Stanislaus River, Calaveras Big Tree National Park

My mind and mood is honestly on vacation STILL so I mind as well share some more vacation picture. Gosh that was so last month ago! I sure do miss vacation, no worries in mind, no stress, life was good. Now I am back to reality where stress is at every corner ready to attack, work is a pain in the head, and school is fully loaded with extra work. Ahhhh, I need another vacation ALREADY!!!!! Geeze, I am surely tired of this horrible and busy schedule of mine!

 

Anyways, these are pictures taken at the Calaveras Big Tree National Park in California, a bit northeast of Yosemite National Park. The trees were huge and umm huge. LOL There were lots of great memories there, I honestly did not recognized the place until we came upon a tree that I remember I took a picture with back in 1995 when my aunt and uncle from St. Paul MN came and visit us. I swear when we walked into the park, I just wasn’t sure if it was the same park, we walked around looked at some trees took bunch of pictures and nothing seem to look the same at all. Actually the first stump we came upon, I had a strong feeling I had been on top of that stump before, but just couldn’t put it into pieces. We must had walked through about ¾ of the trail when we finally came upon one of the trees that I remember my uncle had helped me sit on the edge of the hole and pose for my uncle to take a picture of. I remember it was not fenced like the one we saw. Then Bee told me that the fencing was recent, that’s when it all clicked.

 

We also came upon a tree that the path goes straight through the tree. I remember that tree because I remember I was racing with my uncle through that particular tree. He is a great uncle and loves us dearly; he has no children of his own so he and my aunt treat us as their own kids.

 

We then went to the Stanislaus River of the Calaveras Big Tree National Park, it was beautiful has how I remembered it. We parked and then walked down to the river to the same exact place we went to when my uncle came visit us back in 1995.

 

Well there goes my story; I hope you guys enjoy the pictures! Sorry I couldn’t get any good pictures at Big Tree but I did shoot some good river shots. These rivers shots are all slow shutter speed which means they were set for a very long exposure, maybe about hummm more than 12 second exposure at a very small aperture and the ISO must be around umm 200 or maybe even at 400. Sorry I am too lazy to look at my metadata. I guess when I do get out of my lazy mood I’ll update you guys on the actual metadata.

 

These two are the only Big Tree pictures I liked from the batch.

 

Below are the slow shutter pictures of the Stanislaus River. The first two are my favorites.

What happened to the Rice Field?

Ginger had been posting about her neighbor’s rice field and last year and I had also done some posting on my aunt’s rice field as well. But this year, it’s a whole new year. I had finally taken the time to go to my aunt’s house and then to their rice field, which is behind my old house. Gosh, how I miss that place! But then it made me extremely sad, after all the hard work my dad had put into plowing the field and after us kids including the cousins came together to make a mini dam, the rice field is now just a farm field with maybe one or two rice patties. I remember when we were still living there; my dad would wake up extremely early to tend to this field and work hard to keep the rice field alive and healthy, it’s his morning routine before heading to work. One summer my dad decided that he wanted to build a small damn at the creek so they’ll have water to make a wet rice patty so he got us and few of the cousins and aunts and uncles to help him make this damn. At the time this rice field was owned by 4 different families including my parents. We had moved out of that location last year, sold our house and land to a Korean family and then that same summer an aunt who also lives in that area and also farms with my parents passed away due to cancer.
This year, I guess since we moved out and also since one of my aunt passed away, they all decided to leave the rice patty behind and just use the old rice patty land as a garden. It was a big disappointment to see my dad’s hard work and pride turn into a regular garden. My dad used to spend countless hours tending to his rice field. He used to spend most of his time there during the farming season. If he is not with his chicken he is at the rice garden doing something. He wakes up early and stay out late just working at this field. I guess it’s not his pride anymore every since he stop working the rice patties there.

Now he and my mom have their own garden in Hartwell just growing some vegetable.
Everything had changed, now instead of 4-5 family growing rice together it is just a single family growing some vegetable. I sure do miss it all; it was once so beautiful with the nice rice patties and what not, now it’s just another garden.

This here was once one of the many rice patties, now it is just a empty patty with grass growing

Below are the rice patties from last year, what it once was!

29th Annual International July4th Hmong Soccer Tournament in MN

Speaking of J4, every year in St. Paul MN for the last 29 years they had been celebrating the fourth of July with a international sports tournament, well the highlighted sport is Soccer but now there are also sports such as volleyball, tublub (top) and now even flag football that are played and thousands of Hmong people from the across the United States and even in other countries gather to shop and eat while they watch these sports. This event is held every July 4^th weekend for two days.

 

I had been to this J4 event about 3 times since 2000. My first time going to this event I was only 14 years old, I was amazed at the amount of people that showed up. Of course at this event we always spend a lot of money on the yummy food which may be plats of sticky rice (majority of the time it’s purple sticky rice) with Hmong sausage, or Chicken or pork and etc. They also serve my favorite papaya salad and even nava. There are all types of food and food venders from across MN and some even from nearby states. But of course they all serve just about the same type of food, only some are done slightly differently.

There are also different types of venders beside food venders. There are venders that sells movies and music albums, movies may be Hmong made movies onto Hmong dubbed movies and even subtitles movies (I always spend lots of money on Hmong dubbed Thai lakorns whenever I go to these events). There are also clothing venders that sales the latest fashion or Hmong clothes and fashions. Also small venders such as Hmong medicines are there as well. People who want to promote their small business also have booth as well. And Hmong bands always show up with a booth and promote their music, they even offer free live shows for all to see. Popular bands and upcoming bands always try to release their newest and latest albums around this time if not during the New Years. There are even entertainments at the main stage with performers and dancers. Performers may be bands and soloist singing and performing the most favorite or newest songs. Dancers may perform their newest Hmong dance in their nice traditional Hmong or Laos clothes.

 

It’s also a great even to meet new people as well or maybe be reunited with old friends whom you had not seen in many years. Honestly each time I go to this event I always end up seeing someone I know that I don’t normally see here at home.

 

At night there are different events for different age group. There are the elder parties (I had never been to one so I don’t know how it goes down) but I do know that elders in MN love to party, which is a bit scary for me. There are clubs and concert for the younger crowds. Concerts maybe purchased in advance at the booth or what not.

 

I wasn’t able to attend this years MN J4 tournament since I decided to go to California instead, but I do plan on going maybe next year. It’s been quite a while since I’ve been back to this event.

Hope everyone had a fun and safe J4!

I trust that everyone had a wonderful and safe July 4^th! Was anyone able to go out and watch the fireworks? I hope so!

 

As for me I had to work this whole weekend, yes including today Sunday July 5^th, but then I didn’t have to go into the office until 10pm so I made my July 4^th useful. I got off of work on July 4^th at 4:30pm so once I got off I went to my aunt’s house and hang around there for a few hours. By 7:30pm I took her kids to see the fireworks. Yes I know it was quite early but it was better to be early than late (like last year). I took them to the intersection of HWY 211 and HWY 124 in Hoschton Georgia. We parked across the street at the Government park and ride parking lot, we were the first few to be there. I borrowed my uncle (their dad’s) truck to take the kids. We park at the parking lot than went to the trunk and spread two opened sleeping begs in the back trunk. I went across the street to the gas station and bought them some snacks and drink while we wait until night fall. I enjoyed their company very much, they were great, and they all actually listened to me and did as they were told. It was baby Savier’s first firework show, last  year when I took them, we were late, very late, by the time we got there the show was about over so we didn’t get to see anything. This year we went early and saw everything. Baby Savier was so amazed at the fireworks that he sate quietly and watch, well besides his little “oohh,, ahhh” he was so adorable.

 

If only I had my camera on hand I would had totally taken lots of pictures, but then I had forgotten my camera and was too lazy to run home to get it since I live about 15 minutes away in the boondocks. I am glad I was able to take Vandala, Channing, Athena and baby Savier out to see the fireworks. It was a little something I want to do for them since their mom have done so much for me throughout my growing years. It’s nothing compare to what their mother had done and given me, but it’s a start.

Happy Anniversary to MOZEMOUA.WORDPRESS.COM

I’ve just realized that on Wednesday July 2^nd, it was my one year anniversary blogging with wordpress. Wow, already! I can’t believe I’ve been blogging here at wordpress for a year now and totally abandon my old blog, hence my old blog is entirely different, it’s more of a personal blog than this type of blogging where I blog about anything and everything that I find interesting. Thanks to everyone who kept me motivated in blogging about all the things I find interesting which includes, photography, information on the Hmong people, all types of entertainments, cooking and recipes, song translations, movie reviews, album reviews and etc. I hope that many of you guys will continue to read and keep me motivated for the many years to come. I plan on blogging with this blog for a long time so I hope that I don’t run out of things to blog about, yes even with my busy life including the job and school. The future is unknown so let’s hope that all is well and I will not stop blogging.

 

Take Care All!

shoot and learn with photographer Boon Vong

This past Saturday my long time high school friend Phalatda and I went out with Photographer Boon Vong for a shoot and learn, it was a fun and exciting day, I was able to lean some pointers from Boon and get to see him in action with his camera, shoot and learn are always best, it’s like hands on learning, my style of learning. I recently found out that Phalatda is also into photography so he had invited me to go out and shoot with him and were suppose to just hang out and shoot, but then Boon happened to be a friend and mentor for Phalatda so we ended up stopping by Boon’s place and then we started talking about photography and ended up doing some shoot. I had a great time and also enjoyed it a lot.

Here are some shoots that was done by Boon. Enjoy!

 
I shot this of Boon(white) and Phalatda (red)

Below are images taken of me by Boon

HMB photoshoot:the river

Here is the river part of the HMB photoshoot/meetup.  Again we all had a blast and the river was nice and cold. Truth be told we didn’t care about the photoshoot, we were having too much fun to pose and what not.

These were taken right before the sun was gonna set. ENjoy!!

Oh I am not a big fan of photoshopping too much so I only slighly photoshop! ahahaha

my visit to Yosemite National Park

Again I made this trip well worth it by visiting one of greatest place of all, the Yosemite National Forest! I too have lots of great childhood memories here at Yosemite. The first time I went to this park was when I was around 7-8 years old, I felt instantly in love with the beautiful mountains and was in awe with the Half Dome. When we first went to Yosemite it was a family trip with all the cousins, I couldn’t believe my eyes; I never knew there were such beautiful place in this world. Then in 1995 my aunts and uncles came to visit us from  MN, my dad took the whole family including my aunts and uncles to Yosemite and we spent the whole day touring around the many beautiful locations at this park. I was so amazed by it once again.

Too bad during this trip the weather was not on our side. Once we reached the park area the clouds were getting dark and the sun wasn’t as nice. I guess I must had brought the Georgia weather to Yosemite that day. It wasn’t suppose to rain, not in California, not in June at least. There was a point when we had a down pour, but we still stick around, but we didn’t stay for too long. I wanted to tour around some more, but becuase the weather didn’t like me very much we left the park. I still thought it was well worth it. We were able to hang around and enjoy the park as much as we can. I was able to capture some decent images therefore so I am content.

I’ll try to dig up old pictures of us at Yosemite and share them once I find them, but believe me I looked super dorky as a kid with no style what so ever. Heck, I thought my style was cool, but honently funkie as ever. LOL

Few of the pictures I had taken while at the yosemite national park in Cali! It’s still as beautiful as how I remember it! TOo bad it freaken rained on us! But we still enjoyed it nonetheless!!

Sorry I was too lazy to color correct this picture since the color is way off. ahaha

Stockton waterfront, Lodi lake and Mokelumne River

Here are pictures taken during my trip to California. These were the first set of photos I had taken. It was taken on June 12 2009 at the Stockton waterfront, Lodi Lake and Mokelumne River in Lodi Ca.

The last time I was around the Stockton waterfront must had been a good 10 years ago. I remember when I was visiting Stockton 5 years ago I wasn’t able to do much so I didn’t get to see the waterfront, but this time I didn’t waste my trip at all. I was able to visit many of the places that I wanted to. They had done a lot of work on this waterfront and many entertainments including the new movie theater, well to me it’s new because it was built after I had moved 10 years ago. Downtown stockton had looked a lot cleaner than how I remember. In fact certain area of Stockton had changed a lot while others not so much.

This was my first time at Lodi Lake, but it was beautiful. I loved it! I had a great time at this lake. They had a natural walk trail that was very nice and very peaceful, but most of all very very beautiful. I enjoyed the walk down the trail, it was a long walk but wel worth it. 

I remember as a child we had called the Mokelumne River the “cold river” (Sorry I can’t write in Hmong), we called it the “cold river” because this river flows straight from the mountains so the river is very very cold all year long. As kids we used to go to this river and just play in the river and pick berries along the river. I had great memories at this river, I remember one year my aunts and uncle from MN came and visit us, I was very upset because I wasn’t able to go to this river with them because I had to go to school. It was in July when they had visited us, but because the school I was attending at the time was a year round school system, I wasn’t able to go with the family. But I do remember one year, I must had been in the 3rd grade, my dad took my older brother and I to the dentist and then he took us to the Mokelumne River, I remember my mouth was so numb but it didn’t let that bother me, I still had a great time at this River. Also another year, I must had been in the 2nd grade, we had a class field trip to the Mokelumne River. They had a Salmon farm at this River where they raise salmons and then release it into the Mokelumne River, on this field trip we learn how fishes mates and how they were raised and what not, then they release some of the fishes for use to see. It was a great field trip and a great experience. I had lots of great memories at this lake.

 

Stockton Waterfront

Lodi Lake

 

Mokelumne River

HMB photoshoot

Here are some of the photos from our HMB photoshoot BBQ and meeting. We had a great time there. I am glad that we had a great turnout although we did had couple flakers. But nonetheless, we still had a great time!

Thanks to Haze for her awesome photography and Thanks to Bee for his work also, just kidding, for a starter, Bee did a great job! ehehe

ALl of the pictures are edited by me, well except for the last few that as edited byHaze, the ones she took, of course. I am not a big fan of doing great editing, i just like to edit it to bring out the pictures so sorry if it’s not perfect. LOL

These are pictures taken by Myself, Bee and Haze, I hope you guys enjoy them as much as we enjoyed our moment at the meet.

Here are the rest of the photoshoot pictures. I still got the river photos coming in a bit, as soon as it finishes uploading I’ll post them up, but for now here are the regular photoshoots. Enjoy them. Sorry about the million pictures of me, there was this whole set of me, psh kick Simon for that! LOL

TO the readers who has not seen my picture, or know how I look like, this is I. Yep, thats me, mozemoua!! Sorry I looked fat and dorky! LOL

The below pictures are from Haze of HKYAAJ PHOTOGRAPHY always gotta have a jumping photo ^^ (will make a .GIF) Holding hands <33