Ming-Tarng Chen 寫:
以下是Los Angeles Times的文章
Vacation images of curiosity and wonder
Cameras were never far from Times’ readers hands as they took time off to explore the world this summer. The result is an album of breathtaking photographic memories.
What did you do on your summer vacation? The answer is in these pages. We asked readers for their best summer vacation photographs, and they responded with more than 700 pictures of the places where they took some time off.
The crop this year included lots of animals and plenty of water-related snaps, but no matter the topic, each photo says, “Get out there and travel.” I could see myself visiting any of these places, which tells me that the photo is inspired.
What also makes these photos fun is learning the story behind them. The large photo on the cover, by Peter Leung, took my breath away. Leung, who carried a tripod (that scored bonus points for me), recently celebrated his 80th birthday but still approaches those travel moments with a fresh eye.
That is the point of travel. We see the world anew, whether it is walking through a mosque in Iran or cruising by a grizzly (at a safe distance, of course) or looking out the window of the plane down on a Pacific island. These photographers packed a sense of curiosity and wonder; we see here their rewards — and we share in them. << Hide
-- Kathy M.Y. Pyon, Los Angeles Times photo editor
Making the world better, one photo at a time
September 30, 2011|
By Catharine Hamm | Los Angeles Times Travel editor
Peter Leung is working to make the world a better place, and thanks in part to Los Angeles Times readers, his resources for doing good works will go a little further.
Leung, of Monterey Park, is the photographer who shot the above photo that ran on the front of the Sept. 19 Travel section and on our compilation on the website. He had taken particular care in composing this photo, arising at 5 a.m., bringing along his tripod and shooting numerous frames.
When we spoke with him, he was especially excited about its publication because, he said, he was just getting ready to celebrate his 80th birthday and his 47th wedding anniversary.
After the photo appeared, several readers wrote and called, asking for a copy of the photo, and Leung has been happy to oblige. He charges nothing for the photo but does ask for a donation for his charitable work in China. He travels there two or three times a year and makes a habit of giving away money to ethnic minorities who live in more remote regions of China. His is not a charitable organization but rather his giving is based on his perceived needs of the people he meets.
“The money is not tax deductible,” he said in a phone interview. “You have to trust that I will give the money to people. I am only the courier.”
But, he added, “I think God is watching us all the time. God knows whatever we do.”
One reader who requested a copy of the photo was so moved by Leung’s works for the poor that he donated $300 for his copy of the photo.
Leung doesn’t know to whom the money will be distributed, but he does know that it can make a difference. On one visit, he ran into a grandma sitting outside a hut. “She looked really sad,” he said, “and when we asked what had happened, she told our guide that her grandson had fallen and broken his leg.” Because there was no money for a doctor or hospital, he’d had no medical treatment and was lying in the hut and in pain. Leung never knew the boy’s name, and he doesn’t know precisely what happened after his visit there. But he does hope the boy’s suffering was alleviated.
“I love China, and I love to help the poor people,” said Leung, a Hong Kong native who has known bad times. His family fled during the Japanese invasion of China and was on the run from the time he was 9 or 10 until he was about 13. “We moved every two or three months,” he said. “We never unpacked.”
Nowadays, it is the love of travel that keeps him on the move—and the desire to find the beauty in a world in which it is sometimes absent.
Congratulation Mr. Leung, such a lovely and powerful landscape. It's so surreal.