Welcome to Terrapin Country!

So I am a huge, and I mean huge ACC basketball fan. My team of course is the MD terrapins. When I met Dave he was not into basketball at all. In fact he kept betting me that teams would beat MD during the tourney. He must not have understood MD’s history at that point in his life. Needless to say, he lost his bets and MD won the tourney. Dave has since become more of a b-ball fan and even a Terps fan. Last year the UMD Women’s team got there opportunity as they became national champs, and MD became one of only 4 schools that can claim both women’s and Mens B-ball championships. So after two years of not meeting terrapin’s fans expectations, UMD men’s team really seems strong this year. Defiantly could be a sleeper team come March. They just aren’t getting as many props as they should. Let’s see they’ve won 6 straight games including two wins against Duke and one against UNC. Both were ranked pretty high at the time of game time. Earlier in the year they beat St Johns and Michigan to win the 2K sports hoops classic tourney, and then they beat Illinois at home. The freshmen on this team are strong and MD is a big contender. I’d keep an eye out for this young, but impressive team. It’s nice to see them strong like they were a few years ago. This is a team that made it into March Madness 11 years running…and they are back! ! (and don’t forget the strong Women’s team to!). Whoo-hoo! GO TERPS! And go ACC! (Only the best conference in college B-ball!). It would be nice to see both teams win the ACC tournament for sure. I’d give my predictions for the final four, but it’s still a little early. I’m thinking an ACC team (but its hard to tell who. There are to many to choose from with 6 locks into march already), Ohio, Wisconsin, and maybe UCLA.

GO TERPS GO TERPS GO TERPS GO TERPS GO TERPS GO TERPS GO TERPS GO TERPS GO TERPS GO TERPS

Sequoia Winter Wonderland

This weekend Dave and I enjoyed a wonderful weekend at Sequoia National Park. We stayed at the lodge, as we’re not into the snow camping thing! It was a little weird to be there and not be camping, as this is our third trip to sequoia but our first to not be camping. We arrived at the park around 8pm fri night, so it was already dark and we could barely see what we would be in for the next day. I decided to get up early sat morning and go take some photos since the ski shop wasn’t going to open until 9am. Wow! What a beautiful sight I was in for. I stepped outside to the cold mountain air, a clear blue sky, and amazing pristine snow conditions ( about 4 feet of fresh snow). I shot photos for about a half hour then headed inside to wake Dave up. We ate breakfast and headed out to rent our snow shoes. We hiked through the Big Trees trail and part of Topokah Falls trail. On the Topakah falls trail I was able to take some photos of the Watchtower (we hiked through there last Labor Day weekend). It was neat to be down below in the valley and see exactly where we hiked about 6 months prior to this trip. Snowshoeing was harder than hiking, especially if you had to make your own tracks. But it was a lot of fun just being out in the snow. Sunday we woke up to a snow storm! We were not expecting this as the snow wasn’t predicted until Monday. Our car was covered in 4-6 inches of snow and it continued to come down all day. I am so glad we bought a Subaru, as our car handled like a champ. We just drove past everyone else while they were putting on there chains. On Sunday we snow shoed on Congress Trail for a little bit and then headed home. Seeing Sequoia covered in snow was an amazing trip and I’m sure we’ll be back! I can’t wait until our Yosemite trip in two weeks!

Trees in the snow with the sun peeking through

A trunk of a redwood surronded by snow covered trees

Me in my snowhoes (check out how high the snow bank is)

I've started posting photos...the rest should be up later this week.

http://schanker.smugmug.com/gallery/2516829

On our way home, there was this awesome rainbow over the valley. We could see the entire thing. So we stopped the car so I could get a few photos with the wide angle lens (thank goodness I own a super wide angle!)

A wonderful sight to see...clouds and gloomy weather

Most people frown upon seeing clouds and rain in the froecast. But at this time of year that is a welcomed happy day for a skier. So it is currenlty raining in the antelope valley and it's cold. I don't think the high got up over 47 today. Meaning our mountains are getting snow. Sweeettt!!!! And we will be skiing for a few more months. The snow should be over by tomorrow morning, just in time for our weekend trip to Sequoia NP. We are staying at the lodge on the mountain (~8000ft elevation) and they are expecnting 2 feet of snow! I am off on friday but Dave has to work, so as soon as he gets home we'll be on the road. We will have lots of fresh snow to play in. Our plans are to sled ride, snowshoe on some of the trails, and take tons of photos! Speaking of photos...I learned some stuff at my photography class that I should have known about months ago. Well I'm hoping it'll come in handy this weekend and I'll get some awesome photos. We'll see. I am so looking forward to this trip, even though we won't be skiing (downhill). But I promise next weekend we will be on the slopes somewhere! I really love winter!

Weekend Recap - Ski Trip!

After mammoth mountain finally recieved a good amount of snow, Dave and I quickly determined an available weekend to drive up to mammoth. It just happened our free weekend was President's day weekend and all the condos were requiring a 3 night minimum. So on Thursday we called the Condo rental agency and they gave us a place that hadn't been rented yet. It was about 1/6 mile from the lifts and had some really good size hot tubs. So we really can't complain for last minute reservations! We left work a tad early on Friday to get to mammoth by dinner time. After checking in we ate dinner at the condo and enjoyed some hot tub time. We then turned in early to be well rested for a full day on the slopes. I got up about 6:30 to try and snap a few photos of the mountain in the early morning sun. Then I woke Dave up for breakfast and we headed to the lifts. Saturday was great...bright blue skies, no wind, and awesome powder. Saturday night we again enjoyed time at the hot tub. Sunday morning we woke up to snow showers. So all day we had fresh powder although the visibility was not to good. We still had a great day. I'm so impressed with the progress both Dave and I have made with out skiing skills. Dave has only been skiing for a few seasons but wow did he look good this weekend. He was even skiing moguls like he'd been doing it for years (he had lots of trouble with this last year). I on the other hand have become so confident on my skis that I just fly down the mountain. I finally ski like someone who learned 15 year ago. Even the moguls didn't give me much trouble. It is so nice to feel so confident and just go. I can't wait to get back on the slopes!

Yummy Oreos

While I was shooting photos last weekend, I got some cute shots of our Friends daughter during and after she finished her oreos.


On another note: Mammoth finally got some snow...so you know where the Schanker's will be. We managed to rent a condo by the ski lift (totally last minute)! so we'll be spending two days skiing. I can't wait. Next weekend we will be at Sequoia NP hiking and playing in the snow! I hope to get lots of cool photos while we are there.

Photoshoot

Today I took some photos of our friends kids. Their son James was Baptised and then we went back to their house. Here are some ones I shot today. Please post comments and let me know what you think of the shots.

Italy photos one year later

Well, It's about the one year anniversary of our trip to Italy. So I did something I've been meaning to do for a while. I created a gallery of some of my favorite Italy/Switzerland/Paris photos. So if you've never taken the time to look through everything check out the gallery.

http://schanker.smugmug.com/gallery/2441951

Tour De Cure

I just signed up to do the Tour De Cure through work to raise money for Diabetes. The bike ride is not until May, but if you wish to donate towards this wonderful cause, please visit this website. I will be riding 30 miles in the Thousand Oaks/Ventura area on May 6th.

http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR?pg=personal&JServSessionIdr001=3vewqifnz1.app17a&fr_id=4405&px=3195519

Michele

Not Sure How to Take This...

So I posted this photo I took of the Golden Gate Bridge. I love the photo because I got a really unique persepctive. It's got great composition and coloring. I really feel think I did a good job with this photo. So I decided to share it uder the travel section of the LA Times. Today I got an email saying I had a comment so I went to check it out. Some guy wrote "makes me think photoshop"! I mean what does that mean...he thinks I photoshopped the photo. Whatever...that was straight out of the camera. I hardly ever use any sort of photoshop tools to enhance my photos. That was offensive to me as a photographer. But at the same time I guess I can take it as a compliment, right? Errgghhh!