Hawaii

We are here! There is no access to the internet from my devices here, so I am using my in laws computer here at the house. Hopefully, I can hit a Starbucks soon and can post a few pictures and highlights from the past few days.

We have been having a great time. The weather is amazing and being with family in such an amazing place is pretty great.

Just wanted to check in and say that we are having a great time, our skin is pinker and we feel relaxed. Stay tuned for more updates with pictures hopefully!

To Do List

Today I need to:

Get up and get ready
Get Cici up and ready for her running team, she leaves for school before everyone else
Get the others up so they can get to school, feed them
Take them to school (Paul gets to join all the fun today, it's his day off!)
Stay for J Man's party day and watch him do the songs he has learned this month
Go back to B's school to watch her do Gym Sense gymnastic program
Go get last minute things for our trip! Oh, ya, we leave for Hawaii in 2 days!!!!!
Go back to pick up J Man from his school
Get home, eat lunch and pack and clean and pack and clean and pack and clean
Bake a cake for a ladies dinner I am going to tonight
Go to the girl's school to watch Cici do her Gym Sense thing
Pick up the girl's from school
Get home
Feed them a snack
Pack and clean and pack and clean
Go to ladies dinner while Paul takes care of the kids and drives Cici and some of her friends to Youth group tonight... and goes back to pick them all up!
Come home and get some sleep!
Then pack and clean and pack and clean and pack and clean!

There is such an excited energy in the house with our trip in just two days. Hopefully you can follow our adventures on Twitter, though the internet at the house we are staying at doesn't work. There will be lots of pictures and stories of our trip though when we return. Stay tuned! Aloha!

Edit Challenge

Thanks to the new digital age, there are truly endless possibilities now in photography on how you decide to edit a photo. I thought it would be fun to show you two simple examples of how the same picture can turn out very differently. 

This is the picture that came straight out of my camera. 

This is one way of editing the picture....

Here is another way...

On one of the few sunny days here, I noticed the water drops hanging on the chain link fence behind our house. I thought it was pretty and challenged myself to see what I could make of it.

Here is the picture I came up with, this one is straight from the camera. It has potential to be cool and funky.

You can decide what edit you like best!

My kids have made their pics, now you can make yours!

More Guitars

This past weekend I took more photos of guitars. My client brought more for me to capture. The 1928 also made a reappearance. This has been a real learning curve for me as I have never done any studio work with lighting etc. I learned lots form last week's shoot and put those new lessons into this shoot.

Here are some of the shots from this past weekends shoot.

Old and New

This past weekend I was asked to take some pictures. Pictures of some guitars.

I was up for the challenge, especially the challenge of capturing a Gibson guitar from 1928 and it's modern remake.

I fell in love with the 1928, it looks it's age but it is so beautiful, Paul even played it and it sounded amazing! 

The guitar even still has it's original tuners, amazing.

I love this picture. You can see how much this old guitar got played!

So, recently, Gibson took all the measurements of the 1928 and remade it. The owner has both guitars, it was so cool to see them side by side and capture old and new.

The new one was really beautiful too. It photographed really nicely.

I can see why people collect guitars. It is for sure an expensive hobby but the beauty and craftsmanship in these instruments are amazing. I enjoyed the challenge of showcasing these guitars, letting their beauty shine through. 

Basketball

Over the past few weeks, basketball has been the talk around here. 

The grade 5's at the school had the opportunity to join the basketball team this winter. They started in January with practices before school a few times a week and just last week had their first game. There are 44 kids on the team, so they split into 2 teams that will face other schools in games. The games are really casual, they don't keep score, they just want the kids to get out and play! Cici has really been enjoying it and said she loved the game even though she was nervous at first. The team did great!

Some Things Never Change

Like this little man.

In fact, he still wears the same hat.

Other things that don't change... 

Blogging infrequently.