A lot of sports!

Fall is good for only a few things:
• Getting to sleep with the windows open
• Beautiful colors in nature
• Sports starting back up in schools

For those of you who know me well, know that I love shooting sports. There's just something about being on the sideline of a football/soccer game or under the basket of a basketball game and getting the shots that tell a story and are full of emotion and excitement. Maybe it stems from my love of all sports; playing, not necessarily watching on T.V.

Let's get on to the pictures!
Here are a few of my favorites from the past few weeks.

FULL GALLERY HERE!


FULL GALLERY HERE!


FULL GALLERY HERE!


FULL GALLERY HERE!

Finally! (deep sigh)

I have all (for now) of the photos from my trip to California uploaded. It only took me a little over a week, but they're done. Now all I have left to do is go through pictures from football, volleyball, 3 soccer games, an autocross and rallyecross; among others.

Stay tuned and make sure you view the completed East Meets West Gallery. Some samples from the last 3 days:

Lake Mead at Hoover Dam


Vegas


Our 13th and final state of the trip


I love the natural lighting in this shot


Hello!


Pacific Beach on the left coast!

day 8 pictures

I've been putting off working on the pictures from day 8 for a few reasons:
1. Laziness.
2. I took a lot of pictures at the Grand Canyon and they all seem to look the same.
3. I'm sick of editing pictures.

Here are a few, and as always, you can see the rest in my East Meets West Gallery

Maybe looking back at it now, it was a bit dangerous...but we hiked to a point where no body else was and we were all alone. If felt good to be away from the crowds and this point was the furthest point protruding into the canyon. Wonderful views!


BFF's on the edge of the aforementioned point


Were the rest of the tourists were (and that's with a 70mm lens)


Me trying to be gangsta


Sunrise

day 7 pictures

In the morning of day 7, we hiked to the top of tent rocks. It was beautiful weather with beautiful views.
The rest can be found in my East Meets West Gallery
To the top is where we were headed:


The "tent rocks"


Our tour guides, Alan and Andrea:


On our way to the Grand Canyon, we pulled over to take pics of the amazing sunset!

day 6 pictures are up!

Day six was from Roswell, NM, to Albuquerque, NM to meet up and stay with an old friend. Alan and Andrea have to be the best hosts i have ever had while out of town. Great food, company, accommodations, and tours of the town. Thanks again.

You can find the rest of the pictures HERE!

Roswell was a little boring, but we did get to see an alien:


The drive through NM: Straight, boring, desolate, with nice clouds


That's Albuquerque down there. We were almost 11,000 ft. above sea level



Until the next update...

back home

I'm back home, back at work and I couldn't be happier. *rolls eyes*

Anyway, I'm s l o w l y getting to my pictures. I do have shots from days 4 and 5 up in my East Meets West Gallery.

A few samples:

update: end of day 11

Day 11 marked my last day of the trip. We spent the first part of the afternoon at the zoo. The San Diego Zoo, in my opinion, puts the zoo in D.C. to shame. They had everything, including polar bears, panda bears, pigs, deer, eagles, snakes, flamingos, and koalas. That's not even half of it. It was amazing! The second part of the day we spent at Pacific Beach. I can't speak for other west coast beaches, but this one had such a different feel than ones on the east coast. The average age seemed to be somewhere in the late 20's to early 30's and a large percentage of them were surfing. That sure beats the "family" beaches with no waves that I'm more familiar with over here.

After the beach, we headed home so I could pack up for my 10:50 pm direct flight back to Dulles. I have two words. Jet Blue. The flight crew was nice, the leather seats were super comfy, there was a ton of leg room, they served more snacks on this red eye than any other flight I have been on, and the 40 some DirecTV channels in the headrest of the seat in front of me, made for a very easy flight. For those of you that really know me, know that I have a hard time sitting still and a 5 hour flight by myself just might be a problem.

Overall the trip was great. I would do it again in a heartbeat!!

It's kind of weird, yet exciting, that a trip which endend in San Diego for me, is the beginning of an all new experience for Caleb and his career. Good Luck, Caleb. You'll be missed here on the east coast, but we all know you'll do a great job and make a huge impact wherever you go.

new pictures:

I added some pictures in my East Meets West Gallery of the Oklahoma City memorial. We stopped there on day 3 while on our way to Austin, Tx from St. Louis, MO.

update: end of days 9-10

Day nine took us from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas, NV. The neat thing about that drive is that you have to cross over the Hoover Dam. Obviously, we stopped to take some pictures. As soon as we got out of the car, we were greeted with some extreme and unnecessary heat. I pulled up the weather on my phone and it showed it to be in the triple digits with an excessive heat warning. They were expecting the highs to be around 107 for that day and the next. gross. After a quick picture taking session, we headed back to the car and off to Vegas.

Vegas. We arrived after a quick stop at Sonic and then checked into our room. We stayed at the Imperial Palace, as it was only $50, and we could tell why. The room had southern-Florida-retirement-trailer-park-home decor, paired with cinderblocks covered in a sheet and a blanket. Thankfully it was only for one night. I showed Caleb around the town, he rode all three rides on top of the Stratosphere, we had caricatures made by a girl originally from Frederick, MD, took some pictures of the sights and then called it a night.

Day 10 was our last day on the road. We spent a little bit of the morning walking around Vegas before heading off to our final destination, San Diego, CA. But, first we stopped at Sonic so Caleb could get breakfast and I could get lunch and banana milkshake #6. YUM!!!!!!!!
The drive was boring, long, and hot! We drove through Death Valley, the home of the world's largest thermometer, which read a temp. of 108. yuck. We finally arrived in San Diego, our final destination, around 6:00pm. Caleb took me to see Studio West, his new place of employment, before heading off to his new house. We drove around the city a bit, grabbed some dinner, and then called it a night.

I can't believe we finally made it to the left coast. We have almost a full day to explore before I catch my flight home and back to the real world.

...from the phone

Sonic banana milkshake #5!

...from the phone

DAM!

update: end of day 8

Grand Canyon. Big. (nuff said)

We spent the whole day at the Canyon. The first few points we went to, happened to also be the main points for most all other tourists, especially those without access to a vehicle. Caleb and I found a few spots that were lower, more secluded, with better views, but also a lot harder to get to and scarier. I was surprised on how much it's not restricted. If you had the nerves to attempt to get to a spot, you could. Granted, the main spots had fences, brick walls, etc..

After quite a bit of hiking, climbing and taking pictures, we headed back to the hotel for lunch/dinner, a shower and some rest. We then headed out to see the sun set over the Canyon and were blown away. (not literally) The sunset was a nice change. I was getting a little bored with taking pics of the Canyon from different angles and views.

This morning, we woke up at 4:45 to get the sunrise over the eastern part of the Canyon. Amazing, simply amazing.

I have mow added on my list of things to do one day, that i want to hike down into the bottom and to the other side. One day.

Off to Vegas!!

update: end of day 7

Man, I wish I was caught up on my pictures so that I could put some up as I update.

This morning we headed out to a place called Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks. Alan and Andrea thought we would enjoy this spot, and we did. The hike was easy, about 1.3 miles each way, and the views from the top were breathtaking. Not only were the "tent rocks" amazing, but the fact that you could see forever made me, again, fall in love with the outdoor activities that NM has to offer.

Of course, since it was Saturday, we stopped at Burger King for lunch before heading out to the Grand Canyon. We arrived at the small town, just outside of the south entrance to the Canyon around 11:00 pm. Since AZ doesn't participate in daylight savings time, they're on Pacific Standard Time this part of the year. Kind of confusing. The town was dead. The very few restaurants and shops closed up early as there's not much traffic through the town at that time of night year.

I'm getting excited to see what the Canyon has to offer!

update: end of day 6

My last entry was from Thursday afternoon when we arrived in Roswell, NM. I didn't post anything from that night, well, because nothing went on. I guess we could have sat outside with our cameras waiting to see some UFO's, but instead we decided to order some pizza, relax, and take full advantage of the good internet.

Friday morning we enjoyed some nice continental breakfast, (finally) and headed out to a UFO museum. It was very cheesy, not so well put together, but still fun. Of course, I had to get a banana milkshake before leaving town, (my fourth one) then we headed off to Albuquerque, NM to stay with some friends of mine. I decided to drive the whole 200 miles since I'm not very good at sitting still in the passenger seat.

After a quick lunch, we arrived at Alan and Andrea's house somewhere around 4:00pm. Since we only had a little less than a day in Alburquerque, they decided to take us up into the the Sandia mountains. Leaving the house around 6:30, we arrived at our destination, which is just under 11,000 ft, in time to see the sun set. The views from up there are amazing. It's almost a 360˚ non obstructed view of the surrounding areas. Breathtaking. The air up there seems so pure, easy to breathe, and very relaxing. Caleb and I both got some cool pictures, especially with the huge lightning storm that was off in the distance. We got back around 9:00 and were served homemade spiced pepper soup, fajitas, and creme brulee. Homemade food is a nice change and it also allowed me to try some new foods, which I actually liked.

So, now we're off to another scenic spot before heading out to the Grand Canyon.

-Take care.