Joe & April's engagement shoot in San Pedro

April and Joe are a fun couple!  You can tell we had fun on their engagement shoot by all the laughing in the photos.  We probably laughed too much...wait is there a such thing?  Here's some of the highlights...

April and Joe brought Harley along for the shoot.

We started out down at the beach and had a gorgeous cloud layer!

Then we went up to Angels Gate Park.  I don't know if these are WWII barracks or what but they were a great backdrop.

Harley truly is man's best friend.  Well, until he peed on April's hairspray can lol.

Showing off the ring!

This was April's idea.  Glad she suggested it!

We climbed all around the old WWII bunkers in San Pedro and found this old guard shack.

We had an amazing sunset from the top of the hill!  Reminded me of Hawaii.

And since April loves lighthouses we visited Point Fermin.

They call this the blue hour.

 I asked who was in charge of the relationship.  Look at Joe's reaction!

Jade Buddha is here!

I posted a while back that the Jade Buddha would be in Huntington Beach until November 15th.  You can get more of the details here. The Buddha has arrived!

The Jade Buddha which is now on display at the Sangha Center for Spiritual Living in Huntington Beach, which I am a member of, is on a world tour and will eventually end up in Australia.  It was carved out of pure jade and weighs about 4 tons, stands about 2.7 meters high and is estimated to be worth around 5 million. 

There will be events all week long including lectures by Buddhist Monks.

According to a dedicated website: "The purpose of exhibiting the Jade Buddha around the world is for everyone, irrespective of their religion, to take a moment to reflect upon peace; peace for the world; peace in their relationships; peace for their families and friends; peace at work; peace in their mind. We hope that such positive inspiration will bring joy and motivation in the lives of those who are able to see the Jade Buddha."

Here are some images from yesterday.

They had 3 flags there.  A Vietnamese flag, a Buddha flag and a US flag.

 

 

 

Most people would kneel and bow in prayer then place incense here.

A monk giving a lecture (not in English so I couldn't tell you what it was about).

These are the stops for the Jade Buddha.

I even got a Monk to bless me (or maybe he was just hamming it up for the camera).

Namaste!

Turkey Vulture Rivalry

I visited the Bolsa Chica Reserve a few days ago and got some good shots of these two Turkey Vultures fighting over perches.  I think they were jockeying for position near a dead rabbit. 

More to come...

Andy Irons Dies

I heard the bad news that Andy Irons, three time world surfing champion, passed away today.  The 32 year old native of Hawaii reportedly died of complications from Dengue Fever.  He leaves behind his wife and unborn son.  You can read the whole news story here. 

I had the privilege of photographing him surf earlier this year at the US Open in Huntington Beach,Ca. and wanted to re-post those pictures of the event.