White House Update

After all the headaches, the White house is finally on it's way... close to being finished. Here is a progress update of many months of hard work. Good job, Larry White (heading the project as general contractor of his own home) & Michelle and all the workers including Vic, Neck and Mick.

Congratulations bro!....

Restaurant Week

We went out for dinner last night at the Paraadise Grille in del Mar. I played around with my new EF24-105mm F4.0L lens I got for Christmas from Joy (with a little help from our friend Tony). My 5D camera was set to an ISO of 1600 to increase my shutter speed and just use the fire ring as my lighting for moody shots.

Scorpion

Found these guys camping at Lake Moabi. I teased one of them so much that the venom started coming out shown at the last picture. According to the web site these guys are not poisonous, they just look bad and scary.

ICE FILTER

Found a sheet of ice on our boat tarp during the coolest days. It was about 24" x 18" x 1/2" thick and very clear. It had different effects when it started to melt. Shot thru a big drop before it fell and form like a fish eye lens. I had small piece that I held to change shot angles and made different effects.

Surprise Lyle & Cayte are married!

They decided they wanted a wedding day to remember, so the day before New Year's eve made plans to go to the courthouse and tie the knot! It was a nice quaint ceremony with a few family members present. Cayte's mom, Susan, brother, Mike and his girlfriend, Megan. Of course I was there taking pictures, Joy, Jay(the chauffeur, Leilani would have been there but she had to work) and Ariana. Following the ceremony we went out for pizza and video games soooo Lyle!
We are all so happy for them!

TRIBUTE TO UNCLE ALFREDO POTES

Alfredo Orosco Potes of Lihue, Kauai, had passed away on Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at the age of 84. He was born in Hilo, Hawaii on October 15, 1924 and retired from Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard after 40 years of service as a Power Plant Supervisor with the Federal Government.

Preceded in death by his son, Alfredo Potes "Junior" in July 2001. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Priscilla Cacho Potes, also retired, as an RN for 43 years (attached, she's the patient model at the age of 91); children, Daniel (Soledad) Potes of Northern Virginia-Washington DC, Naomi Potes of Lihue, El Wallace of Encinitas, California, Florante "David" (Elizabeth) Potes of Honolulu, and Michael Potes of Las Vegas, Nevada; 13 grand-children, and 12 great grand-children; numerous neices, nephews and cousins.

Private services and viewing on Sunday, December 14, 2008 at 12:00-3:00 PM. The Kauai Memorial Gardens and Funeral Home is assisting the Potes family with arrangements.

Kauai Memorial Gardens 4716 Maalo Road, Lihue, Hawaii
The Potes' 3274 Unahe Street, Lihue, Hawaii 96766

MERRY CHRISTMAS from the Cacho's

Kauai Part II

We had a fabulous time thanks to Ate Naomi and her gracious hospitality! Not only is she a great tour guide but a wonderful cook as well....God bless her and her aging parents Auntie Priscilla and Uncle Fred to whom she has devoted her entire life to these days. Here's some of our pictures complied in a short video - enjoy!

Visiting Kauai

Joy and I are visiting Ate Naomi in Lihue, Kauai - we arrived here last Sunday. Auntie and Uncle are doing fine, mostly sleeping - Ate is doing a great job caring for them, she's also getting help now for 4hrs twice a week to do other things. Joy and Ate adorned Auntie in jewels (she has always loved her jewelry) and they spoil her with chocolates. It was funny when Uncle looked at Joy with one eye in a kinda funny face and made a sound when she turned the TV off, Joy thought he was sleeping, so she quickly turned it back on. Ate has been feeding us too much that I've gained some weight and it's only been one week- we're naming her house Ate's Bed & Breakfast.

Uncle and Auntie are still kissing after 65 years.

Here's some of my painting style pictures all done in the camera - no photoshop.

Our Parents

My mom was hospitalized about 3 weeks ago, she was dehydrated. My cousin Minda was bringing her some food she loved. Mom's been home for awhile and doing better. Dad's been in and out of the hospital with his breathing issues.

Joy's mom had a stroke in August and now she in a home care called Gracious Living. We just celebrated her 80th birthday Oct 11th... I made a video of her B'Day enjoy....

Moabi Vacation Part 2

This video is about the family and friends having fun at the Colorado River for seven days. Lyle caught a ~10 lbs catfish the first night, while we were all ready in bed. He woke us up to show his catch and I tied it up so I could deal with it later. He was also biten by something while fishing, his hand started to swell and didn't fish after that. Lyle was carrying a large frozen bottled water the next day to bring down the swelling and to give him some kind of comfort. Check the short video.

Moabi Park Vacation - Part 1

PHOTOGRAPHY ART STYLE - Moabi Sunrise to Sunset.
This video contains landscapes pictures of our recent family vacation in Moabi Park - song is the Phantom of the Opera. No photoshop - all done by slow shutter speed, moving the lens, using a couple ND filters and a polarizer filter. All the adjustments are manually done in the camera - saturation, contrast, color tone, lens, etc. . . Making intentional effects such as the out of focus, making the sun rays, moving the camera to create motion, etc...

Moabi Park - river trip

Some of the my candid shots - most of them were taken with my 500m lens mirror lens. The weather was pretty pleasant this time of the year. The evenings were around 75-80 great for tents and Ariana even slept on the top of the RV. It rained one day for about 30 minutes and the young adults took this time to shower and bathe in the river.

Kitten Expression

We rescued five more feral kittens from our front yard when they were only couple days old with their mommy and placed them in our spare room. This is one of them and their now four weeks old.
SMILE


LAUGHING

SAY WHAT!

YOU SCARED ME

Contruction begins for Michelle & Larry new home

We went to visit them last week to see the construction of the new house being built. Larry was digging with his skip loader for grading his foundation while I was taking pictures, for my photography class. We'll keep you posted on his progress.