Carlsbad Caverns & Happy New Year

I can't resist posting a lot of photos from Carlsbad Caverns. Everytime I visit I am amazed. I try to envision what the first explorers felt when going into the cavern for the first time.
This was the first time for Don so we walked in through the natural entrance, you can also take an elevator down but walking down is half the experience. The walk is a little over a mile to the bottom, 750 feet below the surface. The interior of the bottom of the cavern called the Big Room is compared to over 4 football fields. It is massive and no picture can truely portray the experience.
Imagine decending into this hole. In the summer time you can sit in these seats and watch the bats fly out of the cave at dusk. I have never experienced it, but it is at the top of my list for my next visit.




Don looks cool even when listening to the audio guide.


This section was called the living zoo. A lot of the formations looked like animals, in this picture the rock on the left reminded me of an Ape.
This is a shot of the lunchroom. In the 50's the lunchroom and restrooms were built so that visitors could rest and have lunch after making the long walk down. The lunchroom looks pretty much the same as it did when it was first opened.
After being underground all day we were suprised to get to the surface and see snow flakes flying around. Looking out across the valley all was clear but looking behind the visitor center you can see the storm front moving in.

These are some more photos of the storm front.


We are off to Santa Fe tomorrow for New Years. There is a lot of snow in the northern part of the state, my mom lives in Las Cruces which is in the very southern part of the state and we still have some snow on the mountain here. I think the reports have said there is something like 18 inches of snow in Santa Fe. Winter is beautiful in New Mexico, I think I am experiencing more winter here than I will back in Philly!

You all have a wonderful New Year! Be safe and see you in 2007.

Beautiful New Mexico

We have had a wonderful holiday thus far. Today we are heading out to Roswell to take my Grandma home. Then its off to Carlsbad Caverns tomorrow. Here are a few pictures, I have not had the time I thought I might to post more.
We woke up to snow this morning. It's not a lot but its really pretty, this is my mom's back yard.

New Mexico Flea Market

We ventured out today to do a little Christmas shopping and we noticed that the flea market was open. There were not very many vendors out but it was an interesting trip.

Here is Don with El Toro, the main sign for the market.
It was not a fancy market, but it has been around since I can remember.
This was pretty creapy. The guy at this site had a beaten up babydoll hanging from his booth. I found it creapy and weird, but at the same time I wouldn't expect less from this type of market.
There was a special surprise in this box. I will leave that to your imagination.
I wasn't very tempted by the chili powder covered corn.
And finally if you cound find anything in this persons booth I would give you a metal.
The weather has been beautiful out here. There are still some small patches of snow in the shade at my mom's house. My mom moved into her new house about two weeks ago so we have been very busy helping her get things together and unpacked in time for Christmas. I will post some pictures later of the house, it is a really cute adobe house and she has a beautiful view.

Off to New Mexico for the Holidays

I am leaving in the morning for New Mexico. I am originally from there and a good majority of my family still lives there. Most people think of New Mexico as a warm place to go during the winter months but my mom called me last night to tell me they just got over 2 inches of snow. She lives near Las Cruces which is in the southern middle of the state. This is not uncommon as you may think. A couple of years ago it showed almost 2 feet and it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Here are a couple more pictures from that snow fall.


So it may not feel like Christmas in Philadelphia, but I think it will when I get home to New Mexico, go figure. I also plan on catching up on a lot when I am home. I have a lot of photos to post that I just have not had time to do.

I wish you all well in this hectic holiday season. Hopefully we can all find time to relax.

Baby Eve

Saturday I had the pleasure of photographing baby Eve. Amy and Brian are adorable new parents and they are so excited to have this little girl in their lives. They had originally contacted me to do belly portraits when Amy was pregnant, but the timing just didn't work out. I am very happy that they called on me to come photograph Eve. This was Amy's birthday present to Brian, happy Birthday Brian! I had a great time with you guys.

Here are a couple of images:

Here is your slideshow!

Happy Birthday to me!

Would you ever guess that I am 30? No joke. Most of my clients think I am 12.
I don't feel 30 thats for sure and it sounds funny even saying it. I have not made a fuss this year and usually I get really sad on my birthday, besides this post I am just letting it come and go. I am going to lunch with some close friends and collegues and Don is taking me out to dinner. Then it is back to work because I have to finish a book for the Book Making technique course I have been taking this term, final book is due Wednesday.
29 has been a fantastic year. I try to give myself realistic goals to accomplish every year and this year it was to build up my Photography Buisness. I am doing three times the amount of buisness I did in previous years and next year is looking great too. Thank you too everyone who has been so supportive and all of my fantastic clients who keep coming back and sending their friends to me. I am really looking foward to this upcoming year.

I thought some of you might enjoy this photograph, I believe I was about 6 years old. This was taken by my dad on one of our hitchhiking trips to Yellowstone. Funny thing about this photograph is that I still have this shirt, I found it in my dads "Joy" box after he died. He saved everything and I used to tease him about it but when I found the shirt which had been a favorite I was very happy he was so sentimental.

So Happy Birthday to me, 30 times over, I hope you all have a fantastic day too.

Scott McCloud's Visit

Scott McCloud came to Drexel on Thursday to give a lecture as part of his 50 State Tour. He packed the house and gave a very extensive and informative lecture. His daughter Sky started the lecture off by giving an overview of their tour and their family. Sky is only 13 and she is an amazing speaker, I could see her growing up to do this kind of thing for a living. Here are a few photographs.
This is Scott signing a book for Don:

Don designed the poster for the Lecture so we printed one out to give to Scott and one for Don to keep, here is Don and Scott signing posters for each other.



Scott was a busy man while he was here, he gave an awesome lecture and then came back to talk to a class of students in a more intimate atmosphere.

This is Winter McCloud. She is 11 and on the tour she interviews (Winterviews) comics while Sky tapes them. You can see some Winterviews here.
This is Sky McCloud. She is an amazing girl and unlike any other 13 year old I know. Talking ot her I felt like she could be one of the freshman at Drexel or something. Very mature and well spoken.
Here is Don with his purple drink at the Pod where we went to dinner after Scott's lecture.

Here I am with my green drink, I asked the waitress to surprise me but I ended up not being to thrilled with the green. The green drink was like a keylime pie, just didn't go very well with sushi and the food we were eating. Pod has a whole list of colored drinks off all different flavors. It is all about the color at Pod. If you have a group of just the right size you can get a Pod and you can change the color of the pod 8 different flavors.
Here is Winter with her virgin organge lemonade drink. We got to sit next to the kids at dinner. I think it was the best place to be we were entertained all evening.
This is just a view of the restaurant. You can see a blue Pod in the left corner.
And one more picture of Don and Scott. Don really wished he could have had more relaxed talk time with Scott, but Scott was on a tight schedule and kept being wisked away.

It was great to meet the McCloud family. I am sorry I don't have a picture of Scott's wife Ivy, she was awesome and a really cool mom.