and more...

My daughter continues to inspire me.  She and her husband joined a photography club at their housing unit and are learning tips and tricks and continuing to take great pictures.

So, with her tips, I am trying to be more patient, and not just point and shoot and get off the green square.

So the last couple of days, I have tried with the help of my tripod (to steady the shakes I did not even know I had) and keep it on raw and use different shutter speeds and f stops, both of which I am not on top of, never seem to quite get it, though I am determined that this is the year "I will get it" finally!

So here is an attempt, one picture I chose, because, I should be working out and getting ready to go to work, a usual story for me in the mornings.....yada, yada, yada.....here goes

more fun....

this is my first attempt at adobe illustrator

was fun, felt like a new box of crayons !

more spring flowers.......

These were taken on Bitterwater Valley Rd. off of hwy 46, east of Paso Robles.









This is a poppy, well, I am sure you know that, but I used a new technique that a local photographer told me how to do in photoshop. I was amazed and love it.



In fact it is so much fun that I included one of our daughter from her wedding.





I could enjoy doing this so much more than my bookwork, but alas, one fuels the other.....
A continued learning process.

Spring has sprung on the Central Coast

Here are a few of the pictures I took Easter weekend. I was fortunate to have my mom AND my sister up here with us. They took the train on Friday and stayed through Monday.

We had such a whirlwind, fun weekend.

This first picture was taken off a dirt road on Shell Creek Road, Shandon off hwy 58. Beautiful, but not as many as a few years ago

This is my sis, Cyn. She is a photographer also and shows her work at a studio in Spanish Village in San Diego, Ca.

http://www.spanishvillageart.com/

The end of Easter Sunday and a gorgeous sunset at Pismo Beach. But is there ever a bad sunset at the ocean? I think not.

Time for Thanks

Here it is November with Thanksgiving next week. It has become my favorite time of year. I have been back home for 4 weeks now. The trip with family to Sicilia, Italia and Switzerland now a fantastic memory.

Today, Angela & Les are in Paris celebrating their 4th anniversary. One of the advantages to being stationed overseas is the close proximity of opportunities for travel to our far away countries. Congratulations you two, love and live! Salute!

I traveled from Mt. Etna, Sicilia to Zurich Switzerland. Talk about a varied trip. I was blessed with almost a week with Angela and Les. After I was able to retrieve my luggage, Alitalia decided not to load the whole plane from Rome to Catania, go figure, must've been "reposa"! The first outing was up Mt. Etna, and since it had released some steam just weeks before, there was a fresh dusting of ash still piled off to the side of road.

Then off to Cefalu on the north coast, east of Palermo. The picture perfect Sicilian town. Warm, high 80's with 80% humidity! a tad bit warm, so after a walk around town, time to change into our bathing suits and just float in the water! Fantastic, warm, incredible, a must do on my list to check off. Clear, blue, peaceful......

Les was able to get some leave and we drove to the west side of the Island, stopping at Segesta to see this incredible greek temple. Then on to Trapani, a great dinner with salted local fish, yum and a walk around the section we were staying, the age of the buildings is so breathtaking, to think about the generations and thousand of years that they have been here.

Then the next day, the 3 of us went towards Marsala. We found the salt flats we had seen pictures of and they use Dutch windmills. We followed the coast line to Marsala and taste tested the local Marsala wines. How fun is that, I swam in the Tyrrhenian Sea and tasted Marsala in Marsala. Again the water was so beautiful and blue that the sky and the sea actually merged. Unfortunately the picture I took was on Angela's camera, I grabbed the wrong one!Off to Roma! to meet up with mom and the "sistas" and my nephew Eric. After Ang & I settled into our flat near the Vatican, we caught the metro in a thunderous downpour and went to the hotel to meet up with everyone. Lightning was fantastic, window rattling thunder and flashes of lightning. The following day, we met at Piazza Popolo. What a city!

That is Cyn, me and Chris, on the slippery lion.

Cyn, Chris, Erik, Mom and Ang on the deck of Castle San Angelo. What a view!

I got my remote working, this is the flat Ang & I shared, celebrating the sisters birthday Italiano style with wine, cheese, canoli, and laughter.

So, the story will continue, time to get back to cleaning the house, it is Friday and that is what I do. I will return to finish out this adventure, Ciao

Now we are into September and yesterday was 104!! Much cooler today, thank you! Thought I was going to melt. A long 3 day weekend, hung around home, did odds and ends. A good friend treated me to a barefoot walk at the beach, before it got smokin hot, breakfast at a little bakery/coffee spot, yummm, all things made right there daily and then a foot soak and massage for the tootsies and neck. Wonderful way to start the day. Oh, yes, and there were dolphins jumping in the wave breaks at Pismo Beach. I have seen them in Avila and San Simeon, but not Pismo. What a treat!

So now is it back into work, thankfully cooled off. Only 4 weeks until we will all be in Italia! Hopefully, the Italian Conversational classes I took will help. Ang & Les have been over in Sicilia now for almost a year, unbelievable. This is going to be some trip.

I am also glad to report that I have been able to put up 13 framed pieces in a little gallery across from the Mission in downtown SLO. Thanks to the owner of Photography 101. There will be an Art after Dark this coming Friday, I have to admit I really enjoy the opportunity to work (play) with the pictures I take. Here are some of the pictures. Nice chatting to you!

On into fall

We had an incredible lightning storm as August left for the year. I must've taken 75 pics and this is the only bolt I caught. I was tucked in bed loving the sound and light, I guess I should've crawled out of bed a bit earlier.