I should play the Lottery

Oh boy...am I on a lucky streak. I won something else today. Check out this blog and video. My name was mispronounced, but I'm used to it. Its that whole 1 L Michele thing...people see it as Michael all the time.

http://tinyurl.com/cswo2q

Utah

So after WPPI was over Dave and I drove up into Utah. We spent 3 nights in Brian Head, UT. The first day we skied. It was a very easy place to ski. Not very challenging, but pretty fun still. I mostly skied off trail to make it more challenging. The next day we drove to Bryce Canyon NP. How Beautiful! Now I have another place that I want to hike at. While we were there we did a little bit of snow shoeing.

More Photos From Vegas

Thought I'd share a few more from Las Vegas. Enjoy!

I ended the time in Vegas by having lunch with 6 other people from B School. It was nice to meet people face to face. We sat at rain forest cafe for close to 2 hours, I think, talking about photography. It was a really good time. The cool thing is I will know some people next year. For those of you that don't know what B school is...its a networking and learning site for photographers.

We are currently in southern Utah enjoying some skiing. Tomorrow we go to Bryce Canyon NP.

WPPI..Was it worth it?

Of Course!!! I just look forward to the years when I know more photographers. This has been an amazing experience. I've learned a lot, met cool people, and learned stuff about myself. I Loved WPPI. We are all done except for Joe Photos talk tomorrow morning.

What did I walk away with?
Several gift cards for print orders
A 1 TB hard drive
Mini J Lee album
Large J Lee Album
Itunes gift card
Lots of discount offers
A decision on what album company I prefer...made it so much easier after seeing the products
A notebook chokfull of info and ideas. I'm seriously on info overload. And I'm excited to see where things are going to go from here.
A huge headache from lack of sleep!!!

I am sooooooo ready for next year! It'll be in March 2010.

And if you watch the video at this link...you'll catch some glimpses of me. Red harir, green sweater, brown skirt.

http://vimeo.com/3265198

Vegas Baby

So not much time...gotta get to the reception to meet some other B schoolers.

Just a few photos from this morning and V-Day.

We ate at this resturant cause Dave loves Chinese. It was awesome!






This morning we went to Paris

More Vacation!

Well its Thursday and we are that much closer to another vacation. This Saturday we leave for Vegas. The Photography Convention starts on Sunday, but we figured V-Day in Vegas would be interesting. So we leave Sat morning to drive out there. The weather is supposed to be yucky for a few days out this way…more rain and snow. Speaknig of, it snowed here a little bit the other day, but nothing like our Dec storm. It was nice to walk outside and see it snowing though. Our mountains and hills have been snow covered all week. Its so pretty to look at. I wish I had a photo to share but my work doesn't allow cameras and by the time I get home the sun is setting.

We will be spenindg Saturday enjoying Vegas, going to see the show KA and eating dinner at the MGM. After the convention is over (Thursday) we will be driving to Brain Head, UT. We plan on skiing for a day and also going to Bryce Canyon, NP and hopefully do some snowshoeing. Then drive home on Sunday, with a little stop back in Vegas. It should be a really fun time. I've signed up for 2 parties at WPPI which are supposedly giving away lots of free stuff. I want to go, but I feel a little weird going by myself and not knowing anyone. Hopefully I'll make some photog friends.

So with our cat, Haley, having diabetes we had to hire a pet sittter. Seriosuly….who knew how much those people made! I ws shocked at how much it was going to cost us. But we didn't want to have to trouble a friend with stopping by twice a day. Anyway these ladies seem really nice and they are involved with some dog trainig and shows. So the other night while they are over Dave mentions to them that I do photography. They sounded very interested…so who knows maybe I'll start some sort of pet photography/dog show thing. I'm thinking go and capture action shots, hand out my cards, post the photos for purchase. My time shooting is obviously free, but if I make a bunch of print sales that would be totally cool. Something to think about.

Let It Snow

Just checked our weather and the temp is dropping...now like 34 degrees! And they put out a winter weather advisory. I so hope we get snow today! : )

One Adorable Kid with TONS of Energy

If you don't follow my photog blog and want to see some photos of Foster...check it out here. I love to shoot kids very candidly. Although its tough with Foster because he has soooo much energy.

http://micheleschankerphotography.com/blog/?p=327

I'm a Mac

So as I posted previously Dave got me a mac cinema display for xmas. Well...it turned out that it didn't work with my macbook pro because I didn't hold out for the new one. So we had to return that. In stead I got an iMac. This week everything came together. I wanted a separate work are for just photography stuff. That way I'm more tidy and organized and not confusing stuff with Dave's work at home space and also our home office stuff. So now I have my own little corner right near our family room. I got a compact desk from crate and barrel, It holds everything I need it to.

So here's my new space







And one of my other new toys that I'm still trying to figure out



Its been awfully rainy here, but the sun is out for now. Nice and cool ( but not cold)...50 something. Well, I take that back, out nights have been kinda cold. Just wish it was colder so we could have more snow. Our mountains near our house are getting snow though.

Havin a Good Day

...well, except for my stupid neck, which kept me from exercising really well tonight.

1. Adobe actually sent me my photoshop software and they actually did expedite it, and I think I didn't have to pay for it! But we'll see about that one. I'm now the proud owner of CS4 for Mac. It's about time.

2. I got an invite to the cocktail party thing at WPPI...I think they were inviting 500 people and my name was drawn. Sweet.

Whiplash!

This wekened was great skiing at Mammoth. The snow was fantastic! I totally loved every minute of it. When the snow is good and the weather is great I become a very confident skier and pretty much fly down the mountain. That’s why I wanted a helmet for christmas. I've become a very aggressive skier…I try my best at moguls, ski very streep trails, and I love to go fast. Recipe for disaster if I ever have a bad fall. This weekend was the first time I ever used my helmet. So we're coming down this blue black trail…so nothing to challenging. I decided to cut through the trees, hit a bump, go flying and land on my side. But I hit pretty hard and my head gets thrown against the hard packed snow. Ouch…even with the helmet on! I was so glad I had a helmet. So Sunday night I wake up with a lot of pain in my neck and figure its just the way I'm sleeping. But now that I think about it I think its more like whiplash from my fall. My head got jerked pretty good. It still hurts today! The price I pay for lots of fun on the slopes!

Besides that I skied really well this weekend. Dave says to me at one point…"sometimes I just can't keep up with you". Yeah I can be quite fast on the slopes. But so is Dave. I made myself ski lots of moguls on Sunday. I actually did decent at times. But when the bumps get real big, I have lots of issues. Something to work on. We skied Cornice Bowl (a single black at the top) a few times. I told Dave I remember when I used to be scared to go down that trail. Now its nothing. Its just another trail. I need more of a challenge, but I'm to much of a wuss for the double blacks.

Superbowl Weekend...But No Football for Us

Our weekend got off to a rough start. Our plans were to head up to Mammoth right after work, but we got a bit delayed.

So we get home on Friday and are packing the car to go. We realize our cat Haley is acting kinda crazy. She started throwing up and we knew this wasn't normal behavior. Then she started acting very lethargic. So we decided we needed to take her to the vet to see what was going on. She was immediately diagnosed as diabetic. Oh no! Her blood sugar levels were up over 500. She's doing a lot better now, but needs insulin twice a day. When I think about it, being diabetic explains a lot of her behavior. There's been times where we though she had arthritis because of the difficulties she has with our stairs. But then again, we thought she wasn't old enough for arthritis. I think she was pretty bad off on Friday. If we had left and not noticed, it is very possible she may not have made it through the weekend.

We already had our plans and a condo booked at mammoth. So we really had no choice but to leave her at the vets office for the weekend. So now we're left with other issues to resolve. And that is how to deal with a diabetic cat when you lead a pretty busy and on the go lifestyle, like we do. We leave in a couple of weeks to go to Vegas and Utah. We''ll be gone for about 8 days. And we really have no idea what we're going to do. We can obviously leave her with the vet we just took her to, but they charged us an arm and a leg to board her for those nights. Plus I'm sure she would rather be at home an not in a cage.

We ended up going up to mammoth on Friday night, but didn't get there until 11:30! The skiing this weekend was great. We had great weather. Blue skies the entire time. And the snow was great after the big dumping they got the previous week. Sunday was dead to…no lift lines due to super bowl! Our condo was right near one of the lifts and the condo itself was really nice. Pretty spacious for a one bedroom place. We had free lift tickets from our American express rewards points too. Of course with the $$$ involved with the vet visit that was pretty much a complete wash.

And - the result of the Adobe situation…I finally got to talk to someone who cares. I explained the whole thing and they agreed to approve it and send me my software. Yippee! Only took 4 months to resolve this! I guess I shouldn't be to happy until I actually have photoshop for mac in my hands.

Weekend of Jan 24th

Well, I haven't done this in a while…A Schanker weekend recap!

My husband was a complete champ this weekend…I really start to feel stressed when the house is dirty and out of order…yeah a little OCD I guess…I just like a clean house. But I had a lot on my plate. I have hundreds of wedding photos to go through from my last wedding. Thankfully they have been very understanding with the holidays and our big vacation. But now its time to get to work! I got a few hundred done this weekend, but I still have so many more to do. I spent a few hours cleaning and organzing the office. This is the one room of the house that just gets out of control. But cleaning and organizing meant that I didn't edit as many photos as I would have liked. As soon as my new desk arrives…I'll be able to completely separate out the photography stuff from the office. So that should really help. I hope.

So as I was saying…Dave did a great job cleaning up the house this weekend.

Friday - was my day off..I I left like I spent most of it sitting there in awe of my new computer. : ) In other words I spent a lot of tim on the internet becuase I love my new computer.

Saturday night we cooked on the grill…despite the cold weather…then played Olympic Games on the Wii. That was intersting. My best event was running..go figure!

On Sunday..I edited photos in the morning and afternoon. Then we went to visit some friends of ours. We ended up eating dinner there and then played some Wii at their house. We brought over the Olympics Game. It was funny how some of us excelled at differnet things. I think we each set a world record at one some point in the game. I'll give you one guess what I set a world record at…Yup running (100m). I was Yoshi…he can run!

So we are really hoping to be skiing soon. Mammoth recieved about 5 feet of snow in the last few days. And we have free lift tickets to use!

and the Adobe mess continues...

Can you believe…its been like 4 months and I'm still fighting with Adobe over photo shop! Ergghh!

Think its about time to place my official complaint to Adobde and the BBB and just buy Photoshop again…as I need it and Adobe is being nothing but jerks about it. I'm not getting anywhere.I just don't want to sped the $$$.Especially since I only bought CS3 back in March 2008. The frustrating thing is that I keep getting the same form email from them…I can't get someone to write me an actual email. And calling them doesn't help one bit..you just end up wasting about an hour of your day. I really hate horrible customer service!! If you go on their forums site at adobe.com its loaded with CS complaints…I guess I'm not the only one who thinks their CS stinks.

I'm so excited to fully be a Mac now…ever since I got my macbook pro, I have just been so happy. I have learned I really like macs. The exciting thing is to have such a streamlined workspace. No more messy cables everywhere. I will have my mac, wireless keyboard, wireless mighty mouse and my all new Wacom Tablet. Everything isn't all set up yet, but I'm just so excited about it all. Yippee! I love things clean and organized so this will make things very clutter free for me. (I think everyone that has ever been to our house, knows how I hate clutter). I won't even leave our Wii sitting out. (hehehe). I even order the desk I've been wanting so once that comes everything will be ready to go for me.

Can't believe WPPI is less than 4 weeks away…so I get another week off of work soon and I get to play in Vegas while I learn about photography. I'm pretty stoked about all of that. And I’m excited that we are staying at MGM signature for the same price as MGM. The signature is totally awesome anyway.

More Views from Bangkok

Thought I'd share a few more random photos from Bangkok and the surrounding areas.

I think I need a new personal blog, so I can show bigger photos! Something to work on when I get some free time, i guess.

Dave... Cook?

Yeah he does it from time to time, but usually when I am awfully sick or something. Here's the proof he cooked in Thailand.



We had a lot of fun taking this class and I so can't wait to cook some of it on our own at home. I'm especially excited since I just learned there is a small Asian market right near our house!

Brideg over Bangkok

I'm not sure what it was about this bridge, but I fell in love with it. I shot it in several different ways while on a river boat in Bangkok.

When will it all be over?

I have traveled to Europe three times...and the jet lag never makes me this bad. It must be something about getting into double digit time differences or else that stupid date line! I am very ridiculously jet lagged. So this morning I woke up at 4:30 and was wide awake...so I went to work early. I crashed about 9am..which was about midnight in Bangkok. I suffered the rest of the day and left at 3pm. Dave was working from home so we both decided to take a nap...the nap lasted 3 hours! In fact I made us get up, because there would be no way we would sleep tonight. I'm still exhausted and want to go to bed....seriously I just want to be back to normal again.

To Many Hours of Traveling

This is what I looked like when we got to LAX! Like total crap! We woke up at 5am Bangkok time to go to the airport. We arrived at LAX at noon, which was 3 am Bangkok time! Ouch! No wonder I look so bad!

Sunset in Phuket

Yeah I'm not going in order at all!

Anyway, my friend Brenda and I were enjoying some time on the beach in Phuket. We got to watch the sunset. The cool thing was some people decided to play Frisbee right by the water as the sun was setting. Here's a couple of shots.