After a canceled flight and an unscheduled night in Chicago, I finally made it to Sao Paulo at 3:30am on Wed morning. This made for one really long day of meetings and since they do not eat dinner until 10:30pm (and took us back to the hotel at 3am) needless to say, I was just a little exhausted. No time for photography in Sao Paulo, so it was off to Rio De Janeiro at 8am for another two days. One full day of meetings and then half a day to go shoot. The picture above was taken from the statue of Christ which looms over the city. The weather cooperated with me since the previous days had all been overcast and it cleared for my free afternoon of shooting.
We surprised the kids and took them to Disneyland during their school break. On our first day, we went to Newport Beach, back to visit the old beach house which Annette's extended family owned many years ago. Things had changed quite a bit but we all enjoyed the walk along the beach and the sunset.
The fishing boats made for a cool picture with the colors of the boats and the color in the sky.
Even a broken jaw can't keep me from shooting. I had a chance to go out shooting with my good friend Moose Peterson, who lives in Mammoth (www.moosepeterson.com) and I wasn't going to miss that opportunity. He is such a great photographer and an even better person. We drove out to a small "town" called Benton, which basically has one building standing, and shot pictures of the old remaining structures. The sky was overcast which was perfect for us.
The great thing about the snow is that I can take pictures of our dog, Bailey. Since he is all black, it is difficult to take good pictures of him, but the snow acts as a giant reflector and helps me out. He loves the snow and I love taking pictures of him. What a funny dog he is.
The kids enjoy the snow as much, or more, than the dog. Since I had a broken jaw, I wasn't about to go sledding, but I always enjoy photographing them doing their thing.
I really liked the butterfly clusters but was not very happy with the "quick shot before the family complains" image. So, I went back to the same spot, this time with a tripod and a Canon 1Ds Mark III camera and captured this image. I used a 100-400mm L lens and a 580EX flash to light the shadows. Even though I took 30 or 40 images, I was happy to come home with this one. Who would have known that I was going to break my jaw playing ice hockey the next night. :)
It helps to be at the right place at the right time. I was shooting a Bar Mitzvah in the Berkeley Hills (across from San Francisco) and had a break in between shooting the service and the reception. Instead of eating (which I should have done since I was starving) I drove high into the Berkeley hills to capture this shot. I really love the clouds, the deep sunset colors, the deep clue of the water all mixed with the lights of the city. Since this was taken in December, many of the building in San Francisco were lit up for the holidays.
She calls this picture her "World of one person" which makes me laugh. We saw this empty amphitheater and couldn't resist this picture of her cheering alone. :)
As many of you might know, New York City is not my favorite place in the world, but each time that I go there I find something new and different to appreciate. On this trip, myself and a couple of other photographers made time to go to the Cloisters which is uptown. We had good fortune to find Olga walking through the gardens, a nice young woman who was willing to let us take some pictures of her. What started as a "We love the sunlight on your hair, do you mind if we take some pictures of you", turned into a 4 hour modeling session. For someone who had never had her pictures taken like this, she did a great job. It turned out to be a fun day for all of us.
While taking the subway back downtown, towards Time Square, I couldn't resist this little boy who was asleep on his mother's leg. I asked permission (of course) and took some pictures of him which I later emailed to his mother. Kids are so darned cute when they are sleeping.
And then, as I always do, I made sure to get a couple good night shots. New York City is a great place for these shots since the city is full of color, lights and lots of movement.
Yep, this is a town that knows their chocolate. You really can't go anywhere here without knowing that you are in the town of Hershey. Everything smells like chocolate and they have plenty of places selling the sweet stuff. I wasn't here very long, but long enough to capture a couple of images from the town.
My kids loved the idea that the street lights in the center of town are all decorated like Hershey Kisses. Some look like they are wrapped and others look like chocolate.
