Moon Shot

So yesterday we hung out with our good friends Edgar and Fatima Lopez (and family) at their totally rad house in Roseville. Let me just say up front, that this family is to blame solely for my decision/or lack of desire to continue my excercise diet I had going on with my good buddy Tony Martinez. They are unbelievably good cooks, every time we visit their place, I feel like joining the show The Biggest Loser, because I feel like one after having 2nd and 3rd plates of whatever they dish up for the evening.

After dessert (yes, this was after my 3rd serving!) we headed outside to relax in their new backyard, beautifully landscaped and totally relaxing in the evening after 100 degree temperatures during the day. In this picture below, Fatima was relaxing with her eyes closed while sitting comfy next to Edgar in their swing.



I took this picture of the moon (F1.4, shutter 2 secs, iso 200, handheld) while sitting next to Fe Lyn chatting up the night with our friends. Good times.

Blackwood Farm

One of my other favorites things to do in life besides Photography is reading. In my earlier years, I read a lot of Tom Clancy, those high tech military, espionage, spies and sorts. I had always been fond of the military since my two brothers joined the Air Force out of high school. Probably one of my favorite ever was Red Storm Rising, which I've read like 8 or 9 times, a fabulous book that talks about World War III. Note that this book was made during the Cold War in the 1980's so it suited that time and made it more than a possibility.

After Tom Clancy, I began reading Steven Pressfield, another warfare guru but focused on Greek Warfare, particularly Alexander the Great (whom I was named after by the way), Athens and Sparta. My favorite book of his was Gates of Fire, which tells the story of the 300 Spartans who defended a narrow pass against the 2 Million man army of Xerxes of the Persian Empire. If you've seen the movie The 300, this book is 10 times better and with more emotion and passion. I really would recommend this, I've read this at least 7 or 8 times as well.

I've also read the 4 Dan Brown novels, the DaVinci Code, Angels and Demons and the 2 others. Angels and Demons was my favorite and recently got a chance to see the movie when it came out in May. Here's a disclaimer, I enjoy the book for the book, I don't believe of course in the story of the book especially about Jesus and the Catholic Church, since I am a practicing Catholic. But never the less, I enjoy the book for the thrilling moments and the intrigue.

The Harry Potter series was a fantastic read, especially the last 3 books where we found out more about Harry and Voldemort's past and how they are linked together. I am very excited to see the Half Blood Prince which is one of my favorite books of the series.

I enjoyed reading some Tom Patterson books, but once you've read one, they all seem to sort of be the same. I like his books because they are fast reads, the chapters are small, the book always moves fast.

Yes, I've read the entire Twilight series with Eclipse being my favorite of the 4 books. I like the moments of competition between Vampire and Werewolf/Shapeshifter, but what is most intriguing was the superhuman abilities they posses.

I bought my first Ann Rice book a couple of weeks ago, called Blackwood Farm. Of course I've seen the movie Lestat so I know of Ann Rice from before, but never really dived into her books until now. I finished Blackwood Farm last night and I thought it was brilliant. The characters were well developed, you couldn't help but feel that Aunt Queen was your mother too, and that Jasmine and the other helpers were your family. You felt remorse for Goblin, hatred for Petronia, admiration for Pops and Quinn.. You felt like you were with him the whole time, cheering him on, applauding some of his decisions, hope that he would find a way to be with his true love Mona. A terrific read, I definitely would recommend this to all.

Now that I've read my first Ann Rice, I am thinking of getting The Witching Hour, which tells a tale of the Mayfair witches, which are also mentioned in Blackwood Farm.

Video and PIctures

Since the beginning of the year, I've been thinking of how I can merge Video and Pictures.. I've seen other Photographers go that route and some of the bigger names such as David Jay have done a really good job of doing it. This is the first video I tried back in February when I took the family on vacation.. it isn't completed, but it was a first stab of how to do it. Hope you like it.

Our Family trip to Utah. from Alex Canada on Vimeo.

Fathers Day part 2

I hope every Dad had a terrific Fathers Day yesterday, I know I did. After my children surprised me with their Fathers Day card, we decided to celebrate the day downtown and went to the Mass at the Cathedral of Blessed Sacrament in downtown Sacramento. If you haven't been to this Church, it is a must see, located across the street from the Capitol building.

After Mass we decided to take a walk around, this is the first time our children have been in this area, so we wanted to show them where the Governor resides. This is where we found out that the children have some artistic talent taking photographs, more on this later.

For now here are a few of my favorites from the day. What a great day to be a Father, I hope all the Dads had as much fun as I did today, thank you to my family! I feel so blessed.

Our favorite model of the day was Fe Lyn :)




We then decided to walk towards the Capitol Building




Alexa took this picture of Andrew..



And she also took this picture of us walking back to our car to end the day..

Happy Fathers Day!

From my family to yours, I wish all the Papa's a Happy Fathers Day!!

Check out the cards I got from my kids this morning, aren't they fabulous!

Andrew's card was just very sweet!



And Alexa made her card to look like my Macbook. Is she trying to tell me something? :)




Make it a great day!!

My favorite Northern California Destinations

Now that we've settled into the Sacramento lifestyle.. and we do plan on staying for a while.. I wanted to make a list of my favorite locations within a few hours driving distance from here. Without further adieu here are my top 6 Photo destinations (subject to change :) from Sacramento:


6. Napa Valley - Beautiful wine country in California. Enough said.

Napa Valley Wine Train from Nate on Vimeo.

5. Monterey/Carmel - Just south of the San Francisco Bay Area lies the Monterey Peninsula, one of our favorite areas to visit, where you can take the 17 mile drive by Pebble Beach golf course, or walk by the white sand of Carmel Beach. Definitely a place we can spend good quality time with the children, without the internet!!

Seashore by 17 Mile Drive from Manuel Alducin on Vimeo.

4. Redwood Forest - The Redwood forest holds some of the oldest and tallest trees in the world, featured on Planet Earth this destination is about 6 hours away from Sacramento. I believe I was here once when I was a young lad, but would love to return to take some photographs.

Avenue Of The Giants from Jason Baldwin on Vimeo.

3. Lake Tahoe - Although Fe Lyn and I have visited here recently, we haven't had the chance to take the entire family here, and would like to come out here during winter time as well. I'm still amazed at how large the lake is here.

LAKE TAHOE HD from JOSE VELASCO on Vimeo.

2. Yosemite National Park - It's been more than a decade since I've visited this beautiful national park, with half dome, glacier point, numerous waterfalls and Sequioa's, I would really love to get a chance to visit this place again with my family.

High Sierra HD - Backpacking the John Muir Trail from Pete Bell on Vimeo.

1. San Francisco CA - My favorite city in the US, while NY is also a great city to visit, I just love the culture, the history and photographic opportunities are endless.

San Francisco from Steven Dempsey on Vimeo.

My 2 girls..

Caught in the Act

Faith used a Canon point and shoot to catch this photo of me. We had so much fun!



This is what the picture turned out to be:

Photographys R Us

Ok, so the title isn't grammatically correct, but since we've moved up to the Roseville area, both of our children have shown an increase interest in Photography. So much that we've actually set aside some time this summer to teach them some of the basics.

I'm excited, perhaps more because I can finally get some pictures of myself on this blog! A few days ago, you saw Andrew with a full stack of camera's taking pictures at The Fountains at Roseville, and yesterday, Alexa took the reigns to capture some landscape images. See below for my favorite of hers.

Perhaps in the coming weeks/months you'll see much more from them. Wouldn't that be sweet?

I captured this image of Alexa as she was about to grab some grass, reminded me so much of the Movie Gladiator, where the General had some dreams.

Walking the trails

From the moment I bit into the Sushi, my mind went from savoring the delicious taste of this delicacy to trying to figure out how I am going to lose the pounds I was about to take on. It wasn't just Sushi of course, no Japanese buffet (especially Mizu) that I know of only has one type of serving, there was of course many others to choose from and I wasn't about to pass on some of my favorites.

So with that commitment to satisfying my stomach, I suggested to my family that we take a walk to shed some of what we gained in less than 45 minutes. Thank goodness everyone felt the same and all agreed to head off to find some trails.

Luckily Roseville has many trails, and we found one close to our area. Here are some of my favorite pictures.

This is my favorite of them all.

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The Fountains at Roseville

FINALLY, finally, Fe Lyn had a day off so we can spend some time exploring our new area. In Roseville, we came across The Fountains, a unique shopping area, sort of like Soho in NY, sort of high end with lots of well.. fountains.

After spending some time there, walking around and taking some photos, Fe Lyn and I had our first date in Roseville by going to see a movie, Angels and Demons by Ron Howard. Although the book was better (isn't it always?), it was better than the DaVinci Code with more suspense, intrigue and drama. Overall, it was better than average movie.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from The Fountains.



Andrew was all set for his Camera adventure, carrying a Nikon and a Canon point and shoot.



Andrew took these pictures of some flowers nearby..




Andrew and I reviewing some photos he took..



The Group relaxing on a bench after some time walking..

Roseville, CA

First of all, it's been great having our entire family back together again, such a blessing! We've been in Roseville CA for about a week now and I'm amazed how quickly we have gotten use to living in our new area. We love the area first of all (I guess that's why we chose it) as it is very convenient to get to/from anywhere you need to go. Where it be shopping, restaurants, movie theatre's etc.. they are all pretty close by.

I think we are going to enjoy our time here and hope to make the best of it with our family and friends. While we miss San Diego, we are looking towards the future, hello ROSEVILLE!

Here's a picture of Alexa I took outside our new dig.

Last day of School

The Children had their last day of school yesterday. It was a mix of emotions, it was obvious the other children were saddened by Alexa and Andrew's departure from the School. But they took it like troops, strong and hopeful.

Andrew and his teacher Mrs. Brown



Alexa and her class

Goodbye San Diego

The time has come to say goodbye (at least for now) to San Diego. We will be leaving soon, moving to Sacramento within this month. Today, we decided to take some pictures around our almost vacant house so we can remember how much we enjoyed living here.

To all of our friends and family in San Diego, thank you for always supporting us, for being our friends/family and we hope to see you again soon someday. Until then, God Bless you and your families.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures.







Alexa carved out "Hello" on this Tree when we first moved into the house.