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: