Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The South Carolina and Steve Donley Incident.....

Ok i know it took me forever but as promised here is the post on our short road trip from NC to SC. Ill keep this short as theres a ton of photos. We went to NC to visit my brother and his wife for thanksgiving, while there my brother was gracious enough to let us borrow his car so we could travel to SC. As luck would have it my good friend Steve had just recently come back from living in Romania and was living in NC not to far from my brother. Steve had lived in SC for a while and knows a bunch of people down there and he was willing to be our tour guide and found some friends that graciously put us up for the night. I always love seeing Steve as he and i have the same weird sense of humor, so were always laughing at something. The drive was a little over 3 hours and it was beautiful! We unfortunately missed the peak of the fall colors but there were still some patches here and there so that was a treat. We got to listen to some tunes, talk and just relax on the way down. Once there we drove around a ton, we only had about a day so landscape photos just werent going to happen this time around. It was fun to have Steve show us around, Jen wanted to see the Atlantic sooooooo that were we headed 1st.......






Jen leaves her mark on the sands of the Atlantic












I have a whole sequence of Steve doing this monkey walk......if i get some time ill do an animation of it cus its hilarious




Sweet beach houses!!


After checking out the Atlantic we decided that we needed food. Steve proceeded to take us to this place called Poes Tavern. The whole decor of this place is based around the great poet Edgar Allen Poe, i didnt really have a lot of expectations for the food. I mean really how much better can their burgers be right?! How good was it? Lets just say that Gods Holy Spirit descended upon my burger in the form of a dove.........eating it was a spiritual experience.


Jens burger


Steves burger


My burger..........destruction soon ensued


The aftermath!


Jen got a small sample of sweet tea....


she liked it. I think its gross.....but when in rome.


Steve enjoying his tasty meal.


This was the bathroom....yes i take my camera everywhere! It was really cool, the walls are lined floor to ceiling with pages of Mr. Poe's poems.


After dinner, we drove around some more enjoying the scenery. Ill tell you now, SC is absolutely beautiful! Cool looking swamp areas, bunch of little islands connected by some sweet bridges and Charleston!! Its so much to take in, we went to downtown Charleston that night to walk around and get some dessert. Downtown Charleston was so cool!! There were some parts of it that was like going back in time, im a big history buff so seeing all these historical places were the civil war took place was awesome. Narrow brick ally's cobblestone roads, incredible old houses that were like going back in time gas street lamps........it was truly incredible. So after walking around in the cold for a while we went to get dessert and it was mmmmmmmm delicious.




The inside of that little dessert and coffee shop.


MMMMMMMM Fattening


Jens girlie drink......way to sweet for me.


Mine on the other hand was bitter and had booze in it........it was sooo good!


After that we were tired and called it a night.The next day we didnt have a lot of time as there was a storm heading in and i didnt really want to drive in the dark and in the rain. So we headed out, picked up one of steves friends and got some lunch at a sweet Thai food place in downtown Charleston. After nlunch and dropping of Steve's friend We headed for a place called Angel Oak. I didnt know what to expect, i knew from talking to Steve that it was a big tree. I thought.....ok big tree lets go check it out. OH MAN!!! This thing was MASSIVE!! Its 1500 year old Oak that words just cannot describe and my pictures do it very little justice. It was a lot of fun to be there and shoot......











Steve is a big guy, very few things dwarf him.........we finally found one.


After this we made a quick stop to the photography studio that Steve worked at before moving to Romania. After that we hit the road and i had to drive in a torrential downpour and in the dark. I will say this though, after driving through a South Carolina rain storm the heaviest Southern California storm is like child's play. Well, thats it i could write much more but who wants to read it. I would like to extend a huge thanks to my brother Daniel for the use of his vehicle, to Steve for showing us around and finding us a place to sleep for free and to Steve's freinds for putting us up for the night. Our visit was awesome! Cant wait to go back.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The good thing about having a dog......

Is that it forces you to get out of the house, fine by me as i have needed to get out of the office and shoot as all i have been doing lately is editing. These were shot in Carlsbad over the last couple of days. Enjoy!















These next few images are actually older images that i have gone back to and reprocessed.....i like the newer versions better.





Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Koas 1st afternoon at the beach...

So this little guy has pretty much changes our entire lives all in a positive way mind you. We love to go out for walks and go for drives along the beach, and Sunday after lunch with the fam we spend a little time at the beach throwing the rope around and watching him eat seaweed and munch on just about everything else that he could get at. On another plus side i love photographing this little guy, hes always playful and he definitely really cute and photogenic.........so prepare to have your heart strings pulled cus hes like super model dog. Enjoy!!













Wednesday, January 06, 2010

My inner child LOVES planes!!!

So its been a while since i posted anything else from our visit to North Carolina, but there are things that take priority and need to be done. Never the less i still have a bunch of photos that i need to go through and process that i havent even touched, i take some time here and there to process through a few photos when i can. Expect more pictures from North Carolina, but expect them to be pretty spaced out. With that said let get to it, ill try to keep this as brief as possible. While we were out there my brother showed what has become one of my favorite spots in NC. While i do have a deep love for nature and all of the beautiful things that God has created, there is a big part of me that has a great fascination with the things that mankind has made. I drool over cool buildings, gadgets, machinery and especially planes. I LOVE PLANES!!!My brother told me about some spots near his house where you could go see airplanes take off and land, theres an actual overlook area where people can go park and watch the airplanes. It was fun seeing kids out there just amazed by these machines and i was right there with them, excited beyond belief. As much as i loved that overlook there was another spot that i truly fell in love with. Its directly in the flight path of the landing planes, so you have these MASSIVE airliners flying a few hundred feet above you.......it was INCREDIBLE! I took A LOT of photos, and after while they all started looking the same but i didnt care i was having a blast. Everything was there, beautiful clouds, planes, and sunset. There was a down side/funny part to all this..........as i was heading back to meet my wife and my brother i was stopped by a TSA officer. The world post 9/11 is very different so i was shocked that there was a place like this where you could be so close to the planes, but as i was taking photos i knew that i would eventually have to deal with the authorities. Im sure someone called in and told them i was there, and i cant blame them im out there with a huge tripod and camera that looks like a bazooka to some people. At first the officer had a little bit of an attitude with me, but i kept my cool was very respectful and cooperative. Afterall he was just doing his job and its comforting knowing that they are out there checking stuff out, after he saw that i wasnt a threat he was actually a really nice guy and thanked me for being so cooperative. For all you photographers out there, just remember that keeping your cool and being cooperative will go a long way when dealing with the authorities. Just keep some identification with you and do what they ask, let them search your stuff if need be..............much better than mouthing off and being a tool. Well so much for keeping this short! Oh well. Heres some photos......enjoy!!