I went to visit my friend and table tennis buddy last week to view his collection of Chinese and Asian art.
His home is an hour's drive from my house. He lives in the far northeast corner of the Phoenix metro area. Thus, by the time I got there, I was blurry eyed from the drive and not really in the mood to look though my camera's viewfinder for any length of time.
Before I left he informed me that his community is gated. He supplied me with the code, so no problem I thought, right?
Wrong. My Google directions led me to a dead-end with a gate that was chained closed. No code box or sign. Since It would have been too easy to call him for directions I ended up going around in circles trying to find the access gate. Finally, I broke down and called him. "Where in the heck are you?", I shouted to him over my cell phone. He laughed at me and asked me if I had a red car or a white car. "Why?", I said. "Because I have been watching you drive around in circles for the past 15 minutes". His home is on the highest peak in the area so he could see me, or anyone else for that matter, from his living room window. I finally made it to the gate and, with his prodding, arrived with some dignity in tact. By now I was wondering if this all had been worth it?
I ended up shooting everything with a relatively low ISO for available light, indoor shooting (1600). I used my Nikon 20MM 2.8 lens mounted on my D300. This made it a 30MM and not a true wide angle lens. Regardless, it worked and I was able to reduce the excess noise in the shots using "Noise Ninja" software.
Wrong. My Google directions led me to a dead-end with a gate that was chained closed. No code box or sign. Since It would have been too easy to call him for directions I ended up going around in circles trying to find the access gate. Finally, I broke down and called him. "Where in the heck are you?", I shouted to him over my cell phone. He laughed at me and asked me if I had a red car or a white car. "Why?", I said. "Because I have been watching you drive around in circles for the past 15 minutes". His home is on the highest peak in the area so he could see me, or anyone else for that matter, from his living room window. I finally made it to the gate and, with his prodding, arrived with some dignity in tact. By now I was wondering if this all had been worth it?
It was.
It was a nice visit. He fed me lunch after giving me the grand tour of his house and artwork. As a bonus we ran off to play table tennis after lunch. I hope you enjoy some of the shots from his fabulous, elegant collection of Chinese artwork.
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