My Smugmug site

So Im really trying to get the smugmug site modified. I just have no idea what I am doing! Really! I've made small progress. So check out the site sometime. www.schanker.smugmug.com
I have added a guest book page, so now you can go in and leave me comments if you would like. I also have added a link to this Blog in the navigation bar. Enjoy and keep checking back for changes. I have ideas, but I don't know how to implement them.

Weird, Crazy, but Fun LA weekend

So, this weekend was kinda weird, but fun. Dave’s sister came out to visit us for a 3 day weekend. We decided we’d stay local so we headed into the mountains on Friday for a day of skiing. We skied until about 7pm and had a great time. My new boots seems to be great. I had a lot of control and was flying down the mountain. Dave couldn’t understand how I was going so fast! I honestly have never skied that fast and totally felt in control! I want to go to MAMMOTH! Emily had some issues with her boots and had to go rent new boots. So I skied while they took care of that. We were so tired we headed home and had spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner, played a game of pool and were off to bed.

Saturday morning we got up to head to Six Flags, but we realized Emily’s ski boots were missing. Luckily they were up at Mountain High. Somehow they got left behind. We then arrived at Six Flags a little later then expected, but there were no lines due to the gloomy and cool weather. We went to the park with Arielle, but it started to rain shortley after we got there! (glad were season pass holders!) So at about 3pm we were done with the park. We then went to the movies to see the Good Shepherd, it was good but long. After the movie we had dinner at Mimi’s and stopped by our friend’s new apartment for some games (Catch Phrase). On Sunday we all woke up , had a good breakfast, and dressed warm for some tubing at Mountain High. However, when we arrived we discovered the tubing didn’t look like much fun. So instead we found some snow along the side of the road and played for a little bit and picked up the ski boots. However, we also discovered the poles were missing! How crazy! We never did find the poles, but Sport Chalet said to call it even since the boots didn’t work out for her anyway. Later in the day we headed down to Hollywood to see Mann’s theater and the walk of fame. We had dinner at a great Italian restaurant, and then went to Santa Monica for Crepes. We dropped Emily off at the airport and headed home. It was defiantaly a weird, crazy, but fun weekend.

SMUGMUG is down

I am in the process of modifying SMUGMUG, however I am not a software engineer. I could not get it all done in one night. So we will try and get the site back up as soon as possible I promise a new looks once its back up and running! We'll let you know when its back.

Photo Outing

I went out and shot some more photos locally this weekend. Check them out!

The link on smgmug is http://www.schanker.smugmug.com/gallery/2376908

I took some sunset photos in the middle of the desert. I used my tripod so I was able to use some slow shutter speeds to get some really good coloring.

I also drove to the Vasquez rocks (formed due to the tectonic plates) and shot some photos. The sky was an amazing blue that day.

Looking up at some of the rocks

More Rocks and Clouds

Wide Angle Shot of one of the Rocks

Bare Tree and Rocks

Under the Rocks and Shooting Out

Sunset over the Antelope Valley

Lot of Big Plans

I am in my trip planning mode again, now that the holidays are over with. Next month, we have two weekend trip planned into the mountains. First we will go to Yosemite. We are staying on the valley floor and hoping to have some snow! I can’t wait to see Yosemite covered in snow! Then two weeks late we are going to Sequoia. Where we will hike and play in the snow there too. I will take tons of photos and post them on smugmug. So keep a watch for them. In March we will head up to Mammoth Lakes for a weekend of skiing. Then in April it’s off to Tahoe for a 3 day weekend of more skiing. I will also be reserving a campsite at Yosemite so we can go hike to Half Dome again. Once spring hits I have so many ideas for training hikes in the sierras, so I’m sure we will be camping and hiking quite a bit. I’ve also started planning Schanker European Vacation Part 2! We will be going to Scotland, London, and Paris all before going to my friends wedding in PA. In July, we are going to go to Cooperstown, NY to see Cal Ripken get inducted to the Hall of Fame! So we have a lot of things going on.

For the short term: We are staying local. Dave’s sister will be visiting next weekend in which we plan to go play in the snow at our local mountains, including a day of skiing. This weekend I plan to go out and shoot some photos locally. Then we are having people over on Sunday to watch the football game. People can now watch the game upstairs or downstairs. I took my photos back to my photography class this week. The photographer looked at them again, and told me I defiantly have an eye for photography. He was surprised that I had not taken any classes before. So I’m thinking I need to start taking some advanced classes and maybe I can start some sort of side photography business.

Home Improvement

So far in the last week I have installed wainscott paneling in a bathroom and chair railing in our Living Room/ Dining Room. Here is a photo of our finished LR/DR. I do love playing with my new power tools!

We also had our new plasma tv installed in the loft! We can now play pool and watch HDTV all at once! Sweeetttt! We also hung up curains on the windows (long been needed!)


This weekend proved to be very cold here in Lancaster. Apparently the Low on sat. night was only 3 degrees. It's still pretty cold with a high in the upper 40s and lows in the teens. I do love it though and wish it would stay like this for a while.

Current Emotions: Happy, Excited, Hopeful

I am so psyched right now! Tonight was my 2nd photography class. The photographer asked us all to bring in pictures for him to critique. I took in an album I've started with my favorite photos. WOW, did I get good reception! I was sitting there looking at the photos other people brought in and when I really realized my photos are pretty good for an amateur. I almost felt embarrassed to show my album because I didn't want to look like a show off. I gave him my album and upon opening it up, he said "Wow". He then proceeded to show some of my photos as good examples of composition. We ran out of time and he asked me to bring my album back next week. Every one in the class really liked the photos and gave me great comments. The photographer critqued some of my photos, but overall gave me great comments. It really meant something to here that from a pro. My self esteem was boosted so much. I really think I can do something with this talent. Don't get me wrong I still have a lot to learn, but for a complete self taught amateur I feel pretty confident in what I do.

Here are a couple of the photos he really liked.

1. A potrait of a cowboy in Fort Worth, TX:

2. The Golden Gate Bridge

I Love Winter...

I do love winter…have I ever mentioned that!? I’m sure I have at lease once or twice in my life! :)
I love the cold weather, I love bundling up in bulky coats and scarfs. I love sitting by the fireplace and sipping hot chocolate. I love the crisp air and chance of snow…Yup I said chance of snow! We live in Southern Cali but at a high elevation (well, high compared to where we used to live in Florida) and it gets cold here. So this weekends forecast is …highs in the 40’s, winds of 20-25 mph, lows of about 12, and a chance for SNOW!!! Oh do I hope it snows. I know it won’t be much, but I’ll take anything I get my hands on. I grew up in Maryland where we had decent snow falls every winter. I do miss that. It seems like we get all the cold and none of the snow here. I guess that’s what we get for living in a desert climate. Although last winter we had a good 1-2 inches covering the back yard. So for all you Floridians out there reading this….I know you like your 80 degree winter days, but I live for the cold and snowy ones!

This is what I live for...

Two of my favorite things are photography and travel. Luckily these can go hand in hand.

Yesterday was my first day of my mini photography class. I signed up for this class offered through the city of Lancaster. It is taught by a local photographer, and he is pretty darn good! I think this is my first step to learning more and applying it to my photos. Last night we learned about composition and the rule of thirds. I think I already pretty much apply this to my photos. I never like normal photos and have always tried to get my subjects off center. Next week, will get more technical and hopefully I'll pick up a think or two on shutter speed and aperture. I know the basics, but I need to understand more so I can just shoot and not cheat by looking at the display. I'm excited that I'm finally learning about photography. I find I'm at the point where I can actually give other people advice now. Next week we have to bring in photos for him to Critique. So we'll see what he thinks of my work, huh! That's a little nerve racking. I'm sure most of the people in the class don't care as much as I do.

This week I have also started to explore our options for our May 2007 vacation. Can you believe its only 5 months away! Dave really wants a Guinness in Dublin and since I've been there and know my way around, I think we will start the trip there. Then we will head to Edinburgh for 5 days in Scotland, then head to London for 2.5 days. After London we will travel to Paris (to see the rest of the city) for another 2.5 days. Then it will be back to the states for my Friend's (Brenda) wedding near Pittsburgh. We will be gone for a little over 2 weeks. It should be a blast. I so can't wait! I love to travel with Dave. We have so much fun.

In the meantime we will be enjoying the skiing in the sierras, a weekend winter trip to Yosemite, and skiing at Lake Tahoe.

House Update: So we are really trying to get the house to where I would like it. Lately I have installed Wainscoting in the upstairs hallway bathroom. I also finally finished installing the quarter round downstairs. We are trying to put together ideas for the loft (where our pool table is). WE went to circuit city and ordered a 50" plasmas tv to put on the wall opposite the pool table. Now we need curtains, seating, and a black cabinet to but in the alcove area. I will also be finishing the chair railing the LR/DR and starting crown moulding. The next major project is remodeling of the kitchen. But we will have that done by Lowe's or a kitchen place. I can't wait to have new cherry cabinets in a dark stain and either Zodiaq or Corian counter tops!!! Oh boy! It's funny how stuff like that makes me happy.

Vegas Luck

Our New Years weekend trip to Vegas was eventful to say the least. I’d have to consider ourselves very lucky, but not in the form of luck you would think of with Vegas. On our way out to Vegas we had an interesting experience. We were driving along highway 15, when all of a sudden we saw someone driving very erratically through traffic. Not long after that we noticed several accidents along the road and a police car traveling up the left hand shoulder. Eventually the traffic came to a standstill and we were parked. The 15 was closed off in both directions. The crazy vehicle blew a tire and couldn’t anywhere. Several cop cars came to the scene and more arrived over time. The driver refused to get out of the car and started a 1.5 hour standoff. Finally the police shot Tear Gas (we believe) in to the vehicle, then approached and pulled him out. The driver must have caused at least 10 accidents on the road. Dave and I felt very lucky we were not one of them. All of this happened about 500 feet in from of us! Then our luck continued on Monday morning. I awoke from our long night of celebrating in Vegas to discover I did not have my wallet. I immediately figured I got pick pocketed on the street and started calling the credit card companies. After checking out of the hotel we retraced our steps and headed to the MGM. Luckily the security at the MGM had my wallet with all the cash still inside!!! Wow! I felt so lucky. At that point I really didn’t even care if I won or lost in Vegas. I already felt lucky enough for the weekend. I just hope this weekend wasn’t some sort of sign of what the year will be like for the Schanker’s!

Anyways, we had a blast in Vegas and it was good as usual to see Brenda and Mark. We played lots of games, caught up on the year, and enjoyed the new years scene.

Well, we hope that everyone had great new years and enjoyed your time. We had a blast in Vegas as always. We hope everyone has a great 2007!