Much to several people’s surprise I did not attend WonderCon this past weekend. While it is a fairly large local convention, there were several reasons I wasn’t too excited about attending. First and foremost, based on the schedule, the convention feels very “corporate”; it seems like it’s more of a tradeshow than a party. Compared to a convention like Dragon*Con, there appears to be a lot more “Company X is going to offer a sneak peak of upcoming movie/comic/TV show Y”, and much less fan-oriented stuff.  Also, since it’s in San Francisco, I would either need to drive up and find parking (ha!), take Caltrain (1.5 hours each way), or stay at a nearby (read: expensive) hotel, none of which are that appealing to me.

Instead of going to WonderCon, we took advantage of the beautiful California weather (78 degrees & sunny). After meeting up with friends for lunch at Mojo Burger, we drove over to nearby Kelly Park, where we walked around and took lots of pictures at the Japanese Friendship Gardens and the San Jose History Park. Once the kids started to get tired, we went over to our friends’ house to play with some new photography gear. By the time I got the hang of using a remote flash with an umbrella, everyone was hungry again, so we went to Sushi Zone for a very delicious dinner. Stuffed and exhausted, we headed home and immediately fell asleep.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the day:

You can see the rest of my photos from the day at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/7496930_VBsH6. You can see Ian’s photos from the park at http://photos.codrus.com/gallery/7479428_z3uVv.

Dealing with the death of our cat Aisha last year was difficult for us. He had been with us since before we got married and was a very close member of the family. Agreeing to have Aisha put to sleep was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but there was nothing else that the vet could do to help him. We knew that he had an incurable heart condition that would inevitably shorten his lifespan by a considerable margin but the end still seemed very sudden. Afterwards, Caroline and I needed a lot of time to grieve and recover before adopting another cat.

About the time we were starting to talk about getting a new cat, one of our friends put us in touch with one of her friends who was looking to give up one of their cats to due inter-pet conflicts. After some discussion we agreed to adopt Sage. I picked her up on my way back from Sacramento one Sunday evening, and after almost three hours of non-stop meowing from the back seat, Sage arrived in her new home. She hid under furniture for the first few days, but then slowly got more accustomed to the house and to us. Unlike Aisha, who was a very big, assertive (towards us), and aggressive (towards other cats) male that tried to escape outside at every opportunity, Sage is a small, shy female that has no interest in leaving the house and loves nothing more than cuddling against someone all day. It seems like Aisha saw us as his (somewhat dominant) peers, while Sage sees us as her mommies.

Now, after over a month in our family, Sage has settled nicely into our household, and is comfortable with everyone, even Mai. Sage still takes off for higher ground when she sees Mai crawling towards her at top speed but considering that Mai hasn’t quite been able to understand the difference between petting the cat’s fur and grabbing at the cat’s fur, this is probably wise on Sage’s part.

Initially Sage was very frightened of camera flashes, so it was hard to get good photos, but recently she’s gotten used to them.

You can see more photos of her at <http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/7308388_pWqgC>.

Caroline, Mai and I had a fun time with friends at a BBQ last Saturday, despite some unexpected hiccups. We were originally going to grill at Central Park – Lake Elizabeth, a large park with a nice playground and plenty of room for the kids to play. Unfortunately, after some delays caused by meet-up time confusion and a lack of charcoal briquettes, it started to rain, forcing us to move our BBQ to a nearby building. We were able to put the building’s kitchen to good use while the kids worked off their energy in the building’s gym. After dinner, the adults played Settlers of Catan while the kids (for the most part) slept, read, or played video games.

Here are some of my favorite photos from Central Park – Lake Elizabeth:

Here are some of my favorites from indoors:

You can see the rest at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/7436536_U85Fy.

I recently posted some photos of Mai taken at various times in the last month or so. Here are some of my favorites:

You can see more at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/7253830_U84r3.

One of the most scenic places to hike in the area is Rancho San Antonio County Park. With beautiful rolling hills, a zoo, plenty of trails of varying difficulty, and gorgeous landscapes, it’s the perfect place to go with friends on a sunny Saturday afternoon, especially when the forecast calls for a week of rain afterwards.

(Side note: It’s also where Caroline and I met for the first time, on a Jewish Singles Group hike, many years ago.)

By the end, everyone was a bit tired:

You can see the rest of the photos at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/7301482_yHC8E.

This afternoon Caroline, Mai, and I met up with some friends at Kelley Park in San Jose. Kelley Park is one of the nicest parks in the area, with a Japanese-style garden, a Historical San Jose section, and even a zoo (which is currently closed, unfortunately).

After we arrived (a bit late because I overestimated my navigation abilities, made a wrong turn, and forgot how far away it was), we first walked around the Japanese Friendship Gardens. Our friends’ daughter especially loved the ducks and fish in the various ponds. We then walked next door to the San Jose History Park, where she had lots of fun looking at and playing with the various trains and riding the trolley.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the park:

You can see all the photos from today’s visit to the park at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/7241145_HyD7a.

Caroline, Mai, and I had a fun time at Ian and Peggie’s New Year’s Eve party last week.  Caroline had to take Mai home early, but I ended up staying pretty late.

Not surprisingly, Ian and I took lots of pictures. Ian had just gotten a new flash, so he set up his old flash as a slave and we had fun experimenting with it.

Here are my photos:

You can see the rest of my photos at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/6985355_i4C82.

Here are some of Ian’s photos:

You can see the rest of Ian’s photos at http://photos.codrus.com/gallery/6980054_iSj6V.

This year we spent most of Chanukah at Indio relaxing and enjoying the nice weather. We didn’t exchange presents (this is really more of a Christmas ritual) but we lit candles and listened to a lot of Chanukah music.

You can see the rest, including one of Mai in her construction equipment pajamas, at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/6994600_pjuhp.

Caroline, Mai, and I spent the last week in December in Indio, California. Located near Palm Springs, Indio is a great vacation spot in the desert, and is the perfect place to go in the middle of winter.

We stayed at the WorldMark resort. It was our first time there, and we definitely want to go back. In addition to the usual pools, hot tubs, lazy river, etc, there were several man-made lakes and rivers throughout the complex, including one about 10 feet behind our unit’s patio. The lakes were home to a large number of very friendly ducks. After being fed by resort guests for so long, they were not at all shy about coming up to you if they thought you might have food for them.

Since we were in the desert, the sunsets were especially beautiful.

You can see all the photos from Indio at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/6981339_uewVm.

Last Sunday Yukari and Kitty organized a cosplayer get together at the Christmas in the Park festival in downtown San Jose. I decided to attend because it sounded like a lot of fun, and it was an opportunity for me to do cosplay photography outside of a convention. I was planning on putting together a Kohei cosplay from Tsukuyomi (Moon Phase). It would have been perfect, because not only is Kohei a rare adult male anime main character, he’s also a photographer. Unfortunately, the week leading up to the event was super extra crazy, and I ran out of time.

I took my Canon 40D with battery grip, 580EXII flash with a LumiQuest BigBounce, flash bracket, and the Sigma 50-150 f/2.8 lens. I would come to regret my lens choice; I didn’t end up needing most of the zoom range, while a wider angle would have come in handy many, many times throughout the night. For the next event I attend I plan on taking my Sigma 17-50 f/2.8 instead. Also, this was my first event with the BigBounce; it worked well, but it lost more light than I expected.

We were going to meet up by the big Christmas tree at 4pm, and then wander around. The first person arrived around 3:30pm. I arrived at 4:10pm and was worried I was going to miss everyone, but this turned out to be unfounded. Due to traffic issues and confusion as to where we are meeting (the tree was big enough you could only see about 1/3 of the way around from any one spot), the group wasn’t really assembled until around 4:40pm.

As people I arrived I tried to take a picture or two of everyone:

Of course, everyone had to pose at the Christmas tree photo spot:

I got a chance to practice balancing my flash with the ambiant light:

Once everyone was assembled we purchased ride tickets and walked over to the carousel

and the Arabian Nights ride. 

After a quick group pose at the snake sculpture (where I once again wished I had taken my 17-50)

we went over to the San Jose Convention Center, where we were the first cosplayers to wait outside for the start of Fanime 2009.

Eventually, we started getting hungry so we walked over to Smile Sushi on First Street. They were able to seat us quickly, despite being such a large group, by splitting us across two large tables. The food was excellent, and it was nice to socialize with other anime fans.

After dinner, we walked around some more,

rode the other carousel

saw a cute dog

and decided not to go ice skating. The ice was in such bad condition, it really was more like snow skating.

At that point everyone was getting tired from walking, so we sat down at some tables and chairs left outside for festival goers.

By around 11:15pm everyone was getting tired, and the gathering broke up. I had a very fun time, and look forward to the next event.

In the end, I took about 450 photos. After editing, about 160 of them were good enough to post. They are available at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/6887154_WQK89. Overall, I think they are not too bad. My two biggest mistakes were bringing the wrong lens, and underestimating how much light I was losing because of the BigBounce, both of which I know I will be able to fix next time.