We were rushing to get over to Veterans Stadium last night to watch the fireworks. Fortunately, Arby drove fast enough and was able to find a small amount of space on the street to fit his car into.

I got out and setup my tripod and was able to get a few shots of the fireworks.

It was actually my first valid attempt to shot fireworks. The method i used was to simply set the mode to Time Priority, set the 2 second timer, and let it fly. I tried different amounts of shutter exposure, just increasing and decreasing the seconds of each shot.

Here is Bosco in his Halloween costume. He did not appreciate having it on and pretty much just stood anywhere you placed him and would barely move an inch. On his behalf, I must make another request to all dog owners to stop the dressing up of all dogs. They just don’t like it and will one day plot against us and take over the world. Ok, maybe not exactly, they are getting mighty pissed off!

Bosco the Turtle Will Take Over the World!, originally uploaded by jasolutions.

Halloween 2009 has come and gone. It’s kind of sad to say that we had our lowest turn out of TT’s (Trick or Treaters) this year. I couldn’t tell if Bosco was sad because of the lack of TT’s or if it was just because he had his costume on. He really hates it when we put anything except a leash on him. This year, Joan got him a turtle costume. Even though I despise idea of putting clothes on Bosco, I do have to admit that he looks pretty cute in this outfit.

The two jack-o-lanterns behind him are the works of art that Joan and Harveen made earlier in the day. Joan made the cat and Harveen made the owl. They are so good; I believe they are going to turn it into a yearly tradition. Next year, I am going to carve Bosco’s likeness into the pumpkin! I will call it a “Bosc-o-lantern!!!”

And if you just can’t get enough of Bosco’s costume this year, tune in tomorrow for a better shot of just him in all his glory…

A Turtle and Two Jacks, originally uploaded by jasolutions.

Ahh, Venice… The city of… pigeons… I still get shivers thinking about the people that let them perch atop their head and pick bread from their lips. Umm… yeah, on to happier thoughts.

When we were on the ferry going into Venice, we were greeted with this wonderful and, no doubt, most famous sight. The area surrounding St. Mark’s Square and its Basilica is known as the Piazza. From here, the most prominent object is the giant Campanile which towers above the city. We did not have a chance (read: too tired!!!) to climb to the top, but perhaps we can next time we are in town. Flanking the Square is also the Library and the Doge’s Palace, which is where Casanova was once held.

Too bad we only had 1 full day there. I think we could have easily spent a week there, exploring all the little alley ways and catching up on all the sights we missed out on. For being such a relatively small place, there are so many things to see, do, and take pictures of.

Piazzetta San Marco, Venice, Italy, originally uploaded by jasolutions.

It has been a while since I have had an entry here. Life has been composed of one crazy day after another. On that token, I decided to go back a bit in time a post a picture that I shot quite a while ago.

I had to go down to the TTI terminal one night to take some pictures of a container for one of China Shipping’s customers. I took this opportunity to snap a few shots of the cranes and staging area. This is the area where trucks line up to either pick up import loads or drop off export loads. The sun had just barely set, and there was still that twilight glow in the sky. With the crane and terminal lights, it looked pretty cool.

Now this was back before I had a digital camera, so I didn’t even really know how the shots were going to turn out. It is really weird to think back when I first started out in photography. There was a refreshing quality to not know how a shot was going to turn out, forgetting about it, and then when you got the prints back, being pleasantly surprised.

Now you can, shoot, review, shoot some more, and even do basic corrections without having to even think about basic photographic principles. I like to think that my photos were somewhat better back in those days, mainly because there was a cost associated with every frame. You had a vested interest to make sure the shot was composed properly because it was costing you money every time your finger hit that shutter release. It made you think before you took the picture, instead of after the fact.

I wonder if Costco even processes film anymore…

TTI Staging Area on Film, originally uploaded by jasolutions.

I got a strange email about a month or so ago, saying that one of my pictures was being considered for inclusion in a new sort of travel website called Schmap.

Confused, yet somewhat intrigued, I took a look at the site. It didn’t look malicious in nature, so I allowed my picture to be included. Apparently, they liked the picture, because 2 days ago I received another email saying that I had won. Here is a link to the page with my winning photograph.

I guess they select pictures to be included on their site to show different touristy areas and landmarks of cities.

The picture they selected was my shot of the Arc de Triomphe from Avenue des Champs-Élysées. It really is nothing to be that proud of I guess. I mean, come on, it’s not like it’s the National Geographic or anything. But nevertheless, I am going to consider this my first published picture. I hope my ego doesn’t get too big due to my new found success… Here it is again, in all its glory…

Arc de Triomphe from Avenue des Champs-Élysées, originally uploaded by jasolutions.

Last weekend, we knew we wanted to bathe Bosco because he was already smelling pretty funky. So we decided to let him go all out and took him to the Huntington Beach Dog Beach. It is one of the very few beaches that will allow your dog to roam around without a leash. All the dogs and owners are pretty nice, and it is just a really nice place to go; that is if you can find parking…

In any case, we let Bosco run around, chasing other dogs, getting chased himself, and watching him avoid the water the water at all costs. Bosco really hates the water. Can’t blame him really. If I were that delicate, I would probably try to avoid the water as well. I think Bosco really thinks that people are going to drown if the water touches them. If you get too close, he will bark and bark and bark. Its kind of annoying after a while. But I guess you can’t blame him for worrying.

I am trying to bring my camera to more places so that I can have more opportunities to take pictures. I always hope that I can get at least one good picture when we go out. So on this day, we got out to the beach a little late and the sun was just about to set, so we sat down to take a few pictures. This is one of my favorites… My two loves in this world… How could you not love these two beautiful faces???

Bosco’s Day At The Beach, originally uploaded by jasolutions.

I don’t know if I have ever seen clouds as fierce and spectacular as the ones that I saw in Florida.

For our one year anniversary, Joan and I went on a cruise to the Bahamas. We didn’t want to take any chances on missing anything and didn’t want to be stressed getting there, so we decided to arrive a few days early and check out Florida. We had been there once before, but just for a layover on our way to Jamaica.

So one of the days we were in Florida, we decided to hop in our rental car and head down to the Florida Keys. It was awesome there… Hot, but awesome nonetheless. We stopped every so often at cool little spots along the way to take pictures or just look around.

We knew the weather was going to be spotty while we were there, but it turned out better than we thought. There were supposed to be thunder storms every day we were there. Fortunately, the every time it poured down, we were either inside our car, hotel room, or on the ship. But when we were in the Keys, I looked over as we were driving and saw some really cool clouds. Well, when you see really cool clouds, you can’t just keep driving; you must get out and take a picture.

And yes, before you get all agro, this is in fact a fake HDR. I used my fake HDR process to bump up the interest a bit. Even though I risked overdoing it with this one, I think the process puts the photo right on the edge of the envelope. I think it almost has a painted look to it.

In any case, luckily we decided to turn around and head back to Miami when we did. Not long after we got back, those very same clouds unleashed their fury on the entire South Florida area. We had a very interesting light show that night.

Floridian Thunder Clouds, originally uploaded by jasolutions.

We got Bosco when he was just a couple weeks old. We actually felt bad afterwards because he should have still been with his mom and we thought we had caused irreparable damage by separating them. He’s damaged, but thankfully it is not due to the separation; it’s all self-induced on his part. He has too many issues to list here, but we love him anyway.

When we first got Bosco, Joan was still living at her Mom’s house. This meant that we were kind of like a divorced couple in that we had to share custody of him. Ok, well, not really… But I did take him for a couple weekends.

The first weekend I had him, it was like a boy’s vacation. We pretty much played all weekend long. In this photo, he was in the middle of playing with his little stuffed frog when I interrupted him by taking his picture, thus causing him to pose for the camera. I swear, this little guy has always been photogenic. He always knows to look at the camera.

Bosco Playing with Toy, originally uploaded by jasolutions.

When in Hawaii, all of us had their own day to pretty much do whatever they wanted. We didn’t necessarily plan it, things just ended up that way. For Jeny’s day, we went and toured the Polynesian Cultural Center and enjoyed their luau and show later that night.

During the show, they had a bunch of fire stunts. Walking on fire, dancing on fire, breathing fire… Pretty much anything you can do with fire, they did it. Considering it was pitch black during these performances, except for the fire itself, I was impressed that I was able to get this shot from so far away.

Fire Breather, originally uploaded by jasolutions.