My Little Chickadee!

This year Black-capped Chickadee’s decided to take residence inside one of the birdhouses mom painted! Here is one of the parents peeking out of the nest box! Chickadee’s are one of my favorite birds.

Yesterday, this parent with the spider in it’s mouth stayed on the perch and waited for it’s mate to return. When she returned, she landed on the perch next to this guy. Then he hopped inside the box, fed the chicks the spider, stuck his head out and his mate passed the worm she had to him so delicately.

The bird on the left is a male House Finch and on the right is a Black-capped Chickadee eating their favorite seed! I can’t wait to see the chickadee chicks!

Dog Show Photos!

This weekend went to the dogs! On Saturday we went to the AKC (American Kennel Club) Dog Show in Long Island, NY. Then on Sunday there was a dog agility event in Old Bethpage Village. Check out my photos here: http://shinrinart.weebly.com/dogs.html

I thoroughly enjoyed the AKC Dog Show! It was really fun and great seeing all the different breeds. I’ve been wanting to create a dog photography portfolio, but I needed more breeds other than my dogs. This event was perfect! We saw some rare dog breeds such as this handsome Leonberger…

And an amazing Long-haired American Akita (a “double recessive gene”). Considered a major “fault” by conformation show standards, but who cares! He’s gorgeous!

We went to see the Collies and watch Elvys Maldonado (Yuki’s breeder) show his white collie, Lola and his pug, Eva. Congrats Elvys on Eva receiving a point! Too bad Lola didn’t win, I think she’s a real beauty.

This is Lola, Yuki’s mom!

Clarion Lalique of Castle Hill “Lola”

The dog agility event was fun too. People were allowed to bring their dogs for obedience and agility. We brought Yuki (our collie) to the event so he could socialize with other dogs. It was great seeing how happy Yuki was when he saw Elvys and they ran off to the show dog tent and Yuki was groomed.

This is Yuki greeting his mom!

Here’s Yuki after being groomed:

It was a lot of fun! Can’t wait ’till the next dog show! Check out the photo’s I took here: http://shinrinart.weebly.com/dogs.html

Asian American Festival – Photos!

Southern Chinese Lion Dance

This past Saturday I attended the Asian American Festival at the Stony Brook Charles B. Wang center. I also had a table there exhibiting and selling my Ronin Yoshino manga. This particular festival was special because it was multicultural!

Can you believe those aren’t real flowers? The flowers and goldfish are all carved out of vegetables! Amazing!

There was great music, ethnic foods, beautiful colourful traditional clothing and dances. I had some chicken curry with basmati rice and I bought two summer kimono’s – one is royal blue and the other is black with bamboo motifs. I filmed Indian dances and the Chinese Lion Dance.  Had a great time and I can’t wait ’till the next one!

Here are the photo’s I took at the festival:

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Overcoming Anxiety with Taiko Drumming?

I’m glad we made it to the Asian Festival yesterday even though I had a very sore throat and was very congested. I was able to get a table for my art at the very last minute, and most importantly,  I feel like I accomplished something!

I have this deep seated fear of being in front of a group of people.  It’s probably due to several negative experiences back in school… I really want to try to get over my shyness and fear.

So yesterday at the festival, Gerry and Hiroko (our teachers) from the Ryu Shu Kan dojo (where we take taiko drumming classes) had a taiko workshop. There were two drums left conveniently available! I love those drums and the atmosphere felt relaxed, so after a little hesitation, mom and I decided to participate.

I was nervous at first, but I just focused on my sensei’s instructions and hit the drum! To my surprise, I lost (at least temporarily) my fear and didn’t get scared of playing in front of people! Perhaps banging the drums relaxed me?

It always feels good playing taiko, even if I screw up!

Happy Mother’s Day!

To all the mom’s out there, have a great day! Happy mom’s day to my mom!!

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