Weekend Recap

This weekend was full of all sorts of random stuff. Friday I drove to the San Diego area for photos with 30 some family members! After the shoot, I decided to stop in Temecula for some wine to take home. So I stopped in for a wine taste at Baily. I decided to buy two bottles to brig home.
Saturday was spent cleaning up the house, but we reserved the evening for some fun time at home. We decided to go get a new game for the Wii. I really wanted We Ski....so now I can virtually ski in the summer. We also stopped at Trader Joe's and got a bottle of red wine and some cheese. Then played Yahtzee and cooked dinner. Dinner was Shrimp Egg Drop soup. A recipe from Fitness Magazine. It was rather tasty and very healthy!

On Sunday, I got ready for my shoot. But right before I left we discovered that someone broke into Dave's car and stole his portable XM radio. Apparently the window was left down some, so it looks like they just reached in and unlocked the door. It's just so disturbing that people feel they have the right to do that sort of thing. The good news is Dave called XM radio and they noted it as stolen. So the unit can never be reactivated again. So who ever ends up with it, won't be able to do anything with it. My shoot on Sunday went well. Kids birthday parties are lots of fun to shoot. Look for a few photos later this week on my photo blog.

Heading to San Diego

So , who ever would have thought that I'd be traveling for photography this early in the game. In about 15 minutes I'm leaving to drive down to San Diego. I was asked to do some family reunion photos down there. It's my Friday off of work, so I was able to make it happen. I have sat off from photography, but on Sunday I'm photographing a 3 year olds birthday party.

Next weekend, is 4th of July and I purposefully have not booked anything. Dave and I are going to head up to Mammoth for a few days in the mountains. We're going to hike, sightsee, and maybe even go mountain biking!

Have a great weekend everyone.

Wedding Photography

FYI...I second shot a wedding this weekend. This was my first time "officially" as a second shooter. Some photos (actually, many photos) are posted on my photography blog. Check them out if your interested.

The Concrete Arrived!

We're getting concrete today!!! I woke up this morning to head into work to hear the concrete truck pull up! Oh Boy..I was so excited! I can't wait to see what it looks like when I get home. The little patio wall went up yesterday. Never thought I'd be do excited about concrete! Now I need to go shopping for patio furniture.

Summer is unfortuanteley here! I really dread summer…my least favorite season. Except that we get to hike and camp! I guess that the nice thing about Cali is you can escape the heat by going to the coast or the mountains. Anyway it got real hot here in the LA area. It's supposed to be 104 here in the desert today! At least we only have about 4% humidity. I'm second shooting a wedding this Saturday and it's supposed to be 100 down there. OMG…what do you wear to photograph a wedding when its 100 degrees outside. I think I have to stick to pants because of the way I shoot. It'll be a hot one. I hope the reception is inside. I feel sorry for the bride and groom…imagine how hot it will be for them.

As for the rest of the trip...

First, I thought I'd post a photo of Half Dome, since some of you may not even know what it is. Basically its this big rock that makes up part of the valley. It's called half dome, because it is simply that. Half of a dome. It's got a very flat face. And for some reason I'm totally obsessed with this big rock. We hiked all the way from the elevation of this photo (valley floor) to the very top!
On Friday afternoon, we arrived around 1pm. After setting up our campsite, we decided to wander the valley floor. It was kinda warm so we thought we'd go for a swim at Yosemite falls (okay not a swim really, since it is snow melt and that water is cold).
But by the time we got there we were cooled off by the mist. Next we wandered around for a few more photos of the valley floor, but the lighting wasn't very good since it was the middle of the afternoon. I did the best I could. Then we gave up and headed back to camp. We bought some california cheese (good cheese comes from happy cows!) on the way up the highway. We stopped at this shop where they make cheese, you even get to watch the California cow commercials! So we decided to have wine and cheese as an appetizer and play some uno.
Then it was off to the river to soak our feet that would be oh sooo sore the next day and enjoy more wine. After dinner, we were both pretty tired. We purposely didn't get much sleep the night before so we could go to bed early. So after a little campfire and some marshmallows it was off to bed (~9pm).
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This week we finally decided to have our front patio done. We are getting stamped concrete where our HUGE flower bed was. This thing was such an eyesore. We are just not home enough to keep up with it, so it basically turned into a weed infested area. But it's all gone now and the patio should be done shortly. in fact we don't even have a sidewalk anymore! I'll post photos once its done. I can't wait to be able to sit out there on weekend mornings.

We Came. We Saw, & We conquered!

Ok, so here's more on our 2nd half dome hike.

We woke up bright and early saturday morning (4:30am). We hit the trail at 5:10am along with a few other crazy half dome hikers. I predicted our arrival to the cables to be 11am.We arrived at 10:55am! Not a bad prediction! Dave did great! He really powered through the 8 miles of up hill hiking and about 4800 feet of elevation gain. I was soooo proud of him!

So now for the meat of the trip! We reached the cables and sat down to eat lunch. I started watching people go up and realized why I didn't do them the last time. It just looks so daunting! Sitting there it looks like its almost 90 degrees upward. At that point, I really thought that I had hiked all that way, to just turn around again! I really didn't think I had it in to me to get up there. After about a half hour of watching people, I really started realizing this is what I'm here to do . So I started to put on my gloves and Dave and I walked to the start. All of a sudden it didn't look so bad. It really is scary because it just seems so dangerous. One false move and your falling a long way and most likely not surviving. So we manged to make our way to the top. At one point dave was feeling really tired and yelled up to me that he thought he was going to have to turn around. But everyone was so supportive and really encouraged him to keep going. I'm so glad he did. Once we got up there...what a view! We ended up spending an hour on top. Dave was totally wiped after the cable experience, so he ended up taking a nap for about a 1/2 hour on top of Half Dome! But the whole time I kept thinking about how was I going to get down the cables. That was the part I was most worried about. But with lots of encouragement from Dave I got down and never felt scared at all. My Garmin said it was 8.12 miles for us to reach the very top. So 16.24 roundtrip!

This was such an accomplishment for me. I don't really have a fear of heights, more of just falling. So this was really facing a fear head on. And I have to say I did really well. I never once got that butterfly feeling in my stomach like I usually get when I'm getting scared.

So on for some photos: Warning, I took my XT instead of the point and shoot ( I was not about to lug my 5D up there) with only a wide angle lens. Kinda of regretted not having a standard zoom lens, but oh well.

Dave at the top of Nevada Falls (about 3.5 miles up)

Top of Nevada Falls
Me at the bottom of the cables
The line to get up the cables

One of the views from the top of Half Dome
Me at the top, overlooking Yosemite Valley!

Dave and I up top!
The very top of the cables
A view on the way back down, half dome is the one on the left.
The big rocks and Nevada Falls

We Did It!

Yup, we "officially" made it to the top of Half Dome! And yes I think this was literally one of the most dangerous things I have ever done in my life! But wow! The accomplished feeling I have now, is great! Ok, so I'll post more later with some photos. I'm a bit injured and sore and I have a family photoshoot in about 1.5 hours. We'll see how that goes! Gotta go shower! I'll at least post some photos tonight before I go to bed.

Walking in a Yosemite Wonderland!

Yup, we'll be doing lots of walking...16.2 miles to be exact!

So I am getting nervous. Nervous about what…I'm actually nervous about our hike this weekend. Two years ago I got really scared up on half dome and decided not to do the cables. I totally whimped out. Dave was really tired, so he decided not to go too. Strangers kept telling me I should be proud for how far I made it and being most of the way to the top was fine.(the view from there was great!) But ever since we started back down hill, I had this feeling of disappointment in myself. I've been saying I want to get back up there and do it! I don't want to chicken out, but I'm so scared that I will..again.Then be disappointed…again.

If you're not sure what I'm talking about, there are these cables on half dome to help get you up the last 1/4 mile. The incline is about 45 degrees, so you basically need something to help you get up there. It's a bit intimidating, because there is not much around there and its a long way down! I keep telling myself, how many people do this every day (hundreds). And how many people don't make it back down to the bottom (a few, but not many).

I'll let you know on Sunday night how I did.

In other news, things are getting busy photography wise. I've got family shoots, reunions, weddings, etc… My own brother is getting married in August, so I'll be shooting that too. All in all I think I have 5 weddings I'm shooting between now and Nov. Which is a lot when you have a full time job. I really need to figure out how much I can handle at once and make sure I stay within my limits. I want to make sure I still have time with my awesome hubby and all our fun activities.

So I'm going to enter this photography contest that a photographer is having. The theme is fatherhood. I took three photos the other weekend that I felt really fit the theme. But I couldn’t decide which one to enter. So I passed them around at work to get peoples opinions. It's truly amazing how people see photos differently and what they get from them. This is one reason why I love photography so much. One person said about this photo "even though the child is in the air and should be concerned about dad catching him; there is a peace and trust on the boys face. Dad seems more concern. This captures fatherhood exactly." I loved this comment so much, that I've now decided to enter this photo into the contest.

Boxing Class Update

I just had to post an update from the new class I took the other night! Two days later and I'm still a bit sore! I highly recommend Everlast Shawdow Boxing if your current gym offers this. Especially if your looking for a great, hard class. I think I'm going to go again this Saturday.

So Dave and I will be hiking half dome next weekend at Yosemite, check back for photos. Hopefully this time we'll make it up to the top (including the cables)! I'm determined to get up those cables no matter how scared I am. It's a tough hike though…16.2 miles round trip. We're starting at 5am! To try and beat the crowd. I was hoping we would have some more training hikes in, but we only managed to do one. But Dave did great last weekend.

Workout Challenges

For those of you that now me pretty well you know that fitness is a big part of my life. I love to exercise and eat healthy. I have the attitude of I only live once so I want to treat my body the best that I can. I exercise 5-6 days a week and its just a way of life for me.

But lately my workouts have been tough, not demanding, just to routine. I don't feel like I'm getting a challenge. So tonight was the first official night of "everlast shadow boxing" at my gym. all the instructors have been raving about this class and how hard it is. So I figured I'd give it a try. Yup, there's the challenge I've been looking for. That is one good class! Not only are you doing the boxing moves like you might do in kick boxing, but your doing conditioning in between. We must have done 75 pushups tonight. The conditioning part is the kicker of the class. I loved it and will be back again and again. Now if I could just get over my hump with the rest of my exercising. I've started doing 10 min cardio intervals with sprints and that seems to be working to.

Training Hike #1

One thing I really love about California....You can easily get to a different climate in a short amount of time. It was in the upper 70s or so when we left Lancaster yesterday, by the time we got to our destination it was about 55!

So what did we do? Well today was our official 1st hike of the 2008 summer! So last night we drove up to Lone Pine, CA to camp up near Horseshoe Meadow. We set up camp, cooked dinner over the fire, and enjoyed some wine and smores.

The sky after sunset was gorgeous.

Now we knew it would be chilly and came prepared, but it was so cold. I wish I had a photo of me before I went to sleep. I had on a ski hat, wool socks, gloves, 4 shirts, and 2 pairs of pants! But we woke up to a beautiful morning.

We were on the trail at 9am and hiked to the first of cottonwood lakes. Since it was our first hike, there was really no need to go any further. The roundtrip mileage (according to my Garmin Forerunner) was 10.45 miles! Not bad and we did it in less than 6 hours (with stops and lunch).

Here is where we went! (Notice the jacket and gloves...it was a bit cool up there)And we saw plenty of these...Marmots.
But we did have to cross a bit of snow! Yup, I said snow on June 1st!

We really do enjoy hiking in the sierras...just to gorgeous. Quite possibly some of the best scenery this country has to offer.