The Arnolds....

Thank you God for letting me do something that i love to do. I have known the Arnolds for quite some time now and through a series of events Dave and Janet became our land lords. It has been a great time living where we live now and we absolutely love the family. Last year during a retreat with my old church up at lake Shasta i was made an honorary Arnold.......God only knows why Dave did that but i am not complaining. It is a great privilege to know that they consider me family, well today i got another great privilege and shot their family portrait. The shoot was a blast although it was a little cold and another pair of Vans has been laid to rest since they got soaked. Okay, im keeping this short ( my new years resolution is to not write such long blogs ) so here are some pictures from today. Enjoy!!!

Desert Adventure continued...

So like i said below the whole family was in palm desert for a couple of day right before Christmas. My wife and i arrived a day early and before the rest of the gang arrived the next day. The 1st day we just hung out at the hotel with her parents and chilled, it was nice and relaxing. The next day my wife and her parents and i went to this Indian Reservation Wildlife Reserve thing.......it was like a national park only not. At any rate, we hiked around for a while, it was real pretty desert everywhere and then there's this random stream and lots of trees everywhere. But it wasn't something i stopped to photograph, i don't know why but it just didn't strike me like something i really wanted to take pictures of. Is tstill found something to take pictures of though, on the way back we found this Barrel Cactus on the trail that was just kicking it there. It looked cool so i worked there for a little while, the parents waited patiently......i don't know how they did it. Cus i gotta tell ya watching someone take pictures of a cactus is about as exciting as watching paint dry. I don't care how cool the cactus looks!!! After that, we went to another part of the park.....and that's where i saw it. There was this humming bird feeder and it was swarming with these things.....i was so excited!!! I've always wanted to take pictures of humming birds but they are so hard to catch!!!! By the time you bring the camera up to your eye the thing is gone, but here was my chance!!! I thought this is perfect! There's tons of them, this is gonna be a piece of cake......WRONG!!!! Yeah its no easier, these little crack heads are still hard to photograph. Any movement that you make they all fly away like a bat out of well you know where. So you have to sit there and wait and right when your arms start to get tired that's when they come and as soon as they hear that shutter they fly away and the process starts all over.........it was so much fun. Those little suckers fly fast too, i kid you not i feared for my life and was wishing i had a hard hat or something. I mean what if one of them got confused and its navigation system goes all out of whack? Yeah that's right it would fly into me and go through my skull killing me instantly!!!! Don't even give me that look, you know you would fear those deadly beaks too. So I got a lot of pictures that sucked, but a few that i was very happy with, on the way back we spotted this abandoned shack thing and stopped there to photograph until the sun went down. So ill shut my mouth now and leave you with photos. Enjoy!!

A Menendi/Wilson Christmas......

So for Christmas (actually a little bit before) the 2 clans met in Palm Desert for some family time. It was fun to have all of us together in one place for a couple of days. We hiked, hung out, ate food, built puzzles ( just so everyone knows im a much better puzzle builder then Williams wife Casie........she will deny it but shes lying ) My wife and her parents and I all went hiking at this Indian Reservation place and while we were there I found this humming bird feeder that was covered with birds. Of course i had to take some photos, and let me tell you that those little buggers are HARD to capture!!!! I will do a separate post for those pictures. Another day, we took this sky tram thing up to the top of the mountain. This thing while a lot of fun was sketchy!!!!! Im not one to doubt human ingenuity but to ride inside of this compartment cramped full of people that rides upon a metal cable was ummm i dont know......NERVE RACKING!!!! All in all it was a blast......i cant wait till next year. Heres some pictures of the family adventure. Enjoy.





John trying to contain his fear.....



This picture doesnt do it justice, but trust me it was freaky!! I think John peed his pants......



She kept stealing my hat........this does not bode well with me. Shes lucky to be alive.


So before we headed up the mountain in the freakish sky tram thing, mom called ahead to see if there was any snow up on the mountain. I had my snow boots on the trip, but didnt want to take them if there was no snow cus they are really warm. Anywho, the lady on the phone says "oh no, theres very little snow....its only patches" as you can see that lady was an idiot.It wasnt patches of snow......it was patches of DIRT!!!! Yes lady, the white crap that covers the ground is called snow, the brown stuff that you see here and there is called dirt. I was mad....and my feet were cold. Wherever you are lady i hope that you live in a constant state of freezing........

In an effort to show us that it was not cold, my brother in law William removed his shirt.....it was scary. He later froze to death and rabid wolves carried him away.....ok i made that last part up but it was still scary.

Inlaw Outlaw Party...

So while i was up in Big Bear (yeah i know this is WAAAYYYYY overdue.....sorry) i had to come down to do a family portrait for Caren Brownlie and her extended family. They had family come in from all over the place and it was so much fun to be there with them. I couldnt believe how open and welcoming they were, it was amazing, i wanted to stay and just meet all of them and hear their stories. Thank you so much Caren for allowing me to photograph your family and for making me feel like a member of the family, you were all so amazing............i wish there were more families that are as welcoming as you guys were. Heres some photos from the day.

A few last images for the road....

Just came back inside from outside and im defrosting......im exhausted though so i wont write much. I looked outside and just felt like i had to go out there to get a couple of last minute pictures. Shooting at night is so incredible and fun for reasons to numerous to go into. Needless to say God has an incredible imagination and i just love the fact that all the incredible beauty of nature can be appreciated any time of the day or in this case night. Here are the pics from tonight, hope you enjoy them. Good night.

So it continues......

It snowed again last night, got down to 11 degrees so it was FREEZING outside. Woke up today and there was a fresh blanket of snow and the lake that was in a liquid state yesterday is now a big block of ice.Of course i had to venture out again today and try to get some shots, everything is really white and grey so i focused more on doing some macro stuff rather then shooting landscape shots. Wouldnt you know it though.....as soon as i set up my shot then the wind starts to blow!!!!! Yeah that was lots of fun! Oh well at least i stayed warm, all in all i had a lot of fun, i hope to get some night shots tonight since it is our last night here. Well thats all for now, enjoy the photos.


This lake was liquid yesterday:

Frag Bear got dumped on....

So i had to go down to Carlsbad on Saturday for a family portrait shoot that i had to do. My brother David was kind enough to take me all the way down, wait for me and then bring me back up. Well before we had even left for the cabin on Thursday we knew that there was the possibility for snow, but on Saturday those chances had dropped and David and I thought that we probably wouldnt get any snow. Oh how wrong we were, on the way back up we see dark clouds enveloping the mountain, our hopes of reaching the cabin without incident were shattered as we saw that once we got on the mountain it started to rain and the temperature began to drop. "well maybe it isn't snowing yet" we both said, and then we began to see cars coming down COVERED in snow............and then we were engulfed. Oh what fun it was to be in the snow putting on chains and being pelted by ice. Yeah how about NO!!! We were about 30min away from the cabin but that turned into about an hour trip since we had to drive in the storm. We made it back safe and sound, and it snowed all night long, so this morning everything was white. I eagerly anticipated the afternoon light so that i could go out and have some fun, and now here i am ready to show you how beautiful it is up here. Enjoy the photos.