The Fantasy Path

When I was in Vancouver, I got one of the new Macbook Pros with the retina display. I have been truly impressed at the clarity and the colors… it is really so shocking! I knew it would be a little bit better, but I did not expect this level of improvement. I’m really looking forward to retina external monitors, if those ever come out!

Here is another new photo from Auckland. Luckily, this amazing place was very close to my hotel. I saw it during the daytime and decided to pop over and visit it during the late evening… hoping that the lighting and the path would flow together nicely, and it did indeed work out!

Walking on the beach

It was a cold and blustery evening here on the beach in Big Sur. Every time I go to this beach, it is a little bit different. There are some trees upon entrance to this beach that are also fascinating. You’ll notice I’ve never posted a photo of them because I simply can’t find how to capture their essence in a photo… but I’ll keep working on that…

The Earthly Lines

The waters went suddenly calm all around the ship and the sky stretched out forever. I had just seen a pod of whales and we were weaving around new areas of the fjords. I knew I was in Alaska then!

The Colors of Death Valley

It took me a long time to get to Death Valley in life. It’s one of those places you hear about a lot but never really get to. For some reason, I decided to make my first visit in the middle of the summer. I’ll never forget the feeling of standing out here at night and having hot (and, surprisingly, wet-feeling) air just blasting me in the face. It was like nothing else. It was actually totally awesome, even though I was looking forward to getting back into my air-conditioned RV!

Karen Hutton in New Zealand

The upcoming photography workshop in October has Todd Sisson and Scott Kublin joining me. But the next one has Jason Law and Karen Hutton… so you might be seeing more of her if you signed up for that one! Watch out, or she’ll make you do p90X… some of the Karen’s pot-stirrers!

Here’s Karen taking photos in a big field near my house one evening. If you saw the landscape video tutorial on the page here, then you’ll recognize her here from this scene! It was cool to have her and Scott and so many other people on the scene… just was a perfect night of photography!

Nighttime swim at the Four Seasons Vancouver

Once my kids discovered the hotel had a pool, that was the end of any more time in the room… I did manage to take a break to get this photo though so I can share the scene with you all!

Preparing for a great dinner

I quite like this idea of renting houses for a bunch of people for vacation. Have you done this before? I wonder what the best site to use is… I kind of go through personal connections (or wonderful suggestions through the blog). Like, for example, this place here is called Toad Hall – a great recommendation from Justin Troupe, a friend now who met me through the blog. But I know a lot of people find places to stay through various websites… couchsurfing… homeaway… etc etc. Any good/bad experiences?

We had a great group of people down here for a fun company retreat. It was also a great night because all the girls went out to get dinner to make for everyone! The guys were kind of useless. This was both on purpose and because we were useless.