Miscellaneous Monday

(yeah, I know, i'm not posting this until Tuesday... i've been busy)

- I've booked for WPPI! I'm so excited to be going for my first time ever! If anyone wants to meet up, email me and we can exchange info!

- I'm terribly sad that I am losing my garage to my husband again. My husband has the newest car, so he won the fight for the garage (ie the 'i don't have to get into my freezing car in the am or deal with thick frost making seeing impossible' car storage area). A few of weeks ago, his car basically imploded from a defective lifter spring (I don't really know what that is, but I recognize that it breaking was BAD). Luckily, his car was still under warranty, so Toyota is paying to fix it... but they have had it for a while. In the meantime, I stole the garage. And I will miss it...

- Finally, I HAVE to comment on the UCLA-Washington game this weekend. While I am admittedly biased (being a UCLA grad and all), I thought that was one of the worst officiated games ever. Letting someone shoot for a non-shooting foul, allowing Washington players to use Kevin Love as monkey bars (there was one play where a Husky was LITERALLY hanging off Love's elbows - BUT NO FOUL!) was bad enough. But the officials' failure to do anything when an inbounding player, who was being stifled defensively with 30 seconds left and the score within 5, reared back and chucked the ball at a UCLA player's face was TOTALLY uncalled for. Worst piece of officiating ever. I don't care if you have to get the ball in, you don't throw it point-blank at someone's face. Their foot, their arm, maybe even their chest, all ok. But not their face. And the official who just let it slide - didn't even SAY ANYTHING to the offending player.... just ridiculous. Ridiculous.

- Coming this week: Exciting developments! I took pics of another photog and her fiancee on Saturday - can't wait to post them! I have also started developing my latest photography 'passion project' and have found another photog that I will be shooting several events with this summer. Good times!

Joe Photo

Melissa McClure told me about this video... had to post it! Its a little long, but pretty funny (especially during the beginning and end).

Storms and Sunsets

OK, I know that my blog posts have been a little over-inclusive on the sunsets lately... but i've been getting outside while there is still light outside, which is reason to celebrate (for me at least).

After the last large San Diego storm, I glanced out of my window and saw the most amazingly colorful sunset i've seen since summer. I grabbed my camera (my new 'third-arm') and dashed down to the bayfront walk alongside the Star of India.

These are all straight out of the camera! (and still subject to my broken frame action) Aren't the colors amazing?

Day 5-6: You Mean I Have to WORK?

So, ultimately I did get to go to Hawaii to work... so I had to work days 5-6. But I still managed to take some time to grab some pics of Makena beach and around the hotel.

Day 5 ended with one of the most awesome experiences ever. After I finished work for the day, I ran up and changed into my bathing suit, sprinted to the beach and plunged into the water as the sunset waned, in my efforts to quell the effects of the mosquito swarm that attacked me in Kea'au. As I was getting out of the water, I saw a whale breach full out of the water somewhere between 300-500 yards away. It was amazing - an image that will be forever captured in my memory (although not on film, since I didn't bring my camera).

Day 6 consisted of more work, a long walk through Wailea, a little more work and some packing, and then a lovely dinner in the warm humid air of Maui. I wasn't sad to leave Maui like I was when I left the Big Island, but the lonely hotel just didn't have the same draw as my family or my husband in San Diego. And at heart... i'm a homebody who likes being at home :-)

Now for some pictures!

The hotel had this elaborate soothing stream running through the common areas, culminating in a large pond in the lobby.
(experimenting with some uber-low shutter speeds)
In the stream/pond, there were the LARGEST Koi I have ever seen. I mean, aren't these things ridiculously massive? You could also buy 'Koi food' and PET the Koi for a small fee. I was slightly afraid that the massive Koi would do something crazy (like eat my hand), so I declined.
Makena:

by the way, still all straight out of the camera - no post processing at all!

Days 3-4: Here Again, Gone Again

The last two days with my family flew by so quickly - so fast that I can barely remember anything to blog about!

Day 3: My mom and I went out and did more errands, and finished them up with a stop in the nearest town to their house, Pahoa. If you didn't believe me about the 'middle of nowhere' thing before... i'm sure you won't doubt me anymore after this. Pahoa is a 'quaint' sort of town, wood buildings, one street, all that jazz. Kind of like being thrown into a western :-)

My mom was on the phone after we parked, dealing with my 15 year old sister being a snot (we've all been there), so I wandered into the Mexican restaurant and got a tasty Lillikoi margarita with ling hui mui on the rim (sorry no pic... next time). My sister is a bartender there, and made me a delicious drink.
(by the way, these are all straight out of the camera - and my photoshop frame action went nuts, so they look a little weird)


My mom and I had lunch at the delicious Thai food place, Ming's, after I finished my drink.

And... these are the rest of the stores in Pahoa town. Seriously. I did mention it was only one street, right? (and isn't the local H&R Block sign hilarious? You just can't get away from some things... including taxes)

Day 4: Time to leave already! My previous couple of days flew by. I'm usually ready to go home by the time I leave anywhere - i'm the type of homebody who likes to hang out in my house and read a book or watch tv. But this trip was so short, I felt like I had hardly been there at all. Relaxed, yes, but already missing my family (before I even left).

Before getting on the plane to my second Hawaiian destination, I stopped by and took some pictures of the house my dad is building. Some interesting and uniquely Hawaiian details:

The lava steps leading to the house from the side of the yard:

The view from the second floor (look! Mauna Kea with snow and dense tropical trees!):

Achieving Goals

I am the type of person that derives ridiculous satisfaction from crossing things off of lists.

With that, I am proud to announce that i'm well on my way to accomplishing two of more of my goals - #'s 75 and 101 on my 101 list!

Friday afternoon, I had a lovely lunch with Ma5en, Melissa Koehler and her husband (while he doesn't have a website, I hear he's got a mean point-and-shoot going on).

Then, Friday night, my husband Brandon and I went over to sdohana's (aka the Baxters). I don't think that I have laughed that much in a long time - I had such a FABULOUS evening, even though I stayed up well past my bedtime. Pictures and a summary of the night can be found on the sdohana blog - I can't even think to rival such a description, so I will leave it to Dave to describe it (in perfect adult grammer, might I add).

But most importantly, I am making progress on my 101 list by branching out to other photogs and making new friends in SD. Go me!

Day 1-2: I'm HOME!

Day One:
Some people know this, others do not: my family all lives in Hawaii (mom, dad, 3 sisters). I haven't been home for a year and a half (since August of 2006!), so I was ECSTATIC when my 'day job' said I could go for a work-related thing to Maui - and that since it was actually cheaper than flying direct to Kahului, they would pay for my fare to the Big Island to visit for a few days! I left Thursday morning, and spent most of the day flying (the headwinds must have been insane, because it took 6 hours to get from SD to Honolulu, then a 2 hour layover, then another hour flight to Hilo).

My mom picked me up, and we had a lovely dinner at the Hilo Bay Cafe. As I downed my delicious fresh Ahi, I suddenly realized how relaxed I was - even more so than on my week long vacation, and I had only been there for an hour! Its just something about Hawaii, something about being around my family and being home - even though I didn't grow up there, I firmly believe that home is where your family is. And even though i'm married and all growed up, this is still true.

Day Two:
I woke up early the next morning, and went on a lovely 2 1/2 mile walk with my sister through the lush rainforest surrounding their home, from the house they are renting to the house they are building. They live in a small city called Kea'au (and really on the outskirts of that), in a place that has minimum one acre lots that (until recently) HAD to be used in part for agriculture if you wanted to build a home on the lot. Since the city removed this restriction, house have been springing up all over the place - but compared to big city living, its deserted.

After spending the morning running errands, my mom and I rented a 4 wheel drive car, and began the trek up Mauna Kea - nearly 14,000 feet above sea level - to go see the sunset (something i've always wanted to do). When measured from the base, Mauna Kea is actually over 28,000 feet tall - the highest mountain in the world (but with 14,000 feet being under sea level, it tends to get left out of those highest mountain discussions). A big storm had come through the week before and dumped tons of snow on the mountain! So I literally went from ocean breezes to snow in the period of 2 hours.
(taken from the car at 50 mph):

During the hour 'acclimation' period at 9,000 feet, we walked around the chilly visitors center. The views were amazing - even at only 9,000 ft, we were so high that we were above the clouds. When we got to the top, we walked around again (slowly - it was REALLY cold plus you get 40% less oxygen up at the summit). The snow had melted into icicles of sorts:

And apparently, silly people would consider going offroading in it:
Observatories are scattered around the top of the mountain - Mauna Kea is considered the best stargazing in the world (no air pollution or light pollution to deal with, and it's relatively warm considering the altitude). They have two observatories there that actually capture better pictures of space than the Hubble! Four on the mountaintop in the distance:

As the sun set to the west, it cast a giant perfect shadow of the mountain to the east:
My mom and I nibbled on sandwiches (in the car with the heater on, of course) and drank massive quantities of water to stay well-hydrated as we waited for the sun to descend in the sky. And finally, sunset! As the sun set, the observatories opened up for their nightly stargazing. I had never seen an observatory open before, and watched awestruck as pieces of the giant building turned, windows opened, the roof retracted, and the people within the building prepared to view the heavens.
On the way down, we stopped at the visitor's center again for a quick snack, bathroom break and a 'stargazing party'. The stars were incredible, scattered across the clear sky and too numerous to ever think about counting. The volunteer guide pointed out constellations I could never see from the mainland. Writing about this now, capturing these memories, makes me long for home even though I just left. Even though my husband and his family lives here in San Diego, I hope a day can come where we can move to my home and live the peaceful and relaxed life of the islands.

The rest of my trip to follow...

ABC Meeting

As part of my goal of networking more, I went to my first ever ABC meeting last week! It was held at the beautiful US Grant hotel in downtown San Diego. The hotel was recently renovated, and was simply gorgeous! The flowers, done by Flowers by Annette in Encinitas, were absolutely amazing. Overall, the event was totally worth it, and it was awesome to meet so many nice people in the wedding industry.

The flowers:

I am totally enamoured with this candle holder - it's BEAUTIFUL!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

In just a few minutes, I am escaping the cold San Diego rains... to go to warm Hawaiian rain! I am SO happy to be going home to visit my family, since its literally been over a year and a half since i've seen my sisters.

Just a heads up to any potential brides - i'll be responding to email, but cell phone coverage isn't all that great so I might not get back to your calls quickly. I'll be back next wednesday, hopefully with tons of fabulous pictures of the hidden fabulous places around the big island.

Mahalo!

Heather and Cory - Engagement

Last Sunday, Brandon and I went and shot Heather and Cory's engagement session. They were a little tentative at first (as so many guys are), but loosened up a little as we continued to shoot. I asked all the usual questions - how did you meet, how long have you known, etc - and was shocked to find that they knew each other in high school. Unlike Brooke and Nick, they were not high school sweethearts, but only 'knew of each other.' After high school, a mutual friend reintroduced them, and... the rest is history!

Heather and Cory - I can't wait for your wedding, it sounds like its going to be awesome!

Some pictures from the day: