Miami Sept 2014

I had to spend some time training at the home office 30 minutes south of Miami. Luckily I was in the same class as my co-worker buddy Jhonathan.

Training was quite demanding so we didn’t go out much other than to eat dinner in the local area. Friday night Jhonathan did give me some exposure to Ecuadorian food. The last time I saw him we could not find an single place in the bay area that served Ecuadorian food.

Later we explored the Miami Beach scene. To my surprise it was pretty quiet. Other than the ringtail lemmer.

Over the weekend we did drive down to Key West which is the southern most location in the US, unfortunately I was unimpressed.

Wanting to take advantage of the local food scene we did our best to hit as many of the ethnic restaurants. This included Jamaican (good goat), Peruvian Polpus (octopus), Filipino, Colombian Patacones, Argentinian, Italian & Japanese.

The final day a fellow employee flying back to Australia handed me a bottle of scotch. Which we shared that evening in the breakfast room of our Holiday Inn. I ended up passing it along to an engineer who would be there another 3 weeks.

I came back home 6 lbs heavier. Other than the vast eating, the hot & humid weather prevented me from my daily walks after dinner.

9/11/14

As a civilian, I’ve always felt there isn’t much I could do to honor the 1st responders who rushed into the tragic situation of 9/11. Sandy gave me the idea to photograph our local fire department. It was my most ambitious project to date. I contacted the local fire department and made arrangements for a photo shoot last Saturday. Unfortunately there was a paramedic call just as we got there so that left only 3 firemen.

May I present to you Captain Matt Nielsen, Jeff & Stephen of Alameda Fire Station 4.

It was challenging to light up a fire engine, it took 5 speedlites, which I’ve never done. Of course that ate up quite a bit of time.

LA Labor Day weekend 2014

We haven’t been down to see my Ma in awhile and Jon was playing in Irvine. So what better time to drive down. We arrived late Saturday with just enough time for a quick change before heading to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. Jon was nice enough to get us VIP parking which made the walk from the parking lot so easy. I’ve never been to a classical music concert that had used so many video cameras during the performance.

The finale was the 1812 overture complete with cannons. This was quickly followed by a fireworks display.

Sunday we met for brunch at Brodard Chateau in Garden Grove. Irma was nice enough to join us and we left with a macaron surprise. Thanks Irma!

With little rest we jetted over to Ma’s place to get ready for dinner. I shot some portraits but because of the heat, everyone came out shiny.

We said goodbye on Monday morning and straight north to have brunch with Tawny & Drew. We got to check out their new place but I forgot to take a single photo. With food never far from our minds we went to Lamill Coffee.

With all this incredible eating we finished our long weekend trip with dinner at In N Out Burger.

Finally Humphrey

Up until recently I just had my camera handy near the back door in case Humphrey came along to feed. In an effort to elevate my photography, I started to light my Humphrey shots. Well of course when I set up my scene he never comes or decides to go elsewhere in the yard.

Well after days of waiting & pacing I think I finally have the shot. I’m having this printed & mounted.