Travel Mode: Activated

So ever since we got married, Ia and I have been talking about taking a nursing assignment and starting to travel. Although, we had a really hard time figuring out how we would do it. With all of the bills and stuff, we even considered that she stay at home and continue to work at the gym while I travel and make better wages as a contract nurse. I really thank God that He has put people in our lives who snapped us out of those ideas!

On August 20, we were celebrating our anniversary. Right before we went to dinner, I got a phone call from a hospital in a town in California called Eureka. They basically did a little telephone interview and told me that they like me and were going to forward the job offer to my agency. All of a sudden we went through a roller coaster of paperwork, drug tests, job resignations, and packing.

We originally were planning on keeping our beautiful home in downtown McAllen. We really did fall in love with that town home and we knew we had a really good deal and a great landlord. However, I literally woke up one day (for reals, it happened when I woke up) and decided that the best decision would be for us to rent a storage unit for $140/mo and move out rather than continue to pay $700/mo for an unoccupied home. With a whole bunch of help from our friends, we got packed up and ready to roll out of the valley in exactly two weeks!

We were scheduled to begin our drive to California on the morning of September 17, a weekday. Our friends pretty much threw a going away party for us almost every night until that day. We totally have the coolest friends on earth. Just to prove that they're totally cool, they even took time out of their mornings, woke up early and everything, to come over and read a devotional and see us off. 

They even brought some breakfast and threw Ia a little early birthday party!

We really miss our friends. No joke, they are irreplaceable. God placed them in our lives right when we needed them. We have grown closer as a married couple and closer to God much in part because of the roles that they play in our lives. 

Sep. 17, 2013, 0930: The driving begins...

Ia has way more info about the drive... sunbee-sunbee.blogspot.com

But two days later we finally made it to California, Los Angeles to be exact, and were able to connect with Monica and LA. We haven't been able to hang out with them in a while so it was really nice being able to run around town and eat a whole bunch of food with them.

We spent a total of about 15 hours in Pasadena, CA (LA County). WAY to short. But we left with good memories and engorged bellies.

We quickly made it to Sacramento where my cousin and his family live. We got to spend the weekend with them and hang with the kids. 

These kids are cool.

Next stop, EUREKA!!

God bless,

Sean

NOT a portrait photographer - but willing to make some exceptions

While I was in college, I spent a great deal of time and energy trying to make some extra cash through photography. I would hire "professional" models to help me build my portfolio. They would usually give me a discount and in turn I would give them some of the photos to help them build their own portfolio.  Then I would get all bugged out because several of the pictures did not turn out all that great. It was a real roller coaster. Pretty stressful too.

I shot one wedding for a dear friend of mine at that time. I wanted to try my hand at wedding photography. I am always amazed at what a good wedding photographer can do to keep those beautiful wedding day feelings alive through the images that he/she takes. But let me tell you something...IT'S HARD WORK! Some people wonder why it is so expensive to hire a good wedding photographer. It's because it takes a lot of experience, organization, quick reflexes, and improvisation - qualities that I still yet have to develop as a photographer. You only get one chance to get it right when it comes to wedding photography. I tried to compensate by taking as many pictures as possible...almost 1000 in the the span of 5 hours. Try editing all of those pictures!! Crazy.

Anyway, model/portrait photography was a little less stressful in that sense. However, where I ran into problems was in meeting the expectations of the client. Many clients wanted me to edit their photographs in certain ways, ways that I did not feel were appealing or in line with my artistry. Or even worse...they would edit the photos themselves! LOL. I know. I'm crazy. That just happens to be a peeve of mine. My mentality is just that I take my photography pretty seriously and I do a lot of work to provide the best images to a client. If the client edits one of my photos without my permission, I feel plagiarized (for lack of better words). Imagine that Ansel Adams was on assignment for National Geographic (if you don't know who Ansel Adams is, look him up, everybody who likes to look at pictures should know who Ansel Adams is). Now imagine that after Adams submits his photographs to National Geographic, one of the magazine editors adds color to his image. How would you feel about that? Now, I'm not Ansel Adams...not even close. But maybe you get my drift.

All of that being said, it's just easier to avoid portrait photography. Not to mention I enjoy the other modalities of photography more anyway.

However, I am willing to make exceptions every once in a while.
For example, my sister-in-law wanted some pictures taken of her daughters (my nieces), Brianne and Shannel. So we went ahead and did the photo shoot. Actually, Ia was the main photographer! So I guess I really shouldn't take any credit for the photography, except for the fact that I helped with lighting and did all of the post-processing...

I love those girls! Shannel (the younger one) is still afraid of me though... lol. 

Let's give a round of applause to Ia for the hot shot camera work too! Btw, she has a blog. Y'all should read it. 

sunbee-sunbee.blogspot.com

Well, fate would have it that one of my best friends, Israel, and his wife, Felicia, were expecting their first child. Like...soon. They had not had any formal pictures taken and were wanting something special before the little guy came out. So I went ahead and took some maternity shots and received payment in frozen yogurt!!

Beautiful couple. Beautiful baby boy too (I've already gotten to see him)! I'm super proud of my buddy, Israel. He's turned out to be a great guy...diving right into the husband and father thing like a boss. He's leading his family to follow God's footsteps and he has the support of a wonderful wife. Blessings to them both!

Thanks for reading!

God bless,
Sean

Just getting started...finally

Hi guys!!

It's been a long time waiting to finally get around to setting up this blog! So let's jump right in!

You will see several posts today (and maybe over the next couple days) just so that I can try to catch up on everything that has been happening. I am going to start with several pictures that I had taken before we even left the valley. I have been planning on posting these somewhere other than Facebook or Instagram - even though you may have already seen most of these pictures there already.

Back in August, the weekend before Ia's and my 1-year wedding anniversary, we made a little weekend trip to San Antonio and went to the zoo! It was a really good opportunity for us to just get away, take a load off, and enjoy each other.

San Antonio really does have a great zoo. They have the elephants, and bears, and TONS of birds. I was just a little disappointed because we never saw any gorillas! I love gorillas. Giraffes too. We never saw giraffes...

It took a little bit of convincing, but I finally got Ia to give the pig a little brush massage.

This guy is loving it!

Angry Bird.

That's my friend, Balu.

*You may have noticed that I had not yet nailed down a watermark yet in these photos. Most of them do not have one because I really don't like the way they affect photographs and the way people look at them. However, you will notice that in most of my following pictures, I have adopted a watermark that I will be using. It's to bad that photographers, even amateur ones, have to think about protecting their craftsmanship. A watermark will do very little to protect my pictures, but it's a worthy effort for now.*

Anyway, this was an awesome weekend for Ia and I. We were getting tired of the everyday schedule of work and stuff. It was really good to just be able to focus on each other, and I was able to revisit one of my favorite hobbies, photography!

:)

Thanks for reading! And, as I have always said in regards to my photography, comments and constructive criticism is ALWAYS welcome and appreciated. It's the only way that I am able to grow as a photographer since I am not able to take any kind of formal photography classes or anything.

God bless,

Sean