did a great job replicating the grand staircase. The tour was relatively short because we read every entry and looked at every artifact carefully. And still, the whole tour took less than 1 hour even though we spent 15 min at the gift shop. Fortunately, we got half price tickets at the Tuscany Suites Hotel where we stayed last night. I believe the exhibit will be moving to the Luxor Hotel next month. All in all, it was facinating looking at the artifacts that are almost 100 years old and how well it was restored from the bottom of the ocean. Definitely a must see but leave the kids home as it is a somber exhibit.

Afternoon at the Beach

Finally, kicking back taking a little R&R at the Mandalay Bay wavepool beach. Tomorrow will be hectic running around at Photoshop World Expo and Convention.

Tacoma WA: Glass Museum

This afternoon after visiting Museum of Flight, I ventured 27 miles south to Tacoma and visited the Museum of Glass. I didn't get a chance to walk into the museum because it closed 5 minutes (5PM) before I arrived. However, as most of you know, I'm intrigued about photographing stairs and this place is paradise for me. :-) The outside structure is so interesting that I spent over 30 minutes photographing it. Here's a slideshow of some of the images I photographed today.

Vancouver BC

Took a short weekend trip to Vancouver BC. This place is beautiful. Taking a short break right now to enjoy the scenery. The weather is perfect 70 degrees. The sun is shining and most of all the air qualityis superb. I'm almost hyperventilating from the high level of oxygen. :-)

Epcot Center

Well, I landed safely after my red-eye flight to Orlando landed safely. It was still only 8AM after I rented a car. So, it was too early to head out to Epcot and also I was still pretty tired. So, I decided to head over to my hotel and check in first. Fortuntately, they had a room available and I as soon as I got in, I feel asleep in bed. I didn't get up until 12 noon. I know even though I lost half a day, I had a much needed nap and as I'm still very jet-lagged.

It's pretty humid here and the locals were laughing at me when I made that comment. Mainly, this is pretty comfortable for them. :-) I'm such a whimp now that I lived most of my life in southern California. It also rained from time to time but I managed to fit in all of Future World. I have not been back since 1996. I had a chance to sight see a day before the conference began and I had a blast at the Epcot Center.

Epcot Center hold a special place in my heart because when I was 16, I read that Disney World is opening a new theme park called Epcot Center. Ever since that day, I've been dying to go there. Unfortunately, I never had the money to go until after I graduated and started working. And even then, I had to wait another 8 years before I had the chance to go. I actually had a bit of anxiety anticipating my arrival to Orlando because of the Epcot Center. If I were to do this again, I would spend more than 1.5 days there because I had to rush toward the end before the park closes. Perhaps next time, I don't have to wait another 16 years.

My flight to Washington DC's Cherry Blossoms Festival

I finally landed at Dulles in a tiny plane that didn't have any overhead space. The plane was so small that I sat in single row of seats on one side and 2 seats on the other. My carry on was too big and must be checked in at the gate. Fortunately, I didn't have to go through the baggage claim to get it back as they were ready for me when I walked off the plane. I quickly got my rental car and I was racing to Wash DC!! My heart was racing as I've been wanting to see Cherry-Blossoms in person and the fact that I almost missed that chance today due to a flight delay really added to the anxiousness and drama.

When I finally got there, I couldn't find parking space. Just my luck I barely missed several parking space because I was just a few seconds too late. Giving up all hopes, I drove out of the lot and parked somewhat illegally on the grass as many other cars were doing as well. It was a short walk to the Potomac but it's better than nothing as I was racing against time. If I lose the light then I would have flew her for nothing. Fortunately, there were plenty of day light still for great photo ops.

The photo above is one of many photos I took. I used my hand in the picture to get a scale in relations to the Cherry-Blossoms. You can see my long shadow from the side as it's close to dusk when I took this picture.

Here's short video as I walked through the park near the Potomac River. Surroundings include the Jefferson Memorial and in line of view of the Washington Memorial. It was somewhat windy as you can her in my video. Whenever it blows, the petals flew like snow and I felt like I was engulfed by the cherry blossoms. What a wonderous feeling as I can't really describe in words of the beauty of the cherry blossoms in this quantity. It's everywhere and it's beautiful as far as you can see as it lined the edge of the Potomac. I'm glad that I made it as it was explained to me that it's currently in full bloom that's why it's so beautiful. When in full bloom it would only last a day or two. Wind and rain will shorten the longevity of the bloom. In fact, the following day rained hard and the full bloom was shortened this year. Also, I was fortunate that it was a sunny blue sky kind of day and it really adds to the beauty of the cherry blossoms. This time of year, DC is usually cloudy and gloomy. The locals were saying that they would be happy that it wouldn't rain so that they can enjoy the beauty of the cherry-blossoms.

Cherry Blossom Festival 2007 from Terry Chan on Vimeo.

Cherry Blossoms Festival 2007 II from Terry Chan on Vimeo.

Red Eye Flight to Boston

I'm waiting at the terminal getting ready for my red eye flight to Boston. This year I decided to attend Photoshop World East / Boston because I am interested in the new Lightroom track which could increase my post production workflow.

Well, who would've thought that my Red-Eye flight is delayed for more than 2 hours. I got everything all planned. We were suppose to land around 7:30AM and I would check into the Admiral's Club to freshen up, shower, food etc. Since I can't check into the hotel this early, one day access of the Admiral's Club is the best way to clean up after a red-eye flight. And I will still have plenty of time to catch my flight to Washington DC with JetBlue at 10:30AM. This way, I'll have 6+ hours in DC to enjoy the Cherry Blossoms Festival, which something I wanted to see for quite some time (5 years in the making 2002).

Anyway, I arrived 15 minutes late for my JetBlue flight as I have to run out of one terminal from an AA flight and get into another terminal for JetBlue. It turned out that they took off without me. :-( Of course they wouldn't wait for me as they are different airlines. (I once missed a flight when it was the same airline...Continental. I had to stay overnight in Memphis) I was so angry because I thought I wasted my non-refundable flight money to Wash DC. I also lost my one day access to the Admiral's Club ($50) However, there is a later flight to Wash DC that I can take for an additional $50. I quickly took their offer and paid them immediately. The only drawback is that I won't land there until 1:30PM, and after I pickup the rental car, it would be around 2:30pm before I can get to the Potomac river. Oh well, it's better than nothing at all. I hope it's all worth it and I would get some awesome photo ops.

The drama didn't end here unfortunately. Now I have another 2 hours to kill so I decided to use my Admiral's Club access. However, I walked out of the AA terminal and security area. The Admiral's Club is back inside by the gate. Guess what, I no longer have a valid boarding pass to cross security! So, I went back to the AA ticket counter to explain my situation. the rude attendant bascially, I'm SOL because there's nothing she can do. I told her that there's always a way to get around "Nothing I Can Do's". Now, I'm really steaming because it was a malfunction of AA plane that delayed my flight. They caused my delay and forced me to pay an additional $50 for my JetBlue flight to DC. I'm not even faulting them on that and demand for the $50. They got the nerve to tell me that I'm SOL when it's all their fault! All I want is use the service that I paid for and the problem that they caused... it's worth $50!! It's non-refundable! So, I demand to speak to a supervisor and she said she can't get him for me. What!!! What is wrong with this woman. She said I couldn't produce proof that I paid for it. I showed her the email I got from AA Admiral's Club confirming my payment of $50 from my BB phone. She wouldn't even look at it. In the mean time, I was calling the Admiral's Club and ask them to speak to her. She wouldn't talk to them. Finally, the attendant next to her tried to help me and explain to her that I paid for this. She still didn't believe me because if I were in the Admiral's Club I would have a ID card. I told her that I don't get a card whe nit's only for one day, you stooopid @$%#^#!

Anyway, finally stormed off to get a supervisor and also the Admiral's Club also called the supervisor to get me a temporary boarding pass to get through security. In the mean time, I had to recheck my bags and everything else again. AArrrgh!!

Finally at the Admiral's Club, after a hot shower and cleaned myself up I was more calmed and relaxed. I have to say the Admiral's Club is worth every dime for travelers who traveled a long way and needed a place to clean up, relax and refresh. I definitely will use the Admiral's Club again next time I travel... minus the drama. :-)

Arizona Trip

This is one of my favorite images I took from my trip with Lan to Arizona. This is a panoramic image of the Grand Canyon. I photographed this with the Canon 24mm TSE (Tilt/Sift) lens. This lens was designed for architectural photography to straighten lines and reduce keystoning. However, it's also an ideal lens for panoramic photography as it shift the 24mm lens left and right without parallax effect. It's nice and flat so there's no distortion. The only draw back is that it's manual focus lens. It's really not that big of a deal as most of these panoramic images are focus set to infinity. This lens is so portable, I actually hand held these two images without a tripod. I photographed it in raw format and export it out to jpg. I then stitched these 2 jpg images in Photoshop's Photomerge. Photoshop did the rest. I like this photo so much, it's going to be the banner of this photo blog.

Here's another panoramic image of the Grand Canyon, a little bit further down the South Rim. you can actually see Indian Garden Campsite which is about halfway down to the Canyon floor. I camped there for a couple of nights back in 1997.

Here's a panoramic photo taken at the crack of dawn at the Monument Valley in Utah.