Happy New Deer

We are now 5 hours from 2009 and it is hard to believe how quickly we flew through 2008. It has been an unbelievable year for me and I truly appreciate everything that I have experienced in the last year. Amazing travel experiences, meeting inspiring people, a job that I love, a great family and friends. Now if we can just fix the economy, everything will be just dandy. Happy New Year everyone!

A week in Mammoth Lakes, CA

We just returned from a week in Mammoth, CA and we could not have asked for better weather. Clear roads for the trip there and back and a whopping big storm on Xmas day (which made a perfect excuse to stay inside all day and play with new toys). As I mentioned in the last blog, it was a great time to spend with family (lots of them) and the Peterson family for a couple of great dinners.

We made numerous photo trips to different areas around Mammoth. One trip was up to the old mine to look for a rare species of Long Horn Sheep, but we never saw any of them. Not that it was a waste of time. Nope!

We found some other great subjects, including this Road Runner which was sitting on a post right off the side of a small road. We pulled over and shot pictures of this guy for at least half an hour. He was very patient with us (creeping ever closer to him). As you can see from the pictures above, we also made time to photograph sites along the way. We stopped at this nice tree lined road and then the following day we went to Lee Vining Canyon and shoot pictures of the waterfall there. Sometimes I forget just how beautiful the state of California really is.

Spending time with the Master

Everybody has someone who they look to as a teacher and a mentor. For me, that person is Moose Peterson. I was lucky enough to meet him 4 years ago when I was as green as they come. Since then he has helped me hone my photographic skills, but more importantly, we have become great friends. Moose, his wife Sharon, and even his son Jake (who is an awesome photographer himself) are people you want to hang out with.

Here is a picture that I took the other day of Moose using his "Moose Cam" which is a camera mounted on top of another camera so that he can capture video tutorials for his blog. Very cool! Check out his blog at:

http://www.moosenewsblog.com/

Fun in the snow

This is a great time for my wife and I. I can not remember the last time that I have taken two weeks off. Fun - but - maybe too much time together! :)

Mammoth for the holidays

The Cable family is in Mammoth, CA (aka the land of Moose) for the holidays. We made the 8 hour drive from the SF Bay Area and beat the storm. We had clear roads for the whole way here, but it has been snowing ever since. This is a good thing, since they need every bit of snow (and water) that they can get here.

After being cramped up in the truck for that many hours, the kids and dog really wanted to get to the house and play in the snow. Nobody was more excited about the snow than Bailey, our giant dog that did not appreciate the cramped back seat. He jumped out of the truck, dove into the snow and proceeded to bury his face in the fluffy white stuff.

I love photographing Bailey here in the snow since it is one of the few places where I can light him correctly (using the snow as a giant reflector).

Fisherman's Wharf for a Night

Taking two weeks off of work sure is nice. I can travel with the family and just hang out. Of course, I never leave home without my camera and could not pass this up. We went to dinner at Fisherman's Wharf with my family and my brother's family. Since my brother wants to learn more about photography, I made him return to the hotel and grab our cameras to return to our dinner spot to grab this shot. Good thing we captured this when we did since it rained all the next day and night.

'Tis The Season

This time of year, I am busy shooting lots of family pictures for friends and neighbors. I enjoy doing it and they appreciate getting something better than the "Mall Chop Shop" photo of their kids with fake smiles and "one lighting setup fits all". I was shooting pictures for a friend of mine and we finished shooting at sunset. The light had come and gone and we were just chatting about photography. While we were talking, his daughter sat down and was relaxing under some stairs at the park. I popped on my Canon 50mm 1.4 lens to show him how I could capture images even in low light, and this picture was the end result. I love the angelic look on her face. What a cutie! It always amazes me when I get back to my home studio and one image out of the batch really shines above the rest. This was one of those for me (and the family loves it too).

The Next Generation of Photographers

I haven't had a chance to go out and shoot much in the last couple of weeks (other than lots of family pictures for friends), but the family did make a quick trip to the beach at Half Moon Bay, CA a couple of days ago. The weather was not great, so we basically relaxed and cruised around. My daughter and I scampered off to go shoot some pictures. I took this shot of her standing on the beach with her intently photographing the waves on the rocks. I love the fact that the camera and lens (Olympus E3 DSLR with an Olympus 100-400 equivalent lens) is almost bigger than she is.