December 2011

In December, we took a terrific ROAD TRIP!  We flew into Burbank CA, rented a car, drove to Oakland, spent a day in San Francisco, drove to Ft. Bragg and drove down the California coast, stopping when we felt like it and ended up in Disneyland for Christmas.  It was amazing, fun, a great photo opportunity, an a really fun way to spend the holiday.

Here are some of the street performers we saw while in San Francisco

From here we drove to Ft. Bragg/Mendocino area.  We had been in Medicino in 2003 for a wedding and loved the area, we spent 3 days there. 

Okay, so they are out of order, but as you can see, we did, and saw a lot.

The sea elephant was really cool to see, there were lots of people watching and what I realized afterwards, was that most of the sea lions were on the shore giving birth, so the babies we saw were just born.

The restaurant balcony was in Downtown Disneyland.  It was Ralph Brennan's Jazz kitchen.  We had a great meal, in the Queen's balcony, were entertained by the street musicians and little kids dancing up a storm.  It was really fun, and a great way to celebrate our anniversary.

The next picture is the San Francisco street cars, they are fun to ride, and are manually turned, on each end of the route.  Hard to believe in this day and age!

Headlands coffee house is in Ft. Bragg, it is a cool little diner, it has a great friendly atmosphere.  People hang out with with a book and have one of many varieties of tea or coffee with some great homemade goodies.  It has a really laid back feeling.  We had been there in 2003 and nothing had changed.

Oceans and sunsets were one of the goals for this trip as far as photography went, so the next few shots are of that.

The pelican was in Monteray, 

Next stop, Carmel. I love the mission in Carmel, it is beautiful.  There are flowers and buildings are really quaint, I took a lot of pictures here and they had a lot of Calla lilies.

Then we went to Cambria  and Solvang, a little Dutch town  and then we headed to Anaheim.  

We spent Christmas day with 70,000 of our closest friends.  I had been to Disney World about 25 years ago and thought it was great.  I was not sure that Disneyland could measure up.  It sure did, we had a great day, we got there at 7:30AM when it opened and never left until after 10PM.  We spent most of the day in Disneyland, but were told we had to do a few things in California Adventure, so we ended the day there.  Hopefully we will get back there again and start in California Adventure.

Well that's a taste of our December to Remember.

Until next post, happy photography.

Spring 2012

I have been have some issues with the blog, which is why I haven't posted anything lately, but it is time to get back into it, and we have been taking some pictures lately so here it goes.

Spring 2012

What a marvelous time of year, spring.  The rebirth of everything that has taken a nap for the winter.  We have had so many of the cactus in our yard for years, and yet each spring it is like a new surprise as things start to bloom.

This is from our trip to Desert Botanical Gardens as are the several pictures following.

I love these tiny pink flowers, and I don't remember seeing them in the gardens before.

I love this butterfly, it looks like a stained glass window to me, so beautiful and delicate.

I was totally intrigued by the shadow on the leaf.  See how colorful this butterfly is on the underside of the wings?  It looks like a totally different butterfly from the top, below is the same butterfly, but from the top of the wings.  Pretty amazing, huh!!

I'll stop for now and post more of Spring 2012 soon.   Happy Photography

Calendar pictures

It's been a while since I posted anything. Things have been busy at work, but that doesn't really matter since I need to catch up. So today I finally ordered a first 2012 calendar and want to share some of the images with you. We called it "The year in retrospect"

If you recall, the hummingbirds at our house, built their nest on the wire of our hummingbird wind chimes. This little one, must really like Christmas, since she built her nest on Christmas lights in our neighbors carport!

Alvin captured this on his daily walk. This and several of the other flowers below are from around the neighborhood.

These two pink flowers were AMAZING!! the blooms were 8" - 9" across and so beautiful!

These were from the Desert Botanical Gardens in Arizona.

This was from our trip to Sedona and The Grand Canyon. I shot this view of the Grand Canyon through the roots of a tree.

This was a little surprise, growing in the Red Rocks of Sedona AZ.

This beautiful Yellow flower was what we chose for the cover.

So those are a few of the highlights of our year. It has been full of beauty and travel and fun and photography.

Glad we could share a little of ourselves you.

Happy Photography!!

Hummingbirds

We have a hummingbird wind chime hanging in the carport, and one day when Alvin was out in the yard, he kept getting buzzed by a hummingbird. He could'nt figure out what was going on, and then he noticed that a hummingbird had built her nest on the wire of the wind chimes!! The nest is only a couple of inches big, I tried to show that here.

She laid 2 eggs the first time, and once they start to grow, there is no room for her in the nest. They are not so cute when they are little.

but, very pretty when they grow up.

The same hummingbird came back and laid a second set of eggs, that same season.

Well this year, we think one of the babies that was born in the nest, came back and built a nest in the exact same place and had 2 chicks this year!

One is obviously much more developed than the other out of this pair, but they have already left the nest, I hope they both survive, and maybe we will get another set this year!! What fun!

Happy Photography!

Hello again

Spring is here and our cameras are out again in full force.  How is that for a little tease?

Before I start showing you what we have been shooting lately, let me go back to a previous subject.....We have been accused of not taking pictures of people, that is not true, and to show you a little of what we are capable of, here are some shots of:  a Wedding, Wedding invitation photos, and family photos.

The spring pics will be up soon.

So, we do take pictures of people, when the occassion arises. You will probably be seeing more of these types of pictures in the future.

Next post, will be some of our spring stuff. Until then, keep the camera ready at all times and Happy Photography!!!