Pagerwesi - Ubud, Bali

Yesterday the holy holiday of Pagerwesi wrapped up nearly a weeklong celebration in Ubud.

Pagerwesi Morning.

This year Pagerwesi was extra special because it fell on the full moon and the total lunar eclipse. 

All week the temple at Campuhan (Pura Gunung Lebah) was a little hive of activity - processionals left and arrived daily through town and the surrounding villages. 

Families came from all over Bali to leave their offerings at the temple - it was busy.  On somedays the police would hustle us past the temple because we didn't have on a sarong - we have to walk past the temple to come into town from our house - we quickly got smart and timed our trips home so we weren't being overly disrespectful.

Pagerwesi falls every 210 days on the Balinese Holy Calendar.  It can be roughly translated as 'Iron Fence' and symbolizes a battle between good and evil.  Specifically, it's a day when the Balinese strengthen their minds and spiritual selves against evil forces.  

Offerings left at the top of the lane.  Coconut, banana and rice.  

Pagerwesi comes close on the tails of Saraswati which celebrates knowledge - so an extra emphasis is placed on protecting knowledge from evil.​

During the day our little street was silent which is so, so rare.  Normally, there are motorbikes zooming around from fairly early on.​

Basket of Canang Sari for the compound.  Lots of rice balls.

Around my little house a strong emphasis was placed on warding off bad or evil spirits.  Almost like a cleansing ritual.  Water was sprinkled in all corners of the yard - extra incense was burned and extra robust Canang Sari (if you follow me on instagram this is what I've been documenting) were left.

Mama leaving her canang sari.

Once it started to get dark out and we could spot the moon low on the horizon processions started coming up the hill.​

Can you spot the moon?  It's about half way in shadow.

The first group was smaller and just rang a bell at every house along the street but, once it was dark and the moon had completely darkened a large processional came through banging drums and really making some noise.   

Long exposure shot of the festivities down the road - the long red streak on the left had side is a moped tail light that passed me on the lane.  Night photo!

Our host explained to us that this celebration was a time when they prayed not just for themselves and Bali but for the whole world.  It's also a time when everyone is welcome at the Temple to leave offerings (I think this might be in reference to a cast system).

In the west the full moon following the Harvest Moon is called the Hunter Moon.   After the harvest the fields are stubbly and a Hunter can ride over them with ease quickly spotting animals who can no longer hide amongst the plants...or so the story goes. 

I hope you all were able to see the total lunar eclipse wherever you were in the world! 

As always please excuse the awkard photo editing and lack of real information.  I had a really hard time learning who was being prayed to and what the offerings meant.

Night Photos :: All of the Lights

It's been awhile since I've posted a night phot and this one barely counts. 

Coming into Yokohama it was pouring. Like dump the water out of your boots pouring.  

The Rain + The Lights = A Very Cool Almost Night Photo

That is all. 

The Panama Canal :: Sailor Friends Are The Bestest

I woke up on Panama Canal Day (yes, thats what I had been calling the day we were to arrive in Panama) with a tweet waiting for me.  It said:

You see, when I was a Midshipmen at Maine Maritime Academy I wasn't the only tropical transplant.  I had a classmate from Panama.  We called him Panama.  Seriously.  (and for the most part he called me Hawaii...)  So of course, knowing that he still lived in Panama and worked on Tugs I sent him a tweet.  Hello, 2013!  The age where sailors can tweet eachother from sea!

(okay fine, that's a highly edited photo of our anchorage.  but doesn't it look cool?!)

Sure enough - there was an email waiting for me.  Full of detailed information about what to expect for the day - detailed information - like, what anchorage we would be at, what our pilot boarding time would be, and what an admeasurement survey consisted of.

Unfortunately, we knew just due to the timing of our arrival - and his work schedule that he wouldn't be able to come aboard for the transit however; being the crafty sailors we are we had a plan!

Things went exactly according to his email.

The admeasurer boarded the vessel and began his task.  When a vessel makes its frist trip through the canal The Panama Canal Authority sends a representative to the vessel to literally measure the ship ensuring that the tonnage and beam of the vessel is accurate.  The admeasurer calculates the vessels 'extreme beam'.  The extreme beam of the vessel normally doesn't vary much from the beam listed on the ships particulars but, will include the width of shell plating and, any fenders or gear that may protrude from the ship which may interfere with their ability to enter the locks.

This Gentlemen measured everything.  Even the diameter of our Rudder Angle Indicators. Trust me:  everything was measured.

Once the admeasurement was done I took a quick nap.  I knew it would be a long night..

Before I knew it I was up on the bow heaving the anchor and shaping up to enter the Panama Canal.

Let me just interrupt things to say:

I'VE BEEN WAITING TO GO THROUGH THE PANAMA CANAL FOREVER.  I WAS BEYOND EXCITED TO TRANSIT THIS CANAL!!!!!!!!!

Where were we?  Okay, so we're shaping up for the canal.  It feels like a jungle.  I'm literally drenched in sweat.  The humidity must have been 150%.  The sides of the channel were lush and green and there was that weird tropical mist lingering above the trees.  I have this picture in my head of The Heart of Darkness - like I'm on an old steamer and it may be awhile before I see civilization for awhile.

Very close to the Western Canal entrance is the first set of locks called Gatun.  Now listen, I could go on and on about how cool the locks are.  I'm going to save you from this and instead, just show you lots of pictures.

Basically there are these incredibly powerful trolleys (also called Mules) that give you wires and assist you in and out of the canal.  There are four wires in total - two on the bow and two on the stern - which are crossed from port to starboard and vice versa.  An efficient team of line handlers boards your vessel during your approach to the locks and handles everything for you.  Basically, you need one crew member to operate the winch for the line handling team.  Did I mention this team is efficient?  Efficient!

Due to the variance in water levels sometimes the trolleys are on very steep inclines.  Did I mention they're powerful?  Powerful!

Admittedly, as soon as we passed through this lock I went straight to bed - to wait for tweets from my friend letting me know we were passing through his area.

Sure enough the tweet arrived and I ran up to the bridge and there, right near my stern was The Little Tugboat Who Could!

I ran inside, grabbed a flashlight and ran back out so I could start waving my arms around like crazy and swirling my flashlight around in circles.

Knowing that my friend got his crew together to come over and say hello was a moment for me.  One of those moments where I realize that attending Maine Maritime Academy changed my life - for the better.  The fact that I have friends who are going to come say hello in the Panama Canal on a Tug Boat while I'm on a Heavy Lift Ship is EPIC.  Being a sailor is a strange mix of being lonely and being surrounded by people.  It's hard to maintain friendships when you're at sea but the flip side is that Sailor Friends are friends for life.  Panama (the person) you're the bestest - thanks for the lights and the tweets and the warm Panamanian welcome.

Clearly, I needed to tweet Panama.  The amount of tweets exchanged in one day was pretty amazing.  Two Ships Passing In The Night!

Following my Panamanian driveby I took one more quick nap before my last set of locks.

By this time I wasn't taking nearly as many photos.  I was mostly enjoying the scenery and making sure my family could find me on the PanCanal Webcam's.

The grand finale?  Passing under a pretty bridge!  Don't ask me it's name...no clue....

Nautie Friends, this post has taken me forever to write and I feel like I've really rushed it.  There is more to say!  More photos to post!  More to dissect!

It's going to have suffice for now and hopefully I can post a Panama Canal Dos soon.  Please excuse all the grainy iPhone photos!

30x30 :: BOKEH

20. Do the cool camera trick where you get shapes of light by covering the lens with a cut out (bokeh?)

After doing a little research I can in fact confirm that this cool camera trick is called BOKEH.  A more thorough description can be found here but, in a nutshell, bokeh means blur in Japanese.

I can't exactly explain why but I've always wanted to take a photo where my lights were shaped like hearts.  It just seems so magical.  I spend a lot of time with my camera - a little magic was well deserved.

My nights have been pretty mellow in Houston - mostly because I don't have television or internet - and no things.  I needed to get creative....I figured that Big Bertha was chomping at the bit to get some time out of the purse...what better time to bokeh the night away?!

I read a few online tutorials (like this one and this one) and decided to give it a whirl however; in typical Megan fashion I read the instructions and then did my own thing....which didn't exactly work out.

The premise:  You cover your camera lens with a dark piece of paper with your desired shape cut out.  Then you adjust your camera to aperture priority - or you become a magician with manual settings.

My first try consisted of a brown paper bag cut to fit over the lens with a hair elastic to hold it in place...this let in waaay too much light.

I tried a paper bag in several different ways - no luck.  Then I decided to try a paper bag from my lanai...

Because it was so much darker out there I could kind of get it to look like hearts.

I was running into several problems.  I didn't have the 50mm lens that every tutorial recommended.  I had my two kit lenses:  18-105 and 75-300.  This meant that I needed to zoom in on something further away.  I had decent results with my much larger lens on objects across the street (the above photo is using a brown paper bag zoomed in on streetlights).  I also didn't have the black poster board that was recommended.

Road Trip!  I zoomed off to target and bought a piece of poster board and some black electrical tape.

I sat in the driver seat and constructed a cap for my lens like the second tutorial recommends.

(Does it ever crack you up when you try to recreate a craft project and yours looks like a Kindergartener made it?!)

THEIRS:

MINE:

NAILED IT.  (insert light hearted chuckle...)

(Also, I needed to make one small modification...The heart shape wasn't big enough so I cut a circle their and then cut out a larger heart that I taped over this one...)

Then, I looked like a total creeper and sat in my car in the Target parking lot with my telephoto lens.  I pretty much had it down at this point...things were going well.

I zoomed over to my favorite christmas light display (sorry, this was pre-hawaii trip).  (Canadiaunt - remember that tree that had large tendrils of lights with balls hanging from the tree?)

Next problem - I couldn't stay steady enough.

I came to my next realization.  You HAVE to have a tripod.  There really isn't an option.

I went home and decided to reconvene my mission on the following day.

The next evening - tripod in tow I went back to my tree.

SUCCESS!!!!!

The tripod is majorly the answer.

Then, not only did I feel like a creeper but, I felt like I was going to get busted by the neighborhood watch.  I had my tripod set up - with my telephoto lens - crouched behind my car - kneeling on the street - pointing my camera at peoples homes to capture their christmas lights.  How exactly would you explain that?!  'Oh don't worry, I'm just trying to take heart shaped photos of christmas lights?!' - Riiiight.

Any which way - it worked.  I used my big lens, I stayed further away from the lights and zoomed in and I used a tripod.

My favorite photo of the evening.  Slightly out of focus angels made up of hearts.

Wanna see more?  No Problemo:

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Night Photos :: Anchors Aweigh

There's been a lot of anchoring around here lately. Sometimes, the call to go to anchor is a sweet one - it might mean you'll get a tiny bit of sleep before entering port.

Sometimes, the call to heave anchor is a bitter one - it might mean you get called out in the middle of the night which means cargo operations will keep you up the rest of the night and into the morning.

If the latter occurs then you should be lucky if you have an international data plan so that you can take a night photo using your hipstamatic iPhone app and then post it on your blog. It might make that bitter call just a little sweeter.

Night Photos :: New York City

In order to transit the Hudson River I had to pass New York City.  Once coming and once going.  New York City viewing by ship - I felt too cool for school. To add to the coolness I anchored on the Fourth of July and watched the Macy's fireworks show from the Harbor prior to transiting the river.  With Lady Liberty on one side and the New York City skyline on the other.

As I departed the River I hit New York at dawn.  There were parts in the clouds which provided some of the coolest photos - blue streaks behind a night photo.

You all know how much I love night photos!  The wobblier the better!

(I will admit that I'm kicking myself for not knocking bokeh off my 30x30 list!  Heart shaped NYC lights?!  Awwwww!)

There are more!

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