Tour De Cure

This weekend was the tour de cure! It is over and I survived! Yup...60 miles on my bike! You may think 60 miles would be tough, but try it on a mountain bike. I think I got the most of a workout out of anyone out there! Why...well mountain bike tires are thick...which means more surface area, which in return means more friction. So all those road bikes were just passing me by! It took me forever, I got a great workout, and a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment! But now I want a road bike.

Saturday - Dave and I left in the afternoon to hang out in Long Beach. Our plans were simple, walk around the city and snap a few photos, Eat some good food, Drink some good beer, and spend some time at the hotel pool!

We stayed at the Westin in downtown so we could walk around during the day and not have to worry about driving.

We had beers at 3 different locations...Yard House, Auld Dubliner, and Rock Bottom Brewery!





This was the view from our room.


Random photos throughout the city.






















Right now I am totally exhausted and thinking it's going to be hard to walk tomorrow. Dave is passed out on the couch with 2 cats. It's been a long day!

The only thing I like about summer is...

camping and hiking in the Sierras! Can't wait. We'll be there next weekend. Planning on doing a 10 mile hike probably. Yipeee!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

I love it when I only have to work 3 days in a week...I have Friday off too!!! Yipeee!!!

So Friday night I picked Dave up at LAX then we drove to Oxnard. Where we spent the night. Then on Saturday we drove over to Goleta to see my Cousin and his family. It was nice cause my aunt and uncle were here visiting too and I don't get to see them very often! It was Foster's 3rd birthday party! I'll tell you that kid had so much fun jumping in the bounce house they rented! He barely came out for a breather at all.

Foster got to enjoy a yummy cupcake for his birthday.





We left there around 7ish and went to downtown Santa Barbara for dinner. That took longer then I expected cause of the Lakers game.

Sunday morning we woke up to the sonic boom of the shuttle reentering the atmosphere since it had to land at Edwards. Haven't heard that in a couple of years, since the last time they landed here. We kinda took our own time to get going. We had breakfast and then headed towards Los Olivios for a day of wine tasting. We had a ton of fun. The wineries were packed! We did find some good wine though. We ended up making the trek all the way up to Santa Maria and drove home from there after stopping for dinner. On the way home the lighting was just gorgeous in the hills. I wanted to stop so bad, but felt bad cause I knew Dave was just ready to get home. We finally pulled over and got some amazing shots. Oh I'd so love to do an e-session in those type of hills right as the sun is setting. So gorgeous!!


The hills at sunset!


The road at sunset! I love this shot. I think I forsee this being framed somewhere on our wall soon!


Me @ one of the wineries


Today - Memorial Day - we are home. Dave hasn't been home in 10 days! But we have a lot to get done, so we are spending the day shopping and cleaning.

So our pet sitters didn't stop by this weekend. I guess some sort of emergency came up and the lady forgot. You can only imagine how hungry they were. Haley seemed to be OK even though she didn't get her insulin.

Preakness Slideshow

Wanna see a slideshow of photos I took at Preakness...

Click here

Next Vacation

I'm starting to think the Olympics in Vancouver is just to much of a headache for a vacation next year. Getting tickets and such is not at all like it was for Torino! They are making it so difficult! So now were debating on skipping it next year and going in another 4 years. It's in Russia then! But if we do that, where should we go!? You all know how much I look forward to our international travels! I'm really itching to go back to Europe so I think that will be our destination if the Olympics falls through.

Options:
- Greece
- Southern Italy
- Ski trip to Austria
- Coppenhagen/Blegium area
- Spain

What do you think?

Camden Yards

Just a few photos from our tour of Camden Yards on Sunday.

Preakness 2009

What a great weekend! The weather was kinda dreary all weekend, but we had a good time. We had 2 snowballs, crabs, crab cakes, and crab soup! It was also a yummy weekend.

Preakness was just great. Two of the jockeys were actually on our flight to Baltimore. Dave managed to get one of the flight attendants to take one of our Preakness tickets to them for autographs. She was the sweetest flight attendant I've ever come across.

Wanna see some photos….check them out here.

So what was Dave's big present….I told him I'm going to take him to Chicago this August to go Chicago Bears Training Camp!!! He is pretty excited.

We had a really good time. I manged to get some great photos since we were right up along the railing this year.

So here's the weird thing…last night my plane lands at about 8:28…I'm (yes just me - Dave took a different flight to Cincinnati) one of the first people off the plane…apparently a 4.7 magnitude quake hit about 3 miles away from LAX at 8:39pm. I never felt a thing! I heard some things rattling in a shop, but since I didn't feel anything I thought maybe its was plane going by or something, but thought that was kinda unusual too. But no one around me said anything about an earthquake. I get home and see all these Twitters about a strong earthquake. How weird!

We're Heading To Preakness

Well we are off to Maryland this weekend. I'm pretty excited to go back and go to Preakness. Hopefully the rain holds off.

This past weekend I participated in a fantastic Bridal Shoot. It was held up in the hills near Topanga. There were 8 other photographers and we had a fnatastic time. If you want to see photos check out my blog. I'm rather happy with the stuff I catpured. I plan on enlarging some of these for bridal shows.

Nothin to note wrothy going on around here right now. Hopefully we'll be camping and hiking agin real soon. We’re both so ready to pack up the car and go. I relaly want to do a wekeend backpacking trip. I did reserve something for us in Sept up in the high sierras. I can't wait to do that. But there will be plenty more before then I'm sure.

So Dave's birthday is Saturday!!! I can't wait to give him his gift. I hope he'll like it. I'd love to tell you guys but I'm afraid he might see it.

Wish I Could Tell the Future

Ahhh…sometimes I feel like Dave and I are caught in this giant catch 22. We were talking last night about our future and what we want. We both agree that we want to live in the wonderful state of Colorado! Our original plan was Cali for 4-5 years then Colorado…well guess what..July is my 5 year anniversary with LM. Yup…its been 5 years since I packed 2 big suitcases and boarded a plane with a cat in tow!( I still can't believe that is all I came with!) So here's the dilemma... The housing market stinks…so it’s a good time to buy a house, but a bad time to sell one. So do we take a loss (well I guess its not really a loss, just not the equity we had about 2 years ago!) and follow our hearts or do we stick it out a little while longer in Cali. Now don't get me wrong…we do love Cali. I mean how can you not…great hiking, skiing, wine tasting, beautiful scenery, etc… But we know we belong in CO. Sighhh….

So anyway that is our constant battle. For now we deal with the immediate future. It's good to have Dave home again. He was off visiting his parents in FL. I think he totally hated all that humidity. I have one rule regarding going to FL…I will only step foot in FL in Dec, Jan, or Feb. I hate heat and I especially hate humidity. So I stayed at home in our 60 degree weather instead. I'm still itching to go somewhere but I got a good opportunity to go shoot a bridal shoot this Saturday. So we will be at home again this weekend. But the next weekend is our trip to MD. So much for spring at Yosemite….looks like we'll miss it again this year. Oh well. But I do think I see some camping in out very near future. Just got to figure out where is hikable since it just snowed! Yup..it snowed in May! We had a crazy weather weekend. It was windy and in the 60s or so here..but the mountains north of us got snow.

Playin' around

I have lots of free time on my hands this weekend and we have a blue sky today!!! It's been kinda cloudy all weekend. Ok, I have to warn you...I don't look so great in this photo...with my running (red shirt) on..I never wear red!!!!! But it was free shirt and its good for running. But I wasn't about to go change just to test some photos out! This is just in our backyard...hence the California block wall!

So I wanted to try of camera flash with that super blue sky. I exposed to get the sky the way I wanted it then I put my flash on the light stand. Here's what I got. This is straight out of the camera.

Santa Anita

Just thought I'd share this little sideshow...I put this together from when we went to Santa Anita and dodger stadium. No time for editing, so this stuff is pretty much SOOC.

You can also see it here.

Busy Busy

Wow I just realized that I have a pretty busy life the next month or so.

next weekend - Bridal Shoot with OSP
May 16th - In Maryland for Preakness (we have god seats this year!)
May 23td - I think I'm free! Hopefully we can go somewhere though cause I'm ready to get out of town!
May 30th - A photoshoot with TWINS!!! and then I ride my bike the next day for the Tour De Cure.
June 6th - Maybe camping and hiking somewhere
June 13th - I have a maternity session and helping with a wedding all in one day..lots of shooting!
June 20th - A wedding here in Palmdale!

So I just thought I'd post the info...if anyone is interested in donating to the Tour De Cure. All of the money raised goes to the American Diabetes Association. You can doante here, you can buy a print here, or you can auction on my photoshoot here.

Playing Catch Up

This week I managed to catch up on all my photography stuff. I finished the wedding proofs, I finished the baby session proofs, I ordered referral cards, ordered vendor postcards, and I ordered some more sample prints including some thin wraps!! I can't wait til some of this stuff gets here. Anyway if you don't follow my photog blog check this out. When I shoot baby sessions I like to keep a photojournalistic approach. I call this lifestyle sessions. In other words I want to capture the kids doing this they normally do...such as being fed, taking bath, or playing with a toy. This sideshow is my take on the baby session I just did.

Tonight should be nice and relaxing. We bought crab meat at Costco so I'm making Maryland style crab cakes at home. Yummy Yummy! BUt we'll be back in MD in a few weekends and will surly get our fill of crab then. But we were totally craving it.
But here's the thing...Costco switched up the brand of crab meat they carry. It used to be a reputable name that I knew in Maryland. Now it Chicken of the Sea. Well, I opened the can, tasted the crab meat, and it was MUSHY! I know exactly when this happens..the crabs are coked to long and have to much water in them. I was very upset since this stuff is not cheap. So I sent them an email. We'll see what they say. But this stuff never should have passed through quality control! We cooked with it anyway, and it was okay...just not the great crab cakes I'm used to.

Tonight I went for a run! I was so nice out...something like 64 degrees and a light breeze. I wish it would stay like this all the way through summer. I'm dreaking the summer heat. But at least it hasn't hit yet. Hopefully we have another month before the comes.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Another Weekend Come and Gone

Ahh...another weekend at home. We were thinking about going skiing but it warmed up drastically this weekend. So we didn't think skiing was such a great idea. I'm so itching to go somewhere!!!! But I think is going to be a few more weeks with Dave's schedule. We're thinking about going to Yosemite in early May though. Then its off to MD for Preakness. At the end of the month I will be riding my bike 62 miles in the Tour De Cure. I realized this weekend that I need to start raising money for this. As there is a minimum you have to raise to participate. Then I thought well I can use my photography to my benefit. So I'm auctioning off a photoshoot on my blog! I hate sending out emails asking people to donate. So I'm using this as a method instead. I also have a photoshoot lined up with 1 year old twins that same weekend.

I wish I had thought of this auction thing earlier as this weekend was the Relay for Life. I could have done something there as well. I also participate in that every year. This year Dave and I signed up for 3 hours of time to walk/run. I ended up running like 10 miles!!! Soooo makes me want to train for another half marathon. Although I'm worried about the stress fracture thing. I'm really not even that sore today. I did like 46 laps on the track, but I walked a few laps with Dave. So I figure I did 11.5 miles total, but probably walked a mile or so. I was proud of Dave cause he ended up doing 5 miles total and ran about half of that.

It's Nice to Be Well Again

Whoo Hoo..I feel so much better! May even hit up the gym tonight! Still have some sniffles but I can deal with that! The weekend was rather uneventful with me being sick.

The cool thing this weekend was Dave went to the store on Saturday. He walked in told me to close my eyes and said he had an Easter present. I was a bit down cause I was sick and mammoth got fresh powder! I wanted to go skiing! So he said he'd brought skiing to me. We have We Ski for the Wii but have never bought a Wii Fit...now we have one! And you can use it with We Ski. That was a nice surprise!

Sunday I was mostly better, so I edited photos and did taxes! Ughh...taxes suck. And I so hope I did them right! I still have to do the state ones though before Wednesday. Yeah we procrastinated. We were going to pay someone this year, but that just never happened. So now I'm stuck with it.

The awesome thing is so far Dave has not been hit with this flu thing. I'm so glad about that. I told him I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I was in so much pain, between the body aches, sore throat, ears, and headaches.

Sick!

It's been so long since I've been sick that I seriously think I forgot just how awful it can be!I've only been to work 2.5 hours in the last 2 days. I've been in lots of pain between my throat, back, and ears. I hope I am better real soon. But I'm doing better than yesterday since I'm actually on the laptop.

So Far This Weekend...

So this weekend Dave's sister and dad have been out visiting. And its been one of my 3 day weekends. Friday I had a photo shoot with a 3 month old baby. 3 mos is a hard age to do, for sure. I learned some lessons, but I do think I got some good shots. You can see one on my photo blog and more will be coming. The rest of the day on Friday we went bowling and cooked dinner at home. They played some Mario cart on Wii during the evening. Then it was off to bed cause we had to get up at 5:30am!

Yup 5:30 on a Saturday! needed enough time to fuel up and get down to Santa Anita for our annual Derby Day 5K run. Due to lots of circumstances I haven't run very much lately and I knew I wouldn't do well. I did what I qualify as "ok". I typically run at about a 7:30- 7:45 pace for 5 K races...and this one I was at just about the 8 min/mile pace...so much slower for me. Surprisingly I felt good strength and endurance wise, my downfall was that I was severely dehydrated when I started. I immediately had cotton mouth and therefore got a bad cramp in my side...before I even reached mile 1!!! I pushed my way through it, but I was in pain. So I had to slow down. My first mile was at 7:45...but I slowed down a lot after that. This race is hard though cause its kinda hilly, then there is the fact that you finish on a horse track. So I finished 13th in my age group. Which isn't bad when there are over 2000 people running! So not to say I'm disappointed, it just wasn't my best race. My official time isn't my actual time since they don't do chip timing. But My stop watch said I did 24:51. I'm usually in the 23 range...so about a minute off!!! That's a lot in the running world!

The rest of the day spent at Santa Anita then it was off to Pasadena for Spanish Tapas. We completed the day with an exhibition game at Dodger Stadium. This was my first time to dodger stadium...I have to say I was NOT impressed! Being from Baltimore and being used to Camden Yards...this stadium is very out dated and plain. Not what you would expect for LA!

Just A Quick Note

Photog Friends...I love what this photog said in this photo lovecat article!

http://photolovecat.blogspot.com/2009/03/finding-ideal-clients-and-freedom.html

Miscellaneous Thursday Night

10 Misc. Things off the top of my head:

1. No I'm not sad or upset that the terps lost last week
2. I think they did well in the tourney and showed people they belonged, despite some fo the talk.
3. I am glad Memphis lost tonight, as I always thought they were overrated.
4. WOW...Duke lost! By a lot!
5. Dave is taking training in Portland in April - I'm thinking I may go up with him over the weekend
6. I had a wedding last weekend, that went pretty well. Despite some tough leanings about Off camera flash. But that kind of stuff will only make me better. My next wedding is in June
7. I have a baby session next Friday
8. I don't like the fact that spring is here...that means the heat of summer is right around the corner.
9. Winter returned last Sunday...we had rain, hail. and snow flurries!
10. We are going to try and go up to Yosemite this spring.

I'll leave you with one photo from the wedding I shot last Saturday...



One last thought...The F22 crash was just an incredibly sad event. I still can't believe that happened out in our desert.

Terp Love

I'm lovin the fact that people are finally paying attention to this great TERP team!!!