Monthly Archives: November 2008

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Turkey Day Wrap UP

November 29, 2008 – 10:03 am

We had an awesome Thanksgiving day with our family, old friends and some new friends as well.  It had all the ingredients for a memorable Thanksgiving day starting with a great location!

My wife and her sisters are all very creative and every holiday gathering is full of great details like the leaf name tags and florals.  It’s like living with 4 Martha Stewarts :-)

My sister in law Dana cooked one of the best turkeys I’ve ever tasted and my dad took care of carving that sucker!  He didn’t leave more than a couple of ounces of meat behind!  Of course the most important part of Thanksgiving is who you spend it with.  We spent the evening with family and friends….what could be better….

And of course the last ingredient for a perfect Thanksgiving day is dessert!  My mother in law and niece brought homemade pumpkin pie, plus all kinds of other goodies.  Thanks Jeff and Dana for having us and for a great memory!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

November 27, 2008 – 10:08 am

Everyone says this every year, but I can’t believe it’s Thanksgiving.  And so begins my absolute favorite time of year.  I wish I could some how slow the earth’s rotation for the next month because it’s going to fly by, as it always does.  With all that has been going on in the world and in our country, there are many who probably don’t have a lot to be thankful for.  A friend of mine recently lost his home, and I received a text from him this morning that said, “I am thankful for you and all that I have.”  When I start to think about what I’m thankful for, sometimes I start thinking, “my job, my house, my….stuff”.  As we saw last week, that stuff is one brush fire away from being burned into oblivion.  

What am I really thankful for?  The picture below, taken in Golden Gate Park last summer, says it all.  I am so thankful for my wife who loves me as I am, the mother of my two wonderful kids.  My family that supports me, and is always happy to see me.  My life isn’t defined by stuff or my job.  It’s about the people in it.  The greatest gift God has given us here on earth is each other.  Relationships;  friends and family are what really matter.  My friend who lost his house is still thankful today because he has friends that are like brothers and a beautiful family.  He has that because he has put a lot of time into those relationships.  And that is something that a bad economy can’t take away, but it can distract you from what truly is important.  So Happy Thanksgiving and make sure you let someone know today why you are thankful for them!

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Elliott Family – Studio Session

November 17, 2008 – 6:14 pm

I recently shot some studio portraits of a great family with their 3 kids and their dog!  It was a lot of fun and the pictures came out great.  In case any of you out there were wondering about studio portraits, I shoot them here at my house.  It’s not what I usually do, but I really enjoy it because it stretches me a bit.  Shooting in the studio is a totally different animal than going out and shooting natural light environmental portraits.  But it’s important to me to know and I take pride in being able to work in a number of different settings!  So here are a few of my favorites…


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Here we go again…. (updated)

November 15, 2008 – 2:12 pm

The entire nation has been watching as wildfires have burned hundreds of homes in Montecito,  and last night in Sylmar.  I was driving to the store a couple of hours ago and came to the top of the hills by my house and saw this site below.  Apparently a fire that started in Corona has crossed into Orange County and is burning homes in Yorba Linda.  I will most likely not be going any where since Glendale Fire already has 5 engines out of the city on the fires.  If anything I’ll be back filling for crews in the city.  But my prayers are with my brothers out there and with the families who have lost their homes in the past couple of days.

Here are some updated images.  The fire in Yorba Linda and Anaheim hills is skipping through neighborhoods burning homes at random.  The large amount of black smoke in the middle of the picture below if from a huge apartment complex that went up in flames along the 91 fwy.

 

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John Turney

November 14, 2008 – 10:11 am

 

A good friend went home to be with the Lord last Monday afternoon after battling cancer for many years.  John lived a life of service to others and he was an amazing friend, husband and father.  One of my first memories of John was when I was in junior high school, he set up a day to put sprinklers in our church pastor’s back yard.  He demonstrated to me the difference between doing good things and living a significant life.  John continued to impact my life until the day he passed with his sense of humor and the way he treated his wife and his daughters.  He was a great friend to my mom and dad and a father figure to my wife who grew up without her dad.  I was good friends with his daughter throughout high school and John always welcomed everyone into his home, even a bunch of rowdy teenagers.  That’s just the way he was.  I have so many fond memories of being in Kauai with John for Sara and Ray’s wedding, going to the movies, hanging out at their house and staying for dinner.  When we were in high school, their house was the frequent target of TP jobs.  And I’m sure it ticked him off but he never took it out on us!

While I will miss John immensely, I know that John is in a much better place.  I know this because John lived the life of a Christian man to the fullest.  He wasn’t perfect, but he walked with God in everything he did.  And for that I am confident that John is enjoying great rewards in heaven at this very moment!  Until the day he died he was touching people’s lives and ministering to others around him and I feel so fortunate to have known John and to have called him my friend. 

 

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