we stayed at our friends’ house (they were actually down in so cal for the time, ironically) during our weekend and their place is just brilliant. (thanks again, toby and sonja!)

not too long after we set our bags down, we headed out to see some of their neighborhood. so, you can maybe read in the shot right below the full story of this “artist/collector”, but he basically has created these intricate sculptures on his property from things that he has found washed up on the shores of local beaches.

from litter to nature… a natural segue, right?

we got a few things together and headed to downtown berkeley for some food and general wandering.

excuse the grain on these two phish show photos… they were shot with my point-and-shoot… but i still like them.

after the phish show that night, we went to a late night performance downtown. jennifer hartswick (who plays/sings in trey anastasio’s solo project band) was going to be guesting with a band named moksha from las vegas.

the next day, we got a little bit of a late start for breakfast and decided to have lunch instead. we stopped at this place that we had heard good things about, but what people said could not even touch how amazing these burgers were. and there were so many options on the menu. the choice was difficult, but we both left super full and super happy. if you are ever in berkeley, make a point to get to Barney’s. trust me.

get into it, brother. don’t be scared!  :)

as we walked back towards our friends’ place, we saw a few racks of sunglasses outside a little shop and decided to try some on before making a purchase. well, my brother ended up being the model for a very impromptu sunglass product shoot. and he was good at it!!!  ;)

onto pre-show fun and people watching. no show pictures coming… just stuff before it.

for those who may not know, the upraised finger as people walk up and down the sidewalk is to indicate they need a ticket. the grateful dead did a song called “i need a miracle” some years back, and the term kind of stuck with the hippie crowd as saying: “i need my miracle ticket” or some form of that. so now you know… and you thought you wouldn’t learn anything today… pshaw!

the next morning, before we left to come back home to so cal, we went out again for breakfast. i had to pull the car over really quick to take a shot of these old “street signs” that i do not know the history of (sorry… wasn’t it enough that i taught you the story of the miracle tickets?), but these are just so cool to me. this is good history. well, visually, at least… since i do not know the actual history.

and who would have known? we scored again with where we ate. the breakfast was nothing short of phenomenal at this little place in north berkeley called the sunny side cafe.. another place for you to bookmark if you like making your tastebuds do a little happy dance.

overall, yet another amazing time in northern california. i need to live up there. if you know me, you know how much i firmly believe that. some day, nor cal… some day we will be co-habitants. until then, i will return soon   :)

i had to take some photos of her fresh from a nap…

this is me and the hired santa (ahem… don’t let your kids read this. should i have put “spoiler alert” at the top of this? haha) from my brother’s holiday open house last year for his non-profit organization, the pet rescue center. of course, santa’s beard made mine look sad.

here is our christmas card photo from this year (sorry if you did not get one. maybe you need to give me your mailing address?). this was my wife’s idea and we are all warm in the holiday cheer, er uh…. our snuggies.

here we are just before going to an (now very popular theme) ugly christmas sweater party/dinner with our friends a couple of years ago.

and here is the grand finale, the shot that i just found out is back up on websites again this holiday season after making a big splash last year. i admittedly pat myself on the back for that, because, well… i am not famous and never will be. i was not the star quarterback in high school, i never win in the lottery… so it’s the little victories, right?

shout-outs go to my dear mom who just celebrated a birthday last week. these sweaters belong to her. well, they used to. i have basically confiscated them now as my own. also, to cordarounds for those awesome discoball pants in that last photo above. and to my wife… cuz she not only put up with these kind of shenanigans from me, but (as you see here) she sometimes jumps in too. happy holidays everyone!

almost as soon as we arrived, we headed over to the park to play with our friends’ kids and some of their friends. little d loves the swings, so she even got to have some fun.

i tried to muster a shot that entered my mind with the lens i was stuck with. it kinda worked. i kinda love it.

i climbed onto some of the jungle gym and caught what are now a few of my favorite photos of our little girl and of her with my wife.

this is our friends’ little girl. for some reason, some of my favorite shots i get of her are always while she has something going on that makes the picture seem a throw-away. she just gets this calmness about her, i guess, when she is pre-occupied. who knows… maybe Horizon Organic will contact me for using it as an ad?  :)

just some of what makes petaluma take the breath out of me sometimes.

and here is our little girl all dressed up for her first thanksgiving with our friends up north.

and this is my wife (melissa) with the middle generation of our friends (colleen). she is a dear friend that melissa has basically known all of her life, for the most part. and she is crafty as all get out. i cannot even tell you how many things she has made for us and little d. oh, for instance… she made that dress in the shot above for her and the little kicker she has on her head too! and, i might bet you that she made what she has on below, as well.

so… i will try to keep this from being a “you had to be there” kind of thing. for those of you on facebook, i will post a video soon. but our little girl does this thing we now call “mind control” where she tenses all up and kinda stares at you and shakes a little. the best is when she shakes her face just right so her big old cheeks just rattle along. good times.

it became clear to me again this weekend how much i love just taking photos. how i love the organic process of just shooting as things happen. i had my camera out even less than i would have liked to, but i got a handful of shots that are up at the top of my all-time faves (for now). i just love this moment with my two girls.

again, for those of you on my facebook, you know about one of the things that really got me excited about this particular trip. i usually try to break away for at least a half day of just photo-exploration. not always with a destination in mind. but this trip, our friend andy and i got up early and headed out to the small town of bodega. this is the home to the church that was used in the alfred hitchcock film “the birds”. i have been an enormous (not a pun aimed at the size of the director) fan of hitchcock since i can remember. so any opportunity to walk around and even capture a hitchcockian monument … well, it makes me giddy beyond words.

the top photos are the same… i just loved how much different this looked in hitchcockian black-and-white. of note, getting the second shot cost me a few rips in my pants from a barbed-wire fence. well worth it.

before getting back to the house, we made a brief stop at the rocks above dillon beach. i have no words… just photos.

while d and i were sharing some time while the mom’s shopped, she allowed me to take a few goofy shots of her.below is her excitement when she pulls out certain faves of her animal flash cards. she does so love the ducky.

and now for a storyboard of her excitement when ‘chica’ makes an appearance on the sprout channel:

you can tell when i am shooting more for me, because i will bring out my old argus camera. i just love the way things look through its viewfinder and the final product from it usually dizzies me in a good way… speaking to the side of me that used to love sifting through old family photos.so here is a handful of some of my faves from a little walk we all took together with my argus doing the story-telling.

i have high hopes for the reception of some of these quick shots i took of colleen and the kids on their porch that evening. hopefully i am not the only one who loves these this much.   :)

and here are the kids hanging out on their porch bench. i love the “group shots” we get with d in them. it makes my mind time-travel ahead to when she will look at these photographs…

… and i smile everytime that i imagine her saying “oh, that’s me and ______ ” … easily recalling different moments in her life that she shared with people that she loves. we all know that is what the holidays are about. family and friends and the love that we feel for those people becoming a tangible thing. and by that, i don’t mean a present. but, rather, a hug and a kiss on the cheek. a few days out of our life where we spend time reminiscing with the people that have helped shape us into who we are. and now that i am older, and can see things in this light, saying “i wish it were christmas every day” takes on a new meaning for me. because if any or all of us could be that wrapped up in love and affection and basic human kindness…. wouldn’t the world just be that much better?

** thanks for reading and looking through this post. i know it is a more personal one, in nature… but it does resemble my work as well. i hope each and every one of you had a blessed holiday and can continue to enjoy the holidays to come. **

so i have been very busy lately… editing a lot of different events and shoots and trying to beat all of my deadlines. sometimes it keeps me from the little things i want or need to do: updating my blog, a major website update and purge and ordering new and more relevant business cards.

so to keep my blog from getting a little stale, here is a couple of photos of my little girl from this month as we allow autumn to fully embrace us with its chilly arms.

** of note, the photos with me in them and the shot of our little girl in her costume were taken by my lovely wife, melissa. **

a visit from a friend made me think again about how much i love using my TTV for shots (which i had not done in a while…). so here’s to your inspiration, erica!

we took a couple of visits to the pumpkin patch with friends this month.

and here is what our little one is going to look like in just 4 days from now, while she is riding in her wagon (this shot on the right is from her first ever ride in it, the day we got it).

our little girl’s first halloween this year will surely bring back a lot of memories for me of my own childhood. i hope you all truly have a safe (and sane) holiday this year.