Looking for the light

I'm taking an online class that's all about phone photography and our first assignment was light.  I was experimenting all day with different types of light and different photo editing apps.

Here are some that I took during the day

And here's one from Annapolis that I edited a little and re-posted

I wanted to try some shots at "magic hour" - that half hour or so right after sunset - so dragged the family down to the C & O Canal for an impromptu photo shoot which turned into a really fun little adventure.

These two  came from my phone

 But of course I had to bring my real camera, and I got some beautiful pictures.  I couldn't have asked for a prettier sunset/

It was a beautiful summer night, so where do we go?  A graveyard! (It's also a Civil War memorial)

Cali - wrapping up

As you can see, we packed in a lot of fun this week.  We can't thank Don and Amy enough for being such great hosts.  We spent a lot of time in the pool, so here are a few pics of that.

 This picture makes me smile every time I see it

And of course, no visit to the Whites is complete without a picture of The Boy and his big, goofy sidekick Sonic

Hopefully we'll be repeating this trip again very soon!

Cali - Day 6: Venice Beach and Hollywood

Friday was July 4th, and Don took us to "the greatest place on earth":  Venice Beach.  Let's just say we saw of lot of things that we'll never see in Hagerstown!  It was a fabulous freak show.

Here's a summary of some of the great people we saw.  Sullivan did NOT see the humor in the ancient body builder.  She did enjoy the skateboarders, though. The roller blading, guitar playing sheik would take a picture with me unless I bought one of the t-shirts he was selling.

I loved the cowboy cops

The beach here was big and beautiful

Our guys showing off their stuff at Muscle Beach

 On the way home, we made a little detour to see the Hollywood sign

If you look closely, you can see the Hollywood sign behind us.  Look very closely!

Here's Sullivan coming down the (faded) red carpet

We took a little stroll on Hollywood Blvd to see the Walk of Fame.  It was hot and crowded, but very entertaining.

Guess which one of these stars is my favorite :-)

Look at all the celebrities we saw!  I danced briefly with Spider-man.  Darth Vader said "excuse me" as he walked past me - he was surprisingly polite.  And Don posed for some pictures with Marilyn Monroe.  Quite a day!

Cali - Day 5

By Thursday were were all ready for a quite day.  The kids stayed in there jammies and played on there iPads while Tim and I went for a hike in the hills behind Don and Amy's house. Then, of course, we all got in the pool.


Here's a view looking down their street

It was a hot day for a hike, but the view was absolutely worth it.  I'm happy to report that we did not see any rattlesnakes!

 Our trail

Trying out the panoramic feature on my camera

Here's what the kids were doing while we were hiking

 

After that long, hot hike, we earned ourselves a little treat

Cali - Day 4: California Adventure

Wednesday:  Disney's California Adventure was an absolute BLAST!  We rode lots of new rides and had a great time.  You can see lots of big smiles in these pictures!

 Dad-gum!  That was a fun ride!

 Fun at Toy Story Mania

Goofy conducting a water symphony

Sullivan's favorite ride of the day: 

My favorite ride of the day:

 

A bright, beautiful day in Anaheim

Sullivan waiting for Heimdall to open the Bifrost