One of my favorite things to do is people watch and Venice Beach is a perfect place to do just that. Last Sunday Donna and I took our cameras to Venice to relax, people watch, and grab a few shots while there. It was a beautiful day and this in itself is a welcomed change to be outside in the sunshine rather than sitting behind a desk in the accounting department all week. I was able to take a few shots while strolling the oceanfront walk. Here are a few of them.
The next few pictures are of graffiti that I saw on the side of a building. I like the colors that the artist used in the paintings so I took some pictures to post.
We were walking along and I heard this lone voice above the crowd saying, “I need gas money to get back to Africa.” This made me literally laugh out loud when I heard this. I looked around and this is the who I heard saying these words. I wonder exactly how he was proposing to use this “gas money” to get back to Africa!!!
This street sign captured my attention as well. If you have ever driven in California, you know that EVERY street here could be called “Speedway”!
I had a wonderful time in Venice and look forward to going back once again. I have always loved going to the beach, taking pictures, people watching, good company and when you combine all of them in one day, WOW, that’s a perfect day! Thanks, Donna, for such a great time! 
On January 1, 2010 I embarked on a new project called Project 365, which basically is capturing one picture a day for an entire year. What I like about this challenge is that the picture does not have to be taken with my fancy dancy camera but can be taken with my iPhone. This sounds simple enough yet will also challenge me. Some days I know that I will not feel like taking a photo and also that I will lack creativity yet I will do my best to follow though with the challenge that I have put before myself.
I have added a new page called Project 365 where all of my shots can be viewed in one place. Click here to link directly to the page. Be sure to click on the slideshow and come back OFTEN as this will be updated daily. I hope you enjoy the fruits of my labor! 
For those of you who may not know about Tank, he is the Flores’ family bulldog. Tank is not just ANY bulldog. He’s quite a little character. He will make you laugh when you are down and he will bring a smile to your face even when you don’t think you can muster a smile. He is a dog of many faces. I have never seen a dog that has so much personality as this little guy. When Donna and Daniel brought home this little bundle of energy last Christmas for their boys’ Christmas present, I was immediately won over by this precious little face. I was in North Carolina visiting my family over the holidays when I got a text message telling me they had an addition to the family and when I saw his picture, I knew why they had picked this one. They have had him a year this week and as a tribute to the Tankster, here are a few pictures I took in their front yard of him playing a few weeks ago. He LOVES to play with this gigantic volleyball and gets so excited when Josh brings it outside. Take a look at the pictures and look at the expression on Tank’s face. He chases the ball so fast and furious that he actually runs OVER the ball when he catches it. Everyone laughs at him and this makes him run even harder and faster. It’s like the excitement he exudes is contagious. You can’t help but smile when watching him. I never thought someone else’s dog would bring so much joy to me. Thanks for sharing your pup!
Here are a few pictures that were taken by Donna that she said I could use to show one of the water drops from the helicopters. These were actually taken from my bedroom window! This shows exactly how close this fire is to where I live . . . . too close for comfort if you ask me!
Tuesday evening on my way home from work I texted Donna to let her know there was a huge plume of smoke coming from the mountains near her house and asked if she knew anything about it. She immediately texted back that she was not aware of the fire. Here are some pictures that I have taken over the course of the weekend as the fire continues to consume everything in its path. I have some more pictures that I am going to post later. I’m truly grateful to God for keeping us safe and to the courageous firefighters for all their hard work to put out this wild fire. If you would like to read more about the fires, please venture over to Donna’s blog and take a look at her pictures that she has posted. Here is another link to a picture she did that was actually taken from my bedroom window. It gives you some perspective as to how close the fire actually is to where I live.
The 4th of July is always a hot and fun holiday! This year was no exception. I was able to spent the day with some of my dear friends to celebrate the day. We had the traditional hotdogs, hamburgers, baked beans, potato salad, watermelon, strawberry shortcake, and more. Not a single one of us left hungry. Some of our friends from church joined us later in the afternoon and played some yard games involving water balloons to help cool things off a bit. As the skies grew darker everyone headed down to watch one of the many fireworks displays that was being offered in the Los Angeles area. After all was said and done, I believe we all had a great time together of fun, food, and fellowship. Below are a few of the fireworks shots that Donna and I captured. I didn’t take my camera setup so we shared hers and alternated taking the fireworks shots. I hope you enjoy some of the shots we took.
A few weeks ago someone start following me on Twitter called blipfoto. Of course I was curious so I started to investigate their profile and check their website. They are actually based in Scotland! The neat thing about it is that they started following Donna about the same time and she signed up before I did which in turn encouraged me to do the same. The idea behind their website is to get you to post one picture that you took that day to share with others all around the world. It is a really neat concept and some of the things that I have seen on there are great! Each member is allowed to comment on the other members’ photo posts. There is a definite sense of community in blip land among some of the members and I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know a little bit about the members there. They have reached out and warmly welcomed me. I have already sharpened my photography skills and challenged myself to shoot things that I normally would pass by and not even consider for a picture. Here are a few of my pictures I have posted over the past few weeks. As you can see the subject of my pictures vastly varies from day to day.
A few weekends ago I had the opportunity to go to Venice Beach and experience the culture there. I really had a great day that day and I took a few pictures that I wanted to share. I wasn’t there except for a few hours and I quickly found that there was too much too absorb in such a short amount of time. The culture was as diverse as the street vendors, to the artists, to the musicians that were involved in a huge jam session, This was worth the short drive to the coast and I definitely want to go back when I can experience a little more of the culture at Venice Beach.
Last night Donna and I were going to go to down to a tiny little town right down the street from where I live called Montrose. Our adventure primarily was to take some pictures of the Christmas lights. Every year that I have been here we have wanted to do this and every year for one reason or another we have not been able to do so. This year we were going to make it a reality.
Our evening began when I got off work with our venture to the forever long drive-thru line at In & Out Burgers. We were going to drive a few blocks down to Montrose to set up to shoot our Christmas light extravaganza. After dinner out came the cameras and the tripod. We decided the best place to get was on the corner of one of the side streets so we could catch the traffic in the shots as they drove by.
There we were, minding out own business when we both noticed a man to the left of us that seemed a little unusual. He was on his cell phone yet was preoccupied with things around him. He began to move closer and closer to us and it made us feel very uncomfortable. I was thinking, “how am I going to get my stuff and get away from him quick?” Later after talking with Donna, her thoughts were similar to mine! What WAS this man up to?
Next thing I know he is standing between us and turns towards me and says, “Don’t be afraid. Continue what you are doing” as he lifted his shirt tail and showed my his LAPD badge. I would have NEVER thought this guy was a cop but I guess that is good because he was undercover. By this time I’m still wondering what the heck we had gotten in the middle of here. All we wanted was some Christmas light shots. He asked me if I saw the man at the ATM machine. My response was affirmative and then he asked me to describe to him what he was doing, if he was looking around, if he dropped anything, etc. The entire time he is asking me all these questions, he’s asking about our pictures so that he would blend in with the crowd.
Bottom line of the evening is that the man at the ATM machine got away. He finished whatever he was doing and walked away. The undercover cop began to follow him and told the person on the phone that the suspect was moving. A few minutes later, I see the cop walk back down the street and a van circle back and forth a few times and then the cop got in the van.
Needless to say after all this transpired, we decided to call it an evening. I could just see something going down and us right in the middle of it and no where to go to get away. Leave it to us to be right in the middle of something when we were trying to mind out own business and take Christmas pics for our blogs!
