Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas...

Christmas was pretty good out here in Cali (although it's not officially over). Tonight we are going to have dinner at a friends house then its off for some skiing!

Last night (Christmas eve) we cooked dinner at home together.
Appetizer - Maryland Crab Dip with crackers
Wine - Tobin James Chardonnay
Dinner - Crab stuffed shells and cheddar biscuits
Wine - Tobin James Zinfandel
Dessert - Creme Brulee

We each opened one present. Dave got a case to hold his PSP games and I got a Maryland Terps Christmas ornament.

Santa was pretty good to both Dave and I. Dave got new ski boots ( just in time for Tahoe). I officially have adobe lightroom now! Yipee! Here' a few quick products from playing around this afternoon.

I love the gloomy look of this photo

Christmas photos will be on the way soon. Although I really didn't take that many. We went to see some friends in the evening but I didn't bring the camera (although I should have). Thurday we leave for lake Tahoe! : )

We gave our cats a pet bed for Christmas. It's a bigger hit then I ever expected. They just love laying in it.

Solvang, CA

Last Friday was my day off of work, so on Thursday I drove over to Solvang to visit with some friends. It just happened that two of my former co workers in Florida were on a business trip at Vandenberg, AFB. We had fun having dinner at the Hitching Post (along with some wine, of course). Since it was a bit of a drive out there I got a hotel room in Solvang for the night which gave me a good excuse to go visit with my cousin and his family again. When I woke up in the morning I went outside and noticed how awesome of a morning it was for photos. The lighting was perfect and there was hardly anyone on the streets. So after a short morning run and a quick breakfast I went for a walk to take photos. Here are some completely unedited (well except for black and white conversion) photos of some of the things I saw. If your not familiar with Solvang it is this Danish inspired town. All the buildings look very German. It's kind of touristy, but really neat atmosphere.

A bit of on purpose lens flare

Then on Sunday, there were hot air balloons over our house! I really needed more than a 300mm lens though!

Happy Holidays

Dave and I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a great Holiday Season!


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Hope 2008 is a really good one!

Dave and I will be spending Christmas in Cali this year and seeing some local friends. Then it is off to Tahoe for 5 nights with some out of town friends. It's been cold here and lots of snow has fallen in the last week, so we will be enjoying some time on the ski slopes.

More Photos....

I am so happy with the photos I took this past weekend. I shot a 1st birthday party on Saturday. It was my first Photoshoot where I didn’t even know my client. They hired me after seeing some of the photos on my website and they heard about me through a coworker of mine. I had a lot of fun. But realized when I left that shooting kids for 2.5 hours can be very tiring. My back hurt from leaning over and sitting on the ground/floor so much. I was planning on going for a run when I got home, but honestly I was pretty worn out so I never made it. Instead Dave and I cooked dinner – well heated up dinner and enjoyed some wine and a movie. We watched the new Die Hard movie finally and got to see the appearance of the F-35! I have no desire to see Transformers, but there is an F-22 in that movie. So I might watch it just to see the plane in action. I started going through the photos from the party and overall I’m very happy with them. I got some unique and creative shots. I really like the ones of people taking photos of the birthday boy. Click HERE to see some of what I took.

Interesting...if you have traveled internationally!

I got this Court Settlement paperwork in the mail the other day from some sort of class action suit. I've gotten some of these in the past, but this is the first one in which I actually felt I could claim. They are claiming that some credit cards have charged inflated conversion rates along with a 1-3% international fee per transaction. Anyway here is the website for more information.

https://www.ccfsettlement.com/

Weather Craziness!

Well it sure does feel like Christmas in Lancaster, CA today. It's been cold today and tonight we have 70% chance of snow!!! I sure hope it happens! I'd love to go sled riding tomorrow!

Schanker 2007 Slideshow

Hi everyone! This year Dave and I thought we would throw some of our photos from the year into a slideshow. It covers most of our weekend trips and vacations. The slideshow is a bit over 6 minutes long.

Time for some Skiing!

Yeah!!! I’m so excited! Mammoth got dumped on last night and it’s still coming! All I have to say is when it snows there, it snows!!!! Something like two feet since last night! It’s about time. I am dreaming of that fluffy white powder and skiing those black diamonds! Needless to say, our skis are going in for tune ups this weekend. Being close to a major ski resort that gets this much snow was defiantly a selling point for moving to Cali! Now the problem is just finding time to get up there! We also just bought airline tickets to go to Salt Lake City for a weekend in February. So I’m already starting to book all our wonderful ski trips! I’m really hoping we can pull of Whistler in Vancouver as well this year.

Old Navy Feet

Dave thinks I should submit this to Old Navy as an add photo or something. It's just to cute! I shot this at about a f/2.8 and focused on his cute litte old navy socks.

Photo Slideshow If Your Interested

Wow, I’ve been so busy with photography stuff lately. It’s good though. Just means I’m getting a lot more experience, which is what I want! And I learn something at every Photoshoot I do. I really hope everyone likes their photos! From the feedback I’ve been getting, it sure seems like they do. I just recently posted Tyler and Jaime’s slideshow. So check it out if you want (http://micheleschanker.blogspot.com/2007/12/shelbert-family-slideshow.html). I’m hoping to have a separate website (besides Schanker.smugmug) for my photojournalistic style photography real soon. By real soon, I’m thinking early 2008. I realized I have had a photoshoot every weekend, except thanksgiving weekend and I have two more before the holidays. This weekend I will be shooting a birthday party for a child who is turning 1 year! Then its back to doing engagement photos.

This weekend was pretty low key again (pretty unusual for us). With all the photography stuff going on and the holidays coming up we’re not traveling anywhere until after Christmas. Friday was my day off, but it rained all day so I did my Christmas shopping from the computer while Dave was at work. Yeah, I know I used to live in Fl where I was used to rain. But out here its a whole different story. I don’t like to go out in the rain unless I have to. The roads just flood so badly. They literally turn into rivers. Hydroplaning is not my idea of fun! I did manage to squeeze in a 5 mile run late on Friday between the periods of rain. Saturday Dave bet the horses with his dad (via telephone) while I shot photos of some friends kids. Then we both headed out to go Christmas shopping and to dinner. Sunday I worked on some more photo stuff, Dave watched the Bears game, I went for a 5 mile run, and then we both watched the Terps basketball game. So I’m up to 5 miles with my running right now and no shin splint pain!!!! So I think I’m going to keep going and see how far I can push it. With any luck maybe I can train for another half marathon! But I have a sneaky suspicion that as soon as I reach 7 or 8 miles I’ll be back to painful running.

I’m pretty excited about Christmas this year, even though it will only be the two of us. I love buying presents for Dave. I get more excited about him opening his presents. But I think I’m really looking forward to going to Lake Tahoe right after Christmas! That is going to be soooooo much fun! And I am so ready to go skiing….come on snow!!! Apparently the storm we had on Friday didn’t hit the Sierras, but they are calling for more by the end of the week! We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed! It has been pretty chilly the last few days. This morning I had to wait for the car to warm up before going to work since it was covered in ice. The thermometer read 32 at 7:20 this morning.

Let it snow, let it snow, let is snow!!!

Yipee, I think winter is finally here!!! The leaves have changed and mostly fell to the ground. Today is chilly (but not cold)...about 50 degrees. Our low tonight is supposed to be in the 20s! And it is raining!!! I'm really hoping that means snow for our local surrounding mountains and Dave and I will be on our skis in no time! Sweet! I love winter!!! I honestly wish it would always be either fall or winter. I'm really not big on summer at all.

One More Cute Photo

Don't jugde me ...

Okay So I'm taking off part of this post I wrote earlier. I mean maybe it came across in a mean way that it was not intended. But please don't judge me unless you actually know my situation and circumstances. Which unless you are a member or my family or my husband you just don't know because I don't share them with anyone else. So without knowing any background or more information I don't think it is fair to judge me, so pleaes don't. And that is all I have to say on that matter.

Thanksgiving and more

Ah, yeah I said I wasn’t posting Photoshoot photos on this blog anymore, but I just have to share this one. I love it! It’s just so cute how Tyler and Jaime are standing in the background watching their son. I love taking photos like this. I love being creative with my focus points. It just makes such an impact on the photo. So did every one have a great thanksgiving? We did we ate at the Stinking Rose in Beverly Hills since our kitchen wasn’t quite ready for cooking. Then we headed home, took a nap, had chocolate fondue and wine, and just hung out the rest of the evening. Friday I went shopping with my mom while my dad worked on hooking up our sink and dishwasher so we could actually wash dishes again. Then it was off to Catalina Island for an overnight stay.

Catalina Island

So my parents came out for thanksgiving and we decided to go somewhere neither of us have been...Catalina Island. While we were there we walked around, took a night semi-submarine tour and a 2 hour bus tour of the island. Here are a few photos I took. I was really wishing I would have brought the tripod.

Finalist again!

So I'm a finalist again in this online photo contest. This time I'm a finalist twice...once in two different categories.

Flower Photo (Lily)

City Photo (Eiffel Tower)View Blog

Now If I could just win! I'd love the prize money. Of course it would just go to my new camera!

So Here's a before and after from a photo I took a couple of years ago in venice.

Original Photo

With about 30 seconds of editing in Lightroom

Kinda cool photos

I keep playing around with lightroom presets to get a better feel for them. Here's a photo I took at Brenda's wedding. I love the vignetting. It's so funny that for a year now I've been wanting to do this, but didn't know how. Stupid me! It's so simple! The coloring is much brighter than the original photo. Is it over the top? Look at his kilt and the grass.
Well if not, this one is over the top. But kinda cool. The pool is aqua!

More Photography Stuff

So I ended up staying up late last night, because I was so excited about some new photography stuff. A while back I had emailed this photographer that took photos of Dave and I about a year ago. I wanted some advice as to how to improve my photography and I figured who better to ask than someone I have actually met before and totally admire. Her work is just awesome! So anyway I got some great advice from her, mostly about post production stuff. I was so excited to try some things out and downloaded some presets for adobe lightroom and started playing around. Yeah, what an improvement over the original file! So I went back through Tracy and Jakes photos since I haven't given them to them yet. Wow, I have so much to learn still. But baby steps right. I' getting there.

So lately I've been reading rumors of a new 5D! I also read a rumor of 16MP! What an upgrade that would be from my XT. I think Dave and I have decided that were going to suck it up and get a new camera. So I'm waiting for the announcement to see what this new camera offers. Meanwhile the original 5D is really coming down in price.

Anyway I'll be taking more photos this weekend. This time for my cousin and his family. Then I get a couple weekend off before I do the birthday party and some engagement photos.

Weekend Recap

So this weekend was very low key and kind of relaxing (we don't get to many of these, since I usually have us going somewhere). Friday I played my first game of softball in 1.5 years. I had a good time, although I was very rusty. I did have a nice hit into the outfield though. I do miss softball, but I wont play in the winter since it just gets to cold out here. Saturday morning I got up early to do a photo shoot in Santa Clarita. I started my own separate blog for photoshoots, so I won't be posting that stuff here anymore. But you can view them at micheleschanker.blogspot.com
Then I came home to clean up some with Dave. Our friends Arielle and John came up to visit in the evening. We went to dinner, played Taboo, and had drinks by the fire pit on the patio. Sunday morning I got up first and decided to go downstairs and wait for everyone to get up. One my way down I slipped and fell down about 5 of the stairs. The crazy thing is no one even heard me. Dave thinks it hilarious and hasn't let me live it down yet. I have a huge nasty bruise on my hip. I spent the rest of the day photo editing, cleaning, shopping for stuff for the house, and waiting for the big event of the day...the very first University of Maryland College Basketball game of the 07-08 season. They won of course...55-79 ( I think). I'm so glad its bball time. I live for college bball...I even modify my schedule just to watch the games and we have the full court package again.

Costa Rica Slideshows

Here is the our Costa Rica sideshow. I had to break it up into two sideshows because the file was to big for blogger. It's not the best quality, but you'll get a good overview of the trip. Enjoy!

Part 1



Part 2