Underappreciated

April 28th, 2011 - Day 118

Ever notice how in flower pictures it is almost always the actual flower that gets photographed.  Nobody cares about the plain leaf, and it is often cast aside and ignored while the pretty flower gets all the praise when in fact, it the leaf and flower as a whole that make the whole thing so complete.  It is time for the leaf to share the spotlight.  This is for those cast aside.

A Tale of Two Computers

Lately, my laptop has been randomly turning off on itself.  I will be in the middle of work, usually processing pictures, and the darn thing just shuts off.  Frustrated as hell, but dealing with it for over 6 months now, I finally gave in and decided to get a new laptop.  Yesterday, I went and bought my first Sony laptop and was really happy with it...except it was broken.  To be more specific, the sound was not working.  I checked and everything seemed to be operational - it wasn't muted, it was turned up, it said the drivers were operation, etc.  I figured it was just a lemon.  So, out went my new Sony laptop...



And in came my new Toshiba laptop. 


As expected, when I went to Best Buy they confirmed my suspicions and told me the Sony one must have had some internal hardware issue.  I opted to get a new brand rather than just get a replacement.  So far so good.  I do like it and hope it gives me many years of happiness. 

Workin' Man

Hello again, hope everyone had a wonder Easter weekend!  I had an awesome time filled with not one, but TWO photo shoots and the return of fast food and pizza to my diet after giving it up for Lent.  It was all around awesome.

Friday, I did a photo shoot for an old friend from junior high and high school.  I believe I might have talked about her on the blog before as her singing career has been taking off while living in L.A.  She's been on Ellen, The Tonight Show, The Young and the Restless, and been a backup singer to countless big time acts.  She asked me to take a few shots of her and I gladly obliged.  When else do you get to photograph a celebrity?



There will be more coming from this photo shoot, but have to wait until she looks them all over and get the final approval.  She wants to make sure she looks good.  :-)

The next day, Saturday, I had a photo shoot for my little sister in order to do her pregnancy pictures.  We went to Old Sacramento to take a bunch of them and then finished them off at the park and at my house.  I am actually super proud of them and think they may be the best photo shoot I have done yet.  Special thanks to Jess for helping with come up with poses and stuff.  I had an extremely difficult time deciding which photo of the set would be used as photo of the day, but ended up going with this one...



When you love so many of them, it is way difficult.  If you have the time, check out the slideshow of the rest here as I am really pleased with them.  

Sunday was Easter and with Lent over and me able to eat yummy garbage food again, we opted for ordering pizza for Easter dinner.  It was the best Easter dinner EVER!  I took some Peeps from our friends' house for the picture of the day, but it didn't go like I wanted.  I wanted to take a picture of a Peep on fire, but we tried and tried and the bugger just wouldn't catch on fire.  Sure, he melted, but not good flames.  I opted for a non-burnt Peep staring at the messed up Peep, wondering what the heck happened to him.



Today was a workday pretty much from the time it got sunny until the sun started to go down.  I felt it was a good time to go outside and take a picture of the sun going down, but more from the angle of the field rather than the sun being the focal point.

Siesta Time

This is going to be another busy three day weekend.  Better get some rest before all the fun! 

Up a Creek

Yup, I jumped in the creek and straddled the mud.  The lengths you go to for a picture you want. 



On my Facebook fan page, I had three different shots of this one and I had people vote on which was their favorite because I was so torn.  This is what won.  I am happy with the fans' choice!

The Road To Nowhere

Although the road below leads to nowhere, OUR road leads to Disneyland exactly three weeks from now!  Boo-yeah!

Just Roll With It

Another great weekend is in the books and the work week is already one day old!  Friday started with another tattoo on my arm as part of my movie-themed sleeve.  I haven't been posting pics on the blog as all of them need a little touch up work.  When I finish the three of them up in a few weeks, I will post the pics then.  Friday night was poker night at the house while Jess went off to Bunco.  She brought home all the supplies at the end of the night in order to hand off to the next host and I took that opportunity to snap a shot of the dice. 



Saturday, I lounged around, watched some soccer, relaxed, and then prepared for a birthday party for our friends Amanda and Yvette.  They opted to have a prom themed birthday party so we got all dressed up and went and had ourselves a good time.  We even had a places set up for prom pictures, taken by me of course.  It was a total blast.  Here is Jess - many drink and jello shots into the night.



Sunday, after getting to sleep in from the LATE night, we spent the day over at my parents' house to celebrate my Mom's birthday.  We had a good time, ate good food, and had my mom watch a scary movie.  It was fun indeed!  When we got home Winston couldn't wait to go back in his backyard to play.



Today, it was back to the grind and it was actually a pretty busy day.  I looked at a calendar though, and it is only about 3 weeks until we go back to Disneyland.  This, however, was not the calendar I looked at...

Pretty, Pretty, Flower

April 14th, 2011 - Day 104

Sorry, I know I took a flower picture just yesterday, but when I saw it and saw how bright it was, I had to take it. 

Just Another Spring Picture

Okay, so it rained for about 30 minutes today(at the most) and was generally cloudy this morning, but by midday, it was beautiful and we are expecting mid 70s and clear, sunny weather the rest of the week.  So with that being said, it was nice day to go outside and take a picture of more signs that Spring is truly here. 

Sunset

The sun sets on an absolutely beautiful day.

Shades of Color

Hello again, everyone, hope you all had a great weekend!  Jess and I had an awesome weekend together - fun stuff on Saturday and relaxing on Sunday.  After soccer on TV Saturday morning, we took Jessica's dad out for burgers at a place in town that we just found out about on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.  It was awesome and we will definitely be back.  On the way out, I snapped a picture of the Coca-Cola sign behind the bar.  Thanks to them for letting me go behind and snap a quick shot!


On a side note, I have already sold one of these prints!

Saturday night, we went to a birthday party and as it was Jessica's turn to drink, I played the DD.  She is so fun when she is drunk - just so lively (more than usual) and making everyone laugh.  Of course, drinking a bunch of no-no juice on Saturday night and getting home around 2am led to a VERY lazy day on Sunday.  It was cool though.  We just relaxed on the sofa, watched 4 movies, and took it very easy.  The most strenuous part of the day was probably walking from the sofa to the spa in the backyard before we went to bed where Jess proceeded to act out her favorite scene from Apocalypse Now.



Today, we were back to reality and both working.  It was too bad that we were inside as it was a BEAUTIFUL day outside.  I at least got a run in to start training for my next 5k!  At the end of the day, I went outside to take a picture and saw that our friends are back for the pollinating season!

National Pride

 "...our flag was still there..."

I pass this run down and abandoned building almost every day. I am fascinated by the fact that despite how beat up this structure is, the American flag always looks in pristine condition. Someone has some national pride.

Beautiful Day

Today, while going outside to run some errands (schedule ANOTHER tattoo), I decided it would be best to take my camera in case I saw something worth shooting.  I didn't see too much, but saw the sky was pretty beautiful.  I decided it would be a backup shot if I didn't find anything on the way home.  I decided to stop and shoot something by my house I had been thinking of shooting, but when I passed it, people were in front of it, thus, making the shot impossible.  Luckily, right before I got home, I got the inspiration to take the picture below as I thought the sky, the road, and the fields in front of it would make a cool composition.  I took about 50 shots (have to be sure) and ended up going with the one below.  Truthfully, I am in love with it!

Caged

April 6th, 2011 - Day 96

A week ago, this monkey was so full of life, bright, and happy (See March 31st).  Caged, he has a totally different expression.  It is as if all life has been drained out of him.

It's a Beautiful Morning

April 5th, 2011 - Day 95

I know it is pretty simple and cliche, but the sky was so pretty this morning with the streak of clouds, I opted to make it the picture of the day.  Even the picture doesn't do it justice.  I decided to frame the photo by keeping the overhang of my house and the roof of the other house in order to give the picture some depth. 

Wanna Play?

April 4th, 2011 - Day 94

Play Time



I thought about doing a picture today that was justice related as I had jury duty, but naw, this sounded like a lot more fun.

Mission Accomplished!

This weekend was my 5k, the run I had been training for for a few months, and I am proud to report that that I accomplished my goal.  Being out of shape and overweight makes me not the fastest runner in the world, but I set some realistic goals and, thankfully, met them!  Now I am anxious to do another 5k because I actually really enjoyed it!  Time to start looking at that calendar! 

Now on my runs, these headphones come in quite handy!  They block out the ugly sounds of my panting and wheezing!



Here are my running shoes with my number I had pinned to my shirt!



Today wasn't a picture that was run related, but it still shows that great sky that we have had now that the weather is finally better!