More Vacation Pics

It's taking quite a bit of time to go through and edit all of the pictures I'd taken while we were on vacation because of some dust specs I had on my camera's sensor....

Mental note to self: "always get the camera cleaned before you go and shoot 600 pictures!"

Anyways, here are some more pictures from Puerto Vallarta. Some of the pictures are from the day we took a guided tour of the city. The tour also included the location they shot the film "Night of the Iguana", and a Tequila Distillery. Obviously I didn't take this one... Thanks ConradWasn't too difficult to walk out and see this every morning...This guy was working hard to try and convince me that the pink cowgirl hat was a men's hat...All of their vendors worked endlessly to sell you whatever they had. Oops, looks like I forgot to fix the dust specs on this one... No more lens changes on the beach.This was Mario, our tour guide. He said that the English language was really hard to be funny in, I don't think he had any problems though. Thanks for the tip on the "Puerto Vallarta Resort Chicken". He said it has four legs and a tail..... Iguana. He was joking. I hope.I have NO idea what this was all about, but those are people up there swinging around in circles UPSIDE DOWN, and playing little instruments... Now that's a hard way to earn a buck.This is what happens when you get so famous, they make a statue out of you... Looks like Being famous isn't all it's cracked up to be.The cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a major attraction in Puerto Vallarta. Apparantly they're working on making the top crown out of bronze. Mario told us that we had to come back for the dedication ceremony. Beautiful metal work. I really wanted to get this mexican wrestlers mask to wear to a U of M football game...
The plant that they make "Mexican Viagra" from.That's right. Tequila...I never knew that they make Flavored Tequila's. While I didn't pick up a bottle of Orange flavored Tequila, I did grab a bottle of the Repaisado. So Uncle Dennis, next time you're in town, come and check it out so you can give your expert oppinion.

This is the location that they shot "Night of the Iguana".

BED JUMPING!!!!

Yep, here it is! My long awaited first post of Bed Jumping! Ever since I saw this website, I've wanted to do this for myself.

Now I admit, it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. my pics may not be as creative as the ones on the websites homepage, but they were definitely a lot of fun for us to create! It took quite a bit of energy out of me too, this seemed much easier when I was 7. Maybe it was all the cerveza that took it out of me, these pictures are from our trip to Mexico last week at the Royal Decameron resort. Hopefully these will be the first of many bed jumping posts in my future!

I think there's an added danger in this for me too now. I didn't used to be 6'-6" tall, so there never used to be the danger of slamming my head into the ceiling... Guess I have to look for hotels with really tall ceilings. Next time...





Even Lauri got in on the action! She had a whole lot of fun doing this too! It really seems to bring out the little kid in you!

So we just returned from our vacation today... It's great to be able to visit new places and get away, but I'm always happy to return home. And once I got back, I just had to put at least one picture from the trip up. So I figured that this one sums up 90% of our trip. Many more to come!

Mexico

So we're almost ready to get out of here! Tonight we're off to Joan and Conrads, where we'll spend the night so that we can all head out to the airport first thing in the morning. Now you'll have to forgive me if my pictures from Mexico don't turn out as beautiful as I want them too. You know what they say about Mexico, "Don't drink the water"..... Well I have to drink something so I guess it'll have to be the cerveza! And since it's all-inclusive, I'd better get my money's worth!

Lauri's B-Day Dinner

Tonight we met Joan and Conrad for dinner on the night before Lauri's Birthday. It's always great to get together with family, and as usual I made a fool of myself... I managed to spill a large glass of a certain fermented beverage all over the place. Lucky for the restaurant, Conrad's pants managed to soak up most of the mess. Conrad owe's me one, maybe he'll spill a drink on me when we're sitting at the poolside bar next week in mexico!!! Lucky for me I'm their favorite (by default because I'm the only) son-in-law... Ha ha. Hopefully I'll be able to get one more post before we leave. Then after that will hopefully be some AMAZING images from both Puerto Vallarta, Mexico as well as Scottsdale, Arizona!

Untill then, take care, and God Bless! And a VERY happy Birthday to my beautiful wife!!! Love you!

Baby Eva

I took some pictures for some friends of ours, of their newborn daughter Eva. I was hoping to be able to do it on a weekend when I would be able to relax and take my time (I've found being flexible with your schedule is a must for photographing babies). Unfortunately, for one reason or another, I had to get the shots after work one night. That means I was in a race against time, to get there before I lost what little natural lighting was left of the day. Not to mention it was super cloudy, and pouring rain that night. All things considered I think they turned out well.
What do you think?

One of the things I'm still working on is making sure things look as natural as possible. Usually pictures like this, for me, are just friends children. And I think they're always expecting to have to pose for their pictures and "say cheese". I need to work on making people more comfortable, and helping them to relax and just enjoy that time with their children. Instead of worrying if what they're doing is going to look good in a picture.

That's another reason I like to have a little extra time during a shoot like this, not only do you have to work with the kids but the amount of work you have to put into the parents can take just as long.

What I really like about shooting little babies, is trying to find their personalities. I'm not sure I was effective at portraying Eva's personality in these images, due to the lack of time, but I had fun trying. This shoot was also a learning experience for me, I "grew up" in photography shooting with an Olympus OM-2. This camera was an Aperture Priority camera, and because of this I've always been a little intimidated of shooting in any other mode. This shoot was done entirely in Manual mode with my Nikon D-70 (with an SB-800 speedflash).

Some were exposed properly, alot weren't. I'm still working on it. I still fall back on Aperture priority when all else fails. All I can say for now is "Thank God for Photoshop"! Which is funny because I never used to like altering my images. Then my Dad showed me how much more dramatic your images can be with a little bit of "touching up". I have to try and not depend so much on this though, and really aim for proper exposures. That's were I'm at right now with my pictures. I'm constantly wishing that I could spend more time taking pictures, and studying these things, instead of going to my real job...

Well, thanks for the time Nikki, Joe, and Eva. Hope you like the shots. Next week we're heading to Mexico for a little R & R, and I'm looking forward to taking alot of pictures of Lauri, and maybe some other stuff. I've never done a photo shoot with her. And after Mexico, we're making a stop in Scottsdale, AZ for a friends wedding. This will be my first Jewish wedding! I'm looking forward to getting some shots!

Well until next time, take care and God bless.

John

Making the move.

I'm actually going to make the move, from my old blog to this site. I like the extra's that this site offers. If you've visited both sites, let me know what you think too!

first post on bLOGSPOT

Just posting some random images on a new blog site. Testing them out for ease of use and access. All are my images.

Here's Lauri having our Breakfast Tea on a recent ski trip in Northern Michigan

Took this on the stern of one of the tour boats during a tour of the Soo Locks in Michigan's Upper Peninsula

Here's an old advertisement on the side of a building in Detroit. I'd seen it quite a few times on my drive home from work and always wanted to get a shot of it. I finally worked up enough courage to actually stop and take a few very quick images and was on my way.