Easter Moments

I love spontaneous portrait sessions.....the ones where no one is expecting them but the moment's right.  Easter Sunday we were enjoying ourselves and I noticed a field of yellow mustard weed in the back pasture and the gorgeous thunder clouds.  I asked cousin Kelly if I could photograph her kids with their Easter baskets out back.

Tristan and Pressley

They are really photogenic kids but Pressley was getting a little anxious.

She held up her Easter bucket and declared to us all "I am done!"  So I told Tristan to stay put and I'd take his picture.

He would have posed for me all day.  He's such a handsome kid.  I told Kelly we should shoot a couple family shots and to go find her fiancee.  She did the next best thing....texted him to come to the field.

When the kids got bored I decided to shoot a few couples shots.

They got married the next day.............Not saying my pictures had anything to do with that...but how cool!

A few more shots from the day.............

Senior: JASON

What an dynamic guy Jason is.  We spent quite a bit of time horsing around before getting to the serious shots.  He's quite the character.  He's one of the most put together Senior's I have met.  Not only is he trying to start a 501(c) non-profit but he carries a 4.0 grade point average AND is very athletic.  

He has a darling little smirk.  (I'm sure he would be mortified by me saying "darling)

I had so much fun shooting Jason and I can't wait to see where he goes in life.  Where ever it is it will be BIG!

Flooding December 2, 2012

The wind and rain has been relentless.  I was up early this morning because of the howling wind through the slightly cracked bedroom window.  Brian has a cold so slept through everything.  I headed downstairs to brew some coffee and go through pictures from yesterday's Paws & Claus Christmas event to benefit the Calaveras Humane Society.  With a huge cup of coffee in hand I turned on the computer and watched the sun come up over our rapidly rising creek.  Soon Brian was downstairs making a huge plate of waffles.  Then the downpour started.  It rained really hard....blinding conditions for about three hours.   Brian went in the dining room and the floor was soaked.  The wind was blowing the water against and under the door.  I started finding puddles around the house.  Several of the door window panes couldn't handle that amount of water and wind. While checking the windows I noticed the lake that was forming in the backyard under the dining room window.

Taken through the dining room window

As it started to die down...a little... I decided to put on my raincoat and boots and take a walk.  I grabbed my little point and shoot and out the door I went.............

One of the seasonal streams

I guess the doggies won't have a pasture to play in for a while.

The fence is almost gone.

The fence between the neighbor and us.  It's almost completely gone.  We'll need to get out there and repair everything before "Ricky & Lucy" are delivered on the 14th.

The neighbor's property

Property next door

I headed down the road to see how our little bridge was handling the water.............It wasn't!

View from our driveway to the end of the road.

The bridge is down by the entrance to the neighbor's property

Tree on my neighbor's property.  They are stuck in their house.  You can see their driveway to the right. It's completely flooded.

The Great Reno Balloon Race

At midnight we hit the road on our way to Reno.  We tried to sleep before we left but I think all the minutes added together might equal an hour.  Going over Highway 88 I couldn't believe how many deer we saw.  Around every bend in the road there were deer.  If I had counted I'm sure it would have been over 100.

We arrived in Reno at 3:30 and promptly got lost because there was highway construction and off ramps were blocked.  We ended up on the strip, which is peaceful at that time of morning.  Finding  Rancho San Rafael Park was a little confusing because its in the middle of a sleepy little neighborhood.  We didn't even know we were in the right place until we saw direction attendants with glow sticks.

We parked our big noisy diesel truck in front of some poor sleeping peoples home and walked about a mile to the park.  The vendors open up at 4:00 so Brian got his coffee and we headed down to the field.  Within 30 minutes the place was filling up.  No one wants to miss the "glow show."  The first balloon out on the field was the Wells Fargo Stagecoach.  It was huge.  I asked my sweet sleepy husband to go stand in front of it.  He obliged but doesn't look too happy about it.  You'd think he'd be used to having his picture taken by now.  He still grumbles as much as he did 15 years ago.

There are only a handful of balloons that participate in the "glow show" where they burn special fuel to make the balloons "glow."

The panda inflates and glows

5:15 a.m. and it's getting busy..........

The Pepsi can came late

Then the Dawn Patrol gets inflated.  They take off at 5:30.

Once they are ready they take to the sky choreographed to music.

The moon was beautiful.

At 6:00 a.m. with the sun coming up the Dawn Patrol lands and everyone gets ready for the mass ascension at 6:45.  The last of the balloons makes its way down.

Mass Inflation

Almost ready

 And they're off.

Darth Vader (from Belgium) takes off

And the Panda

Pepsi

The rest get ready 

 

 

and the rest of them..............

 

As you can tell this is a huge event.  Last year they said 150,000 people enjoyed the race over the three day period.  I will definitely go again.   I don't know how they manage to keep the event "free"  with all the traffic control, law enforcement, fire and medics.  Even if they just charged the photographers they would make bank.  I have never seen so many camera's and tripods in my life.