Mountains, Smores, & Waterfalls!! Our Anniversary + Cousin Road Trip!

This post has VIDEO!!! YAY!!

So as you know, August 9th is Fred and my wedding anniversary - yay!  This year we decided to take a little road trip to camp out in the Poconos and visit Canada to see Niagara Falls!  But we also wanted to spend time with my little cousins, Irene, Eduardo, and Cielo, so we brought them along as well.  You might be saying - what!?  It's your anniversary and you're bringing KIDS?  And they aren't even YOUR kids!?

I gotta tell you something about my little cousins.  They are just plain awesome.  Whenever we all hang out, it's an adventure, and Fred and I wanted them to have a chance to see a world wonder, ride some white water, and to try smores for the first time.   It was our moment in time to experience it all TOGETHER.

And I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Here's a photo montage of our trip!

Cousin Vacay 2011 from NTME on Vimeo.

Saturday started off with Camelbeach Waterpark in the Poconos.  It's pretty big and had some cool rides.  I however only could take 9 pictures because we forgot a memory card for our water proof camera HAHAHAHAHA!

Sunday after church, we headed back to the Poconos in the evening and camped out in a cabin.  I was all for camping, but I insisted on a cabin and not a tent hahaha.   Glad that I did because it ended up raining each night hahaha!

The kiddies had smores for the first time.  They are now addicted.  Here's a video about us trying to start a fire on the first night... it took us 2 hours because the wood was damp and we didn't have a fire-starting thingy... But Cielo saved the day with her sorceress chant!

Cielo starts the fire from NTME on Vimeo.

Fred has what he considers the best method for making the perfect smore.  He says that you should not let the smore touch the flame directly, but just have it linger nearby it.  It should make the outside of the marshmellow a crispy golden brown, not burnt.

We used Hershey's 'minis' for the smores.. rather than the chocolate pieces that you snap off.  It worked really well... very easy to deal with and you can add peanut butter cup minis if you want!

On Monday, we went white water rafting on the Lehigh River.  We stuck with the class 1 and class 2 rapids, which I think were great for the kids' first time.

Didn't buy the photo they took... probably b/c of my face HAHAHAH!

Here's some footage of our white water rafting journey!  Pretty funny hehehe!

White Water Rafting from NTME on Vimeo.

That night, we used our flashlights to do some light painting hehe!

The next day we journeyed to Niagara Falls!

This was the view at night from our hotel on the Canadian side.  LOVED our hotel!! I can't believe how close the US and Canada are together lol... I always envisioned there to be a bigger gap lol..

So that's our vacation in a nutshell!!

Jerry Ghionis + Roadtrip to Cleveland + Mini How To!

Wow, so this past week was pretty awesome. For my birthday, my loving husband, Fred, treated me to a workshop with world-renowned wedding photographer, Jerry Ghionis, who I believe is the MacGyver of photography heheehe!  He's a genius!  Anyway, I saw him first during The Power of Passion tour with Sandy Puc and was instantly enamored (in a photography sense) with his style, his charisma, and all that he brings to the table when it comes to his friggin' awesome wedding photography.  2 weeks ago I heard about the workshop in Ohio, and next thing I know, I'm traveling in a rented Dodge Charger with my best friend, Grace, whom I am so grateful to for agreeing to come with me on my trip!!  She's my soulfriend, and I love her!  Unfortunately, the hubby couldn't come b/c he's saving up his PTO, but that's cool, we plan to have a trip for his birthday in a month or so! :)

First, a few things about the workshop.  Normally, Jerry doesn't do 1-day workshops, but this was to raise money for Akron's Children's Hospital in collaboration with Skip Cohen who has been nothing but a great help to me when it comes to building my photography business.  He has a podcast with Scott Bourne called "Going Pro" and for you photographers who are just starting out or may even be well established, I think there's something in these free podcasts for everyone... they broadcast 3 times a month and you can find them on iTunes!  Anyway, I commend Skip and Jerry for helping such a great cause and am thankful I got to be a part of it!

Jerry's workshop, while it was only a day, was amazing and definitely worth the 7-8 hour drive!  I already am planning to attend his 5-day workshop next year, I'm hoping there will be one in Philadelphia HEHEHEHE... we shall see!  The things he does with light is amazing... and with posing especially.  The way he is able to bring out certain emotions and expressions is so great, and I hope to be able to do the same as well!  I learned so much.. I didn't take any pics really, moreso video so I can keep watching it over and over again.  It was more about watching him at work and having him explain what hes doing as opposed to us taking pics to build our portfolio.  All the more I just took everything in and thought about what would work for me in terms of what I want to accomplish in my own photography, and new things I'd like to try as well.  Jerry's albums are awesome as well - simple, but the images speak volumes... so he doesn't feel there's a need for all that extra graphic stuff or anything too busy that it would take away from the images themselves.

Anyway, as a result of this, I received complimentary admission for the upcoming Skip's Summer School in Las Vegas, from July 31 to August 3!  I am psyched!!! My fellow photographers, you should definitely go if you can, $279 is really not that much to pay for 3+ days of awesome speakers, top names in the photography industry!

Anyway, here are some images from an evening in Cleveland.

There's also a mini "how to" but I guess it's more about.. what white balance can do to a landscape kind of... See below!

Hmmm... gotta love my hair, this is why I stay behind the camera LOL!

Hundreds of bird were congregating behind the building on the left!

Mini How To! 
To give a sky more blues/purples - you can try setting your camera's white balance to Tungsten (light bulb) instead of cloudy or daylight. 

This is cloudy WB:

This is tungten WB:

 Big puddles are fun!

Cloudy WB:

Tungsten WB!  So .. it depends on your taste!

Everything was closing around 10pm in Cleveland and we were like - that's lame!  But then we turned a corner and saw this on E. 4th Street!  RANDOM!!

Portraits: Matt

Here's some more photos from my session with Matt.  Fred and I had a great time hanging out in Maryland with him and our ate Poachie for a photo shoot a few Saturdays ago.  Tried a seafood place and it was a great deal for the price.  Ate out with our friends for dinner at a Chinese Restaurant and I realized I like duck now lol.  We definitely need to hang out more, I love catching up!  Hope you like the pics, click to enlarge!