Oct 30 - Costa Rica

This is a photo from Costa Rica. We were traveling from Arenal volcano to the Pacific coast and stopped off here for a break and a view. Any time I go back to these photos, I can't believe how green it is. I know its tropical and all, but it is just sooooo green. We didn't even have any rain issues when I was there (thank god after the fact I was in the most intense hurricane in the history of the gulf). It was just beautiful and tranquil.

Happy Friday!

Oct 28 - Harvest Time

It's harvest time in California. Wineries are in full swing starting to make 2009 vintages. Chile, due to the fact that they are South of the equator, starts 6 months sooner. These fermination tanks were at Veramonte Vineyards, a sister company to a winery in Napa. They are known for their Pinot Noirs, which were really yummy. In fact, just last night, Apryl and I had a bottle from Veramonte and it was really good.

Even though we go to Temecula every couple of months, we already miss the big vineyard country that we spent 5 days in Chile and Argentina. Next weekend we are headed back up to Napa to enjoy wine country once again, and see harvest time in full swing. I'm sure you'll be seeing photos here in a couple of weeks.

Oct 26 - City of Hope Poster Session

To get experience in taking photos of people in a candid/photojournalist way, Apryl had me attend a poster session event. They had already hired another photographer to do the shoot, but we both figured it would be good experience for me to join in. I really like this photo because it shows the people engaged in the discussion and the environment around them.

What do you think?

Oct 23 - City of Hope Quote

This is a picture of a gate with the City of Hope quote on it. I took it when I photographed a poster session at the hospital. To all those out there with cancer, best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Oct 21 - Happy Birthday

This is my beautiful wife. It's her birthday today and I am just wishing her a very happy birthday. As some of you may know, I'm taking a Portrait class at a local community college as I really want to learn and understand lighting techniques and how to take better photographs of people. I think I hit this one out of the ballpark, don't you think? It helps that the subject is absolutely stunning and easy to photograph.

Happy Birthday Apryl, I love you!

Oct 20 - Favella Man

What would you do if you met a woman from another country that completely stole your heart? You'd move there for her right? You'd sell all your belongings, pack up and move to her country to be with her.. Right? Sure, because you love her. But what if you get there, you find out she's pregnant with your child and then runs off to Europe with her manager, never to see her or your child again. What would you do then?

Well, this man that we met in Brazil started living on the streets and in favellas (illegal shanty towns). After this happened to him, he started painting pregnant black women and adding mosaic tiles to an outdoor staircase. When people heard of his story, they started sending him tiles to add. He's now been doing this for over 20 years. He makes money selling his art and taking photographs. He still adds tile to the staircase.

As for me? After some time of obviously being heartbroken and spending time trying to find my newborn kid, I think I'd move on.. I don't think I'd want to live on the streets lookin like a crazy man, but who knows.. It's never happened to me.

Oct 16 - TGIF

Why is it that there are tons of Dunkin Donuts in South America, but none in Southern California? Anyway, why would I put this random "snapshot" on my picture of the day page? A couple of reasons. Even though I just took it quickly, its actually fairly well composed. There's a little bit of rule of thirds withe the donut in the lower left and the coffee cup in the upper right. There is a triangle creating a relationship between the objects in the photo and its a fairly simple photo, not too much going on in the background.

The real reason I posted it? I was looking through my photos and I saw it and it put a smile on my face. It's been a slow week and I'm happy it's Friday. I'm sure you are too. Hopefully this puts a smile on your face.

Oct 15 - Sunset on the Beach

Sometimes when I'm sitting at work and I look out my window and the rain is coming down, I can only think about running away and sitting on the beach. That usually brings me to the thought of this picture. I didn't know much about photography at the time, but I know I wanted this shot. In fact, I tried for 3 nights to get this shot, changing settings, trying it out with and without flash, learning as I go along. By the third night, I finally got it. I was so proud of myself as I had never really played with manual settings or nighttime shots.

Oct 13 - Rain on the Falls

The last time I was in a lot of rain was when we crossed over to Brazil at Iguazu Falls. We had planned to spend about half a day over there, but the downpour flooded our hotel room and kept us up most of the night, so between the rain and the lack of sleep, we still saw the falls from the Brazil side, but we went through it pretty quickly. That gave us a lot of time to hang out at the airport.

Anyway, back to the photo. I actually like the look of it. Most of our photos from the Argentina side are bright and colorful. The rain has taken away a lot of the color, but I think it gives it an entirely different, kind of erie look. Just shows that you don't have to let the rain get in your way of good photos, just change your perspective.

Oct 12 - Sunrise in Africa

I got up early one morning in Etoshia to see if any animals were milling about. They weren't up yet I guess, but I really liked the lighting on this tree. The floodlights the light up the watering hole were giving the tree a fun color and yet the sky's blue was kind of this purplish shade. I like the colors from the bottom of the photo to the top, its just really unique and could only have been taken at this time of day.

Oct 9 - Colorado Fall Colors - Part 2

Thought I'd finish the week with another shot from the Fall colors in Colorado. This is a closeup view of a grove of Aspens and it just shows all the color variations that go into what makes the event so beautiful.

Happy Friday everybody!

Oct 8 -Paris Fall Colors

We went to Paris in mid-Nov 2008, so we missed the peak of fall colors in Europe by quite a bit, but there were still some leaves to be had while wandering the city. Flanked by the Arc de Triumph, this tree was still hanging on dispite the cold rainy weather we experienced while in the City of Lights.

Oct 7 - Argentina Fall Colors

The Fall Colors were in full swing when we hopped over the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina, where we were closer to the mountains and at a higher elevation. This photo was taken at Salentien winery as has one of the coolest arhitectures of any winery we've been to. This pathway leads down to their church where you can get married if you wish. I love that the trees have all shades of colors in this photo, greens, yellows, oranges and reds. It was a beautiful area, especially with the Andes as a backdrop (they are behind me in this photo).

Oct 6 - Chilean Fall Colors

We arrived in Chile at the beginning of April. Just in time for Fall (in the southern hemisphere). I went looking through my photos for some Fall Colors and this was one of the only ones I found. It seems we were just a little early for the leaves to change. This is the grounds of Concha y Toro, which I've posted photos of before. The grounds were absolutely beautiful and right in the middle of all this green, was this lone tree that decided to change a little early. You can see the leaves on the bigger trees that are framing the image start to change as well.

Oct 5 - Colorado Fall Colors

Sorry I took the week off last week. We went to Denver 2 weekends ago and then I was just busy with work, so I just decided to take the week off from photos. This photo is from said Denver trip. We took the Peak to Peak Highway from Blackhawk to Nederland, then Nederland back to Denver. We stopped along the side of the road anytime we found something pretty.

Living in SoCal, I hadn't seen fall colors in a long time. They were really pretty and I'm glad we got to see them near the peak. They weren't quite perfect due to the snow the week before, but it did make for a nice backdrop with the mountains covered in snow (I'll show more later). I like this picture because it has all the colors in it, from the dark green of the ever greens to the orange-red of the final leaves. The Red house and barn add to it as well.

Happy Monday!!