Sensing...A Lack of Sense

Sense memory. What an interesting thing it is. While going through my photo collection earlier this evening, I came across a set of photos that I had taken nearly a year ago. It was another time, another place, another world, and...another me. Yet, the very sight of these photographs brought back a flood of memories. I immediately remembered exactly where I was, what I was doing, what I was feeling, and...who I was with.

Time: Winter 2010-11; Place: Shenzhen, China. I was in another existence...I was another person. In a foreign country that I had been to before but in a city new to me, I was taking up the sights of Window of the World, a theme park that featured over 100 reproductions of the world's most famous tourist attractions. Here, I saw, among other replicas, the Eiffel Tower, Angkor Wat, the Leshan Giant Buddha, and Vatican City. Here, I continued an eye-opening experience that I had begun nearly two years earlier. It was during this time that I saw the most amazing things in my life and experienced sensations that I had never before felt. It was during this time that I was the happiest that I had ever been.

Feeding koi @ Window of the World

The above photo makes me smile. While walking through the theme park, we came across a small waterway, which must have been a reproduction of some famous river. The details of the exhibit escape me but I remember as clear as day the moments before and after this photo was taken. While the sunset was well underway, we heard a lot of commotion in the water. To satisfy our curiosity, we walked to the riverbank and saw a wonderful stock of beautiful koi. Seconds later, the bread I was carrying in my pack was out and being fed to the koi. This sudden introduction of food caused quite a feeding frenzy among the koi, which fough each other to the surface in hopes of grabbing their share. The happiness and joy that we had from as simple an act as feeding these hungry fish is something that I will always remember. Smile.

The next two photos were not actually taken in the park but were taken a few days prior. As with all of the other photos in this post, they instantly place me back in the moment they were taken. I'm a very visual person and for me, seeing is my key to learning and remembering. As a result, seeing these photos again have the effect of transporting me back to a happier time.

Alright, back to photos from the park. Below, we have the curious bottlebrush flower, which I had never seen before in the States. It was windy while this photo was taken and I distinctly remember having to brace myself and time the shot carefully so as to minimize blurriness. The water in the background was flowing swiftly due to the same wind that caused the bottlebrush to sway to and fro. Armed with our cameras, we snapped away, playfully taunting each other who could capture the best image. Not to brag or anything but I won. Grin.

Bottlebrush, Callistemon

Walking a short distance around a wooden walkway, we soon came to water-bound flowers that I remember to be water-lilies. They were fenced in by these metallic cages that served as convenient perches for Chinese pond herons. In the photo below, a heron is looking directly at me as I took its portrait using the highest zoom setting my camera had. During this time, my companion's camera ran out of battery power and luckily, I had a spare to replace it with. Thumbs up to being prepared.

Chinese pond heron, Ardeola Bacchus

Leaving the lake area, we walked some more until we came to a biosphere that housed a huge variety of cacti. Some were rotund while some were skinny like the ones below. I particularly like this photo because the cacti look like fingers reaching up from the ground. While I snapped this photo, my companion was wandering around elsewhere taking a plethora of photos of the other cacti. Yet another inductee into the wonderful world of photography. Smile again.

Cacti

Walking. There certainly was a lot of it while going about the park. After the cacti biosphere, we walked and walked until we came to this barren land filled with large bodies that resembled trees but yet looked like stone. What were they? Where were we? The power of the Reds situated us smack in the middle of a petrified forest. Reading a nearby placard, I found out that the park had the petrified wood shipped from the western regions of China all the way to Shenzhen. I'm glad they did since some had really beautiful patterns, such as the one below. This particular one was from a large tree trunk that was polished to a shine. This photo resets my mind's eye, generating me images of my companion counting the tree rings in the cross section, trying to determine the tree's age. Smile yet again.

Petrified wood

After inspecting the petrified wood, we walked a while before finding the next site of interest. Here in a garden with busts of famous Chinese plant biologists and botanists, we stumbled across numerous bougainvillea bushes. Due to the overcast and still windy conditions, it was hard getting the correct color of these flowers as well as freezing their movement in the wind. Again a friendly contest was set and we snapped away. At one point, I nearly had my camera taken from me by my companion since my colors proved to be more accurate. Seeing this photo reminds me of my companion's frustration while trying to get the perfect shot. Of course, smile. And grin.

Bougainvillea

I don't know if it is the lack of photographic subjects outside that interest me with the onset of milder weather but my thoughts have definitely taken a more introspective turn. Given the amount of thinking that I have done for the past half a year and continue to do, future posts will surely have more of my thoughts interwoven with photographs that I've taken. In fact, I've already written a future post while sitting on the LIRR this past weekend heading home from NYC. These all tie-in to an overarching theme of decisions that we make in life, mostly questioning whether they're right or wrong but for now though, I think I'll take a break and rest my mind.