Travel

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our family portraits

November 17, 2009 in Family, Photography, Travel, Zachary | 1 comment

when we were in California last month, my wonderful friend, Hillary Gardner, from Stills by Hill Photography, did family portraits of us! I took photos of her family, too, so we got to trade, which was neat. Hillary did an amazing job taking pictures of our little family and capturing our sweet baby boy. I will forever treasure the images that she took and I am sooooo glad that we had the opportunity to have photos taken!!

Here is one of my favorite photos from our session:

san diego family photographer

click here to see the rest – and feel free to leave a comment on Hill’s blog!!!!

if you are in Southern CA and need a family photographer… call Hillary! she rocks!

Our trip to San Diego!

October 26, 2009 in Family, Travel, Zachary | 1 comment

Last week we took our first trip with the baby on an airplane to go to our cousins Stephanie & Scot’s wedding. You can see the pictures from their wedding on my photography blog here.

We had a great time in San Diego, California! Zachary did wonderful on the plane and slept most of the way there and most of the way back. When he was awake, he was easily entertained by me and Adrian and his toys and stuffed dachshund.

While in California, Zachary got to meet his extended family and cousins. He also met my good friend Hillary’s little girl, Lilly, and they really got along great and hit it off wonderfully. I am so sad that Hillary and I don’t live closer, she is a wonderful friend and Lilly & Zachary are so cute together. We made sure to take some photos for their wedding video of course. ;)

Adrian, Zachary, and I also had our family portraits done by Hillary (who is a photographer out in San Diego) and in return, I took her family’s portraits too. It was so much fun!

Here are some highlights from our trip:

Zachary and Lilly play together

Cousin Summer & her baby Kali

Me & Zachary laughing together

Our baby cousin, Julia

Zachary and his Cousin Kali meet & hug each other

Check out those gorgeous blue eyes that little Kali has – they are the same exact shade of blue as Zachary’s! Even though they’re 2nd cousins (Kali’s dad Ray is Adrian’s 1st cousin), they somehow ended up with some of the same DNA code that said to make their eyes that exact shade. It was interesting to me because you know your own child so well, right down to the shade of their eye color, and when I saw Kali, it startled me for a moment because it is exactly the same shade of blue as Zachary’s. Pretty amazing indeed! I think baby Julia will have a similar color to her eyes, but since she’s just a tiny little one, at 3 months old, it’s hard to tell.

Sean was the ringbearer at my & Adrian's wedding. Now our cousin is a young man in high school!

Scot brought his fire sticks to juggle for everyone at the La Mesa house the day after the wedding. What a treat!

Unfortunately I didn’t really get a chance to do any exploring on this trip and take any scenic photos for my personal portfolio. However, I did take this picture of a dog outside of Cafe Joie at Mission Beach which I really like. The dog was very cute and curious and hung out with me and Adrian as we ate our yummy meal and drank coffee.

And finally, here is one from the family session I did for my friend Hillary:

5 months old

April 21, 2009 in Family, Travel, Zachary | 4 comments

Zachary is five months old today! This past week has brought so many new things for him.

A few days before we left for our first family trip, Zachary had a bit of a fever, so we took him to the doctor and learned the he had an ear infection. So, he is taking his first antibiotics… bubble gum flavored amoxicillin, for his first ear infection.

Next, Zachary had his first ever solid food! We started feeding him baby oatmeal last week and he really enjoyed it. He is now a pro at eating his oatmeal and today he ate it all! Such a good boy! Here are some photos from his first time eating his oatmeal.

On Wednesday, we bought Zachary his big boy car seat! all of a sudden, he grew too tall for his infant carrier, and we had to retire it. It was way too cramped for him and there was no way we’d be able to make the 15 hour drive to Tennessee with him stuffed in that tiny car seat. So, we got Zachary a Britax Marathon, which we are really, really happy with, as he was quite comfortable for most of the 15 hour trip there and back. I took a bunch of photos of him on my point and shoot camera, and haven’t downloaded the images yet, but I will post those when I do.

On Thursday, we left for our first family vacation, a trip to Tennessee to visit Zachary’s Grandma and Grandpa who live up there (Adrian’s parents). The weather was amazing, nice and cool in comparison to the heat and humidity of South Florida, and the scenery was so beautiful. We really loved it and Zachary of course loved the attention he received from his Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Lissa & Uncle Brij, and Great Grandma and Great Grandpa who also were visiting.

Here are a few favorite photos that I took of Zachary on the trip. I took a lot of other photos of the beautiful scenery. Once I have time to work on them, I will post some of them as well!

Some photos from San Francisco 2007

March 30, 2009 in History of Me, Photography, Travel | 2 comments

Continuing on with this travel theme (though probably not for long, since I don’t have that many amazing old photos from my travels), I finally got around to editing the pictures from our trip to San Francisco…. TWO YEARS AGO.

It is really weird to think that this trip was two years ago, since so much in our lives has changed since then. We had just started our photography business a couple of months back in the fall of 2006, and I was really starting to hone my photography skills.

Since Adrian was spending the week attending the WWDC Apple Developers’ Conference so he could learn all about the latest technology he’d need to produce Táve Studio Manager, which was but a glint in our eyes back then (and originally a Mac program – though now is web-based), I had a lot of time on my own. I was very excited because I’d have a whole week, practically, with just me and my camera, and lots of time to spend shooting and visiting with friends in the area.

Now, I’ll digress for a few moments:

Editing images that are two years old is a really interesting experience as a photographer because SO MUCH changes and evolves inside you as an artist in that period of time. Back then, I was a little more fascinated with photography because there was simply so much that I had to learn. Now, I’m nowhere near an expert, but I certainly know a lot more now and things are definitely more “rote” as far as taking pictures professionally goes. Back then, I saw a lot through very different eyes, and looking at these images makes that really apparent to me. Sometimes I get a little jealous of Adrian because he seems to be able to see things in a very fresh way each and every time, and I attribute that to the fact that his role in our company is solely as a photographer. He doesn’t do any editing or post processing, so he doesn’t get burned out staring at images day in and day out. Instead, every experience is fresh and creative for him, since his job is to take the pictures and enjoy it, while I know that after the shoot is over, there are weeks worth of work to be done and that soon, people will be down my throat wanting to know when it is going to be finished! ;)

This just proves to me that I need to spend more time getting myself INSPIRED and EXPLORING the world that I live in. I can still feel the same about photography that I did back then – I know it because just a few months ago, while I was pregnant and not working very much, I did a lot of personal exploration through my photography, and it really felt great. I tried to do this again a couple weeks ago when I took some photos in the rain from my back porch, and I felt a glimmer of that. I just need to do it more often, so that I can ensure that I keep myself focused and on a creative pathway.

So, here are a couple of my favorite images from our trip. Two years ago. Since Adrian took the 5D (our pro camera, for all of you not up with the lingo) for the first part of the trip, and I had it once the WWDC conference started, I’ve just noted which images are his and which are mine, since I didn’t want to just post half a trip’s worth of images.

Birds on a wire - Image by Adrian

Slanty Street - Image by Adrian

Sea Lions at Pier 39 - Image by Adrian

Alcatraz & Boat - Image by Adrian

Karen - Image by Adrian

Adrian at WWDC - Image by Karen

Mount Diablo - Image by Karen

The Mountain Goats of Mount Diablo - Image by Karen

Charlie (of A Minor Thread) - Image by Karen

Liz & Cute Mug in Chinatown - Image by Karen

Sacramento Street - Image by Karen

Chinatown Back Alley - Image by Karen

Fortune Cookie Factory - Image by Karen

Hope you enjoyed the image selection! If you liked the photos, I would love to read your comments and find out which ones were your favorites. :)

You can see quite a few more images if you visit the Flickr Set where they’re uploaded!

LOC Photos of Norway & Sweden

March 29, 2009 in Internet, Photography, Travel | 1 comment

I recently found out that the Library of Congress was uploading their photo archive to Flickr and thought that it was absolutely the coolest idea. As a world traveler & lover of travel photographs, I first graviated towards their Photochrom Travel Views set of images. These gorgeous images are from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. So far they just have images from Scandinavia, but state that they will be adding more, including views of the Middle East during that time period. The photos are just outstanding and offer such an incredible glimpse into life back in those days, which was not that long ago.

I was delighted to find some images from places I’ve actually visited in Norway and one image of the ship port in Sweden. I’d visited those places when I was a teenager – my parents took me on lots of amazing vacations when I was a kid and I got to see so many things that others had only seen in textbooks. Or now, on Flickr. Here are some of the awesome photographs that I found from places I’ve seen in person.

Helsingborg, Sweden:

Geiranger Fjord, Norway:

Seven Sisters, Norway:

And from my own, very incredibly ancient photo collection on this website, which desperately, desperately needs a revamp once I have the time to re-scan all the photographs that I have awful scans of from high school and college, here is an image I took of the cruise ship I traveled on when I visited Norway, Sweden, and other parts of Scandinavia as a teenager: the Queen Elizabeth 2. I am quite proud to have had the opportunity to have sailed on the QE2 when I was 14, staying in the Queen’s Grill (first class) for my trip. The QE2 is regarded as one of the finest ocean liners in the world, and traveling on her was an incredible experience that I will never forget!

the Queen Elizabeth 2 sailing in a stormy Scandinavian sea (alongside the Royal Viking Sun):

I was going to post my image of The Little Mermaid statue from Copenhagen, Denmark – but it’s just so awful that I will refrain. LOL. The scan is terrible and the picture isn’t so great either. If you must see it, it’s in the siren.org photography archive and it was taken some time in the late 90’s. One day I’ll find all my film from these trips (it’s at my parents’ house) and scan all my photos from my travels to Europe and all over the world.

More Boston & NYC Photos

August 8, 2008 in Travel | No comments

Here are a bunch more photos from my trip to Boston. Adrian and I had SUCH a great time!!! I can’t wait until the next time I can go back up to the Boston area. The weather is so nice during the summer – I can see how people are “snowbirds” and do summers up there and winters in Florida!

Lots of photos… Enjoy!

This is Milo- my cousin’s wife’s dog.

Me and my Grandma

an absolutely BEAUTIFUL blue sky!

Here’s me!

Took a photo of my belly in this mirror in the bookstore at I think MIT.

Adorable photo of my hubby having a Guinness at Bell in Hand Tavern downtown.

Me outside the Green Dragon Pub downtown.

We ate here in Cambridge.

Me, waiting for my Mr. Bartley Burger.

And here are a few cool photos of me that Adrian took in New York City. The first two are from the Harry Potter section of FAO Schwarz, and the second is of me taking a break and playing on my iPhone while he walked a little further down the street to snap some photos of Rockefeller Square.

I am on the right, sitting on the ledge.

Do something creative every day.

July 26, 2008 in Travel | No comments

It’s been a busy week and will be a busy weekend, so I just wanted to share this photo I took in Brookline, MA. More photos coming from Boston & NYC soon!!

Brookline photos

July 19, 2008 in Travel | No comments

Here are some photos that I took when we were walking around Brookine, MA after Dan & Liza’s wedding. It is definitely worth clicking on these to see them bigger, especially the flowers. Everything in Boston is so bright, especially the flowers. There were SO many different types of plants and flowers that I had never seen as they don’t grow in Florida. It was gorgeous!

We took nearly 1,000 pictures on this trip so there will definitely be lots more to come!!

Dan & Liza’s wedding

July 19, 2008 in Family, Travel | No comments

It has been a long time since I attended a wedding as a guest!! My cousin Dan got married to Liza last weekend and we had a great time at their wedding in Boston, MA. Here are a few of my favorite photos from their wedding, which I took photos of with my Point & Shoot camera – a Canon G7! It was fun not having to do all the work (their photographer was Scott Metzger in Boston) but of course, being me, I had to take tons of photos!

Mazel Tov, Danny & Liza!!!

Seeing Lake Okeechobee

May 23, 2008 in Friends, Travel | 2 comments

Last weekend, Adrian and I visited the Ft. Myers area for a great destination wedding on Gasparilla Island. We took Alligator Alley across Florida to the west side of the state, which is the quickest route.

However, always being up for seeing something new, we decided to take a different route home, which would avoid the interstate highway and take about twice as long.

Along the way, we saw some cute small towns and were able to stop and see Lake Okeechobee, the huge lake in the southern central part of the state which is our major water supply. It is surprisingly not too far away, but neither of us had reason to see the area before, and it was fun to see something new on our way home.

Here are some photos:

As you can see, the lake isn’t really much to look at from where we were able to stop for an overlook, but it was still fun to say we’ve been there.

Also, on another fun note, while we were in Ft. Myers, Adrian and I were able to have lunch with Marisa, my college roommate. Marisa & I hadn’t seen each other in about six years since I moved away from the Orlando area, and it was fun to see each other and catch up!