Some attractions are pretty 'dam' cool

Hoover Dam. You have to see it to fully appreciate it.

Viva Las Vegas

How much I lost in the casino is a sore topic so don't ask me. I do have to say that Vegas was better then I imagined. i'll be back

Santa Cruz boardwalk

not bad but why do they close at 5 pm? Also, I always thought that obese people walking around in swimsuits was a midwest phenomena. Nope. More and worst is right here. I guess that's what they mean by 'happy cows come from California' slogan

more hwy 1

San Francisco part...whatever

You want the bridge, you got the bridge. Finally got to go on hwy 1. Windy road, nice scenery and the waitresses at the restaurant we stopped at was awesome ... food was good too. Few martinis made the zig zag road back even more zig zagi. Two more days. My kids college tuition can only go so far at Calumet.

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San Francisco

ok,i'm still not sure what the appeal of this city is. The place is crowde, dirty, and full of homeless on every corner. I am not puting the city down, I am merely voicing my observations. We came to Fisherman Wharf today. I ended up parking about ten miles away in a $10 per hour spot. I am about to eat some Progresso clam chowder, disguised as home made and my Coron is not what I would consider cold. Return trip won't happen fast enough.

San Francisco

Went to China Town today. Sorry San Francisco, maybe you China Town is bigger but I prefer Chicago's and Chi town also has much better and more authentic food. Homeless people gallore. hey, if you can stand on your feet all day asking for money, you can clean bathrooms or flip burgers for a living and make legitimate income. The houses here are cute but little and very uniform unless you're dishing out couple of millions for something that would cost under 500 k in Milwaukee.
more observations tomorrow

more from yesterday

so I really wanted to get off the interstate angling get back on hwy 101. So I did, and the windy roads through northern California were gorgeous for about the first hour. But 140 mile drive down a fricken rollercoaster at an average 20 mph stops being fun and turns into 'when will this end'.
Never again !!! Then it was late, and I realised that hwy 1 and not 101 is the scenic one and of course taking it would force us to spend another night in a hotel. GFDI !!!
Anyway, we made to it San Francisco a little past 11 pm. I was hungry, tired and didn't blog. Going exploring today...i actually made one trip to a sacred place called Calumet Photo. to me it was the Holy Grail. I found AND bought everything I wanted except for justin clamps which they did not have in stock.

a little follow to yesterday

it looked promising, I followed the signs for miles but turned out that 'Weed' was just a name of a town.

finally in California

view on Mt Shasta

driving through Oregon

We left Seattle and made it to US 101 which runs along the coast line. Unfortunatetely it was raining really bad and let assure YOU,ut when logging trucks pass you in the opposite direction at 185 mph, it's a 'i almost crapped my pants' experience. To speed things up, we jumped on the road towards Portland and then onto interstate 5.
Decided that arriving in San Francisco at 3 am would be a waste of site seeing, we crashed about 20 miles away from California. If the weather improves tomorrow, we will cut back to the Pacific Coast Highway and arrive in San Francisco whenever we feel like it :-)

more Seattle fun

Aftwr the space needle and the museum, it was time to hit road for the holy place; the very first Starbucks shop, located in the Pike Market Place. TO ALL OF YOU WHO THINK YOU GOT EVERYTHING, you ain't nothing because DADDY had a cup of Pike blend.

top of Seattle !!!

This would be even better if I didn't have the fear of heights

Space Needle

waiting for the elevator :-)

Seattle

After a 500 mile trip yesterday, we finally woke up in Seattle. If it wasn't for the 48 degree weather , I would think we're in Hawaii because of all the vegetation. bottom line is that if I ever win a lottery, I am moving here. Picture above is from a Hawaiian restaurant I am currently at for lunch so more pics of the city skyline later.

what happened today

after restocking on more seltzer last night and sleeping in too late, we hit the road for the 500 mile drive to Seattle. As a matter of fact, this blog is being typed in Seattle. I'll be staying here for two nights, exploring the city all day tomorrow so keep reading.

stupid blogger

why are my posts not going through?!?!?!?!?

great explorer

on Lewis and Clark trail

Big Sky Country

I swear, if I ever win a lottery, I am moving to Montana. if I wanted to stop here and photograph all the scenery, I would average three miles per day

who vandalized the mountain?

we finally made it to the beautiful mt Rushmore. It's absolutely amazing how there once were enough creative types with no fear of heights to pull off this gig. What's even more amazing is that there is a ton of people here from all over the country. Next stop, Montana.

Where the heck is Wall Drug

Finally made it. saw signs advertising in Minnesota. cool little town and fun mall if you ke western stuff which I don't BUT it's still pretty neat

you don't have to tell me twice

more Badlands

badlands

wow, now I know why they call it that. next stop Wall Drug

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pray and go

look what I found at the rest area

have coffee will travel :-)

no more needs to be said here

Corn Palace Mitchell SD

Unfortunatetely we cannot really do much because they're setting up the stage for Osama the Barac

First day of road trip

I'll save majority of details for the book but we left late, stopped too many times, had some corndogs in Minnesota and fiinally made it to Flandreau, SD at around 6 PM. It was good to be back where my life in America started about 27 years ago. The place we lived in looked a little dilapidated but still managed to stir the emotions. The town itself changed a bit but the people are as nice and friendly as I remember them from before, including the op that inquired about me pulling iover in the middle of the intersection. Bottom line, I drove over 700 miles, didn't get arrested, got some good shots, didn't throw kids out the car and I am now resting n Mitchell, SD waiting for daylight so I can see the Corn Palace and then take off for the Black Hills and then Montana.The picture in this post is of the building we lived in when we first moved to the US. Slightly different then it was but
that's my old place, right smack in themiddle of downtown :-) See ya tomorrow night.

the beginning

ok, so earlier this year I sat aside a three week long chunk of time for a little vacation. this map is the planned trip. Yes, I will stay faithfully to this blog for the next three weeks as we ride the gas guzling Suburban through this country of ours so stay tuned. The trip starts on May 31st We will be taking off from an undisclosed location with Flandreau, SD as our first stop.

OK, I know

Yes, my last post was back in September, but life in photoville is comparable to New York Times Square. I owe it to you, my customers. Even December was busy.
The other day, I had the pleasure of chatting with a friend photographer who's also busy and we were musing about how some in our industry are not able to get any assignments and what the reasons are. Here is a reason. Love what you do, love those you do it for, and first and foremost deliver better then possible image in the end. Some would argue that availability of inexpensive prosumer cameras is taking away from the pro studios. I now firmly believe that it doesn't. I think the awareness of what's possible with a camera has been going through rebirth of sorts. Cell phone photography, small point and shoot cameras, etc. All these technologies brought photography back into focus. So, while everyone is able to take a photo, few still have what it really takes to make an exceptional image and that's fine. I am not an accountant but I can balance my checkbook however if I need my taxes done, I do not hesitate to contact a professional because he or she can do it with a much better result. Of course, I could buy tax software and try to believe the hype of how easy it is to use, etc, but from past experience, I have learned that my results will be very different then when done professionally. SO, many of today's fly by night, OMG I just bought a camera and I am now a photographer photographers deliver the tax software results, and some of us can still give you what took years to learn and refine, a beautiful image that will last and please for generations to come.

Before I go, I have to throw in a sneak peek of something. In the next couple of weeks, I will be making a big announcement so stay tuned to the blog and be ready to cheer with me :-)