Here are some photos from when Adrian and I traveled to Chicago a year ago to photograph Natalie & Joe’s wedding. We had a couple extra days that we scheduled to explore the city of Chicago, and we had a great time wandering Millennium Park and visiting the Adler Planetarium and the Field Museum. It was our first longer trip away from Zachary — he was only seven months old and had a great time with grandma and grandpa while we were gone.

Some of these images are from Adler Planetarium, The Field Museum, photographed from the window of our car, and around Chicago. While there we went to a great Russian restaurant called Russian Tea Time, with my cousins Malcolm & Adele, who live nearby. We had a wonderful trip!

Lunch at Cootie Brown’s Restaurant ~ Johnson City, Tennessee
May 12, 2010 ~ Canon 5D ~ 50mm f/1.4

Another photo from our trip to Tennessee in May. I took this image from the car, actually, while Adrian was driving us to Asheville, NC for dinner. I was pleased that I got a good image of the sun flaring out from the mountain while at such high speeds! ;)

oops, that wasn’t so wordless! If you like my blog, don’t forget to vote! :)

I’m slowly making progress on my photos from Tennessee in between my editing for my clients’ work.

Here are a few more shots from our trip in early May. These photos were taken at the Fort Patrick Henry Dam.

I loved the golden light on these flowers as the sun was setting.

just a black and white of this lonely-looking bench at the Fort Patrick Henry Dam.

got some flare on this flower. the sunlight was so pretty!

there is something about this image that I REALLY love. maybe it's the tiny flowers, or the way the leaves cross over each other to make a little zigzag. It's actually one of my favorite shots from our trip.

some more benches. and water.

I really love how this photo of the dam came out. the colors are so pretty. A beautiful day.

Hope you enjoyed these! I’ll save the rest of my Tennessee photos for another day, I still have more to edit! :)

We just got back from our (now annual, it seems!) spring trip to Tennessee to visit my mother and father in law! We had a great time and I am still reviewing the “real” photos that I took. I uploaded a couple of photos from my iPhone and thought I would share them in the mean time…. since I have been an absolutely awful blogger and haven’t posted anything since I was sick!

Here’s one from the drive up! We stopped at a rest top in GA and Zachary got to check out some cool pine cones for the first time. He thought they were awesome! This photo is my current iPhone background. :)

Hipstamatic shot from GramZ and Gramp’s house. They got Zachary this cute Adirondack chair to match their two chairs. He knew immediately that it was his and he loved climbing around and playing in it!

A cool shot of a big sign in Bristol (using ShakeItPhoto iPhone app). This town spans the state line of TN and VA. We had dinner here one night and then I went back another day to do some shopping and look around. What a fun and pretty place!

We took Zachary to the library one day. They had a great children’s section and he had a lot of fun! I’ll have to take him to our library here so he can play around.

That’s all for now! Once I have a chance to process my “real” photos I will be a posting maniac – I have sooo many! :)

Last week we traveled to San Diego again for another Ziemkowski Family wedding – this time Adrian’s cousin Ray was getting married to his fiancée Summer. We had a great trip and I got to spend some time with my BFF Hillary and her little girl Lilly who is Zachary’s age. Too bad Z was at home with Grandma & Grandpa and didn’t get to see his future wife… LOL.

I always try to take a few photos from my iPhone while I’m on an airplane or in an airport. I feel like the lo-fi medium of the iPhone makes airplane/airport pics that much more interesting. Plus, I didn’t bother to bring my point & shoot, and my Canon 5D was packed up in the carry-on. I’ve been a little addicted to the iPhone camera app “Hipstamatic” so all the photos here are from that app, hence the fun borders and the color effects. Hope you enjoy my lo-fi photos. :)

These are from our first flight out to San Diego….

NOT a Hipstamatic shot… I preferred it better with its natural colors and shape. :)

Here’s a couple from our trip home….

Which included a layover in lovely Las Vegas. Eh, McCarran Airport. Not a huge fan.

Our airplane waiting at the gate as we prepared to board.

You can see the Luxor and a couple other hotels in this shot. It’s kind of interesting how McCarran Airport is pretty much right on the Strip!

Flying high above the clouds….

Hope you enjoyed my iPhonography :)

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:

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!

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

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:

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!